I've never been to Binondo. I've always wanted to go here for the food (come on, who doesn't love Chinese food?) Of course, when you think of Chinese food, you think of Binondo. If you think about Binondo, you think about Ongpin. Lucky for me, I ended up having late lunch (but seriously, it was more like early dinner) here. My friend suggested Eng Bee Tin. They're famous for the hopia and tikoy but I didn't know that they also served meals. We decided to look around and ended up at Cafe Mezzanine.
Cafe Mezzanine is dubbed as the "volunteer fireman coffee shop". You see, there's a group of Filipino-Chinese who volunteered their services into firefighting. Awesome, right? I guess this coffee shop is here to help with their expenses.
I appreciate that their simple place mat is kid-friendly. The interiors of the coffee shop is not astounding. It's more of a modernized and functional Chinese restaurant.
Looking at their menu, I decided to order a glass of Naicha, 1 serving of Kiampong, and an order of Camaron. My friend ordered Gokong (no picture). Gokong (P160), as I remember, is a meat soup. Not really for picky eaters since it has innards.
Naicha (P70)
Naicha is the simplest milk tea drink around. I appreciated this naicha a lot because it's not too sweet and the tea isn't too bitter. What makes it more awesome is the pearls they used. Usually, pearl jelly or sago is used. For Cafe Mezzanine, they use bobba pearls. I think that's what they call it. The pearl is actually an encased liquid. This pearl was lychee flavor. I was shocked. I'm not a fan of lychee but I liked this drink.
Kiampong (P50)
Kiampong is fried rice. I think what is different from regular fried rice is that they add soy sauce to add flavor and color to the rice. The rice wasn't that fluffy but I did like the taste.
Camaron (P75)
This is a dish made of shrimp. The shrimp is minced and is mixed with other ingredients to form a meat mixture. The mixture is formed, breaded, and fried. They served it with a sweet soy dip and pickled vegetable. At first, I felt that the serving was a little small but I got full from it. Maybe because the Kiampong also had meat. It wasn't overly fried and it helped that there was pickled vegetable to complement the taste.
I think that the price of the food is a little expensive for this quaint restaurant. The serving size is only good for 1 so it's somewhat hard to share. I wouldn't know if this was authentic Chinese food but seeing that it's in Ongpin, I believe that the taste is authentic. I give the restaurant a 7/10.
Next, I decided to go to Lord Stow's Bakery to buy pasalubong for my family. I've been hearing a lot about Lord Stow's Bakery's egg tarts. I love egg tarts so I didn't pass up the chance to buy one.
Box of 4's (P165)
I think my main mistake was not trying it when it was freshly served. The crust is flaky, which is good, since most egg tarts I've tried have doughy crusts. The custard is more gelatinous in texture than others. It is also less sweet than the ones I've tried so far. What is good with their egg tarts is the caramelized top. It just looks so appetizing! I do feel it's a bit expensive, but seeing how it's not a local brand made me realize, more or less, the cost of the product. I give the egg tarts an 8/10. I do look forward to trying other products from the shop.
I do hope that I get to go back to Ongpin so that I can try dimsum. Man, I love dimsum!
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