Fulfill your dessert fantasies at The Lost Bread

My kids and I first went to The Lost Bread in 2015 when it started business as a stall at Streat food park on Maginhawa St. in Quezon City. It only offered desserts then (if my memory serves me right) -- those spectacular, IG-worthy milkshakes and soft-serve ice cream that were both beautiful and delicious. Now, just a few years later, The Lost Bread has 10 branches already and has more items in its menu. 
They now offer pasta, burgers and rice meals.

Recently, my two kids and I were at their SM Megamall store, where I got them dessert after having lunch at the nearby DC Super Heroes Cafe. 
Our orders:

White Chocolate Caramel Sub-Zero Soft-Serve Cup, P145.

There's caramel popcorn with "injectible" white chocolate syrup. If you ask 

for my opinion, it's a diabetic person's nightmare. Hahaha!

S'mores Sub-Zero Soft Serve Cup, P145.
This was the less-guilt dessert for me. There's graham crackers and a piece of marshmallow. Surprisingly, the soft-serve ice cream wasn't as sweet as I expected. I enjoyed a few spoonfuls of this then off I went for a cup of brewed coffee someplace.

Menu

The counter

Flavors to pick

Choose your toppings

The Lost Bread at the Fourth Floor, Mega Fashion Hall, SM Megamall, 
Ortigas, Mandaluyong City

Go to The Lost Bread, guys, and feed both your tummy and Instagram page. It's where food and drinks are good taste-wise and aesthetics-wise, with reasonable prices, to beat. There's quite a lot of branches now so find one near you. 

Happy eating!

The Dessert Kitchen at Robinsons Place Manila

The Dessert Kitchen at Robinsons Place Ermita had been attracting my attention for so long. It's a franchise from Hongkong and as its name suggests, it offers mainly sweet, cold and yummy things that are a feast for both the eyes and the palate. I'd tried to avoid it, though, as I watch my sugar intake. But recently, I saw in its menu that it now offers more hot dishes than when it first opened over two years ago, 
I think, so I set foot, finally, at The Dessert Kitchen. 
I was there for lunch and ordered:

Porkchop Curry Rice, P168.

I liked this so much even though im not at all fond of curry dishes.

The pork is katsu-style, it's battered and fried, put on top of steamed white rice then poured over with delicious curry sauce with some vegetables. All the right flavors were present, no taste went overboard, not even the one of curry, thankfully. 
This dish is crave-worthy!

Jasmine Milk Tea with Charcoal Sea Salt and Cheese, P148. (Large)

I asked that no sugar be mixed in so the taste of Jasmine tea 
was really strong and it was very aromatic. I loved the fragrance, and of course, the sublime flavor from the tea itself, the cream cheese and sea salt, coupled with the health factor. Activated charcoal, afterall, is an internal cleanser and I like having it in my food or drink every once in a while. I just discovered an addicting milktea flavor!

And what do you know, I was back at The Dessert Kitchen soon afterwards as I had other food to order in my mind. Laksa haunted me in my dreams and I just had to have it! I had my daughter with me on this second visit and 
her eyes were on the chicken wings.

Our lunch:

Laksa Noodle Soup, P228.

The broth was really good - a bit thick, creamy and not too spicy. There's flat noodles, enough to fill you up, too. I wished though that there was real seafood instead of fishballs and faux crab meat. There wasn't  even a single, tiny prawn and that was quite sad. Also, I hoped to be given real spoon instead of plastic 'coz the latter isn't ideal to use for hot food as they leak chemicals. 

House Special Wings with Ginger, P148.

I had no idea what this tasted like but my daughter liked it. I let her finish everything and I didn't take a bite because the girl was famished! I ordered rice (P65/cup) for her too 'coz the wings don't come with grains.

Crispy Snow Buns, P58./piece

Now these were really good. There wasn't a lot of filling but it was delicious - savory with a hint of sweetness. The bun, instead of being soft and fluffy, was crusty, flaky and a bit crunchy on the bottom so it was fun and not at all boring to eat. Yummy!

Taste of Uji, P188.
Yaay! I had someone to share dessert with, for which I was happy 'coz I could only eat a little and leave most of the sweet thing to whoever I'm with. This is vanilla ice cream covered with matcha powder. There's some red beans, too. I'm not sure what those green squares are but they're like jellies although they are more firm. Overall, we enjoyed this dessert as it's not too sweet. I planned to have just a little of it 
but ended up eating a lot. Haha!

Menu

Thumbs up for The Dessert Kitchen as it offers food not usually found in other restaurants and because it has my favorite drink (aside from coffee) which is milktea. There's a lot of milktea places, I know, but they only offer "light" food like pastries and "pica-pica" such as squid balls. No rice meals like what Dessert Kitchen offers, albeit limited. But I wish it would have a bigger, enclosed space at Robinsons Place because it now only occupies a tiny spot at the corridor near the activity center. Also, I hope they would expand the menu and ditch those plastic cutlery for the better health of their customers and to help save the environment.

Maginhawa St. Gastronomic Walk #15: Up in the Clouds

I hadn't gone to my top favorite street, Maginhawa, in Quezon City in a long while so I was happy to be back last month to try one of the newbies there, 
Up in the Clouds Ice Cream & Milk Bar. It's a place that specializes in desserts, particularly ice cream, but there are also rice meals and a pasta dish on the menu. I was with one of my closest buddies and we were there for lunch. 
This place, which opened sometime in mid-2017, is a real cutie! With its airy, bright and cheery interiors, it is very much IG-worthy! One more thing I liked was they offer healthy food options. There's fish on the menu as well as brown rice 
and even fatless tocino! Also, I was fascinated by the black drink 
and food! Taste-wise, everything we've had was good, 
with prices that won't break the bank to boot. 
Our orders: 

Buttermilk Fried Chicken, P245.
Just by looking, I think you would agree with me that the chicken skin is a bit 
over-fried. The flesh however, was done right. I could taste the creaminess from 
the buttermilk and overall, the fried chicken was good. It was the rice which had herbs, that I loved more, tho. I savored the layer of different flavors ranging from 
the zest and tang of the herbed rice to the creaminess with a hint of sweetness 
of the buttermilk chicken. There's truffled maple syrup for drizzling over the 
chicken, yes, but because I wanted to avoid a rise in my glucose levels, I opted 
to have nothing to do with it.

Tinapa Omelette, P165.
This was my friend's order but I had a taste of the omelette and really liked it. 
I love tinapa, it's my favorite breakfast to go with garlic fried rice. Here at 
Up in the Clouds, they make perfect omelette out of smoked fish, I found out 
when I tried this. It was really flavorful and the egg wasn't dry but fluffy the 
way I like it. Too bad this wasn't my order. Hahaha!

Black Lemonade, P90.
My buddy's drink. Do not fear it's dark-as-night color. It has the usual taste of lemonade. 
The blackness comes from activated charcoal, which 
doesn't alter the taste of food and drinks.

Thai Iced Coffee, P90.
This made me a only little happy because I was looking for much stronger 
coffee and it fell short of my expectation. But Up in the Clouds is really 
a dessert place and not a cafe so that's alrighty.

Anyway, I came back to this place last Saturday and I had:

Black Fish and Chips, P190.
The fries, to start with, was really good! The strips of potato were crunchy, some more than the others. However, I chose to eat just three yummy pieces in order to avoid too much oil (and cholesterol), and decided to order brown rice to pair up with the fish. Oh, it was a lovely meal! The fish was delicious, not salty but rightly spiced and really tender. I didn't mind the black batter..well, just a little. Tee-hee. By the way I chose Wasabi Aoili as my dip and it was really hot! I should have asked for Sriracha Aoili instead. There's also Honey Mustard Dip 
but I didn't like my dip sweet.

Brown rice, P40.
The server asked me if I wanted my brown rice fried and I said yes but with just a little oil. When she served it, she happily told me only a few drops of oil were used in my fried rice, 
exactly the way I wanted.

Menu

In and around Up in the Clouds

Perfect spot for your Instagram selfie. Look at those upside-down
 ice cream lights and cloud-shaped chair!

Up in the Clouds Ice Cream & Milk Bar is at 
#99 Maginhawa St., Diliman, Quezon City


Visit Up in the Clouds for some feel-good moments with your beshies, folks. It's the perfect spot whether you're in for a full meal or just for dessert or a light, sweet snack. Aside from good food, service is friendly and fast and prices are affordable. 
Happy eating!

Vanilla Cupcake Bakery: Great food, great place

It was on one weekday afternoon when my good friend in the office decided to give me a "merienda" treat. God bless her. :-) Since we would have to go first to a bank on Quezon Ave. corner Sct. Albano where she had to make a transaction, I suggested we go to Vanilla Cupcake Bakery on Mother Ignacia St. Trusting me wholeheartedly 
when it comes to food, she readily obliged. Haha!
 It was my second time at this very lovely and highly Instagrammable restaurant but the first was at the Trinoma branch. The one on Mother Ignacia is even prettier! Once we stepped inside, my friend and I immediately felt good and happy to be there. We then placed our orders, after which I started clicking away with my camera, forgetting about hunger with the dollhouse-like charm all around us. 


Mismatched chairs in pretty prints


Lovely lamps and chandeliers all around


Spiritual and inspirational messages on the wall


On one side, the wall is a big montage of patterns and designs.



Not too long afterwards, it was time to eat and we marveled at such
 beauties again - our food and my drink - which were all lovely-looking 
in the way they were served.

'A Shrimp-y Situation'
Despite the quirky name, you just have to take this dish seriously. My friend chose this for us to share. I admit that initially, I wasn't very happy over her choice because I disliked the first seafood marinara that I had in another restaurant some three years earlier and haven't forgotten about it. But I had a change of heart when I tasted this one. It was sooo good! The sauce had the perfect balance of sweet-sour-salty tastes and bathed every strand of al dente pasta. Every mouthful would flood the taste buds with a delightful 
burst of flavors. Both my friend and I were blown away by 
how luscious this shrimp pasta was.

'Famous Chicken Sandwich'
Chicken spread, lettuce, egg, -- these filled our delightful sandwich that was served with potato wedges with a creamy-slightly sour dip. It went so well with the pasta and indeed 
filled our happy tummies.

Strawberry Shortcake
A visit to Vanilla Cupcake wouldn't be complete without having one of their heavenly-looking cakes and cupcakes. With the many lovely variants on sight, choosing dessert is the one difficult thing about being at Vanilla Cupcake. Thankfully, our choice was great - striking the perfect balance between sweet and sour. And the sweetness wasn't even too much and quickly overpowered by the sourness of the strawberries. My food buddy and I shared this slice of strawberry cake that gave a happy ending to our afternoon meal.

Cappuccino

My friend had a can of Coke to wash down the food while I, as usual, had coffee. I went for 
this artful cup of deliciously bold cappuccino. 

A frenzy of mouthwatering desserts

Meanwhile, more of the interiors:

           I'm sure this would look good hanging over our dining table at home.

Lookie here! Even the restroom could make anyone love to hang around.

Huge menu outside

What greets you when you arrive

Vanilla Cupcake Bakery on Mother Ignacia St., 
South Triangle, Q.C.

Vanilla Cupcake Bakery proves that good food and great ambiance is a surefire formula for a successful restaurant business. For what better way is there to have a relaxing time with a friend than to eat tasty food in a cozy, lovely place? A lot of foodies like me 
have this concept of one good time!
If any of you, guys, haven't been at Vanilla Cupcake Bakery, hurry and be there to see how delightful it is to the senses. Aside from the Trinoma and Mother Ignacia branches that I've been to, there is also one at UP Town Center, Eastwood Mall, Alabang Town Center, BGC, Glorietta 3 and 4 and also in Subic, Zambales and Baguio City.
Happy eating!