Noodle Lab Brings Their Fresh Pasta Magic to Rockwell, Makati

Noodle Lab at The Grid Contact Details

Stall 17, The Grid Food Market, 2/F Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati
Instagram: www.instagram.com/noodlelab.ph  
Open from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (Monday to Friday), 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. (Saturday and Sunday)

(SPOT.ph) Ally Lim-Gonzales describes herself as a “pasta girl” through and through—so much so, she tells us, that she loves it more than rice. “I can eat it everyday,” the Noodle Lab owner (and "helicopter dog mom") tells us as she welcomes us to her recently opened stall at The Grid Food Market.

The venture began as a delivery-only brand launched during the pandemic, selling fresh pasta that customers could then cook and jazz up to their liking. It was her husband that initially studied how to make pasta, Ally admits, given her love of the carb—but it didn’t take long for Ally herself to join in. And oh, did she fall in love with it, going as far as to reach out to chefs to take private classes in an effort to learn more about the art of noodle-making. Soon she found herself doing more pop-ups serving plated dishes that use her pasta, and eventually got the opportunity to open at Rockwell’s resident fan-favorite food hall.

Here’s what you can look forward to at the pop-up, open only ‘til the end of August.

Also read: 

The SPOT.ph Guide to Italian Food 
​​10 Pasta Places for Carb Junkies

Noodle Lab at The Grid at Rockwell, Makati

The Food

Pasta is the name of the game here, with classic as well as more playful pasta dishes that make for great-tasting bites anytime. Their technique is rooted in Italian tradition, Lim-Gonzales tells us, but she’ss careful not to make any claims of authenticity either. “I would not even dare to say we're authentic,” she laughs. Instead, Ally turns toward her own palate for inspiration, whipping up combos based on whatever she craves. 

Within the menu are the “super crowd pleasers,” essentially the mainstays that diners have come to love; these take the form of the Spaghetti Pomodoro with Burrata, 100 Layer Lasagna, Tagliatelle al Burro e Formaggio, and Bucatini Carbonara. But they’ve also got a revolving menu of new numbers to keep Noodle Lab regulars going back.

What We Recommend

Noodle Lab has starters good for passing around while catching up with constants. The Fried Burrata (P650) takes a whole piece of the cheese sourced locally from Negros, and gives it the breaded, deep-fried treatment—rendering its insides especially molten and creamy. On the lighter side is the Whipped Ricotta Truffled Honey Toast (P450), starring a smooth squiggle of whipped, truffle-tinged, honey-bathed ricotta for slathering over wedges of toast.

Ordering pasta, of course, is a no-brainer. Some items are more decidedly classic, like the Bucatini Carbonara (P750) with their fresh bucatini noodles, extruded through their bronze die that creates microscratches in the pasta (this allows the sauce to cling better, we're told). Though rich, their version of a classic carbonara feels lighter thanks to the hollow center of the bucatini—ergo, easier to down. The Spaghetti Pomodoro with Burrata (P560), on the other hand, shines the spotlight on Noodle Lab’s fresh spinach spaghetti, each strand hugged by their hearty pomodoro sauce before the whole thing is topped with a ball of fresh burrata from Negros.

Simplicity shines in the Tagliatelle al Burro e Formaggio (P550)—essentially Noodle Lab’s take on (real-deal) pasta Alfredo, where Lim-Gonzales coats al-dente strands of their fresh tagliatelle with a parmigiano reggiano and butter emulsion (done through a technique dubbed mantecare). The pasta’s relative thickness allows it to stand up to the rich sauce before it’s topped with brown-butter dashi, shimeji mushrooms, microgreens, and edible flowers that pop against the creamy background.

Lim-Gonzales isn’t shy about going excessive in her 100 Layer Lasagna (P550), the original version of which had just 50 layers before she chose the go-big-or-go-home route. The team whips up a giant tray of lasagna with a hundred alternating layers of fresh lasagna sheets, bolognese (with pork, beef, and pancetta cooked low and slow for four hours), bechamel, and mozzarella and parmigiano reggiano cheeses. They’re baked, chilled, and sliced into slabs that are then torched for a charred and toasty top, and served over pomodoro. The team recommends you get yours topped with parmesan espuma (P200/pump) and buttered pangratto a.k.a. breadcrumbs (P90) as we did; both are well worthy additions that up the textural contrast in each resulting forkful.

Then you’ve got the decidedly offbeat Cacio e Sambal (P475), one of the newer additions to the menu born out of a midnight snack she whipped up one night. Feisty sambal joins forces with pecorino cheese in this Southeast Asian-fied cacio e pepe offshoot, and a topping of pangratto adds crunch and body as it’s mixed in. For the noodle part of the equation, she uses her fresh mafaldine—long, wide pasta ribbons with scalloped edges that beautifully capture drops of the sauce in its pockets.

The Location

The Grid Food Market’s laidback-meets-elegant atmosphere is well synonymous with that of Noodle Lab itself—and while they themselves don’t serve beverages beyond the standard water and canned soda, you can always pop by the Origine stall for wine to match their pasta plates.

In the future, Lim-Gonzales looks to open her own standalone spot. "[I] still have a few pop ups in the works but the bigger plan within the next... year is to have our own standalone restaurant. And then to expand our commissary and B2B operations to be able to supply even more restaurants with bigger capacity and equipment," she tells us. In the meantime, be sure to pop by The Grid while they’re still around—that is, until August 31.

Noodle Lab's Rockwell pop-up is at Stall 17, The Grid Food Market, 2/F Power Plant Mall, Rockwell, Makati. For more information, check out Noodle Lab's Instagram page.

Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.