Bench Cafe will officially be open to the public tomorrow! And we were lucky enough to be invited to try out their out the dishes they will be rolling out through a looloo rendezvous.
Bench/ Cafe is the newest concept from the Foodee Global Concepts. In collaboration with the Bench, this beautiful tropical, pastel-themed cafe can be found inside the multi-storied Bench Flagship Store along High Street in BGC.
The original plan for Bench/ Cafe was a family-styled Filipino restaurant, where dishes are meant for sharing. But Ben Chan wanted it to be more pocket-friendly, which is why Bench Cafe will be serving inventive Filipino meals as a set: bento style (BENCH/TO), or what they describe as "glamorized turo-turo".
APPETIZERS
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| Sisig Lettuce Cup |
Crispy sisig served in a lettuce cup with calamansi foam. The sisig lettuce cup was inspired by the Chinese peking duck lettuce cup, except that this version involves sisig, which makes it way better. We all know that sisig goes best with rice, but hey, it's also good with lettuce, especially since their sisig is really flavorful.
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| Tinapa Cones |
SALADS
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| Pinoy Caprese |
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| Suha Salad |
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| Binagoongan Caesar |
All the salads tasted good, and all had their Pinoy twist, but my favorite would be the suha salad. I just loved the acidity with the touch of sweetness in the calamansi dressing. The suha didn't taste bitter as well.
BENCH/TO
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| Dancing Fish, Crispy Dilis, Bench Salsa, Ifugao Rice |
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| Salted Egg Chicken, Hipon sa Talangka, Bench Salsa, Atsara and Ifugao Rice |
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| Inasal na Liempo, Gising Gising, Bench Salsa, Atsara, and Ifugao Rice |
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| Upgrade: Tinolang Manok |
My favorite from the bench/to meals would have to be the inasal na liempo. I first thought that it lacked the inasal flavor, but I finally got it after a few bites. It would have been better if the liempo was more tender, though. The gising-gising that came with it was also quite addicting! The salted egg chicken was also good, but I was more drawn to the hipon sa talangka that came with it. For the rice, I got to try all of them, and I would recommend either the talangka or the bagoong rice.
I love the bench/to idea! I always have a hard time visiting Filipino restaurants because of the large serving per order. With Bench/ Cafe, I can have my favorite Filipino food without spending too much (or taking home lots of leftovers).
Silog
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| Tapa Silog |
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| Adobo Flakes Silog |
Desserts
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| Ube Halo-Halo |
The ube halo-halo tasted good, although it didn't have the wow factor since it tastes a lot like the usual Filipino halo-halo you can easily buy.
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| Flan B |
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| White Halo-Halo |
The white halo-halo and the Flan B were my favorite desserts. The taste of the macapuno was very obvious in both of them, and I'm addicted to macapuno, which explains my fondness of these desserts.
Drinks
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| Ube Tanglad Latte |
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| Mindanao Hot Chocolate Latte |
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| Pandan Latik |
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| Otap Sesame Tsoknut |
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| Sago't Gulaman |
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| Alab ng Lahi |
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| Circa 1987 |
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| Photo by: Sandy Peñalba |
My Scores:
Pricing - 4/5
Service - 5/5
Ambiance - 4/5
Taste - 4/5
Taste - 4/5
Hungry for more,
Address: 2/F B5, High Street, 9th Ave., cor. Lane O, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
Budget: P250 to P500 per person
(Date of Visit: January 21, 2018)
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