A bonfire is not only found at the beach front encircled by a group of people for an activity, it is also a new restaurant where people can gather for a simple get-together or a  celebration.

Bonfire Restaurant

Replacing Sumosam at the Greenhills Town Center, Bonfire Restaurant opened just a few months ago offering straightforward comfort-food. Although they are slowly getting known for their steaks and baby back ribs, I love them for their pizza more.

Here is a straightforward list of Bonfire dishes you shouldn’t miss: at Bonfire Restaurant

1. Shrimp, Mango, and Alfalfa Salad

Start your meal right with the Shrimp, Mango, and Alfalfa Salad (P185) as appetizer. It’s a handful toss of fresh shrimp, mango, and alfalfa salad combination good for 2 persons. It will clean your palette ready for the main dishes.

Shrimp, Mango, Alfalfa Salad

2. All-in-One Pizza

The All-in-One Pizza is similar to the super supreme pizza which you are familiar with, only better. Topped with ground beef, olives, button mushrooms, bell pepper, and more, It’s a really tasty treat priced at P340 per serving.

All-in-One Pizza

3. Bonfire Grilled Chicken Pizza

And when you thought you already had All-in-One Pizza above, it just gets better with the Bonfire Grilled Chicken Pizza (P295). The chicken strips complemented well with the cheese on thin crust highlighted by the brown sauce you can see from the photo. I wasn’t able to confirm though if this was some kind of barbecue-related sauce.

Moreover, it was odd to find grapes slices on a pizza but they’re not bad at all. This is actually the flagship dish in this list; at least for me. It was not named after the restaurant for nothing.

Bonfire Grilled Chicken Pizza

4. Pan Seared Creamy Dory and Spinach Fillet

And now for the first main dish – the Pan Seared Creamy Dory and Spinach Fillet. Seemingly shy and covered with crispy spinach leaves, the soft dory came with a rich cream sauce and mashed potatoes on the side.

Although a bit expensive at P305 for its size, the taste and symphony of flavors made it all worthwhile.

Pan Seared Creamy Dory and Spinach Fillet

5. Baby Back Ribs

And now for the big boys, you should not leave Bonfire without having a serving of their Baby Back Ribs. The pork ribs are delightfully tender smothered in rich hickory barbecue sauce. It will remind you of your mother’s home-cooked recipe.

It is also served with mashed potato, sweet corn, and some veggies on the side.This one goes for P385 per serving.

Bonfire Baby Back Ribs

Bonfire Smores

Desserts

A meal is not complete for NomNom Club with out desserts. So we tried Bonfire Smores and Dulce de Leche Cheesecake.

The former had chucks of roasted marshmallows in between graham crackers topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and drizzles of chocolate syrup. P125 per serving.

Dulce de Leche Cheesecake

I prefer the latter however. Although it is almost doubly expensive at P210, the cheesecake-and-cream melody was almost perfect and light. It was a seemingly suitable ending for the heavy pizza and ribs.

Bonfire
Greenhills Town Center (near Gilmore corner Aurora Blvd)
#2 Granada St., Barangay Valencia, Quezon City

Chef Tristan Encarnacion

Cheers to head chef Tristan Encarnacion of Bonfire restaurant. I’m certainly going back even just for the pizza!

No food blog needs to tell you that the milk tea craze has hit the Philippine’s capital and metropolis while slowly moving into the suburbs as you are reading this article. And Seattle’s Best Coffee is not turning a blind eye to this ongoing, and even phenomenal, trend.

SBC Milk Tea (Cold)

They’ve always had it, but it’s now being given a spotlight. Available for almost a month now, I was only able to try Seattle’s Best Milk Tea a week or two ago in their Greenhills Town Center branch.

Having recently come from the milk tea capital of the world that is Taiwan, my interest in milk teas has certainly grown. And sometimes, I can’t help but compare them to what we have here.

But I don’t even have to go far. Seattle’s Best Milk Tea is already unique by itself on how they positioned themselves in the market. Here are my observations:

• They only offer one variant/flavor of milk tea
• They offer their milk tea with a hot option (something not so common)
• They use red pearls

One and Only Milk Tea Variant

In contrast to the usual milk tea shops, Seattle’s Best is offering only one kind of milk tea – the SBC Milk Tea.

It’s a blend of black and green tea infused with caramel flavor to take care of the sweetness.

I told a friend that they are actually taking a big risk here. It’s a hit or miss thing. With only one option, you either get the customer’s nod or nay. It’s a bold move, I should say (or maybe they are still testing the market).

Hot Milk Tea

Although a hot milk tea is not a regular thing either in Taiwan, more so is the case in the Philippines. It’s good thing SBC offers this option for those who want it not chilled.

Red pearls

They want to be different, and it comes in style. As trivial as it is, having red pearls (or sago) in your milk tea adds that SBC touch, specially to someone like me who almost always have it with extra pearls. 🙂 It’s not unique though as I recently saw one in particular, the new ‘Drink Tea‘ shop having the same (there’s one in The Podium).

It’s only red tapioca/pearls and no other. You won’t find a nata or jelly option as add-ons. 🙂

Greenhills Town Center in San Juan area

The Verdict

Cold

After all has been said, what now? To shoot it straight to the point, the SBC Milk Tea was good, although I’ve had better. I’m not sure if my cup had much ice, but it was at the verge of being bland.

Hot

The hot SBC Milk Tea was also good but most of my friends dismissed it as too sweet. I think it deserves a second chance. I like it better than the cold one I had. It gets my thumbs up!

It’s also perfect with an order of the SBC Clubhouse.

SBC Clubhouse

Tip

With my experience with the cold one, I suggest you tell the counter to reduce the amount of ice by half. I’d try that myself the next time I go back. 🙂

Price

The cold SBC Milk Tea is available in sizes medium (PhP110) and large (PhP120), while the hot one is slightly cheaper at P100  and P110, respectively. The price is fair enough considering the ambiance of a known coffee shop.

With Seattle’s Best Coffee is giving in to the milk tea craze, I suggest you give-in as well and find your cup of tea – hot or cold. The SBC Milk Tea is available only here in the Philippines and until March 31, 2012.

NomNom got the chance to try out the newly opened SumoSam in Greenhills Town Center (near Gilmore). More specifically, we had the Samurai’s Choice bento box.

Samurai's Choice Bento Box

Although I was surprised with the hefty Php488 price of Samurai’s Choice at first, the menu indicated a lot of ingredients including chicken teriyaki and beef misono, among others. Moreover, I know that Sumosam is about quality and authentic japanese food so I’m did not pass judgement in a whiff.

And as I expected, I was not disappointed. All the ingredients were freshly made and satisfied my palate. To complete the set, Samurai’s Choice consists of a handful of chicken teriyaki serving, generous beef misono strips, slices of dory tepan, and some chunks of tuna with salmon sashimi, kani stick, a dash of bean sprouts, yasai itame, gohan, and dilis.

Japanese Rice with Black Sesame Seeds

Chicken Teriyaki and Dory Tepan

I love them all. The dilis in particular might appeal to the Filipino taste. It’s a bit tricky though since if not prepared properly and fresh, it might go the other way. The presentation is also outstanding as norm in Japanese standards.

Tuna and Salmon Sashimi

Sumosam Dilis

Beef Misono (US Beef Knuckle)

If there’s anything lacking, it’s just my favorite – tempura. 🙂 Nonetheless, with a lot of ingredients that go with it, adding tempura might already be too much. You can share the bento meal with a friend, by the way, just add extra rice. 🙂

Perhaps they can offer variants in the near future substituting some of the components with tempura.

Bean Sprout

SumoSam Greenhills / Gilmore Samurai’s Choice bento meal definitely gets a thumbs up from NomNom. Try one yourself soon as it is only available from 11am – 2pm daily and only at SumoSam Greenhills Town Center branch.