Eating Out

I've been going out a lot recently to meet up with friends or do errands and other stuff. As a result, I've been eating out quite a lot. Coffee Academics has been one of my go-to places for brunch ever since I discovered it last year. In my latest visit, I saw that they had a new item on the menu: HK-Style Chicken and Waffles. I immediately decided to try it and I'm happy I did because I absolutely love it! The chicken is crispy and very flavorful and the waffle is not too sweet. The dish is served with some salted egg sauce for the chicken and what I think is strawberry jam for the waffle. Naturally, I ordered this with some pour-over coffee. It was perfect for brunch! Even writing about it now makes me want to have it again.

HK-Style Chicken and Waffles at Coffee Academics

Another place where I had brunch was Dean & Deluca. It's been ages since I last ate here. I ordered the Dean & Deluca Big Breakfast. It comes with a sausage, bacon, potatoes, free-range egg, sauteed mushrooms, pork and beans, a grilled tomato, and sourdough bread. Pretty much everything I want in a breakfast meal. This was really good too! This makes me want to visit Dean & Deluca again soon.

Dean & Deluca Big Breakfast

I also had brunch at La Condessa. It was my first time visiting this place and I like the vibe and the ambiance.

La Condessa

The menu also looked really interesting but as it was still mid-morning, I once again gravitated towards the breakfast section and I ordered the Condessa, which is an egg white souffle with bacon and sausage and served with sourdough bread on the side. I was told it would take time to prepare which made sense because it is a souffle and I told them I didn't mind. When it arrived at the table, it looked pretty cool! The service is also really good here. Hopefully I can go here again soon and try other items on their menu.

Condessa, an egg souffle dish from La Condessa

If you haven't quite figured it out yet, I enjoy breakfast food haha so when I went to The Perfect Pint for lunch recently, I ended up ordering their Continental Breakfast. It was my first time at The Perfect Pint and I didn't expect them to have brunch items on their menu so this was a pleasant surprise. It has sausages, bacon, a hash brown, sunny-side up eggs, sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, and cherry tomatoes. I would have liked it to have some bread but I guess there already is a hash brown that provides the carb content. I actually really enjoyed this dish and it was cool that The Perfect Pint also has coffee on their menu (and their coffee is not that expensive).

Continental Breakfast at The Perfect Pint

I also recently enjoyed some coffee and a midday snack at Patisserie Le Choux-Colat in Podium. I had ordered cakes from this place a couple of times before so when my friend suggested that we meet for coffee there, I agreed. There are only a couple of tables here so thankfully there was an available one when we arrived. I ordered the Espresso Salted Caramel Gateau de Voyage, which is an espresso pound cake with milk chocolate salted caramel, caramelized hazelnuts, and espresso whipped ganache and finished with dark chocolate shavings. Looks good and tastes good!

Espresso Salted Caramel Gateau de Voyage at Patisserie Le Choux-Colat

There were some terribly hot days last month and on one of those days, I happened to pass by Kuya J. As I did, I saw a large poster outside the restaurant with pictures of their halo-halo. I gotta say, their ad worked very well because as soon as I saw it, I immediately got drawn in hahaha. I ordered the Kuya J Halo-Halo Espesyal. It isn't your usual halo-halo because it uses a coconut ice-mix instead of just ice. I think I prefer normal halo-halo but this was still a perfect way to cool down on a very hot day.

Another new place I got to try was Teppan Okochi. It had been a while since I last had soba so I ended up ordering the Ten Zaru Soba, which was a plate of soba and some tempura. I also saw that they had chawan mushi, which is Japanese custard, and it has been ages since I last had that so I got one as well. Finally, I also ordered their vegetable soup. I hadn't had much vegetables leading up to that meal and I also wanted soup that evening so when I saw their vegetable soup on the menu, I ordered it. It came out after the rest of my dishes (which is why it's missing from the pic below) but wow, that soup was surprisingly very good! I think I need to visit this place again soon.

Ten Zaru Soba and Chawan Mushi at Teppan Okochi

I guess all this eating out is kinda like the restaurant version of "revenge travel" because I couldn't really go out as much in the last few years due to Covid. I would love to revisit all these places again but I also look forward to being able to try more new places in the near future.