Food: The Vinci Restaurant and Cafe

Date Budget: PhP 450
Actual Spend: PhP 404
Quality: 5/5
Service: 5/5
Accessibility: 4/5
Fun Factor: 5/5
Overall Experience: 5/5

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Highlights 

• Fall in love with this art gallery that serves great food in the heart of Katipunan
• Paint limitless flavors with their flavored fries and dips served in a palette
• Enjoy the Mona Lisa Burger: Budget Dates' best pick so far
• Feel the harmony of a variety of sausages in their great pasta

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The Experience
To celebrate our 14th month together, Kirsten and I headed off to The Vinci Restaurant and Cafe near Katipunan. One of the owners of the place is Lara, a friend I met years back. She welcomed us warmly to their unique place.

While waiting for our order, we enjoyed looking around and taking pictures as the place was full of artwork. You may look at them freely, and even take them home (for a fee of course). We learned that one of the walls had Lara's paintings on. We love her rendition of the fab four!

The place had a great variety of art forms represented in its motiff: paintings in various media, guitars on the walls, books on the lights, and even a poem on their curtain! Everything goes well with the Tiffany chairs, colorful menu, and book print-themed tables.

 

How about the food? We enjoyed it as much as the place. To start off, we had their trio fries: three dips (mayo, ketchup with jalapeño, bbq) and three flavored fries (cheddar, sour cream, spicy). Adding another set of plain fries (from the Mona Lisa burger), we were amazed on the limitless flavors you can create! It was like painting using fries as your brush, dips as your paint, and your tongues as the canvass. By the way, this great appetizer is served in a palette!

To keep the artsy feel going, we ordered the Mona Lisa Burger served with salad and fries. At PhP 120, it was a great deal. The salad's vinaigrette dressing was just right (not too sour), the veggies were fresh, the fries was a great addition to the trio (expanding the range of flavors), and the burger was just amazing! This burger is the best we've had so far, way better (and cheaper) than Brother's!

The fun continues with their sausage pasta. It tasted a lot better compared to that of a more known restaurant in Katipunan (ehem... Banapple). It had a variety of sausages that were not competing for your taste buds' attention. All were in harmony!

We are definitely going back to this place. Like The Secret Oven (owned by another friend of mine, Sheryl), The Vinci far exceeded our expectations!

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Spend Breakdown

Trio Fries	139
Mona Lisa Burger	120
Sausage Pasta	145
Actual Spend	404

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How to get there

1. From LRT Katipunan Station, walk to the jeep terminal under the Katipunan Flyover.
2. Ride a jeep going to UP Campus or UP Gate/Balara.
3. Get off at the first pedestrian overpass in front of Ateneo and Mushroomburger.  
4. Walk towards the street where you'll find Shakey's and McDonalds on the corner. You'll find a white building to your right with a nail salon at the ground floor (at the back of Shakey's). The Vinci is located at the 2nd Floor.
   Alternate way: You may also walk from LRT Katipunan Station. It is less than a kilometer away.
   
   Landmarks: Katipunan flyover, pedestrian overpass, Ateneo de Manila University, Mc Donald's Katipunan, Starbucks Katipunan, Shakey's
   Address:
   2/F, J&R Concon Centre, 91 Alvero St,
   (near Katipunan Ave.), Loyola Heights
   Quezon City, Metro Manila
   Philippines
   Contact Number/s:
   (63922) 882-0390
   Operating Hours: 10am to 9pm
   

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