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| banana split & shakes at Magnolia Flavor House |
I've been longing to visit Robinsons Magnolia ever since some of the restaurants that I've visited in the past are posting pictures on their official Facebook pages about setting up branches on this new mall near New Manila. It heightened my interest even more when I read a tweet from Monster Radio RX disc jock Fran Tobias about her visit to this said mall and mentioned that the place is huge. So when my friend, Karen Anne, was back in Manila for a week-long visit and asked me if I'm available for some nice stroll. I took that as my cue to suggest to her if we could take a peek of this much talked-about mall.
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| from Robinsons Magnolia Facebook page |
And Robinsons Magnolia is indeed one sprawling mall. There's still a lot of shops and establishments awaiting for its opening but nevertheless we were quite impressed with the mall's interiors. A fashion forward mall that incorporate state of the art design, I was told that the estate where the mall stands now was used to be a Magnolia ice cream plant. The shops that would soon occupy Robinsons Magnolia includes Gap, Mango, Topshop/Topman, Warehouse, Dorothy Perkins, Muji as well as local brands (majority of which were already open on our visit) Bench, Penshoppe, Bayo, Plains & Prints, Celine, Folded & Hung among others. What excites me more, though, were the list of restaurants and food establishments that would soon take residence on this mall: Clawdaddy, Thai Bistro, Sumosam (this resto is already open when we visited), UCC and Elias by renowned chef Florabel Co.
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Happy Lemon:
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| Cocoa w/ Rock Salt & Cheese/Coffee w/ Rock Salt & Cheese |
Karen made some purchases---shirts that she could bring back home as pasalubong and some clothing items for herself. With all that shopping and milling around, with more errands that needs to be accomplished, our hungry stomachs suddenly made its presence known. To alleviate it somehow, we decided to get some light snack which turned out to be a milk tea break at Happy Lemon. Karen chose the Cocoa w/ Rock Salt & Cheese. Since I already tried that variant, I opted for the Coffee w/ Rock Salt & Cheese. Our server recommended that we drink these beverage straight up with no straw to create that illusion of white moustache. We concurred but Karen ended up strawing the remaining contents of her drink. I belatedly realized as I drink the remaining half of my own milk tea drink that I haven't tried other items on Happy Lemon's extensive line up aside from the rock salt & cheese variants. Might try the Mousse Spin next time. Or the Lemon Yakult which is said to be one of their best drinks. :)
Located at: 3rd Floor, near Robinsons Movieworld and beside Red Mango.
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Yabu House Of Katsu
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| katsu at Yabu |
I'm totally head over heels with Yabu's katsu dishes. So when I learned that Karen hasn't tried Yabu yet, I cajoled her for us to dine here. She pinpoint another restaurant, a restaurant we already dined before, but I told her, "You would also like this one." My face beaming with delight as we enter the resto. My mind already frolicking with images of breaded meat of pure succulence. My heart's beat doing it's staccato dance in unison.
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| Yabu House Of Katsu's packed space |
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| diners enjoying their katsu and conversations |
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| jumbo prawn set |
Karen undoubtedly enjoyed her order of the Jumbo Tiger Prawn set. It's evident on her face as she relish each bite of the breaded prawns. Of course, she never forget to dip it first on the very aromatic mixture of grounded sesame seeds and tonkatsu sauce. Also worthy to note that Karen is not really fond of vegetables. Whenever we order salad during our previous dine out together, she would merely just pick at it, pierce some lettuce leaves and wouldn't even finish half of her share. But she oh-so-love the shredded cabbage on her plate. Thanks to the sesame dressing she drizzled onto it. The yummy dressing that everyone seems to can't get enough of.
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| Yabu Special Katsudon Rosu |
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| Pierced egg yolk |
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| watermelon shake |
I really had a hard time which kastu dishes to choose. Would it be the Kurobota Pork Katsu? Salmon Katsu set? Or the Hiroshima Oyster Set? For now I tried one of their newest offering, the Yabu Special Katsudon Rosu. The gleaming yolk of the sunny side up egg is truly captivating on what seemed to me a sea of bonito flakes and nori. It was a delight when I pierced the yolk and watch as it's glorious liquid seeped right in. The hire katsu was outstanding. Fried to perfection, the panko (also called Japanese breadcrumbs) gave the katsu that desirable crunchy exterior however the meat remained soft and tender. This dish came in a deep bowl which cradled rice seasoned and drizzled with a sweet salty sauce. Absolutely delish!
The Watermelon Shake went down very well with our orders. I'm quite careful sipping this drink since it would likely give me brain freeze if I tried to sip it in great gulps.
Located at the Lower Ground Level (Food Court area) right beside Hainanese Delights.
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Magnolia Flavor House:
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| our orders at Magnolia Flavor House |
When we saw the structure of the Magnolia Flavor House (still being referred to as Magnolia Ice Cream House) while gazing down from the veranda located at the third floor, it literally took my breathe away. I told Karen that we must, we must visit this ice cream shop before we head home. So right after our scrumptious meal at Yabu, we went straight to this ice cream house that could very well be every kids' (or kids at heart) dream place. My mind swirled on this central thought: Imagine a place where you could get all the ice cream to your heart's content, in all shapes and sizes, in all flavors imaginable. I might have been doing a skip with my feet on our way here.
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| fellow diners at Magnolia Flavor House |
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| busy staff |
To my surprise were given a menu board for us to browse as soon as we hit our buns on our chosen seats. Another surprise hit me when I saw that this ice cream shop offers savory items. Salads (Caesar and Oriental Chicken), appetizers (Hungarian Sausages, Calamari w/ Aioli Dip), pastas (Mac & Cheese, Aglio Olio), sandwiches (Ham & Egg) and burgers (Angus Cheese and Honey Dijon). If only my stomach is not yet full, I could have scored quite a few items from their savory menu.
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| banana split |
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| chocolate shake |
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| vanilla shake |
The Magnolia Ice Cream House was a landmark establishment in the area. It's good to know that the people of Robinsons still maintained the ice cream house which is now called the Flavor House. On this visit, we ordered conservatively by just sharing a Banana Split and two milkshakes: Chocolate Shake for Karen and I got the Vanilla Shake.
To my surprise, Karen don't like vanilla ice cream so I appropriate that entire scoop to myself on our serving of the banana split. We initially thought we had fake banana halves on our banana split. That it was only a long, stout chocolate covered pretzels masquerading as bananas. But when I tasted it, I told Karen it was indeed a banana. "How can a banana split be a banana split without bananas?", we asked ourselves while we make alternate scoops of ice cream and a piece of banana from our split.
I also liked our milkshake. Though not as thick as I would imagine milkshakes should be, I still can't help but be nostalgic about this ice cream brand which had been a big part of my growing up years.
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| Magnolia Flavor House facade at dusk |
This visit to Magnolia Flavor House left me wanting more. I would surely visit back this ice cream shop for a full blast experience.
Located at Al Fresco Locator 1, Robinsons Magnolia.
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| Chubby me & Karen Anne |
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| Robinsons Magnolia's facade at twilight |
I truly enjoyed this visit to this newest (and quite trendy, I should add) mall to open here in Quezon City. This would definitely be not the last. And to Karen Anne, thank you for always being my reliable foodie buddy.
Dona Hemady Ave. cor Aurora Boulevard
Quezon City
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