After two years of pasta scarcity in JSEC comes the team behind Artisan, bringing students high-quality pasta dishes perfect for carbo-loading—with class.

Taste

Artisan’s crown jewel, the Truffle Pasta, is a creamy, white-sauce pasta dish doused in truffle oil and blanketed in cream. Adding texture to the dish are the mushrooms; three types, in fact: Shiitake, button, and golden. The mushrooms are soft and add a good, earthy contrast to the creaminess. As expected, the truffle oil marries everything together into a well-bundled, aromatic meal.

The Tuna Pesto and Mushroom, on the other hand, is a tad bit dry and borders on acidic. The dish is quite liberal with the basil pesto and ultimately overpowers the tuna, which may leave a sharp and caustic aftertaste. For those not so fond of piquant flavors, you might find it a bit overwhelming.

Concept

While a primarily pasta stall is a rare thing to find in JSEC, pasta dishes in concept are perhaps among the most malleable to work with. The added twist of presenting upper crust ingredients such as the chic truffle into the commercial realm of JSEC definitely is a bonus. While the stall prides itself in its dedication to high quality food, there still lacks a certain originality with their roster of dishes.

Value for money

The Tuna Pesto pasta is noticeably heftier in portion compared to the Truffle pasta, given the more expensive ingredient in the latter. Artisan walks on the tightrope of high quality and affordable–and for less than a hundred pesos, they offer a generous serving of filling pasta.

Final verdict

While their attempt at bringing remnants of high-class cuisine to the Atenean community is commendable, there lacks a certain variety and creativity with the menu. At the end of the day, the JSEC newcomer ultimately delivers on their promise of honest, fresh, and good-quality pasta.

Rating: 3.5/5

Photo by Chester B. Tan