The Sweet Spot (Maginhawa Street)

Beloved and I had dinner at The Sweet Spot a couple of weeks ago. This place is one of the first to lease a newly-opened building near the corner where the police station of UP Teacher's village was. I've passed by this place a couple of times before, and noticed that they didn't really offer only sweet stuff, as anyone sane would assume from the name of the place. In fact, I thought one of their items was interesting. Anyway, because we were feeling adventurous, Beloved and I went.

Their menu was quite small, and we learn that this was more of a bistro or cafe than a full-fledged restaurant. Their dishes have a nice ring to their names and they have a wide array of coffee- or tea-based drinks. I ordered their Honey and Whiskey Glazed Pork Belly (285 Php). Beloved got the menu item that I thought was interesting—their Asahi Fish and Wasabi Chips (220 Php). We also ordered their Truffled Cream of Mushroom Soup (90 Php). For our drinks, I settled for their Matcha Green Tea Mint (190 Php) and Beloved asked for their Iced Mocha (120 Php). Note that we didn't get our receipt until later.

Afters (Tomas Morato)

After trying out Manang's Chicken, Beloved and I found ourselves at the coffee shop right next to it called Afters. Beloved claims she's been wanting to go to this place but never had the chance to. I, on the other hand, have never heard of this place until last Saturday. Since I wasn't really filled and didn't want to fill the rest of my belly space with sweet potato chips, and since Beloved wanted her vice drinks, we decided to pass by.

We were somewhat lucky that they offer a promo that day on this month since it was their anniversary. Every weekends, they offered a free scoop of gelato, one of their specialties aside from coffee, which is a ~90 Php value for every 200 Php purchase. Since the drinks cost almost as much as the usual coffee shop prices for their larger offerings, the goal was simple to reach. Beloved ordered their Iced Cafe Mocha (145 Php) and made me order their Green Tea Latte (119 Php). For the freebie, we chose a flavor we both like, Vanilla Gelato.

Starr's Famous Shakes (Esteban Abada, near Katipunan)

After our dinner at Brickfire, Beloved somehow convinced me to try out Starr's Famous Shakes just a floor below on the same building just at the side. Obviously, they serve shakes. Although they tagged themselves "famous", this was actually the first time I've heard of them. Anyway, since I was in a good mood (and still hungry), we passed by.

Their menu is basically filled with shakes—milkshakes, to be exact. I thought this was a breath of fresh air from all the "healthy" milk-and-slash-or-tea places popping up all over the place. However, they do offer healthier options with yogurt milkshakes and smoothies which can be substituted with most of their menu. Instead of the healthy add-ons that milktea places offer, such as tapioca pearls and jelly, they offer similarly sweet and-slash-or nutty toppings and mix-ins.

Anyway, Beloved ordered their White Choco Vanilla Bean sugar-free milkshake (95 Php), which I was eying on, and I settled for their Vanilla Crisp Milkshake (95 Php),  which was on the special menu and basically just their Vanilla milkshake with toppings added. However, since this was just +15 Php to the regular milkshake, and a single topping costs 20 Php, I though it was a fair promo. Since I was still hungry, we also ordered their Belgian Fries (55 Php).

Fancy Crepes (Matalino Street, near Kalayaan)

Today, me and my blockmates Hannah and Ivy decided to hang out for a bit after our review class. We were supposed to go Cha Dao at Matalino street to get our milktea fix but after seeing that the said tea place is full, we decided to hang out at Fancy Crepes instead which is just a few blocks away. From its name, we thought the interiors were "fancy" but actually it has a sort of eclectic x country style x garden-inspired feel to it. We love it! So for this entry I decided to include pictures of the interiors as requested by my lovely and pretty friends.

As for the menu, they only have crepes, cakes and drinks but they serve pasta on Sundays. I ordered an Iced White Mocha (90php) and the I love NY crepe (105php). Hannah ordered their Bananutella crepe (175php). Ivy got their Sweethearts crepe (105php). They will also ask for your names because they will write it on your crepe. I asked the cashier to write Hannah's nickname on hers. As for Ivy's, she rejected my suggestion of using her new nickname.

Saint's Alp Teahouse (Regis Center, Katipunan)

Beloved and I had breakfast at Saint's Alp Teahouse a couple of nights ago. Yes, you read that right—we woke up near dinnertime and had our first meal at Beloved's new favorite street. Found at the same building of BonChon Chicken and Moshi Moshi, this food place is the only one we've yet to try in Regis Center.

Being a Teahouse, you can expect this to be one of two things: a Chinese restaurant or a following-the-fad drink-specializing food place. This falls to the latter. Three-quarters of their menu is filled with soft drinks that isn't soda or juice. They have varieties of teas, coffees, milkshakes, yogurts, et cetera. They do have a small portion of rice meals, half of which are breakfast meals, and a bit larger selection of snacks. Adding these two, though, is still dwarfed by their selection of drinks.

Anyway, since it's their specialty, Beloved got their Matcha Aulait with Matcha Agar (140 Php) and I got their Strawberry Milkshake (125 Php). Because, as I've mentioned, this was our breakfast, I also ordered their Beef Tapa (195 Php) and Beloved got their Honey Glazed Coffee Spare Ribs (195 Php). Finally, we got their Chicken Skin Chips (90 Php) just because.

Caffe Dolce (Banawe)

I love to drink (but not the alcoholic kind!). I love going to milk tea places, coffee shops and cafes so its no wonder that when I discovered a new cafe at Banawe: Caffe Dolce, I asked my friends to meet up there after work. One thing unique about this one is that this is a vegetarian cafe.

I was the first one to arrive since it only took a few minutes to go to Banawe from work. I found out that its located on the second floor of Hong Kong Cafe (which sadly closed down). When I got to the second floor I was very impressed with the interior design of Caffe Dolce. Ghost chairs paired with white table tops for the dining area, red velvet accent chairs for lounge, and wicker furniture for the verandah part decorated with floral arrangements, chandeliers, a floral accent wall, and a water feature. Very shabby chic-x-modern style. But I didn't just went here to praise the interior, so I ordered their Iced Caffe Mocha (135php) and Steak Panini with Salad (199php) since I would be expecting Hannah in an hour or so.

Mary Grace (Trinoma)

A couple of days ago, Beloved and I finally ate at Mary Grace. I say "finally" because this quaint little cafe is located in a mall we frequent at a place we always pass by when we get in or go home. The reasons why we never got to eat here until that day were, one: we only get to pass here when we go to the place where we meet or when we're done with our business in this mall and go home, and two: when we do pass by here when hungry, the place is always full. Actually, the latter was also true when we went in. Luckily, a table just got cleared, so we took the opportunity to find out just why this place is always packed.

We had little idea what kind of food this cafe had, seeing the tables outside usually have pastas and greens. When we got to see the menu, we find out that their food basically consists of that, and sandwiches and other usual cafe food fare. As for the cost, well, it's pretty cafe-esque, comparable to food at your popular coffee places such as Starbucks (yes, they do serve food). Dominant in their menu is their pasta, so Beloved chose one that she fancies from what it's called and perhaps its description—their Leek and Saffron Cream with Fillet of Dory (230 Php). As for me, I picked one of their small selection of sandwiches—the Fili Beef and Tomatoes (205 Php). We also ordered one of their more curious salads—the Fried Kesong Puti and Calamansi Vinaigrette (199 Php). Finally, well, I guess last two, we got a pitcher of their Sangria Iced Tea (224 Php) and one of their Mary Grace Cheese Roll (42 Php), just to try it out.

Kitchen of Cakes and Coffee (SM North EDSA)

After dinner at La Mesa Grill, me and Inggo looked for a place to hang out at Sky Garden since we didn't want to go home yet. We ended up at Kitchen of Cakes and Coffee which is just a few steps away from La Mesa Grill. It's a small coffee shop that specializes in cakes and coffee, obviously. What made me choose this store from all the shops in Sky Garden is that they serve Alamid Coffee, which is the Tagalog version of Kopi Luwak or Civet Coffee. I didn't order that one because it costs (185php) a cup and didn't have the budget.

Instead, I ordered a slice of Crème brûlée for 60php, Iced Thai Milk Tea (80php) for me and Iced Green Milk Tea (80php) for Inggo.

Seattle's Best Coffee (Trinoma)

Today, I bought my copy of Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty in Trinoma. But that's not what this post is about. After going there, we had coffee at Seattle's Best Coffee. Because I spent almost all my money on the said game, we decided to just have one last nomnom adventure for the month for the heck of it. So, I guess because of Starcraft II, this will probably be the last post for the month, and maybe the last post for quite a while.

Anyway, Seattle's Best Coffee is known for—you guessed it—its coffee. This is beloved's favorite coffee shop, and this is often compared or at least considered an alternative to the more popular Starbucks. Beloved is a coffee aficionado unlike me, and I can't really tell any major difference on the taste, quality, and texture of the coffee of most coffee shops—even their prices are similar. Beloved says that SBC's mocha is smoother, which is why she prefers it here. Personally, I prefer Starbucks for a different reason. We ordered our usuals: a Large Mocha (135 Php) for beloved and a Large White Chocolate Mocha (150 Php) for me, both hot. We also ordered their Belgian Honey Waffle (75 Php) because I haven't had anything to eat yet.

Bubble Tea (Tomas Morato)

Last night, beloved and I ate at Bubble Tea. If you've read my last review on this resto, you'll know that we're pretty much regulars. However, the Bubble Tea we visited was the newly-opened one at Tomas Morato. It's been a while since our last visit to this chain, so why not?

Unlike the serving style at SM North EDSA, this Bubble Tea had waitresses getting your order and you pay your bill after eating, pretty much like your conventional restaurant. They also have a slightly different menu with better pictures and more choices. Of course, I'm not sure if the SM North branch we frequent has also changed their style and menu. A particular change we saw was that they started serving a generous selection of maki. We were pretty hungry, so we tried one out and ordered their Texas Roll (245 Php). Beloved ordered Beef Stew Curry (276 Php) for herself. I was also craving for curry after having a manga-marathon of Addicted to Curry, so I ordered their Pork Katsudon Curry (195 Php). There's no change in their bubble-drink menu, so we ordered our usuals: Royal Milk Tea for beloved and Japanese Green Milk Tea for me both priced at 125 Php for large servings.

Kozui Green Tea - Revisited (Tomas Morato)

Before I start, I'll apologize since my previous post was long as it is. I do hope you read it though. To compensate, and since this was a pretty short stay anyway, this one will be short.

As I've mentioned in my previous post, we went to Kozui Green Tea while waiting for our turn in YakiMIX. We've been here before, so I'll let you read about that. The primary objective was to kill time, but since we didn't want to be rude and stay here without ordering anything, we tried out their takoyaki which seemed popular from our last time here.

Serenitea (Banawe)

A couple of days ago, beloved and I went to Serenitea. Beloved has been wanting to go here ever since she heard of it since she learned from a friend that they serve milk tea and she being an aficionado of the said drink. The store was located at one of the junction roads from the McDonald's side of Banawe Street. Anyway, the opportunity to pass by here came a couple of days ago. It was a hidden store amongst car maintenance services, but the green sign somewhat makes it stand out from the crowd.

Inside was a pleasant atmosphere (free Wifi, yay!) and half a wall filled with different choices of tea. They had the usual green, black, but most of their menu were uncommon stuff such as uncommon fruits, unknown Japanese additives, Chinese ingredients, and Yakult, mixed with these usuals. Being a big fan of Yakult, I decided to order their Yakult Green Tea (90 Php) out of curiosity. Their drinks came with a free topping of your choice: pearls and lime jelly among others; I added lime jelly to mine. In addition, you get to choose the amount of sugar mixed with your tea: from 100%, apparently the sweetest, to 0%, obviously the healthiest. I went 50%. Beloved, aside from being a huge tea fan, is also a huge wintermelon fan that she was hugely disappointed when Bubble Tea took it out of their menu. There were three choices for her wintermelon craving, and she decided to go for their Wintermelon Sweet (70 Php), my guess would probably be a 100% sugarized black tea mixed with wintermelon. They didn't have much choices from their foodstuffs, so we just went for a couple of orders of their Fish and Fries (95 Php) because we were hungry.

Kozui Green Tea (Tomas Morato)

For lunch today, beloved and I went to Kozui Green Tea. We planned to go to the newly-opened Bubble Tea at Tomas Morato, but we soon found out that they were still on a dry run. Since we didn't want to risk anything, in particular not being able to get the 1Php-for-every-50Php-rebate we invested on, we decided to walk towards Omakase and go to a place we somehow fancy on the way. Kozui happened to be one of those places, featuring healthy green tea infused drinks and foodstuffs.

We had no idea what to order except for beloved's main course which she saw on their banners outside that featured Hiyashi Chuka (158 Php), which is basically similar to the cold udon noodles she orders most of the time except the noodles are made of thinner wheat ones, like a ramen. I saw cold soba in their menu, which they labeled Green Tea Cold Soba (158 Php), and I went for that. For our drinks we went for the cashier's recommendations—Genmaicha Lemon Green Teaz (90 Php) for me and Pom Tea (100 Php) for beloved, both Grande-sized.

Bubble Tea (SM North EDSA)

Yesterday, beloved and I went to Bubble Tea at SM North EDSA. We are a somewhat frequent customer since we find their food to be a great value for their quantity and quality—heck, we even availed of their LoyalTea card which gives a 1 Php rebate for every 50 Php purchase.

Although Bubble Tea specializes in their iced milk tea with tapioca pearls, we go here for their non-beverage menu. Our favorites happen to be their ramen, udon, and sushi/sashimi, so we ordered them. We ordered Special Beef Ramen (155 Php) for myself, Seafood Miso Udon (170 Php) for beloved, and their Mixed Sushi (140 Php) for us to share. For our drinks, we ordered Japanese Green Milk Tea (85 Php) for me and Royal Milk Tea (80 Php) for beloved. At more or less 300 Php each, you must wonder why I find this store great value, but trust me for now.

Jack's Loft (Trinoma)

Jack's Loft has been a semi-favorite hangout of beloved and me when we have a bit of money to burn and feel like drinking a lot of iced tea ever since we tried its incarnation on Trinoma. Yesterday, we ate there after a few months of not going. Although this bistro specializes in desserts and alcohol, we love their sharable sandwiches and special iced tea. We also like its location in the mall, which is at the alfresco area on the fourth floor near our tambayan arcade with the cool wind rushing in from the west balcony.

They had new stuff in their menu, and, among them, a new kind of sandwich. They're called presatta, which I imagined to be similar to their grill-pressed panini. I loved the texture of their panini, so we decided to try it out. We ordered their Wasabi Beef Melt (182 Php) and the usual Fishbowl Iced Tea (112 Php).

Tokyo Cafe (SM North EDSA)

Last night, me and beloved went to Tokyo Cafe. We have always wanted to go here ever since its incarnation when The Block opened. But when we see the price tag on their posters outside, we get turned off and eat elsewhere. However, the posters look extremely appetizing, and finally, we got our chance to taste them.

The first problem I had with the cafe are their choices. Aside from their pastas, since I'm not much of a pasta eater, I practically want to try out every item on their menu. Even their pastas look appetizing. I was torn between ordering a pizza or their burger, but I finally decided to order their Hamburg and Shrimp plate (268 Php). Beloved also had a hard time choosing, and she settled for their Fish Burger (180 Php). We decide to share our orders, since we want to try them out. Our drinks were an iced coffee called Tokyo Ice (84 Php) for beloved and Vanilla Milk (125 Php) which is basically vanilla milkshake for me. We also ordered their Azuki Parfait (118 Php) to follow.