a little of Boracay in Makati

Earlier this week I had the chance to dine out with good friends. It was one of the very few occasion, I should not miss for all I know. Though Makati is quite a little distant to my work place I didn’t kept my dinner dates waiting for long, let say I arrived just a little behind 7pm…sorry guys :)

Anyway, we agreed to meet at this resto in Jupiter named after the same hotel in Boracay, and partly owned by none other than Boy Abunda (showbiz na showbiz noh…hehehe).

The venue is named Café La Carmela, which is new to me because Oliver and I do not frequent going to Jupiter’s line up of eatery. So there stood Café La Carmela at the old Krocodile Grill location before it transferred to Greenbelt 3.

The place is cozy and perfect for small talks and meet ups. The interior is homey and classy but not intimidating at all. The wait staffs are attentive or maybe it is because the place is not crowded that night, or maybe it is because one of my friends spoke the same dialect, which is more comfortable for them. What probably confused me (a bit) are the set of food they offer. It is because before I left my office I browsed a bit of their table menu so I have a little idea of what to order. So all the while, I thought we are going to have Italian dishes for dinner…hehehe. My assumption was all wrong because we enjoyed an all-Filipino dish except for the appetizer, which is Japanese.

The set we had.

California Maki, we had two orders of these as appetizer. This one tastes like authentic unlike the one I had over the weekend, which I called substandard…lol!

Then we had Pork Sinigang as soup, they uses liempo with less string beans, less okra, less kangkong…in short, it’s literally soup though the sour taste was consistent.

Kare-kare ox tail missed the creamy paste. And again, with less veggies – no banana blossom this time.

Lechon Kawali is not at all crispy but was okay, and there goes the banana blossom! ginawang side dish (I miss capturing it on my cam), trying to be an atchara…

Pinakbet. This is the best dish we had that night, it came out heavily filled with veggies. Super appetizing!

Right after dinner, we head straight to their dessert station. They had pastries, cakes, and popular gelato flavors. Continue salivating here…

Tiramisu flavored gelato, which I failed to taste. Anyway, I am not a big fan of this gelato fad...I still prefer the real ice cream with its original flavors!

Chocolate Cake, which I failed to taste too because I enjoyed my plate TOO much...

Blueberry Cheesecake! And this is mine, mine alone…my love life with cheese continued with these slice. Though it is a little bit foamy, the taste is ultimate. I give a thumb up for this one!

We consume two hours over that small dinner; it was a wonderful one especially because we bonded more than the food we ate. Like what I always wish, I wish this to happen more often, I dearly wish!