Cyma

OPA!!! To those who's been to Cyma, the word is all too familiar.

While for most people, when they hear Cyma, they remember the restaurant in Boracay and the light dishes they have served with fresh ingredients. To me, Cyma has been one of my favorite restaurants because it's the only place I can recall who serve Greek Food (where else do they serve Greek in Metro Manila?).

Dinners have always been any of the following: Filipino, Chinese, Spanish, Italian, Fastfood, Steakhouse, Thai, Japanese, Persian or Fusion. With these cuisines dominating the gastronomic scene, there's little space for restaurants to be original. And with Cyma being Greek, it makes the restaurant extra special.



A must try is their Roka Salata. Arugula and other greens, caramel walnuts and dried tomatoes on vinaigrette. It sounds simple and a little weird (with the candy walnuts) but I'm telling you, the salad is really good. It's the perfect fusion of sweet (walnuts), bitter (arugula), sour (vinaigrette), and salty (Parmesan) tastes. It's a complete experience.

I had my first dive of this salad in Boracay when Discovery Shores had a special buffet and they served this lovely appetizer and we never had an idea that it was from Cyma. It was a "box-office hit" to the group that almost everyone had more than two helpings of it (that's excluding me, who was so full that I didn't care to have more, and the others who ate ala carte). And this was the time I learned my lesson on trying new food: ALWAYS ASK WHAT THE DISH IS CALLED AND, most importantly, TRY TO REMEMBER IT! Because, the next time I went to Cyma and tried ordering it, I based everything on the menu's description of the salad and I had mistaken it for another (which was also good and whose name I can't remember... AGAIN! - how's that for learning a lesson?).

Another dish I love is the Baby Clams Angelhair. I have just one word to describe it: Yummy! I could eat two orders of those. It's Baby Clams sauce in Angelhair noodles, as the name describes it - duh. It was very interesting with it's very tasty creamy sauce.

from left: Moussaka, Greece's national dish; Lamb Gyro and chili sauce

You should also try their Maji Maji which I guess would be more pleasurable eating in their Boracay restaurant (it will make you feel more into the vacation mode) and their Gyro (pronounced as Geero, as I've been corrected). Just a warning on their Gyro. Don't mistake the sauce for anything but chili unless you want it really hot as one of my officemates had goured hers with it and damn was it hot, but still good.