Category: Lifestyle

When my friends told me that we would be eating at Casa Roces, I was excited.  I never heard of Casa Roces and I knew it would be a great opportunity to try it out.  I’m excited to share another foodie experience with you, my friends!

I tried searching Google for Casa Roces and found out that it was located across the road from Malacanang Palace.  I rarely dine in Manila so that really got my attention.  I got even more excited as I browse through the different blogs that featured Casa Roces.  It seemed that Casa Roces serves Filipino and Spanish cuisine.

The place used to be a house but it was transformed into a full-service restaurant and cafe.  Good thing the owners decided to do this as we now have a good place to hang out and eat at Manila.

Casa Roces is great for family gatherings, barkada meet ups and even for dates!  The ambiance is just too cool.  It seemed that even though the house was transformed into a restaurant, the architect kept the structure.  They enhanced the look of the place but didn’t totally change it.

The ground floor serves as a coffee shop called Kape Chino.  It was there that we had dinner.  I wasn’t able to tour around but apparently, there was an outdoor wooden deck and an accessories shop.  Casa Roces also has a bistro, an art gallery and private rooms upstairs.  I wish I had asked the waiters for more information as I didn’t know all those things when we dined there.  Anyhow, I was there for my friends and I had a great time chatting with them while eating yummy food served at Kape Chino.

• Sopa Molo Castiliana (Php 185)

I’m honestly not a big fan of molo soup so I was a bit wary when our friend ordered us one bowl each.  With several other kinds of soup on the menu, I wondered why we all had to have the same thing. But once I got a taste of Casa Roces’ molo soup, I knew exactly why!  This garlic soup with pork dumplings, poached egg and parsley was perfect!  It was flavorful to say the least.  Hayyy, the first dish I tasted at Casa Roces was a success.  I’m quite sure this meal would be a nice one!

• Crispy Lengua Caesar Salad (Php 145)

This must be one of the best Caesar salads I have ever tasted!  Putting deep fried ox tongue in this dish made it that much more satisfying.  Some may not like the idea of ox tongue but I don’t care, for me it tasted delicious and that’s all that matters.

• Paella

We ordered paella because we weren’t aware that two of the dishes we ordered actually have rice hahaha!  We even ordered two paellas.  Nevertheless, it was delicious so no regrets there.

• Ox Tail Kare-Kare (Php 240)

An old time Filipino favorite, ox tail Kare-kare is another dish that no one should miss in Casa Roces/Kape Chino.  It’s braised ox tail in peanut sauce with vegetables and shrimp paste (bagoong) on the side.  I don’t usually like kare-kare but I enjoyed it mainly because the combination of bagoong and ox tail was good.

• Pinakbet with Vigan Bagnet (Php 195)

I noticed that Kape Chino likes to put crunchy pork on top of their dishes.  I guess it worked.  Well, I raved about the fried ox tongue in the caesar salad earlier, right?  Well, this time around, Kape Chino included crunchy pork in their pinakbet dish.

• Visayan Chicken Inasal (Php 245)

Casa Roces’ Visayan Chicken Inasal is basically a quarter chicken that was grilled in lemongrass sauce.  Annatto oil, an ingredient that was made from annatto seeds and several oils were added to bring out the color in the chicken inasal.  I guess this was needed to make the dish look more appealing.

• Grilled Pork Ribs (Php 235)

I wished we could have ordered fish because I was having meat overload!  Hahaha!  Even our salad had pork!  Anyway, I think I just took a small bite of this marinated pork belly.  If you and your friends opt to order individually, then this is a good option as the dish comes with one cup of plain rice.

• Salabat Soda (Php 100)

I enjoyed drinking this lemon lime soda asI found the ice cubes too cute!  The ice cubes were actually made of ginger!  Drinking the salabat soda made me feel like I had been transported back to when I was a kid.  I was too giddy and I kept playing with the ice cubes! hahaha!

• Crepe Suzette ala Mode (Php 265)

We were already full from our main courses but I requested my friends if we could just share a dessert or two.  I really want to share as much information to you through my blog.  So I didn’t mind eating more.  Besides, I was curious if Casa Roces serves good desserts.  The first dessert that was served was Crepe Suzette ala Mode.  It’s basically an orange-flavored crepe served with Vanilla Ice cream.

• Malacanang Frozen Souffle (Php 380)

The ultimate finale for my first visit to Kape Chino/Casa Roces was this dessert.  When I got to taste it, all I could say was, “delicious!”.  It was more than delicious because this well-loved dessert in Kape Chino had all the right ingredients in a successful dessert.  It had texture, good taste, the right amount of sweetness, it was crunchy, soft and creamy.  Most of all, it had that element of surprise.

Here’s the description from the menu for your reference: frozen lemon custard soufflé with chocolate flakes, pistachio nuts, and lemon lavender sauce.

Dinner at Casa Roces was very pleasant.  It felt like home because of the beautiful & unique ambiance and dishes that brought delight.  I actually thought that it would cost much.  Surprisingly, the prices of the food are reasonable.  Don’t forget to take pictures when you’re there.  The beautiful surroundings are not something you would want to miss having a remembrance of.

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Casa Roces
#1153 JP Laurel St. Cor Aguado St., 1005 San Miguel, Philippines
(02) 735-5896

One time, I was really starving and was craving to eat something new.  I remembered that there was a new restaurant in Banawe, Quezon City.  I thought then why not try it?  In spite of there being a lot of Chinese restaurants in Banawe, Cifu Asian Cooking might have something unique to offer dining customers.

I asked two of my friends to accompany me and we had a delightful dinner.  Everything that we ordered that night was yummy!  I seriously couldn’t get over it so I went back to the restaurant that same weekend, this time for lunch.

During our first visit to Cifu Asian Cooking, we had dimsum as Cifu has a promo every 2-5PM and 9PM to 12MN wherein we get dimsum at 30% off!  We also tried their Pad Thai as there was a big banner outside the restaurant encouraging guests to try the dish.  For drinks, we had milk tea (my favorite drink!).

On the other hand, I had a heavy meal at Cifu on my second visit.  I tried their bestsellers.  Gee, just writing this entry makes me hungry! hahaha!

Without further ado, here are the dishes that I was able to try out during my 2 visits to Cifu Asian Cooking in Banawe:

• Flavored Milk Teas (Php 75)

Cifu calls their milk tea selections as fancy milk tea.  I do agree their milk teas are fancy.  Where have you heard of milk teas that have flavors such as Double Chocolate and Almond?  If you want to add either nata, sago, black gulaman and almond jelly into the drink, just add Php 10.

I ordered Almond milk tea.  I must say it was too sweet for my taste.  But boy, was I surprised when I saw the glass.  I could actually see the almond jelly with its juice at the bottom of the drink!  I knew right then that the drink was freshly prepared.

If you want plain milk tea, Cifu has it too.  Price is at Php 60.

• Iced Lemon Tea/Iced Lemonade (Php 75)

Fresh lemonade and brewed iced tea, always a winner in my book.

• Fried Cu Chai Dumpling (Php 68)

I usually order pork dumplings.  However, I really want to lose weight so I opted for cu chai dumplings.  Cifu gave us an option to choose either steamed or fried.  I tried out fried dumplings for a change.  Wow!  It was oh soooooooooooooooooo delicious!!!  A must order!  Trust me 🙂

• Shrimp and Pork Siomai (Php 68)

Who would ever forget to order our all-time favorite dim sum?  Cifu’s shrimp and pork siomai definitely didn’t disappoint.  Oh boy, I’ll make sure I’ll go back to Cifu for this!

• Fried Fish Fillet with Spicy Salt & Peppers (Php 260)

This fried fish fillet with spicy salt & peppers dish by Cifu is made of pure perfection.  It looked savory and tasted so good.  I was eating this non-stop and didn’t hesitate to finish the dish! Hahaha!  I had to apologize to my friends because I think they were only able to taste this dish as I finished it unconsciously coz the dish was just too good not to finish. 😛

• Pad Thai Goong (Php 190)

While I enjoyed the dishes I tried out at Cifu, this Pad Thai Goong was just ordinary.  It was good but not something I would want to order over and over.  They had generous serving though.  Good for people who are ready to eat a big amount of food!

• Minced Beef Fried Rice (Php 190)

My friend said that Cifu’s minced beef fried rice tasted like chao fan.  Well, of course it was!  It was fried, wasn’t it? haha!  Kidding aside, I love that in spite of having too many ingredients in this dish, it didn’t taste weird.  You see, I tasted fried rice before that had too much stuff in it and I wasn’t able to appreciate it.  Good thing, Cifu did this well.  In fact, the minced beef fried rice is their specialty under the rice menu.

• Braised Beancurd w/ Roast Pork Asado Pot (Php 220)

We ordered a lot of fried food so we tried out this hotpot dish.  The asado and bean curd combination was good.  I loved that the sauce was overflowing.  You see, in hotpot dishes like this, I like to dip the main ingredient in the sauce.  A very nice balance to our meal.

• Singapore Cereal Prawns (Php 380)

There are only few restaurants in the metro that serves cereal prawns.  I rarely get satisfied as I’ve tasted the best from a restaurant that has already closed down.  Cifu made a great version of it but it wasn’t something that I would rave about.  I like that they put a lot of cereals there.  It’s really the cereal that makes this dish lovable.

I realized that restaurants are getting more innovative.  Cifu Asian Cooking is definitely one of them.  They knew that competition is stiff especially on a street full of Chinese restaurants.  They have to offer something unique.  I love that they made a twist to our usual Chinese dishes.  I still can’t get over the fish fillet with spicy salt & peppers!  Ang sarap! 😀

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Cifu Asian Cooking
862 Linao Street cor Banawe Street, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 741-2217