SM City Sta. Mesa: Curiosity satisfied

 A recent curiosity-triggered visit to SM Sta Mesa revealed some pleasurable surprises. 

I’ve long wondered what could be found inside this mall, which, for someone who stays in Makati, is rather out of the way. The mall, named Centerpoint when it was launched in 1990, was the second SM supermall to open after SM City North EDSA. It was named such because of its location is on the boundaries of the tripoint — Manila, Quezon City and San Juan.

On its 15th year of operation in 2006, the mall was renamed SM Sta. Mesa, although it is really part of Quezon City and not in that district found in the eastern side of Manila.

Still and all, on a day off not too long ago, this guy from Makati found himself along with some friends exploring this mall which, after 14 years, had been given a fresh, bright look.

Food crawl

Walking in cool comfort through four floors of over 130,000 square meters of retail shops, the ubiquitous SM Store, restaurants, wellness clinics, an amusement center with slides, ball pits, trampolines and a playground with bump cars for kids (and adults, why not?) to gambol in, took care of my once-weekly long walk exercise. 

Hungry, we went on a food crawl, starting with Modern Shanghai, one of several specialty restaurants under The Bistro Group. This was going to be a restaurant crawl, we told ourselves, and yet, it was all we could do to refrain from stuffing ourselves with the restaurant’s delicious yang chow fried rice; hot & sour soup; spring rolls; steamed hakaw shrimp dumplings; and roasted crispy pork, among others. 

Someone in the group said a swell all-day promo was being offered at Italianni’s next door and we decided to check it out: An appetizer, one entree and a drink, all for under P400. Well, let me just say that choosing from the various promo options on the menu was tough, and it’ll take several trips to the restaurant to try out all possible combinations, but that day, we settled for a sampling of Shrimp Basil Aglio Olio Pasta, Angel Hair Pomodoro, Spaghetti Alfredo, Italian Truffle Potato Chips, Chicken Picatta and a plate of Parmesan-Crusted Fillet of white fish — all whopping delicious! To down all these, we had thirst quenchers that included non-alcoholic coolers like four seasons, mango and peach mango lemonade. 

Shopping finds

Stuffed, we decided to walk off what we ate, and headed for the upper floors where the girls in the group went a little crazy over items sold at Flying Tiger Copenhagen. This Danish variety store, with outlets all over the world, including here in SM Sta Mesa, is known for the affordable, creative and quirky products with a particular focus on quality stationery, ball pens and pencils, little toys, gadgets and accessories like decorative trays, mugs and more, on its shelves. 

We tried on sunglasses at Sunnies, dropped by our favorite Japanese casual wear retailer, Uniqlo, on the mall’s first and second floors, took a look at what we could possibly spend on at SM Store, and visited SM Surplus where some of us bought foldable, inflatable bean bags and memory pillows and, well, I couldn’t resist buying this powerful portable battery-chargeable vacuum cleaner, which is perfect for sweeping off dust in my place for an indecently low price — my best cheap purchase for the month!

Everyone was having good vibes and we went on to wander around the fourth floor where one can find the Food Hall with stalls offering a mixed variety of cuisines, from snacks to home-cooked refreshments. 

Wowed by the cinemas

Someone made a remark about how special the movie theaters are in this mall, and we managed to ask permission from a mall manager to have an inside peek at the cinemas. We took a look and wow, were we impressed! I haven’t been inside a movie house in the metropolis for so long, what with work and the convenience of streaming movies through one’s laptop and/or desktop computer in the privacy of one’s home, but really, is this how movie houses in Metro Manila look like now? Or is this just unique to SM?

I mean, in SM’s Sta. Mesa mall, there are six theaters, four featuring state-of-the-art digital projectors and immersive audio and crystal-clear visual technology, with plush seats spacious enough to spend the night in -- and those are just the regular movie houses. 

And then there are the two so-called Director’s Club cinemas offering (can I say another “wow”) luxe movie-viewing with personalized service -— someone taking your order and bringing to your seat popcorn and soda — at a press of a button from your seat, Dolby Atmos Full Audio Atmosphere system, and the most comfortable plush leather reclining seats that, again, at the press of a button, are position-adjustable. I mean, whoever designed this kind of movie-viewing must have had a goal to wrench one from a habitual laptop/desktop movie-streaming habit!

Fun hours

Good mood all around, and by this time, we all were feeling jaunty enough to unleash the hidden adolescent inside our adult selves, as we jumped into bumper cars and zoomed off, gunning to ram one another at FantasyWorld where one can also find giant and mini slides, a trampoline, ball pit, a playhouse for toddlers, among others — in all, a festive space where both children and adults, particularly those looking to de-stress and escape from adult reality, could go and lose themselves, if only for a few hours. 

We also stopped by Oldmoon Studio, where we donned goofy spectacles and glitzy headgear and posed for wacky photos in one of the photo booths. 

Everyone was having a riot, and no one had really noticed the time. Then, someone glanced at his watch and said, “Hey, guys, it’s getting close to evening!” 

Time to end the day but one last meal before going our separate ways. Positive things have been heard about this restaurant that serves Singaporean-Chinese food — Wangfu — again, with branches all over the metropolis, but not in Makati so I was eager to find out if the food is worth me taking a trip to a location where it has a branch, like, say, maybe, back to SM Sta. Mesa again?

Well, let me just say, in short, that the food — at least the ones we had in Wangfu at SM Sta Mesa — wasn’t just good; it was excellent. Strongly recommended are the Seafood Green Soup, the house’s Hainanese Chicken, Salted Egg Fried Chicken, Crunchy Sweet & Sour Pork with Lychee, Cereal Prawn, Emperor Chop Suey; heck, order the entire menu for a delectable feast! 

‘Strong’ ice cream

Then, to my surprise and absolute pleasurable delight, I found out that just beside Wangfu in SM Sta Mesa, is something that I have long been looking for in the metropolis: Singapore’s husband-and-wife duo David Yim and Wong Peck Lin’s splendid ice cream brand, Udder’s Ice Cream! Twenty-four flavors of small-batch ice cream made of extremely high-quality ingredients, and for the Philippine branch, they’ve included all their ice cream flavors laced with liquor, a desiderata for those who love their ice cream spiked with alcohol: Bailey’s and Bourbon, with 3.3 percent alcohol content; Orange Choc Bitters with 2.7 percent alcohol content made with orange zest and Belgian chocolate soaked in Triple Sec, an orange-flavored liqueur; and Rum Rum Raisin comprised of California raisins soaked in rum for two weeks before being mixed into rum-based ice cream — this one has 3.9 percent alcohol content, which arguably makes it the strongest rum and raisin ice cream in the market today. 

Pickleball courts

Food glorious food, great shopping, festive fun and movie theaters where you’re so pampered that you could watch a movie and almost immediately slip into dreamland as you sink into the most luxurious of movie seats one could find anywhere — have I missed anything else? 

Oh, yes, sports! SM Sta. Mesa has particularly good news for pickleball aficionados  because the mall, in partnership with financing company, Paloo,  has recently opened four new courts up on the rooftop for players of all levels.

Open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., the courts can be rented for P450 an hour, and reservations can be made through smtickets.com. Players with no paddles and/or whiffle balls of their own can purchase those from mall outlets like Toby’s Sports SM Sta. Mesa or SM Store. 

(Useful information: Holy Week Mall Hours: Holy Monday to Wednesday 14 to 16 April; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Maundy Thursday, 17 April, Closed; Good Friday, 18 April, Closed; Black Saturday, 19 April, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Easter Sunday, 20 April, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.)