It generally tastes delicate and not too flavorful. I especially like ramen (or whatever Japanese hot noodle), it's my ultimate comfort food. I eat ramen when I am sad and I eat ramen when I am happy.
I love Japanese TTTTHHHHIIIIISSSSS much that our default Friday night date place is Little Tokyo near Makati Cinema Square.
I am yet to try most of the Japanese places along Pasay Road.
Apart from noodles, katsudon is also a staple during our mini Japanese feasts.
Katsudon is a popular Japanese rice bowl topped with deep-fried pork cutlet, egg and condiments. Its name is derived from tonkatsu (pork cutlet) and donburi (rice bowl dish).
It has become a modern ritual for Japanese students to eat katsudon before an exam because the work "katsu" is a homophone of the verb "to win".
I am especially lucky since my neighborhood Japanese restaurant serves the best katsudon in town: Tonkatsuya. The place is in an obscure condo building in San Antonio Village, Makati.
The pork cutlet is exceptionally soft while the condiment flavor has the right sweet and salty mix. Like no other! Most restaurants either get the pork right or the condiment great. Not together.
An order costs PhP 220.
Bloggers have been talking about this hole in the wall restaurant, some even consider this as the best Japanese place in the metro. I am not ecstatic about the Chasue Ramen (pictured) but I go crazy with their Udon - noodles with egg. Perfect with katsudon!
The place can only sit around 30, has a carinderia feel and prices are ~ PhP 200 per dish.
I also read that the Katsu Chef (he's Japanese, btw) can cook for you for a very reasonable price. Imagine the possibilities!
Do you ever wonder why I haven't featured any Filipino restaurant? The honest reason is I am not a big fan of spending on Filipino food. Since I am Pinoy, I get to have Filipino food on a daily basis at a fraction of a restaurant meal. Second, the good Pinoy fares are cholesterol-laden and too flavorful for my taste, hence Person A has to find a good selling point to take me to a Pinoy restaurant.
In the case of Cafe Villa, Person A highlighted that it is run by one of the 2 Green chefs in the country - Chef Sau del Rosario. Green chefs promote sustainable and locally-sourced, organic ingredients. On top of that, he has cooked in international kitchens: Le Devellec in Paris, Raffles Hotel in Singapore, and Luna in Shanghai. He made waves locally working the kitchens of Edsa Shangri-la, Manila Peninsula and my favorite restaurants M Cafe and Chelsea.
So Who am I to turn down a dinner invitation at Cafe Villa?
The Place
Located in the growing foodie street, Yakal in Makati, Cafe Villa is a small place that can sit around 30 people in its ground floor space. It has a casual vibe with light-toned interior, warm lighting and homey furnishings.
The Food
Like in most restaurants, complementary bread is served once order has been placed. In this case, this fresh toast and tinapa pate.
The pate has a nice moist yet crumbly texture. The tinapa flavor makes the lightly-salted pate great with the fresh bread.
Tinapa Caper Pasta (PhP 375)
The restaurant serves pasta dishes with Filipino sauce. This is what I fancied the night we dined.
Fettucine with garlic confit and fried tomato sauce. The pasta is al-dente, cooked to the right texture. The sauce tastes like fresh tomato, with just the right saltiness from the tinapa while the capers and olives add the occasional interesting flavor. All in all, the flavors are subtle taking away the "umay" factor.
I recommend this. Serving size is good for one person.
Boneless Crispy Pata (PhP 495 )
Pork with farm vegetables and drizzled with kare- kare sauce.
The pork is tender, juicy and fried just right. The texture doesn't taste like it has been deep-fried in oil but it has all the goodness and more of a good crispy pata. Without the rest of the garnish, the pork can stand on its own. I do like putting a bit of the kare-kare sauce. It tastes very peanut-y bordering peanut buttery. It's good on its own. Again, it's good even without the bagoong.
The serving is huge, good for 2-3 persons. I recommend this.
Strawberyy Lassi (PhP 165)
Now onto the Indian twist. Lassi is tricky to make as it tends to get too sour. Presenting the best Lassi I've had so far.
For those who are not familiar, Lassi is an Indian traditional drink made by blending yogurt with water and Indian spices. In this case, instead of putting in spices and roasted cumin, strawberry is added. It still has that sour taste but enhanced by the strawberry and tempered by the milky undertone. Very refreshing.
A must try!
Watermelon Silken Tofu Smoothie (PhP 145)
Person A ordered the previous drink, which I immensely enjoyed, I made gaya-gaya so I requested another red-colored drink.
If you love watermelon, this is a good try. The fruit dominates with the coolness of the smoothie. Not too milky.
I like the lassi more. That's just me.
Pandan Sansrival (~PhP 150)
The dessert is gotta be a fusion.
This is predominantly sansrival sans the sweet, umay taste. Add the undertone of pandan, I say this is great!
In Summary
1. Cafe Villa is one of the best Filipino fusion restaurants in Manila. All the dish we ordered tastes great if not awesome. The crispy pata and lassi are a must try. We're coming back for the lamb calderata, it wasn't available when we ordered it.
2. The place is small, but I overheard Chef Sau (he was at the restaurant when we dined) that he's expanding. It is perfect for a casual date, catching up with friends and a small family gathering.
3. Prepare to shell out at least PhP 300 per person excluding the drinks. Considering the taste and the portion size, I say it is reasonable.
Among the fine-dining places in the metro, I am most curious
to try Lolo Dad’s. Why? Chef Ariel Manuel, the man at the helm of the
restaurant, has been winning competitions world-wide year in and year out;
second, the place has really good reviews since opening its doors in 2000.
We intended to dine at a different restaurant but for 2
straight years we were turned down due to booked events. So two days before our
weekend dinner, I phoned Lolo Dad’s and our party of 2 successfully reserved a
table. There’s a lot of 2 going on in
this paragraph. This is the best Plan B ever: the ambiance is nice, the
food is excellent and to summarize, it’s the best fine dining experience we
had… yet.
The restaurant is located in the busy and crowded Malate
district. Not to worry, the short walkway and mini-garden in front of the
restaurant transport diners to a quaint and romantic interior and separate them
from the busy traffic in Quirino Avenue.
It is a fine dining place so expect to shell out load$ to
fatten your selves up and be able to enjoy the food without thinking how many
hours of toiling you saved up for a small slice of foie gras.
You have two options, you can order ala carte or go for a
tasting menu of 2 appetizers, 3 main courses, a palate cleanser and 2 desserts
for PhP 2600. These are generous portions so if you have a bottomless pit in
the stomach and can appreciate good food, I recommend the tasting menu. If you
opt for ala carte, you can order a regular portion or modest portion. My
suggestion, if you go for more than 1 course, choose modest portion, if you
want one dish only, go for regular. To cover more mileage, Person A and I
strategized: I order ala carte while he goes for the tasting menu then we’ll
just feed each other with morsels from our plate. Yeah we’re sweet and
scheming, like that.
Off we start the meal with complimentary soft, hot bread served with herbed butter.
Bread tastes subtle yet creamy, perfect for the
strong-flavored butter. Yummy!
Appetizers
Gourmet Salad of
Lobsters and Prawns (Modest portion, PhP 325)
Mushrooms, feta cheese, kalamata olives and sundried tomato
vinaigrette tossed in leaves. Cheese, leaves and mushrooms taste fresh.
Lobsters and prawns rightly grilled and what makes it unique is the
grilled-flavored dressing. This is a winner, love it.
Garlic Pimenton
Prawn with Spanish Caviar and Grilled Chorizo on Vacuum cooked Cantaloup (from the Tasting Menu)
Really soft prawns complemented with the taste of the
caviar. Person A and I will order it again. It’s his favorite.
The strong-flavored chorizo is tempered by the fresh flavor
of the cantaloupe. Nice twist. This is good if you have like strong-flavored
appetizers. I prefer something lighter to start my meal.
Main Course
For the 3-main course tasting menu, each dish is served a
dish at a time. Since the lady ordered one main course compared to the 3 of the
gentleman, the restaurant is gracious enough to give me a small plate so that I
can share what my date is having while waiting for my dish to be served with
his third dish. That’s one thoughtful move.
Duck Breast and
Duck Liver (from the Tasting Menu)
Honey and macadamia nut oil glazed duck breast, pan fried
duck liver, with cranberry marmalade, young lettuce and popcorn salad.
Duck breast with cranberry marmalade to the right, salad at
the center and pan fried liver to the left. Duck breast is soft in the mouth
and goes well with the cranberries. The liver is also awesome, lotsa flavor and
melts in the mouth. Worth the order, is soft in the mouth and goes well with
the cranberries. The liver is also awesome, full-flavored and melts in the
mouth.
Scallops and Potato
(from the Tasting Menu)
Truffle powder dusted diver scallops with three pea and
sweet potatoes. The best! Every component on this plate tastes so subtle and
good that if Person A gets to order only one dish from Lolo Dad’s, this will be
it. The scallop is so soft and has that light flavor couple it with the very
creamy mashed potato. Oh, don’t forget the truffle flavor, you don’t see it but
you can definitely taste it.
The kalamansi sherbet palate cleanser is served on this cute
pot cooled by dry ice. It’s so cool, literally and figuratively. Na-ignoy kami. And like true-blue
curious (pakialamero) engineers that
we are, we deconstructed the entire thing after finishing the tiny scoop. I was
served with the sherbet, too. I find that generous considering that I did not
order the tasting menu and by this time, they haven’t served my main course
yet.
Wagyu Steak (from
the Tasting Menu)
Roast Tajima Wagyu eye of rib eye and melt in the mouth
oven-braised ox-tongue, goat’s brie cheese fried pie, shallots and mushrooms.
Person A had it medium-well. The steak is relatively softer but I think the
texture will be better if he had it done medium. It was still good though
especially with the heavenly ox-tongue and the generously stuffed pie.
Herb de Provence
crusted Rack of Lamb (Modest Portion, PhP 915)
Three cheese risotto (Roquefort, gruyere and parmesan),
forty melted garlic and tomato confit. I went with the Chef’s recommendation to
do the lamb medium. It was heavenly, the lamb was really soft, melts in your
mouth kind and tastes awesome. (walang
anghit! As in walang anghit!) . The perennial eyebags, child-like smile and small, crooked fingers express all the excitement.
The risotto is excellent with the old-cheese taste
dominating. I find it too flavorful with my lamb. The modest portion is enough
for one-person who ordered an appetizer. I had a hard time consuming it
considering the 6 dishes I already tasted. However, since it tastes so good, I
stuffed my little tummy para hindi
sayang.
At this point, the restaurant had done everything
excellently that we considered the hole in our pockets worth it. And we ate
leisurely that we already clocked in 2 hours sitting down and spoiling our
taste buds.
Desserts
Yep, we’re not yet done. There’s always room for dessert.
Coming from the cholesterol-high, I came up with this picture.
In a fine dining restaurant. Hindi na ako nahiya.
Chocolate cake,
buttercake and ice cream (from the Tasting Menu)
Dark valrhona chocolate cannoli with fresh strawberries, the
flavors are so subtle but the texture is silky to the tongue. The rosemary
buttercake tastes like herb-flavored cake (lasang
dahon-dahon, kakaiba) while the vanilla almond ice cream is a fine-dining
version of Chef Ariel’s Selecta concoction years back.
Vanilla Cream and
Mango Beignets (Modest Portion, PhP 180)
The plate comes with spice mango marmalade, rose syrup and
parmesan ice cream. The vanilla cream and mango is mango float with very subtle
flavor yet sexy silky feel in the mouth. The parmesan ice cream is a gourmet
rendition of the classic cheese sorbetes
from Mamang Sorbetero. The flavor is
fresh and extra creamy with a nice texture.
Iced Tea (PhP 170)
Brewed iced tea with pineapple orange. The juice dominates
the taste so we’re not too ecstatic about it. We also shared a can of Coke Zero
with the wagyu and lamb. Gourmet cheating never felt this good.
In Summary
1. You don’t get to be the most coveted fine-dining place for
11 years if you don’t serve excellent food. I am now a Lolo Dad’s fan given
that they haven’t done anything wrong from the appetizers to the dessert. This
is the place to be, when you want extremely good food. Four thumbs up! A word
of caution, if you are like most Filipinos who love strong-flavored dessert,
you might not get enamored with the barely-there flavor of the restaurant’s
fares.
2. The ambiance is standard for a fine-dining place, nothing
spectacular. It is perfect to impress your date and if you have lotsa moola to
spare (read: high roller na high roller)
you can binge with your friends and family. Btw, Lolo Dad’s can improve by
offering bag stools for its lady guests. I am a perfectionist so I
nit-pick. I was given a chair when
Person A requested a stool for my bag.
P.S. I am in no way claiming to be a food reviewer. I simply love good food and share my restaurant experience. I hope you
understand the amateur article. –(“,)-*wink*
