Motorino Pizzeria Napolitana – A Taste of Authentic Italian Pizza

Motorino – noun  literally means small engine which colloquially describes

gasoline mopeds and scooters

It was a beautiful sunny day to go and try out this restaurant in  Estancia Mall.  Received an invite from Zomato to  visit Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana and experience their best sellers.

Per Nems ( Motorino Estancia),  Motorino Pizzeria Napoletana’s roots can be traced to its original  store which opened  in Brooklyn  in 2008. Founder Chef Mathieu Palombino is a Belgian-born Chef with an Italian immigrant father. It started with Chef Mathieu’s  fascination  with pizzaiolo and the   old way of making pizza — the Napolitana way. These seemed good enough reasons to start up a restaurant of his own. So that’s what he did 10 years ago. Today Motorino has branches  in NY , Soho, Hongkong and Manila. In the Philippines , the first store was inaugurated in Greenbelt 4 years ago in 2014. Its the second store  to be  opened outside the US after Hongkong.

Motorino Estancia

Motorino in Estancia is one among four branches that currently operates in the Philippines to date.

Yesterday, Motorino served us a total of 9 dishes  from starter to dessert, to try.

APPLE WALNUT CHEESE SALAD P375

The greens were crisp and fresh.  I loved the generous slivers of parmigiano regiano. The apples looked like slices of cheese as well. You get a surprise taste of sweetness and fruitiness when you bite into it. The walnut provided the crunch. The citrusy saccharine vinaigrette rounded up all the flavors together. Try to have one of each ingredient in one mouthful to be able to appreciate the balance of flavors in this simple yet refreshing salad.

CALAMARI FRITTI P395

A nice appetizer to start your meal with. You can even pair it with the Apple Walnut Salad to complement its savory notes. The portion was just right for its price

ALFREDO WITH PRAWNS P525

The prawns were cooked perfectly  and paired well with the al dente pasta.  This is a different take on the classic Fettucine Alfredo which we are familiar with. Motorino’s version uses spaghettini instead of fettuccine and in lieu of chicken uses prawns.

Trivia :

Per Wiki, “… Fettuccine Alfredo is a pasta dish made from fettucine tossed with parmesan cheese and butter. It is also called Fettuccine al burro. Serving fettuccine with butter and chese was first mentioned in a 15th century recipe by Martino da Como. The recipe cooks the noodles in broth or water and adds butter, good cheese and sweet spices.

Modern fettuccine alfredo was invented by Alfredo di Lelio in Rome. Di Lelio invented fettuccine al triplo burro later nrenamed fettuccine Alfredo in 1908 in an effort to entice his wife to eat after givinb birth to their first child Armando…”

CLASSIC MOTORINO MEATBALL P450

I loved  how the red sauce has a little kick in it.  It is reminiscent of  Arrabiatta which I like. The meatballs were huge and scrumptious. I think Im more partial to this than the Alfredo variant

TRUFFLE HONEY AND  4 CHEESE P695

Easily everybody’s favorite, this 12 inch pizza was wiped out in no time. That perfect balance of salty and  creamy from the 4 cheese and sweet and rich from the truffle honey was divine. The pizza crust was chewy and freshly made which I loved! Shall order this again

SOPPRESSATA PICCANTE P595

“Soppressata is an Italian dry salami… Soppressata is usually made from pork but may also be made with beef. Unlike traditioal salami, Soppressata is a much coarser grind, often mixed with red pepper flakes. Like Salami they are salted, then air dried to preserve them …” (Wikipedia)

Piccante – adjective meaning spicy, hot , strong.

This is one fiery pizza that can be called a “backstabber “. The first note gives you meaty, savory, delicious. Then bang, the spicy hot last notes come strong.  It really was muy piccante for me given my low threshold for anything spicy

Praise the heavens for TIRAMISU P265. The cream in this dessert quickly doused the fire in my poor tongue. ‘Most accounts of the origin of tiramisu date its invention to  the 1960’s in the region of Veneto Italy…

Tiramisu  literally translated from Italian to English, means pick me up , cheer me up or lift me up…

It is an Italian dessert consisting of layers of sponge cake soaked in coffee and brandy or liqueur with powdered chocolate and mascarpone cheese ”   (Wikipedia)
TORTA AL CIOCCOLATO WITH CREMA INGLESE P250

What a sublime ending to an amazing lunch. This chocolate dessert just put an exclamation point to the whole menu served to us today. That butter-graham crust,  silky and sinful chocolate mousse, that decadent dark chocolate glaze which was the last note to the whole ensemble, all  swimming in a pool  of Creme Inglese,,,,  D-I-V-I-N-E

Overall…

What a simple yet amazing spread it was. Clearly it was not only the Napolitana pizzas that were stars of the show. The Torta somewhat stole the thunder  haha.

Lest I forget, Motorino also LUNCH AND DINNER SETS.

LUNCH SET

11am to 4 pm only

Choice of antipasti, salad or dessert

Caesar Salad

Roasted corn

Chicken Wings or 

scoop of gelato

PASTA OF THE DAY

PIZZA OF THE DAY (1/2 PIE)

P320+  per person

DINNER DATE

1 bottle house wine

1 antipasti or salad to share

Caesar Salad, Roasted corn, Clams Al Bianco

Chicken Wings or meatballs

1 pc  13″  PIZZA to share

1 PASTA to share

P995 for two persons

5pm to 10 pm only

“This is not about making everything new. Its about making it the way it was made before… “its all about the tomato, the pecorino, the crust , the sausages, the herbs”

-Chef Mathieu Palombino

                                                                                                                           (from the article of Vladimir Bunoan                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ABS CBN 5/2014)

MOTORINO PIZZERIA NAPOLETANA has 4 branches :

5th floor The Podium Ortigas

Ground Floor Estancia Mall Oranbo Pasig
Ground Floor Net Park 5th Avenue BGc
Level 2 Greenbelt 3 Greenbelt