Dining | Bagnet Boy - Shangrila Plaza Mandaluyong

Nestled at the the Shangrila Plaza Mall in Mandaluyong is Bagnet Boy.  If you have noticed by now, we love Bagnet. LOL.  So when we saw, it was a no brainer.

First off, we noticed that unlike the other kiosks or food stalls, they have a queue here.  So we assumed that food must be great thus the queue.  So we did follow these people to savour some of their bagnet.

Ordering is not easy as they have different meal combinations that go with their bagnet.  they have the KBL, Kamatis Bagoong and L, well its an Ilocano thing that escaped my memory.  It comes with rice and bagnet and goes for Php119 only.  Other combinations with bagnet and rice comes in for Php125 and they call it bagnetboy specials.  Pinakbet, Kare Kare, Binagoongan, Sinigang, Dinuguan, Laing, Sisig,and Ginatan.

Next to bagnet, we love Kare Kare so we ordered this combination.

Being located in a mall food court, service was fast.  Almost as fast as paying for your meal, my bagnet was already served to yours truly.  I give commend them for the fast service.

Now serving wise, the cup of rice was adequate as I reckon.  Not your small cup size of rice being given in other food stalls.  So I like that.  Kare Kare was full of vegetables, hmmmm and they gave also a small cup of sauce for that as well.  I presume they made this separate so that it won't soak on the bagnet which was plated beside the kare kare vegetables.  Nice idea to keep the bagnet crunchy.  The Bagoong (fermented krill) was more than adequate and I super like that. Now the bagnet was for only three pieces.  A bit few if you ask me, but the cut size was in large chunks so no complaints there.  Plus a small cup of soup, thats a big plus for me.

Now the taste.  Lets start with the soup.  Not exactly the kind that would perk you up, but was unexciting.  We did not come here for the soup so we proceeded with the rest.  The kare kare was a let down.  Kare kare is great with the bagoong but it should still stand out or its flavours can be distinguished from the bagoong.  In this case, I like the bagoong more than the kare kare, which it shouldn't be the case.  The vegetables were fine, but I think it was the sauce that faltered.  I had high hopes with my favorite kare kare and how I was sad about this.  The bagnet was crunchy somehow and it didn't jumped with excitement.  I thought this would save the day for the meal I ordered but somehow their bagnet was simple and almost similar to the lechon kawali of the Tagalogs.  They are prepared differently but if bagnet wasn't done right, it will just taste similar and I love bagnet more than the lechon kawali.  

If it wasn't for the big serving size, I would have been frustrated with my dining experience.  I was happy and contented that I was given a full meal and that I was full.  Content and satisfied considering the price with the serving size, yes, I was.  But only to the flavour that I was short changed somehow.  I am not a famous and well know chef or food critic but I know what a good bagnet and kare kare would taste like.  Its not totally bad, but I wished it could have been better.  Maybe I just set my expectations so high for a food court meal.  Lets see how they will fare the next time I make a visit at the Shangrila Plaza food court.  I hope they made some changes to these two that I love.