Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

It has been less than a year since Mercato Centrale launched.  I was there during the first day to experience the newest food haven at Bonifacio Global City that time.  I went home with tons of food from the weekend market.

However, Mercato Centrale is far away from my place.  As much as I want to go back often, it’s just a bit inconvenient for me.  So when I was informed that Mercato Centrale now offers food delivery, I was ecstatic!

It’s fortunate that I was given a chance to try out Mercato Centrale Delivery.  Apparently, their chosen partner is City Delivery!  I actually tried it out recently and I was very pleased with the service.

As I shared in my previous post, City Delivery is a multi-restaurant delivery service covering Metro Manila, Philippines that specializes in food and beverage delivery.  The delivery service promises to bring us the city’s best restaurants and more to our doorsteps.  All this can be done by just a dial or click away.

Mercato Centrale joins City Delivery through their Foodie Delivery.  Foodie Delivery is the delivery service for Home-Based Food Merchants.  It’s actually a first in the Philippines.  The idea started during the Ultimate Taste Test event organized by OAP founder Anton Diaz wherein he realized that unique food finds are home-based.  In order to avail those products, we either pick it up at the seller’s house or ask our friends to buy for us.  Anton’s OAP doesn’t have the means to provide delivery service so he partnered with City delivery to turn this awesome idea into reality.

With Foodie delivery, we can also enjoy home-based specialties with just a click (www.citydelivery.ph) or a call (87878) away.

Mercato Centrale is a haven for foodies as we have the best of the best home-based merchants in one marketplace.  I’m really glad that they finally joined the bandwagon through City Delivery’s Foodie Delivery.

Currently, there are eight merchants from Mercato Centrale that are participating in the new Mercato Centrale Delivery.  Who would have thought that this is possible?  I honestly didn’t think so!

These are some of the merchants from the weekend bazaar where we can order their specialties with just a click or dial away:

• Bale Dutung – a popular food destination in Pampanga by Chef Claude Tayug.  Specialties include Pan de Bagnet and Lechon Tortilla.
• Big Bob’s Charcoal Grilled Burgers – offers charcoal grilled patties stuffed with mozzarella and cheddar cheeses.  There are two ices available: the regular Big Bob’s burger and the Big Bob’s super special which has two 1/3 pound beef patties.
• Chuck’s Grubberie – their perfectly crisp, light better, skin-on potato wedges and various dips that help made them famous in fish and chips.  Their bestseller is the original beer battered dory fish & chips but they also offer other types of fish like the red snapper, magi-mahi, and orange roughy.
• Homemade Ravioli – sells a variety of flavors of ravioli.  Their specialty is the spinach cream ravioli with fresh tomato and salsa.  The mild flavor of ravioli is perfectly complemented by the tomatoes and other herbs.  Other flavors include roasted squash, three cheese, blue cheese & pear, salmon dill, shitake pecorino, and eggplant parmigiana.
• Manang’s Chicken – sells double deep fried crispy chicken with Manang’s secret soy garlic sauce.  There are three sauces to choose from: original, mild spicy, and extra spicy sauce.  You can eat the chicken with rice, macaroni salad or on its own.
• Merry Moo – homemade ice cream.  They source their ingredients from local dairy farmers and they make sure that the ice cream is always fresh.  Merry Moo is best known for its unique and creative ice cream flavors namely honey & pili nuts, apple cinnamon, rum and raisin, french vanilla, aztec chocolate, strawberry basil, and their bestselling flavors sea salt caramel and earl grey tea.
• Mochiko – Japanese confection made of glutinous rice flour or mochiko.  They offer various flavors like vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, caramel, green tea, black sesame, and their bestseller, azuki (red bean).
• Spring by Ha Yuan – Ha Yuan has been famous since 1956 because of its hearty chinese dishes.  Now, they have introduced Spring by Ha Yuan which offers light-hearted, health-friendly, Asian-inspired nibbles.

The merchant assigned to me was Spring by Ha Yuan.

Ha Yuan is actually one of my childhood favorites.  I always dine at Ha Yuan when I was in elementary school.  I’ve been so addicted with their fresh lumpia so when I saw the package sent to me by Mercato Centrale Delivery, I was so happy!

I was given three of Spring’s bestsellers.  I enjoyed eating each one of them especially my favorite, fresh lumpia.

• Fresh Amoy Lumpia (Php 60)

Eating this lumpia felt like I travelled back in time.  This was the same delicious vegetable lumpia I had been eating when I was a kid.  The all vegetable filling of tofu and assorted veggies made the dish so healthy.  I wish they have sent me more.  I guess I’ll have to include the fresh amoy lumpia from Spring the next time I call City Delivery.

• KaPao! (Php 70)

I haven’t heard of KaPao but I was glad I was able to try it out.  It’s actually a famous delicacy in Singapore.  KaPao is made of crispy floss and chinese sausage.  Every bite of this special sandwich was just heavenly.  A must order in Spring!

• Hongkong Style Egg Tart (Php 35)

There are 4 different flavors available: custard, coffee, pandan and milky no yolk.  Spring’s Hongkong Style Egg Tart can also be ordered in box of 4s (Php 130).  A definite sweet dessert but delicious!  It was creamy too and full of yummy sweet flavors.

We all know that Mercato Centrale opens only on weekends.  The Mercato Centrale Delivery also operates the same way.  We can get our Mercato Centrale favorites freshly delivered between 9AM to 2PM during weekends.  However, if you insist to get the food delivery on a weekday then you have to order 2 days in advance.

This is definitely great news for Mercato Centrale fans!  Aren’t you delighted?  I surely am! 🙂

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Mercato Centrale Partners with City Delivery
Weekends 9AM-2PM
citydelivery.ph
87878

I usually stay home during weekends.  Food delivery is always my choice whenever I’m lazy to go out.  However, I’m used to fast food delivery.  Recently, I’ve been seeing big restaurants offering delivery too.

One time, I was a bit experimental.  Since friends came over to help me clean up my place, I decided to try out City Delivery for our food needs (both lunch and dinner).

It was my first time to try out the service so I was a bit observant.  Will we get good service?  Will we get food on time?  What kind of packaging do they have?  Will the City Delivery people show courtesy and professionalism?

City Delivery is a multi-restaurant delivery service covering Metro Manila, Philippines that specializes in food and beverage delivery.  The delivery service promises to bring us the city’s best restaurants and more to our doorsteps.

Customers can order food in two ways:

• Online through the City Delivery Website (http://www.citydelivery.ph)

• Telephone via City Delivery’s hotline 87878

We decided to order through their hotline 87878 that day.  We were so filthy and actually don’t have any time to open up a laptop and surf in any website.  We browsed through the City Delivery booklet and was in total awe as to the number of reputable restaurants City Delivery partnered with.  As of this writing, there are 189 restaurant partners.  Wow!

We ordered from Red Kimono for lunch and  The Old Spaghetti House for dinner.

Apparently, we can get food from our designated areas.  If the establishment we want to order from is located in a different area, the minimum order changes.  We can also opt to pay the inter-area delivery charge if we decide to stay with the original minimum order.

Here’s how it works:
Minimum Food Order
Minimum food order is at Php 500 but if you’re more than 5 kilometers away from the establishment then the minimum food order goes up to Php 1,000 or even higher if the restaurant is a bit more far away.
Inter-Area charge
If you wanna keep the minimum food order of Php 500 but wanted to order from an establishment that is more than 5 kilometers from your place, then you need to pay an inter-area charge on top of your food delivery bill.
1 city hop    – 5 to 10 km   – Makati to Greenhills      = +100 Inter-area charge
2 city hops – 10 to 15 km – Makati to Quezon City    = +150 Inter-area charge

I was surprised as to how well the call center agent communicated.  I called the first time and the girl who answered welcomed me so warmly.  She was fast, very friendly and sooo efficient!  I was asking several questions about the servings of each dish and she was quick in providing the answers I need.  She asked me to hold for a few seconds to verify with the restaurant and was very apologetic when I had to wait for less than a minute (I really didn’t mind).  She spoke very good english too!

Delivery time varies on how far the restaurant is.  Our orders from Red Kimono came after an hour and a half.  I didn’t notice it as we were busy cleaning the house.  The excellent customer service through their hotline was a refreshing one.  I was totally sold on City Delivery then.

When the delivery guy arrived, I noticed the very bright orange and green color of their uniform and motor vehicle.  He was very friendly and even allowed me to take several pictures of him.  I told him that I wanted to write about their service.  The guy said he’s used to it haha!

Another thing that impressed me with City Delivery is their food packaging.

The food were put in enclosable containers.  I really liked the presentation!  We didn’t even need to use our own dining utensils.  The food were ready to serve upon delivery.  Yummy!

We ordered Tofu Agedashi (Php 100), Chicken Teriyaki (Php 210), Wasabi Oyster Tempura (Php 225), Tonkatsu (Php 195) and Gohan (Php 40 each) from Red Kimono.  We also ordered 1.5 liter Pepsi (Php 60).  It was a good meal.  We had the comfort of eating high-end food in my own home.  How cozy! 🙂

During dinner, we opted for The Old Spaghetti House.  We called through City Delivery’s hotline again.  This time, it wasn’t as impressive but it was still good.  When I asked the call center agent for how many people a pizza from The Old Spaghetti House is, she just said that she didn’t know.  I had to ask her to call the merchant so I can get my answer.  She didn’t hesitate and told me she’d call me back.  After 2 minutes, I got a call back from the agent and everything went smoothly after.  I appreciate how City Delivery trains their call center agents.  With that kind of customer service, I’m pretty sure City Delivery is here to stay.

While I was super impressed with City Delivery’s call center agents, I was a bit disappointed with the guy that delivered our food for dinner.  He was busy chatting on the phone and didn’t mind us when we opened the door to get our orders.  He continued chatting with someone on the phone while giving us our orders.  He also didn’t have exact change even if I specifically mentioned how much I’m giving them.

Some parts of the pizza were dislocated but we totally understand why.  Anyway, it’s just a small feedback that I’m sure will be acted upon when City Delivery people see this post.  Looking at how passionate they are with their business, I’m sure they’ll work on it.

We ordered Golden Onion Rings (Php 110), Fried Mozzarella Sticks (Php 130), California Maki Pizza (Php 255), Double Cheeseburger (Php 250) and Philly Cheese Steak (Php 255).

I’m glad that I finally tried out City Delivery.  It’s definitely good that we are getting high quality service from them.  I really hope they do get partners that are near my place.  There wasn’t even a single restaurant in their partners list that are 5 kilometers away from my place.  Since I live alone, I can’t afford to always spend Php 1,000 on a single meal 🙁

However, if I do crave for good food and I have friends over, I’ll surely consider City Delivery Food Service.  My 2 experiences that day were both pleasant and I’ll surely recommend this to friends.  You see, City Delivery even sell poker chips (Php 360) and bicycle playing cards (Php 150), perfect for house party with friends.

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City Delivery
citydelivery.ph
87878