Yey for Gumbo!

When I hear of the word "Gumbo", I am immediately reminded of Forrest Gump. Remember his friend in the army whose family business was shrimps? Gumbos in particular? The scene when he was enumerating all the dishes you can do with shrimp is still vivid in my mind so when we got to Robinson's Ermita and I saw the sign of Gumbo, all I can think about is shrimp, shrimp, shrimp.

I've only eaten at Gumbo once and that was so many years ago so going back to Gumbo for lunch was like a discovering a new place. Before anything else, just to remind you, there won't be any shrimp on this post (I'm vegetarian), so you might want to lower your expectations a bit :P

While waiting for our order, the very pleasant and cute waitress served us some complimentary bread:

Apparently the oil + roasted garlic dip is popular in a lot of resto. Remember Chelsea?

I didn't care so much for their bread. It's nothing spectacular, the dipping oil was likewise unremarkable but the mere fact that they give out free bread makes them good in my book ;)

We really didn't have to wait long, after just a few minutes (around just 5 I think), our orders started coming! Talk about really fast service! *clap, clap!

We had some artichoke and formaggio for starters.

Ohehmgee, it was SO good! The only other place I've had Artichoke and Cheese dip is at Itallianni's. For some reason though, I find this one from Gumbo better! I think it's because they drained their artichoke well so it didn't taste so sour anymore (often artichokes are soaked in vinegar).

Next we had some Mozzarella sticks!

Coconut encrusted Mozzarella sticks

The mozzarella sticks were amazing! I really enjoyed them because they were not greasy at all! Plus the coconut gave it an interesting texture and added flavor! I would compare it to the crust and taste of a chicken nugget. So good!

Then came our main dish: Pasta Putanesca!

Normally, I don't like eating Putanesca because I make really good putanesca and I always look for that same taste, but since there was no other vegetarian option (plus I was too hungry to think), I agreed on getting it. Much to my surprise, the pasta tasted AMAZING!-- even better than my own recipe! It's that goooooood! I tell you, I chowed down that baby in forkfuls, I didn't care if I looked sloppy while eating it. haha!

Now, I don't see "shrimp" flash before my eyes when I hear of "gumbo", all I can see is pasta! mozzarella! and artichoke dips! :)

TMF rating: 10/10!