La Mesa Grill

A few weeks back, a friend brought Crispchon to the house which she got from La Mesa Grill in Trinoma, North Edsa. Although the lechon skin was no longer too crispy, it was good enough for me to want more. The downside of that take-out was that the restaurant gave too few pandan-flavored(colored?) wraps, but it gave several different dips, cucumber, leeks and kutchay leaves. And the lechon was sliced to bite-sized pieces.

Last night, wanting to have more of the treat, my husband and I proceeded to Trinoma. By then it was almost 9 pm, but we were determined.

La Mesa Grill can be reached from the first floor parking lot via an escalator. From the second floor parking lot, it can be accessed by going through the mall's corridors, a bit of a long travel, and then going out to the open air where there are several restaurants to choose from: Bacolod Chicken Inasal, Super Bowl and a few others.

La Mesa Grill offers two options in terms of dining locations: outdoors or indoors. It is reminiscent of Barrio Fiesta or any other Filipino-themed restaurant in that it isn't pretentious in terms of decor. The walls are lined with continuous benches with backs, facing individual, uncushioned chairs. The ceilings have bamboo-like light fixtures suspended from beams. If one isn't too particular about five-star surroundings, it's okay. It's clean and the service is good.

As there were just the two of us, my husband and I ordered the 1/6 portion of the crispchon, crispy catfish salad, bangus belly in a sweetish sauce and seafood rice. Everything tasted very good and the portions were sufficient. We could have done away with the bangus belly as the crispchon, catfish salad and rice were more than enough.

Our waiter decided on the sauces for our crispchon and we're glad we relied on him for the choices: garlic (possibly garlic in yogurt or sour cream), hoisin (like the ones served with Peking duck two ways in Chinese restaurants) and liver (like for ordinary lechons).

As the waiter prepared our crispchon himself, everyone turned to look. The slab of pork was laid on a wooden board, the skin sliced off with some meat before being sliced further into smaller pieces. He then rolled the wraps around the slices accompanied with cucumber and leeks. We told him not to bother about the kutchay. As he didn't really extract all the pork from the bones, we had take-home leftover lechon which we'll be having for lunch later, complete with the sauces. I don't think he sent wraps though, a pity.

All in all, the waiter rolled 10 to 12 crispchon wraps and they were more than enough for my husband and me but we finished them. The dish could have been shared by three people, actually. And note that when you order crispchon, you're asked what part of the lechon you prefer. I think we ordered the head part because that's what came with a lot of skin per our waiter. the other choices were the belly and I forgot what. These ones would have more meat. As I mentioned earlier, the waiters are very cordial, especially the one who wrapped our crispchon. His name was Brian and he's a provincemate. He hails from La Carlota and has waited on tables in various restaurants: Gerry's Grill or Dencio's, Bacolod CHicken Inasal and now, La Mesa Grill. what an odd coincidence - they're all Filipino-themed. I asked if he also cooked but he sadly said he didn't. A pity really in that many chefs started out as food servers. I encouraged him to observe the cooks and he also thought he should.

As we were leaving the restaurant, he saw us and rushed to open the doors. For sure we will be back, but much earlier so we can tell for sure whether then the restaurant won't challenge our vocal cords. The noise quotient was just so high -- the crowd consisted mostly of people from the office and there was music with vocals piped in.