fried chicken – Page 3 – Jellybeans in the City

San Juan’s newest food and nightlife destination – Varra Restobar

The workday is through and you’ve earned yourself a little bit of a respite, wouldn’t you say?

If you’re looking for a place to meet with friends, enjoy good food and perhaps have a drink or two, then this newly opened and somewhat hidden restobar in San Juan would be just the thing.

A namesake of P. Guevarra Street where it is situated, Varra Restobar offers food lovers new reasons to make Little Baguio in San Juan their next foodie destination.

Together with my foodie friends, I ventured to Little Baguio in San Juan to check this resto out.

Getting to the resto is quite easy (it’s already on Waze, peeps!), but finding the entrance may be a challenge. Here’s a tip: go straight to the back of the building (where the car wash is) and climb up the stairs straight to the third floor. And then, you’re there!

Here’s what you can look forward to:

One: A chill place to hang out

The place has a relaxed vibe that is conducive for friendly get-togethers or chillin’ out with your favorite drink and bar chow.

It has a sprawling dining area with an abundance of power outlets. If ever your gadgets are low on battery, you can easily juice up again without having to leave your table.

Want to party in style? Reserve the stately Lounge and hold your celebrations for up to 40 pax for Php35,000 (fully consumable).

Or you can let loose with the gang in privacy and comfort in the VIP Room for just Php20,000 (fully consumable). Aside from the well-appointed interiors, you and your friends can enjoy your own private comfort room and a buzzer to summon the service team for your requests and orders.

Two: Mouthwatering comfort food

Whether you’re after a feast or a snack, Varra offers you a well-curated array of sure-win familiar dishes or fresh twists on the classics.

These include:

Crispy Shrooms (Php130). Deep-fried and crispy oyster and enoki mushrooms that you will want to pop into your mouth again and again.

Spam Chips (Php210). Thin slices of spam deep-fried to crisps accompanied by garlic aioli.

Messy Fries (Php150). Fries served with beef, lots of cheese and garlic aioli. It’s the kind of mess I certainly wouldn’t mind!

Varra’s Nacho Overload (Php350). Crunchy nacho chips doused in cheese sauce and overloaded with beef, tomatoes, onions, peppers and olives. Perfect for munching while chatting with friends.

Soy Garlic Chicken Poppers (Php240). Fried chicken balls served with coleslaw, rice and fried egg.

Beef Tapa (Php240). A classic breakfast staple, this consist of garlicky marinated beef served with salted egg, salsa, rice and fried egg.

Chicken Pesto Marinara (Php380). A tomato-based pasta topped with grilled chicken flavored with pesto sauce.

Classic Carbonara (Php290). A creamy iteration of the carbonara loaded with ham pieces and served with poached egg.

Wings Basket (Php230). Six pieces of juicy and flavorful fried chicken wings flavored with your choice of sauce – Buffalo, Sou Garlic, Garlic Parmesan, Hickory BBQ, Chili Cheese and Honey Sriracha – that go so well with rice. We got two baskets each of Soy Garlic and Garlic Parmesan.

Varra’s Steak Salpicao (Php380). Ooh, this is definitely the star of the show! Tender and flavorful slices of steak sauteed in garlic and oil and served on a sizzling plate.

Three: Refreshing drinks

As you enjoy the tasty viands and bar chow, quench your thirst with Varra’s Signature Cocktails (Php200 each) which include: Blue Cruise (white rum, lemon and triple sec), Rosee el Varra (tequila, sour mix and Hoegaarden Rosee), Varra Mountain (gin, gin de cacao, sour mix and triple sec) and Basil Slush (blended basil leaves, rum, lemonade and sugar).

If you don’t feel like imbibing alcohol ot if you’re the group’s designated driver, you can also opt for non-alcholic drinks such as Varra Iced Tea (Php80), Frozen Peach Iced Tea (Php100) and the cranberry and citrus-y Sunset Spritzer (Php130).

Well, it sure looks like San Juan just got itself a new go-to place for munchies, drinks and chillin’ out!

Many thanks to Ms. Lovely Tan and the crew of Varra Restobar for the invitation!

If you and your gang can’t get enough of wings, take advantage of Varra’s Unli Wings & Rice Promo for only Php359 per person, available from Sundays to Thursdays.

Varra Restobar is located at 333 P. Guevarra Street, Little Baguio, San Juan, open from Sundays to Thursdays from 6pm to 2am, and Fridays to Saturdays from 6pm to 3am. For inquiries and reservations, call +63 916 5870345.

Disclosure: Together with other foodies, I attended a foodie meet-up held in this restaurant. All the food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare to facilitate honest reviews and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Bench Cafe opens newest branch in Trinoma

The clothing brand Bench has been around for as long as I can remember. One of the “proudly Filipino” enterprise success stories, it has been a major player in local fashion and has even expanded its sphere of influence to that of a lifestyle brand with its personal care producrs, skin care services and hair salons.

It even ventured into the food business, notably with the opening of the first branch of its eponymous restaurant Bench Cafe last year.

Fast forward to today and Bench Cafe has already opened its fifth branch at Trinoma Mall in Quezon City. Such speedy growth is proof that its concept of combining traditional and modern takes on Filipino food works and has found its place in Metro Manila’s highly competitive food scene.

The cafe held a special preview for bloggers the day before its Grand Opening. Together with my fellow foodies from #WeLoveToEatPH, I got a taste of how Bench Cafe’s Chef Carlo Miguel melds local flavors together and updates classic Pinoy favorites such as:

Binagoongan Ceasar (Php149). Romaine lettuce with dilis and croutons tossed in a creamy dressing made with bagoong (shrimp paste) and queso de bola.

Tinapa Cones (Php129). Homemade lumpia wrappers formed into crispy cones and filled with tinapa (smoked fish) mousse and salsa.

Gising Gising (Php195). A spicy dish of chopped beans cooked in coconut milk and chilis.

Sisig Skillet (Php249). Pork cheeks and belly cooked in two ways and served topped with calamansi foam.

Fried Chicken (Php480). Whole spring chicken fried to a golden brown with crispy flavorful skin and juicy meat served with a honey patis sauce.

Dancing Fish (Php400). Crispy butterfly tilapia doused in escabeche sauce.

Pancit Guisado (Php239). Stir-fried noodles with shrimp, meat and chopped vegetables.

Silogs (from sinangag or “garlic rice” and itlog “egg”) are breakfast staples for many Filipinos. Bench Cafe serves these with garlic rice, fried egg and homemade atsara. The silog variation we’ve tasted here is the Tendon Silog (Php199) made with melt-in-your-mouth beef tendon in pares sauce.

Bongalmusal (Php349). If you’re ever at a loss on what to have for brekkie, this hyped-up silog meal serves up everything you could want! Spam, US beef tapa, tocino, daing (dried fish) and corned beef. Best of all, this dish is good for two so do share it with someone special.

Bench Cafe also introduced Bench-Tos which are glamourized takes on the fare available at a Pinoy turo-turo. This small roadside eatery is where diners point out the food they want and a serving is placed on their plates. Bench Cafe updates this concept by merging it with the Japanese bento – the chosen viand is served on a tray along with vegetables, homemade salsa and atsara as well as steamed Ifugao rice. Variations of this offering that we tasted include the Bagnet Kare Kare (Php339) which has a rich peanutty sauce that has no need for bagoong to have flavor, and the Inasal Liempo (Php299) which is Bench Cafe’s take on the Visayan grilled pork belly.

To cap out meal, Bench Cafe serves up its own takes on dessert classics with the smooth and creamy leche flan it dubbed Flan B (Php185) topped with macapuno and Classic Turon ala Mode (Php49).

Bench also applied its own twists on the popular dessert called Halo-Halo, which consists of sweetened fruits and other fixings topped with shaved ice and served with milk. Its variations include White (Php85 for 12oz | Php129 for 16oz) made with coconut shaved ice with garbanzos, caramelized banana, leche flan, nata de coco and coconut ice cream; Mango Otap (Php90 for 12oz | Php109 for 16oz), mango shaved ice with crushed otap, mango puree, cream and fresh mango cubes; Ube (Php95 for 12oz | Php149 for 16oz), ube halaya and palm beans added to the White Halo Halo; and Mais con Hielo (Php60 for 12oz | Php100 for 16oz), corn- flavored shaved ice with milk and kernels of sweetcorn.

I had a great time discovering fresh ways to enjoy the food that I grew up with at Bench Cafe.

Many thanks to the management and staff of Bench Cafe for having us and to EJ of #ILoveToEatPH for extending the invitation.

This Bench Cafe branch is located at Ground Floor, MRT Wing, Trinoma Mall, Bagong Pagasa, Quezon City, open daily from 10am to 9pm.

Other branches are located at:

Second Floor, Bench Flagship Store, Bonifacio High Street, 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Level 2, Greenbelt 3, Ayala Center, Greenbelt, Makati City
Ground Floor, Padre Faura Wing, Robinsons Place Manila, Ermita, Manila

Disclosure: Together with other foodies, I attended a foodie meetup held here wherein food and drink items were served to allow us to sample the fare. These were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.

Have an Instant Party at Alex III, Tomas Morato

With the approaching holidays comes the much-awaited season of parties and get-togethers. Pinoys, in particular, love to celebrate with food, lots and lots of it. I recall my mom and titas slaving away in the kitchen, preparing their signature dishes for our family gatherings.

While I’m passionate about food, I’m not too keen on stressing myself out in the kitchen. Fortunately, thanks to a Foodie Meet-up held at Alex III’s Tomas Morato branch, I, together with my fellow foodies, discovered that I can treat my loved ones out to a feast of classic Filipino favorites, thanks to its Instant Party Menu.

Alex III’s Instant Party Menu consist of two sets of dishes. Both priced at Php2995, these feature home-grown Filipino party food enough for a group of five. These are all prepared and cooked with the same love and tradition that goes all the way back to Aling Asiang (or Mrs. Engracia Reyes), the matriarch of the family behind the Aristrocrat restaurant of which Alex III is an offshoot, being a business started by one of Aling Asiang’s grandsons.

Set One

This set includes:

Choice of 1 viand among Chicken Barbecue, Pork Barbecue, Barbecued Pork Belly and Whole Fried Chicken
Special Pancit Canton
Fresh Lumpiang Ubod or Lumpiang Shanghai
Kare-Kare
Crispy Pata
Steamed Rice

Set Two

This set includes:

Choice of 1 viand among Chicken Barbecue, Pork Barbecue, Barbecued Pork Belly and Whole Fried Chicken
Whole Fried Chicken
Whole Crispy Lapu-Lapu with Sweet and Sour Sauce
Camaron Rebosado
Special Pancit Canton
Shanghai Rice

Each set is served with garlic peanuts, a sushi sampler, your choice of soup (of which we sampled the Hototay and Sinigang na Salmon), bottomless iced tea and your choice of dessert (of which we sampled the Leche Flan and the Pandan Jellied Tapioca).

Both sets present diners with a combination of flavors that are dearly familiar, being dishes that were served during family reunions and fiestas when we were growing up. They also serve as a way for working moms like me to reconnect our present-day celebrations with the warmth and traditions of our childhood: that despite the hectic schedules and fast-paced lifestyles, we have a way to get together with our loved ones to exchange old memories and make new ones, while enjoying good food and good company.

With Alex III’s Instant Party Menu, the tradition of fun family celebrations with good food is made even better.

This branch of Alex III is located at Tomas Morato Avenue Corner Scout Bayoran, South Triangle, Tomas Morato, Quezon City, open daily from 11am to 11pm. For reservations and queries, call +63 2 3711414 or +63 2 3711415. Its spacious, tastefully appointed and well-lit interiors make it a great venue for large family gatherings or office parties.

Other branches are located at:

201 Wilson Street, Little Baguio, San Juan City (open daily from 11am to 11pm | Tel Nos: +63 2 7240882 or +63 2 7264444)
29 Matalino Street, Diliman, Quezon City (open daily from 11am to 10pm | Tel Nos: +63 2 9261266 or +63 2 9268942)
53 Pontiac Corner Chevelle Street, Fairview, Quezon City (open daily from 11am to 10pm | Tel Nos: +63 2 3766286 or +63 2 3765179)

By the way, did you know that for your parties at home, you can have your favorite dishes from Alex III delivered right to your doorstep? Minimum order for delivery is Php500. For more details, contact the Alex III branch nearest you.

Disclosure: I attended the Bloggers’ Day held at this restaurant. All the food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.