After almost 15 years with the company I work with... (Yes, I am old enough to work in a company for almost 15 years, though I don't look it!) we finally moved office locations. We are now working at the heart of the new Central Business District in the Fort, coming from our old office beside one of the tributaries of the Pasig River beside our factory in Manila, so it's quite a step-up (standard of living included).
I was also working in Singapore when we moved office locations, but I must say the experience was a bit different, because from working in the city center - where Clarke Quay was 10 minutes on foot, and Orchard Road was a 15 minute walk (not to mention my home was a 15 minute walk away as well), we moved to the middle of nowhere (where our current office is still located).
But when change comes, there's really nothing you can do but adapt to it. I think both changes force you to work more flexibly, so you can make the most of the situation to get a better quality of life. In Singapore (and perhaps in Manila too), we started physically going to the office much less, based on when physical presence was absolutely necessary.
With our new office in Manila, I realized that I could get to work consistently earlier than before, and I also plan to leave much earlier too. Leaving at 4pm means I get home before 5pm, and I actually get to do things when I get home, instead of being too tired to do anything.
Another bright-side are all the restaurant options around us, not too good for the wallet, but once in a while wouldn't break the bank, and just like in Singapore, you need to avoid the 12noon rush, so the best time to eat is at 11:30am, or 1:00pm. Easy to say, not as easy to do, because when you start getting hungry, you just deal with the crowd, or choose a place that is not crowded.
That is exactly what happened to us last Friday, when we went to lunch to surprise Sam for her birthday. We planned to choose a restaurant randomly, but we disqualified all the fast food and unhealthy places, as well as those where we had to wait for a table. We ended up trying Potluckers, one of the higher-end looking places on the second floor of BGC Stopover. We were clearly taking a risk because there was no one else in the restaurant.
The ambiance was nice and cozy, and each table had some sort of Pot Warner... so I guess their specialty was Casseroles in a Pot, thus the name.
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| The casseroles are around Php500-600 an order but they say they're good for 2-3 people, especially if you're ordering something else. |
We ordered one starter and two salads (The Goat Cheese - which was refreshing, and the Warm Chorizo - which was bursting with flavor) and both were really good. I wasn't really planning to blog about them, so please excuse my lack of photos, but I will definitely order them again!
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| Our starter was Red (Salted) Egg Calamari and this was really good. |
For our Main Course, we ordered two casseroles to share among the 6 of us. The short rib, and the crispy pork. Both were surprisingly very good. They give you complimentary bread, which I think would go really well with the hearty meal, but I was really hungry so I ate it with Dirty Rice (Sauteed with Chicken Liver) but since the casseroles were so tasty, white rice would probably go better with it.
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| Sauce palang - ulam na! Especially for the pork, where it wasn't as crispy as I expected, but the sauce tasted like Sinigang broth that met gravy with a spicy kick. Sounds weird, but believe me, the flavors worked! |
The thing that impressed me the most, on top of the food of course, was the service. When we entered the restaurant, I asked the server if they had free dessert because we were celebrating Sam's birthday, and he told me, he would check. After we finished our meal, he signaled to me that there was dessert, and they came out with two dessert platters... and the crew all came out to sing Happy Birthday for Sam! Both of them had Magic Candles too... so I hope Sam got to make a lot of wishes, and may all of them come true. They even came to help us get the candles when we got tired of blowing them out.
I'm such a sucker for a freebie (well, and for good food) that for that alone, I decided they deserved some airtime on my blog, so people can also try them out. Price-wise, our bill was around Php2,500 for 2 salads, 1 starter, 2 casseroles, and a whole lot of rice, good enough for a group of 6. Not too bad, given the ambiance and the standard of living in Fort.
I do hope they maintain that level of service even when they start to get busy. I hope they don't get too busy though, so this can be one of our Go-To Restaurants near the office. just saying.
*Photo Credits to my teammate who has asked not to be named. Hahaha.
Thanks for sharing your photos, and for taking more when I decided that I was going to do a blog post on them!
Potluckers
Second Floor, BGC Stopover Pavillion,
Rizal Drive Corner 31st Street,
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
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