Tres Filipino and Spanish Cuisine - A Kare-kare Pinoy Food Experience

This is a long overdue post on my birthday eat out last March at TRES Filipino & Spanish Cuisine, The Block, SM North City Edsa, ground floor facing Trinoma. Ok, so me and Rache wanted to try a different eating experience for my birthday. I had wanted to try out a place that I myself haven't eaten before. While resto window shopping, someone gave us a flier advertising Tres' promo of EAT ALL YOU CAN KARE KARE. We were on the escalator going up to The Block's 2nd floor and we were supposed to go looking for a place to eat there but the thought of stuffing ourselves with Kare-kare won us over! We immediately went down the escalator again to go to the restaurant's location which was on the ground floor outside.

Photo Credit: Tres

I loved the interior. It was warm and cozy looking. It had an old Filipino-Spanish feel to it which of course is the theme of the whole restaurant. We sat down on a corner table and ordered the Eat All You Can Karekare promo. 

Unfortunately I don't remember exactly how much it was but it was definitely not more than Php 300. Rachel and I were both pleasantly surprised by the superb service that was given to us. We talked with the head waiter and  had a lovely chat with him while waiting for our food to be served. We found out that the owner has Filipino-Spanish roots and the recipes used were family recipes. Then the food arrived! The eat all you can Karekare promo served all three of their karekare special dishes - namely Krispy Kare-kare (their bestseller!), Beef Kare-kare, and Seafood Kare-kare. They gave us small portions of each on three small rectangular dishes and we could have it refilled once we were done. We both had our own Kare-kare "gravy" boat to slather our meat (and RICE!) according to our taste.

The dish on the farthest left are veggies! :)

Left - Beef Kare-kare, Right - Krispy Kare Kare

What I loved about the Kare-kare? THE SAUCE! I absolutely loved it! It had this rich creamy texture and peanut "sauce" (hehehe for lack of the better term) that I like in Kare-kare. It wasn't that strong but had the just right taste! Being allergic to seafood, I let Rache have all of mine I had her Krispy one. WE WERE FULL! And for that we even haven't had our second serving at that time! We then just had one more refill (me on krispy and Rache on seafood) until we surrendered. 

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! hehe

And just before we left, they gave us a free taste of their dessert which were old fashioned fudge cake and orange cake. Surprisingly, I loved the orange cake! It was light and sweet and tangy! I loved the flavor. Rache is a chocolate lover so naturally she preferred the fudge. The cakes were really affordable around Php 93 per slice only!

Will I recommend Tres? YES! The food, service, and ambiance is GREAT! Its also a great place to bring your balikbayan friends or family and let them renew their taste buds of Filipino-Spanish cuisine in a classy way. 

P.S. By the way, Tres has a promo right now! CRISPY SISIG for only 3 PESOS! Drop by at TRES now to try it out! :)

Photo Credit: Tres FB Page

A Taste at Tokyo Cafe

RESTAURANT: TOKYOCAFE
LOCATION: SM CITY NORTH EDSA, THE BLOCK
PRICE RANGE: Php 170.00 up
CUISINE: Italian-Japanese
Kai Cafe Rate:
Food 8.5/10
Environment 8/10
Ambiance 8/10
Service 8/10
"Tokyo Cafe is the only Japanese style family restaurant that offers Western dishes with that distinct Japanese touch and prides itself with genuine Japanese hospitality and service."


This is the description  that you can read off Tokyo Cafe's website. I do agree, its definitely a family restaurant coz the first time I ate there was with my family just this Father's day! Honestly, I've been most curious about TokyoCafe for sometime now. I love Japanese food! And I love Cafes (or more specifically anything that has something to do with coffee).. so seeing the two of them together in one place thrilled me. But I never got a chance to drop by and eat there with my friends til just recently. And boy was I surprised! 

EXTERIOR. The first thing that attracted me here was really their cute signboard and the interesting fake food display they have on the side. That really helped a lot coz it gave you an idea of the menu and how big the serving is. It had a description of the food with its price attached it making it very convenient for those passing by to consider eating there.


INTERIOR. It was a bit of a tight fit. But it wasn't really that bad it coz it encouraged closeness with the family members. The modern black and brown furniture was classy and showed off nicely with the tastefully beige walls. I especially loved the wallpaper poster of a street scene in Italy. I was facing the it when we were eating and it was quite a conversation piece and gave the illusion as if you are looking out the streets of Italy!

AMBIANCE. Lighting was dim probably to encourage the cozy feel. Loved the Music! They played soft J-Pop music in the background which helped remind you of that its a "Tokyo Cafe" feel despite the interior that you see. 


FOOD. It was fantastic! We ordered 1 All Meat Pizza (P 265), 1 Mango Chicken Ceasar Salad (P178), 1 Kaibi-ju -beef w/rice (P218), 1 Tokyo Boneless Chicken (P175), 1 Chicken Ala Pobre (P175), 1 Bacon Tomato Pasta (P 218), and 3 servings of Plain Rice (@ P35). There were 7 of us who ate there and yes believe it or not, the serving was good enough for all of us! Especially the Chicken dishes that we ordered. One serving was good enough for 2 people to share. You just have to order additional rice. Most importantly, the food was great! We really enjoyed our meal! My mom even said that it was worth every centavo! (which means a lot by the way.. hehe) My personal favorite was the Bacon Tomato Pasta. I chose that particular food because it looked so good on the picture.. and to our surprise.. IT ACTUALLY DELIVERED! lol. I loved the way that the bacon did not overwhelm the tomato sauce but the two of them blended together to make the pasta taste incredible! And it also felt light to the taste! Definitely one of my favorite pasta dishes from now on. I would so recommend it to pasta lovers out there!
(>__< we enjoyed the food so much that we totally forgot to take a picture of it first before eating.)

SERVICE. I think they did a good job. We were properly greeted, graciously served, and they were quite accomodating when we asked one of the waiters to take our family picture. Most of their greetings were in Japanese which added to the novelty of the cafe.


OVERALL IMPACT. LOVE IT! ^___^ I can't wait to drop by their again to sample their coffee and desserts. We hadn't had much time during Father's day to order dessert so thats one treat I'm looking forward to taste.


RECOMMENDATION: GO VISIT TOKYOCAFE! I personally think its a great place to have a group date there with your close set of friends or family. Good food. Light on the pocket! :)

Welcome to Kai Cafe ReViews!

As a coffee addict, one of my favorite things to do is to discover new cafes and coffee shops where I can eat yummy food, drink heavenly coffee, and hang out with my friends! I've been to some awesome places and ate some delicious food (and the not so good ones as well) and I thought that I'd like to share my discoveries with you all!

So this blog won't be just specifically for food trips, restaurants, and cafes.. but I'll also be reviewing and sharing my opinion on specific food and drinks as well. 

My ReViews and rate on the food/restaurant will include taste, ambiance, price, and overall impact. Again this is my personal opinion. You are welcome to rant, rave, or argue (hehe.. within reason ok?) with me about my opinion on my posts. I will be posting some of my food escapades as well. It might take some time but I'm looking forward to share these things with you! Hope you will stick around and also recommend me some good places to go to as well.