Secret Recipe

Secret Recipe
Location : 5th Avenue corner 32nd Street, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City
Tel #: +63 (2) 856-2953
Cuisine : Fusion
Menu Price Range : Php 120.00 - Php 430.00
Service Charge: 10%
Rating : B+












At first glance, Secret Recipe appears to be just another cafe riding on the coattails of Starbucks and Seattle's Best. After all, the branding, stylish interiors, and even the friendly staff are hallmarks of these franchises. Where Secret Recipe deviates from this formula, however, is that, rather than concentrating on their teas and coffees, the focus of this Malaysian-based lifestyle cafe chain is their menu - especially their desserts.

In fact, you will soon learn that Secret Recipe has several award-winning dishes under their belt ranging from their Irish Lamb Stew to their Marble Cheesecake. With branches in several countries including Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, and China, you begin to wonder if perhaps the secret recipes of Secret Recipe has been somehow lost in translation. Fortunately, as I would soon learn, this is definitely not the case.

Although there are some similarities between Secret Recipe and other franchise cafes, its interior was actually quite spacious and brightly lit. Their furnishings were minimalistic but elegant with aluminum and plastic chairs contrasting with the iron-wrought chandeliers. The artwork of their cuisine on the wall reminded me quite a bit of UCC Cafe, but, fortunately, the menu isn't nearly as exorbitant.

Grilled Mushroom Chicken
Price: Php 190.00
Rating: C

Consisting of a chicken breast smothered in a mushroom gravy, this dish was accompanied by a healthy side salad and seasoned rice. First of all, serving the salad with the chicken breast was a bad idea. The thousand island dressing mixed with the gravy, resulting in a combination that wasn't very appetizing.

The chicken breast was also quite bony and sinewy, making it somewhat bothersome to eat. The rice, however, was a good match for the gravy. Portions were pretty generous and quite filling.

Lasagne (Chicken)
Price: Php 135.00 (choice of beef or chicken)
Rating: B+

A meaty and filling lasagna smothered with a rich marinara sauce, mozzarella cheese, and a very healthy amount of ground chicken. This dish was baked and served in a deep dish. I enjoyed this dish far more than the Grilled Mushroom Chicken. It was served pipping hot, but once it cooled down, it made for a very hearty meal. Although the taste of the chicken was faint, the large serving size and reasonable price garnered it a B+.







Green Apple Kasturi
Price: Php 110.00
Rating: A-

I admit being hesitant about this drink initially. I'm not really that much of a fan of green apples and, when it was first served, it appeared a bit coagulated.

Fortunately, it tastes a lot better than it looks. The tart green apple flavor is quite refreshing and the taste is actually very addictive. It tastes a bit like Italian soda, but is a bit more exotic. I'd recommend that you try this refreshment at least once.








Marble Cheesecake
Price: Php 110.00 (slice) Php 1,200.00 (whole)
Rating: A-

I can understand how this cheesecake managed to win accolades. It is the quintessential cheesecake: simple, tasty, and silky smooth. It wasn't too sweet or tart like some of the lesser cheesecakes on the market, achieving a great balance and astounding flavor. The crunchy oat nut base compliments the creamy cheesecake tremendously, making this dessert devilishly addictive.

Chocolate Mud Cake
Price: Php 110.00 (slice) Php 1,200.00 (whole)
Rating: A

First of all, let me state for the record that I'm not a fan of chocolate cakes. I find most of them sickeningly sweet, but, despite this, I found myself enjoying this award-winning concoction. Filled with semi-sweet chocolate fudge, it was creamy, silky and smooth without being overly sweet. In many ways, it was similar to a chocolate mousse in texture, but, all in all, it's an amazing dessert that you simply have to experience.



CONCLUSION

Food: The dishes were a bit of a mixed bag. Some were good while others were somewhat below par. Food portions were generous, but I really didn't like mixing the salad dressing and the main dish on the same plate. Secret Recipe is known for its desserts, however, and this is where it truly shines. The cakes were very scrumptious and addictive although the slices were fairly petite.

Ambiance: Secret Recipe does a good job of emulating the trendy cafe, giving the impression of class while at the same time remaining simple and classic. The establishment was very spacious and comfortable although it could've used more couches as the plastic and aluminum chairs weren't very comfortable. Surprisingly, there was no outdoor area and smoking isn't permitted in the premises.

Value: Some dishes were very affordable while others were quite pricey. The salads and some of the Italian pastas were a very good value (from Php 100.00 to Php 135.00) while other dishes such as the Singapore Laksa and Fish and Chips were expensive (around Php 300.00 and above.) Teas and coffees were affordable, but juices and smoothies can be a bit steep. Their desserts were excellent, but also quite expensive considering the portions.

Service: Overall, their service was excellent. The servers were very friendly and quite knowledgeable - eager to make suggestions as to which dish we should sample. We were served our food promptly and without any hassles.

Overall: Whether you're out on a date or on an outing with friends, Secret Recipe provides a comfortable and relatively affordable dining experience. A wide assortment of food, drinks, and desserts adorn their menu with dishes that range from traditional salads and pastas to spicy soups and laksa.

Secret Recipe allows you to sample dishes from a variety of cultures as well as signature desserts that are simply mouth-watering. All in all, it is a haven for adventurous diners willing to sample the different flavors of the orient and beyond.

© 2008 Pablo Bairan
02-04-2008

Jipan : Japanese Bakery and Coffee Shop

Jipan: Japanese Bakery and Coffee Shop Location :Upper Ground Floor A, SM Megamall, Ortigas Tel # : Cuisine : Japanese Menu Price Range : Php 60-280 Service Charge: none Rating : ★★★

So, I seem to be more hyped writing on-site, as here's another food trip by yours truly.

I was attending some...eherm "business" in Megamall and I was tied until lunch, so now armed with my canon ixy 910is, the green apple quicknotes and my pilot pen. The tard and I went to find someplace to eat that I can review also (to my persuasion).

After some deliberation we ended up in Jipan. A small, Japanese Cafe smacked in some alley at the upper ground floor of Megamall Building A.

It was a small, simple yet cheerful place, to the left of the store is a shelf full of baked goods (Mom buys their bread when she heads to Glorietta) and the right was a scatter of tables and chairs.

The waitress handed out the menus, and we each picked our poison.

FAITO!

Japanese Green Tea
Price : Php 0
Rating : ★★★★

They served us Japanese Green Tea with our meals, and I have to say I was impressed that it was authentic. It had that deep, barley flavor that I love and it was soothing to the throat. This round is definitely a win.

*ding* next round

Katsu Curry (Kare) Rice
Price : Php 240
Rating : ★★★

Served with a side of salad, this meal is pretty cheap for it's quantity. The salad arrived firstly (which is indeed how they should serve soup and appetizers), and it was a simple bowl of cucumbers, shredded cabbage, fresh corn kernels with a dollop of japanese mayo. There wasn't really much to say about it. Just that the corn kernels were crunchy, the cucumbers crisp, and the cabbage fresh. What I'm after is the curry, since I was deeply disappointed in a recent curry trip that I will not disclose where at this particular moment.

The curry dish arrived shortly. It was the usual breaded pork slices (although the batter was quite dark) and beef cutlets with the no-frills potato and carrot sidings layered in a pool of curry sauce on top of a hot plate of rice. This one was definitely better than the curry I last tasted, although there will be better curries elsewhere, this would definitely pass for real Japanese curry since the mix was simple and there were no other elements that disturbed the actual taste and flavor of curry.

Sukiyaki Set Meal
Price : Php 200
Rating : ★★★

All for 200 pesos. I gave it an extra star for the price. Clear beef broth w/ greens, carrots, tofu and slices of beef with lots of cellophane noodles or most commonly known as sotanghon. The soup had the right taste, of sweet that wasn't overpowering with a bit of saltiness to it. The veggies were crisp and the carrots were tender, but the tofu tasted a bit ... eggy (is that even a word?), the amounts of beef was surprisingly generous, but make sure to slurp all the noodles quickly or it will absorb all the soup and you wind up with a lot of fat noodles on your bowl.

The rice that accompanied the dish was soft but not warm enough for my likings.

Another curious thing, this meal is served with miso soup. (I ignored the soup thinking it was for the Katsu Curry Rice, turns out the poor lonely soup was a part of my meal). The soup was good. But the same problem lies with the tofu. Which was (still) eggy-tasting.

The meal is good for one very, VERY hungry person (which didn't fit my description), so I would definitely suggest it good for sharing (for 2). Just add another extra rice (or maybe not) and you're all set.

Considering no VAT and Service Charge, the place is cheap and way more authentic than a lot of Japanese establishments.

© 2007 wastefulspace
12-10-2007

Heaven 'n Eggs

Specialty: eggs in Filipino, American cooking and a few Japanese dishes.
Location: Market Market, The Fort; Glorietta Makati.
Service Charge: 8SC
Price Range: php 110 - 308
Rating: ★★★

Heaven 'n Eggs is a specialty restaurant that focuses on all things eggs, pancakes and steaks. There really isn't a focus on any particular cuisine as long as it has any of those three. There is a huge section dedicated to breakfast food and other dedicated to steaks. For those looking for a little bit of the Asian taste, they have an Asian Big Plate section. From the Manila spareribs (best seller) to mixed seafood tempura platter (squid, fish, shrimp in tempura batter), there is a little something for everyone. For those looking for the low calorie diet, you may have to settle for their sandwiches, French toast and wraps section.

Pancakes
Price: Free
Rating: ★★
Right off the bat, they provided us with complimentary pancakes even before we ordered. Good way to impress me. Add more food without adding price. OK, the pancakes weren't anything special. But it's definitely added value and you will be spoiled for choice among their syrups.

The Chips and The Fish
Price: php 252
Rating: ★★★★
Soft boneless fish that melts in your mouth, served with tartar, cocktail and lemon butter sauces. Well, at least it was supposed to come with several sauces. Ours just came with tartar sauce. We forgot to ask what happened with the other sauces. It's served with a large helping of fried potatoes and some leafy vegetables. The set was served in a cute picnic basket that makes it all the more adorable. How about the taste then? Exquisite and definitely filling (the fries are partly to blame).

Grilled Pepper Pork Chop
Price: php 218
Rating: ★★★★
Peppered pork chops steak with brandied gravy and garlic rice. Most of the steaks are served with your choice of potato siding (fried potato wedges, house rosemary and garlic potatoes sauteé or rustic mashed potatoes), choice of eggs (sunny side up - over easy, sunny side up - over hard, scrambled, poached, crunchy egg), bowl of rice, sourdough bread slice or pancake sidings. They recommended the mashed potatoes and crunchy eggs (2 of them). Everything about this dish is huge. The steak, the bowl of rice, the mashed potatoes and the 2 eggs. I could barely finish the thing. Actually, I didn't get to finish the potatoes. It comes served with a steak knife stabbed through the pork chop.

Conclusion
This is quite a place. If I had more space in my stomach, I'd probably order some appetizers before the meal or some dessert pancakes after. But as said above, the servings are huge and it's takes quite a bit of patience to finish a single meal. I recommend this place for anytime of the day. The menu is not big on dinners but then again, steaks could very well be served for dinners. They also happen to feature 8 all day breakfast dishes.

UCC Vienna Cafe

Specialty: Japanese

Location: Mall of Asia
Telephone No.: 556-0446

Location: 26th St. Forbes Town Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Telephone No: 845-1365, 884-2477


Location: 8757 Paseo De Roxas cor. Sedeno St. Salcedo Village, Makati
Telephone No.: 810-4388, 810-2210

Location: Central Westgate Center, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinglupa
Telephone No.: 771-1549, 771-1550

Location: Rockwell
Telephone No.: 895-4088, 897-3223

Service Charge: 10%
Price Range (Meals): php 199 - 499
Rating: ★★★★

Founded in 1933 in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, UCC has taken over all aspects of its coffee business. It has since expanded to several countries and it has several branches in the Philippines alone.

The menu is dominated by Japanese dishes and unlike Tokyo Cafe, this place cooks their dishes the way we expect Japanese dishes to be. They don't have ramen and sushi here though. Instead, they feature the ever so fragrant curry rice, gratin, pasta, pizza, and risotto too.

UCC Blended Coffee
Price: php 109
Rating: ★★★★
We cannot make a review of UCC without tasting its coffee. So do you want to know what it was like? Imagine a coffee with a fragrant aroma, strong flavor bitter and a full body with a smooth wine-like texture. The flavor dramatically softened when I added the cream. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Iced Yin Yan Cha
Price: php 139
Rating: ★★★
For those people not liking strong blends, there is the Yin Yan Cha. Light bodied coffee served with ice and tea. Somehow, the mildly sweet tea flavor overpowers the light bitter coffee taste. Good for those who dislike bitter coffee taste.

Hamburg Curry Rice
Price: php 289
Rating: ★★★★
This is Japanese curry rice done right. I have long tried to find a local Japanese restaurant with an authentic-enough curry rice. This is one of the best I've tried. It smells right. People who have dined in Japanese curry houses know: If the smell doesn't stick to your clothes, it's not smelling right. A huge hamburger patty with curry sauce mixed with cashew nuts, sliced carrots and potatoes, raisins and pickled ginger.

Chicken, Mushroom and Cheese Risotto
Price: php 319
Rating: ★★★★
Risotto rice coated with curry sauce mixed with chicken stripes and mushroom bits topped with sticky mozzarella cheese. This is a heavy dish. Take this only when you are really hungry. There is a strong mushroom and curry flavor although it's a bit oily and there's not enough chicken.

Bacon and Sausage Penne Gratin
Price: php 279
Rating: ★★
Big mistake on my part. This was not the gratin I expected. This looks more like normal noodles rather a casserole dish. Penne noodles, bacon, sausages, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. Eat while still hot. The noodles tend to stick when the cheese cools down. Not bad but a bit too expensive for its ingredients considering the quantity.

Conclusion
Expensive but worth it for some dishes. Great service, soft chairs and excellent dishes. I do not recommend eating here on a regular basis. It is much too expensive! Once in a while would be nice... a very long while. Its nice and quiet since there aren't a lot of people dining. For its apparent lack of customers, you might think they would persuade people to stay. We were almost thrown out when we were taking too long to order and I was taking pictures of the menu. I really need to get a moleskin notebook.

Oishiitei

Specialty: Japanese food
Location: 2nd Flr. 103 Tecoma bldg. 5th ave. corner 32nd street, Fort Bonifacio, Global City, Taguig
Phone Number: 8563872, 8563873
Price Range: php 150-380 (non inclusive of 12% vat).
Service Charge: 10%
Rating: ★★★



A little known place beside the Fort strip yields a few gems like zhu and this Japanese Restaurant called Oishiitei. Serving fine Japanese dishes in a distinctly modern japanese atmosphere.

The Menu
This place has got the works when it comes to Japanese cuisine. They got the donburi (rice meals), curry, ramen, soba, udon, seafood, sushi, sashimi, a whole slew of ala carte dishes and of course, dessert. This might be just the place when you are craving for that uniquely Japanese dish that you can't seem to find somewhere else. The menu list is a bit pricey although they do have that lunch menu where you get a trayfull of food. It's still quite expensive for me.

Katsudon Meal
Price: php 230
Rating: ★★★
This is one of the dishes on the lunch menu set meals. Tender breaded pork cutlets cooked with egg placed on top of steamed rice. Served with Miso soup and garnishing veggies (I have no idea when to start eating this). I've got to say that their katsudon is comparable to those actually served in Japan but nothing really spectacular. I miss Japanese sticky rice. I have yet to see a local Japanese restaurant serving sticky rice with their donburi. Our local rice just doesn't stick to chopsticks that much. Otherwise, this would have been excellent.




Tendon & Kitsune Meal
Price: php 230
Rating: ★★★
Crispy tempura on steamed rice. This one was also served with a veggie garnishing, 2 slices of sweetened fish and surprisingly enough, it comes with udon. The tendon was already served with sauce. It was crispy, tender and mildy salty although it was a bit harder to eat with chopsticks.

Salmon Cheese Roll
Price: php 230
Rating: ★★★
Imported salmon and cheese (probably not imported) rolled in sushi rice with an enormous salad leaf. I really don't know how to eat that salad leaf properly.

Conclusion
Their choice range is excellent and their prices a little on the steep end. The place could potentially hold a lot of people and the seats are comfy. This place is great if you plan on dining on that obscure japanese dish that you adore but can't seem to find anywhere else. Be prepared to pay for it though. Prices are not inclusive of 12% VAT and they have a 10% service charge.

Tokyo Café

Specialty: Western food cooked Japanese style
Location: Ground floor (main mall), south wing, Mall Of Asia
Service charge: none
Rating: ★★★

Tokyo Café serves western food cooked Japanese style. I don't particularly see how western food cooked Japanese style would appeal to Asian people (except the Japanese). We like our western food, western style and our Eastern food, Eastern. I would figure that only Japanese people that miss Japan like this particular style of cooking. I could be wrong though, given the number of people dining there.

The Menu
The menu consists mostly of burgers and crepes typical of those found in western themed restaurants in Tokyo. Most of the diners order the pasta or the burger patties. A few have chosen tempura.

As for me, I have decided on ordering one, usually expensive Japanese dish and one oddly named, Japanese carbonara. I haven't tasted Japanese carbonara before nor have I seen one in japan and I've been on a few trips there already.

Iced Lemon Tea
Price: php 60
Rating: ★★★
The iced lemon tea was similar to those served in Tokyo with the sugar syrup separated from the tea. You get to decide how much sugar you put in there. Its not so sweet without the sugar and it actually tastes like hot lemon tea, only its cold.

Hot Green Tea
Price: php 90
Rating: ★★★
The hot tea is served in fine delicate china. It's a little out of place since the place is more casual than formal. The green tea has a crisp clean green tea taste.





Unaju
Price: php 243
Rating: ★★
Grilled Japanese eel. Out of season, it's usually quite expensive. it's been a while since I've eaten one and I'm curious about the appearance of this very Japanese dish in a western themed place so I decided to take it. In the end, the taste wasn't so special and there were a few places where there was still bone on the fish. It wasn't bad. But it wasn't special either. I don't recommend it unless you have a real craving for this dish like I did at the time. Too expensive and too plain.






Japanese Carbonara
Price: php 175
Rating: ★★★★
Curious dish, this one. Its different from what we pinoys are used to. Carbonara with a hint of soy sauce. There is absolutely no presence of bacon or any other meat products in this dish. Finally, it's topped with nori or Japanese seaweed. The taste is OK despite being different but the oil does tend to settle at the bottom making the last few noodles more oily than the previous mouthfuls.

Conclusion
An odd place. The place could possibly hold around 30 - 35 people and seating easier if you come in small groups. A good place if you want to try something new or if you want to know what it's like to be in western restaurant in Tokyo. A good place to reminisce and tell stories if you've already been there. The ambiance is occasionally shattered by oddly spoken, wrongly pronounced Japanese phrases though. It's quite annoying if you hear spoken Japanese regularly. It's not really their fault if they weren't taught by a Japanese teacher, but they could try to remove the heavy gay accent when speaking the language (there are quite a few of them in there, and they are by far, the loudest). As for the food, good enough but not spectacular. I might try another dish sometime, but they better fix that accent before that time comes.