La Spezia Opens in BGC—And It’s Still Serving Unexpected Italian

La Spezia BGC
GSC Corporate Tower, Triangle Drive, Bonifacio Global City
www.facebook.com/LaSpezia.MNL
Contact number: 0917-712-8008
Open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. for lunch and from 5 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. for dinner, Tuesday to Sunday

(SPOT.ph) If you get to dine out relatively frequently, you may have noticed a lot of establishments swimming in the same direction: the dishes on their menus, the aesthetic qualities of their interiors, and the overall vibe overlap each other into one big homogenous entity. From a business owner’s standpoint, it is safe, which is fine. It takes a lot to open a restaurant in the first place.

Of course, there are still those who stand out: the outliers who try to resist trends and work hard to say what they want to say. They have a creative spark in a sea of cookie-cutter concepts—these are the fun places to seek. One of them is a little Italian joint that first opened in a quiet corner of Quezon City called La Spezia.

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What to try at La Spezia is BGC

In the original branch of La Spezia, you will find examples of dishes that are easy to like and eat: a classic Pomodoro, a Fritto Misto , or the Carre Di Agnello: a rack of lamb with a mint gremolata. If you ask owner Vin Yuquimpo, who is the face and front-of-house man of the restaurant, he will be the first to say, though, that it isn’t quite Italian, but rather their vision of where they think Italian food can be taken. This may ruffle the feathers of the authenticity police, but they just may be on to something.

Their second location is still in a quiet corner, but this time in Bonifacio Global City. It is by no means on a street where you’re likely to walk past it—you have to know it is there, just like their Quezon City branch. The BGC branch is discreet and low profile, and it is most definitely an “if you know, you know” sort of place. There are hardly any non-fast food eateries nearby, but on the contrary, there is parking—lots of it!

Vin and his partner Aaron Shiu, who mans the kitchen, are both products of that venerable institution known as Enderun College, and are now into their 10th year of running the QC branch, and now this branch in BGC. In today’s contemporary dining scene, that is certainly no mean feat.

The first secret ingredient to their success is a healthy attitude towards service. While it is true that, as Filipinos, we are naturally hospitable and welcoming, it is often difficult to translate empathy into action. The La Spezia team is not told to be a “family” or anything—that is just a bonus if they do get along well, but rather to serve by putting themselves in the shoes of their customers.

It's quite impressive that when pressed for what their favorite dish on the menu was, three people gave different answers. These favorites of theirs are what they are told by the owners to recommend to customers because it is indeed their favorites and their truth. They don't have to nervously upsell the most expensive items on the menu, because it won't come out right. That is their special touch.

It seems that the second secret ingredient to their success is that they know exactly what they want and have no qualms about playing around and exercising their creativity. What matters, after all, is that the food tastes great and reflects what they want to achieve. As avid travelers, their taste comes out in the food they serve.

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In BGC, my favorite example of these creative touches is the BGC branch-exclusive dish, the Half Yellow Chicken (P1,500): a dish of roast chicken with morel sauce. What sets it apart is its choice of chicken: a Chinese yellow chicken (you may have tried this as Hainanese chicken in other establishments) that is dry-aged for three days. This cooking technique ups the flavor, and then when paired with an umami-filled sauce of morels and quality EVOO, it becomes that much more special.

Goose Ravioli (P1,200) is also given the Shiu treatment—stuffed with roast goose and drizzled with goose jus, a foie gras emulsion, and extra virgin olive oil, it's a hearty dish that takes its sweet time to make well. It’s great for sharing or fine to finish off on your own. The same goes for the Pistachio Pasta (P880), which uses homemade fresh pasta that's then lent pizzazz by anchovy, red pesto, pistachio cream, prosciutto chips, and parmesan. If you want to go over the edge, this is the way. You can end the meal with the Mousse Al Cioccolato Con Bevanda (P350), a dark chocolate mousse with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, served with a shot of hot chocolate.

This rustic restaurant can be whatever you want it to be: a place for date night, a welcome respite for pasta and a glass of wine after a long day, or a place to take your family. Their menu is studded with gems, signatures of the partnership between Yuquimpo and Shiu who, at the end of the day, simply want to bring their clientele their take on Italian and Italian-inspired dishes, and a really good time. It might be off the beaten path, but sometimes the best things play a little hard to get.

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