As food bloggers, our routine when visiting an establishment together is to shoot (take photos), eat, savor, chat, shoot again … sometimes not necessarily in that order. That’s why when the columnist and chef-patron Stephanie Zubiri of Makati’s Atelier 317 asked this question,”what will make you go back to a restaurant?,” it seriously got me into thinking.

I could easily answer “if it’s as cheap as Jollibee!” but considering the competition among non-fastfood restaurants these days and the variety of cuisines they offer, it’s a very valid, thought-provoking question: what will make you really go back?

Good thing Atelier 317 charms you at first sight. It looked like fine dining without being intimidating. Just the perfect spot to bring your friends, family, date. It helps that the location is not in the mall but almost beside it (walking distance to Rockwell Power Plant.) Our host is proud of the fact that the street location remains one of those places in Makati which has maintained its character, with taho and dirty ice cream vendors still roaming around.

So aside from the ambiance of a place, what would make me really go back is the food. Preferably a distinct specialty which I can’t find somewhere else. In the case of Atelier 317, it’s the certain luxuriousness of their comfort food which lingers and entices. Everything probably takes inspiration from Stephanie’s image as a gourmand since she devised the menu herself.

The beef balsamic adobo (P650 for a solo order) was a standout. Tasting the chunks of meat, I could detect the perfect melding of balsamic vinegar, soy sauce & olive oil in this adobo and who knows what other talisman they put in here to make it such a delight. The fine Angus beef was so meltingly tender that it could only have been slow-cooked for hours … using the pressure-cooker is a no-no, as the owner tells her chefs.

(more…)