Cafe France

Cafe France

Hanging out with friends and colleagues usually doesn't end with eating dinner or lunch right?! You usually end up having a cup of coffee to continue chitchatting with them.  If you wanted to do both without the venue hopping, then this is the right place for you. Cafe France as quoted in their website, is a place for Coffee, Food, Everything French! 

The Place

I went to their branch in Salcedo, Makati because its near my workplace, its a little bit small but I think it's a lot different in the other branches.

Pay as you order

 

 It's more comfy to seat on a couch while eating and chatting but this branch is so small that it has few comfy seats available.

Before Lunchtime

This is the scenario before 12pm but then after a few minutes the place was already full, lucky for us that we were able to find seats because of the early lunch break.

The Menu

They have a lot on their menu as I've mentioned earlier, you can have your lunch or dinner then coffee and pastries after.  They offer sandwiches, pasta, salad, soup, breads plus they have rice meals to keep you loaded! I've read that they do catering as well. The food costs an average of P150-200 per head.

The Food

Premiere Clubhouse

 I ordered Premier Clubhouse but only the half serving. It comes with chips and soda and costs around P151

What's inside? ham, bacon, omelet, and lettuce. I like the thickness of the ham plus the crunchiness of the bacon

Spaghetti Carbonara

 We all ended up ordering Pasta Carbonara for our main course.  The sauce is creamy and I like that the bacon is crunchy, the pasta is firm and the bread on the side is crunchy. 

 I forgot the name of this bread its caramel something but it tastes like a Caramel Danish. I took this for dessert and I loved it. It's crunchy outside but soft inside. I could actually eat 4 of these if I wasn't full yet. It costs P27.

Grilled Ham & Cheese

The Experience

I love the food especially the bread because I love breads. I would definitely come back here for another sumptuous meal; I would like to try more of their pastries and coffee. What I don't like here is that their brochures are not updated, there are items on the menu which are no longer available.

Check out their website http://cafefrance.net/

Big Better Burgers

Big Better Burgers or BBB is one of the local burger franchise which I heard is serving only within Metro Manila. I first saw their branch at Pergola BF Homes Paranaque but I wasn't able to try it, so when it opened a branch in Waltermart Sucat recently, I didn't hesitate to give it a try.

The Place

This one is located at Waltermart Sucat Paranaque

The setup is like any other ordinary fast food chain wherein you pay as you order and wait for it to be served. 

The Menu

Their signature burger is a 1/3 lbs grilled burger patties. They have premium burgers, sandwiches, rice meals, pasta, side dishes and desserts. The food costs an average of P100-200 per person so it is affordable.

Menus are available at the counters







 The Food

Chicken Fillet Sandwich

BBB Quarter Pounder w/Cheese

  

Chicken fillet comes with lettuce and your choice of dressing which can be teriyaki sauce or tartar sauce. This one has tartar sauce.

Condiments are also available  per table such as: mustard, catsup and hot sauce.

Southern Comfort BBQ Rice

This is one of their premium rice meal which is like a sizzling burger steak with bacon on top. It has a barbecue sauce which can be spicy if you want.

Premium Teriyaki Rice

This one is similar to the other rice meal but it is topped with mushrooms and has teriyaki sauce. 

If you could notice the burger bun is like a pandesal which is good but honestly their fries is so far, the worst fries I've ever tried! It took more than 15mins  for my order to be served so I was expecting it to be freshly made, but I was disappointed because it tasted like it was fried few hours ago it's neither crunchy nor hot. 

The Service

Honestly,  I was disappointed with the service with this branch because it took some time for our orders to arrive, and I have to personally asked the food servers for a follow up on my order after seeing all the other customers behind me being served ahead.  I was also disappointed with the fries as I've mentioned above.

The Overall Experience

I must say it's a 3 out of 5. The burger patty is delicious and juicy; the fries sucks big time; the service is slow; the place in this branch is so small that usually customers would rather have their food taken out because of limited seats available; moreover, the ventilation is poor and everytime the door opens you can feel that it's colder outside.

I don't think I'll be a patron of this branch, but who knows, maybe it's a lot different on the other branches. I think it needs a lot of improvement since this branch is just newly opened.

You can check out their facebook page to see more info https://www.facebook.com/pages/Big-Better-Burgers/34135258477               

Me and my bro

BBB Quarter Pounder Meal comes with fries and iced tea. The burger has mayo, tomato and lettuce and there's an extra charge if you want to have cheese on it.


The burger patty is quite juicy and thicker than the average burger patties served in a franchise. 

La Piadina in PH

La Piadina sounds very Italian, well it is! When I saw their branch at Solaris One-Legazpi Village in Makati I wonder what Piadina is, all I know is I love pizza and pasta, so I decided to give it a shot. From the looks of it you might say its quite expensive to dine there than any other pizza parlor because most of their patrons are the corporate people, of course, given the fact that it's located in a business district. Here are the shots of their branch in Legaspi: 

A very relaxed and comfy setup

Lunch time

According to the video shown, the restaurant is founded by Chef Paolo Colonello who is based in Milan.

Patrons

Seats are also available outside the restaurant which are suitable for smokers.

The Menu

 I took shots of their menu to give you an idea of how much it would cost you to dine here.

Hard to read menu

Their menu obviously is hard to read because I'm not from Milan. You know what they say, the harder it is to read the menu, the more expensive the food is :-)

Pag hindi mo mabasa ang menu sosyal ang pagkain? korek?!

The Food

As you can see on the menu I can't order that much because I might end up washing the dishes and we are just having lunch folks it's not like a last supper meal. 

I ended up ordering Pasta Scampi which is a long pasta in a spicy tomato sauce topped with shrimps which costs P290

Pasta Scampi

I like the taste of it, the tomato sauce is not too sour and it's a little bit spicy. The combination of the cheese and the tomato sauce is just right, which makes it tastier than the other pasta served in a regular pizza parlor. The toast on the other hand, is perfectly crunchy and there's no garlic flavor added to it.

Piadina with Creamy Soup

Piadina is basically a stuffed Italian flat bread. La Piadina offers a variety to choose from, the one that we ordered has Italian sausage, tomatoes and other spices plus the pesto sauce.

The creamy sauce on the side is similar to Filipino sopas but with no noodles on it and a lot thicker and creamier. It has a unique taste of herbs and spices. This costs P210.

Pasta Italspagna

 

This one looks like my order but apparently its not. This one may have the same sauce as Pasta Scampi but with Italian sausage and chorizo on it. This costs P280.

The Experience

It's nice to try something new once in a while, especially if budget is not a constraint for you. Dining here may costs P300-500 per person and the food is ideal for single serving only. The food is quite expensive than the usual pizza franchise because it is more of Italian than American. La Piadina offers an ultimate Italian taste which I think will be most enjoyed by the middle age group,mostly, the corporate peeps.

The total experience is good; the food, the place and the service. For an average person like me I might occasionally eat here, meaning it's a payday special treat for me. =)

 

I tried to find their website but I can't seem to find an official one, only reviews, blogs and articles but you might want to check this out http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?publicationSubCategoryId=81&articleId=803026 for their other branches and contact nos.

Mango Bravo

Love desserts? if you do, you should have heard of MANGO BRAVO and if you haven't let me introduce you to this overwhelming sweet treat. 

Conti's Pastry Shop & Restaurant is best associated with this fabulous dessert MANGO BRAVO. I think neither of the popular cafes in the Philippines have this, nor will dare to add this on their menus.

 MANGO BRAVO is a layered cake of wafer, cream, and fresh mangoes with thick whip cream as its coating and a bit of chocolate drizzle.It's ideal to eat this while it's still frozen and not watery because if not you're like eating a melted ice cream. not good right?

I am not a fan of whip cream but thank goodness that there are chunks of mangoes not only on top but also on layers along with the wafer. MANGO BRAVO for me is not too sweet but too creamy that I had to scrape off some parts of the coating. If you'll be eating this for the first time I bet one slice is not enough but generally I think a slice is perfectly enough to satisfy your cravings.

Aside from the famous MANGO BRAVO, Conti's has a variety of menu to choose from whether it's breakfast, lunch or dinner. Here are some of what they offer in their menu:

Russian Potato Salad

 Crispy Squidlets

Chicken Lollies

Salmon Salpicao 

Palabok

Lasagna

Barbecued Spareribs 

Molten Chocolate Cake - is hot  chocolate cake filled with chocolate cream with vanilla ice cream on top. A mixed taste of hot and cold dessert.

The restaurant ambiance

So the next time you crave for desserts go out and try  the MANGO BRAVO. Happy eating!

Check them on http://www.contis.ph/ for their branches, menus and prices.