Dining Snippets: Spice and Cleaver x Dean and Deluca x Museum Café-Kabila Filipino Café

SPICE AND CLEAVER

LAMB WITH OLIVE (One Piece – P300; Two Pieces – P560)

Located in Estancia’s Lower Ground Floor, Spice and Cleaver’s dark and broody ambiance may not be as warm as its friendlier-looking neighbors, but its food is definitely one of the most comforting. Sausages are at the heart of its menu, and boy do they have an interesting curated selection for your choosing!

3 LIL’ PIGS (One Piece – P300; Two Pieces – P560)

Each order features a large piece of sausage paired with melt in your mouth mashed potatoes, and by far, the best tasting sauerkraut I’ve tasted. Compared with Poco Deli’s sausages, these sausages are denser and bigger; thus will fill you up more. One sausage plate is good enough for an entire meal already! The Lamb with Olive sausage was really tasty, and really juicy. It beats out what seemed to be the more interesting variant, the 3 Lil’ Pigs, which tempts one more as it promises a mixture of smoked bacon, diced chorizo, and bratwurst; but fails to deliver on flavor.

TRIPLE BACON MAC (P480)

However, the surprise dish of the night was the Triple Bacon Mac! Not only was it delicious, it certainly had interesting tricks up its sleeve. Its Mac and Cheese has a perfect sweet and salty combination of flavors: starting off with its layers of cheesy macaroni noodles, topped with bacon bits, dollops of sweet bacon jam, and beautifully crisp fried bacon pieces! So far, this is the only mac and cheese dish that could stand up to Lé Pétit Soufflé’s Foie Gras Mac and Cheese. This is definitely a must try!

Spice and Cleaver

LGF Estancia Mall, Capital Commons, Kapitolyo, Pasig City

Date of Visit: January 16, 2016 with Lily Chua

DEAN AND DELUCA

Dean and Deluca’s arrival was met with mixed reactions. Many faulted its service, its food quality, and its disparity with the original Dean and Deluca concept…as it came out more as a deli café, rather than an upscale grocery. However, despite its negative reviews, people still flocked to the restaurant and patiently queued up for a table.

REUBEN SANDWICH (P460)

I quite enjoyed my Reuben Sandwich. Its price tag is acceptable, since most Reuben sandwiches around cost as much. Its layers of fresh corned beef, sauerkraut, and Emmanthal cheese were fresh and neatly stacked. It’s a far cry from Mr. Delicious’ take on the Reuben, but it’s not a bad alternative. However, the actual appeal of Dean and Deluca is not in its food, but in its ‘brunch-all-day’ vibe which draws people to enjoy long conversations, and unwind after a long day or week.

Dean and Deluca

GF Edades Tower, Amorsolo Drive, Rockwell, Makati

Date of Visit: January 29, 2016 with Beverly Tantiansu, Ina Chua, and Camille Hung Chiu Ming

MUSEUM CAFÉ – KABILA FILIPINO CAFÉ

CRISPY CALAMARI (P295)

Despite working within walking distance of Museum Café for almost 3 years now, it was only this year that I was able to sample its food offerings. To make it worse, we ended up eating in the restaurant by accident since our first choice was not available. Its lighting was on the dim and romantic side, so it wasn’t as conducive to have a girls’ night out in the restaurant. Nonetheless, it had a wide range of Asian and Western favorites that made it difficult to make our selection.

4 CHEESE (P450)

The Crispy Calamari was a refreshing appetizer; each squid piece was tender and wrapped in a light and fluffy batter, reminiscent of popcorn! This is paired with a refreshingly tangy tamarind ginger dip. However, after such a delightful appetizer, it was downhill from there as our main dishes failed to excite me as much. The 4 Cheese pizza was filling but forgettable; while the Smoked Salmon + Arugula Cream Linguine lacked in salmon pieces. One thing done right though would be the pasta’s cream sauce, which bore hints of dill flavor that brought the dish to life.

SMOKED SALMON AND ARUGULA CREAM LINGUINE (P395)

Despite the lackluster main dishes, I’m not ready to write this restaurant off just yet. To be fair, we were constrained with its non-meat dishes as it was a Lenten Friday. Perhaps its meat dishes would be more satisfying…

Museum Café – Kabila Filipino Café

GF Greenbelt 4, Ayala Museum Complex, Ayala Center, Makati City

Date of Visit: February 12, 2016 with Tonet de Jesus, Jha Julaton, and Maric Sabangan