Fudge (Desserts Review)

This is going to be the first dessert only review that I'll be doing. I don't think I've told you all what a huge dessert person I am. I just looooooovvvveeee cakes and pastries. I'm a big patron of Cream and Bake but unfortunately their two outlets are quite inaccessible from my area. They're located beside every Joven's Grill which has two branches: Capitol (limited parking and store hours) and Mandaue (very far from where I live which is in Labangon). Anyway, as I was making one of my few trips to the Mandaue branch, a new cafe caught my eye. The name simply spoke for itself, FUDGE. And that could only mean one thing, DESSERTS.

I don't exactly know why it took me so long to get around to eating there but finally it happened a few nights ago. We already ate dinner that time so we decided to just drop by for desserts. Fudge is located along the Banilad-Mandaue road near the Vienna Kaffeehaus which is beside a Caltex gasoline station.



And without further ado, let me welcome you to their immaculate dessert fridge.

(awwwwhhhhh -- thats heavenly music if in case you didnt get what it was supposed to be)

Here is a picture of their menu. I decided to shoot menus from now on so I could give you an idea of basically how much each resto's food generally costs. I honestly, I don't check prices too much because I just zero in on the food. Other people have vices and hobbies where they spend their money on. I, have FOOD. Enough about me.



We decided to get 2 out of 3 things as posted with pictures in the menu. The Ultimate Combo and Tre Colore. I didnt get the Lava Cake because it's such a common dessert on any menu at almost every other restaurant and I wanted to try something unique. The third dessert we ordered was the Tres Leches. The description reminded me of crepes and I like creamy, milky sauces.

First off, the Ultimate Combo.


Price: P110.00

I take back whatever I said in my previous posts that cheesecake couldn't taste any different. I didn't think it was cheesecake until I bothered to read the menu after debating with my friends what this dish actually was because it didnt taste like the conventional cheesecake my taste buds were expecting! Props for creativity on this one. They surely took a twist to this dish to making it taste different. As the menu said, it was a combination of oreo crust, cheesecake, mango float and tiramisu. I generally stray away from mango based desserts because 8 out of 10 times the mangoes are usually sour. Fortunately the ones in this dish were quite sweet. What irks me about this dessert however is the fact that it's named ULTIMATE combo. It's a common misconception among people that this adjective is positive when its exactly the opposite. Ultimate means last or final. I cannot fathom why anybody would put this word in a product or service. Aside from that, this is a pretty okay dessert and I must say, the presentation is really very appealing.

Up next, the Tres Leches.


Price: P80.00

I dont know why it is, but this dessert just doesn't look pretty in pictures. I expected this to be the best tasting dessert from all our orders but on the contrary, it didn't taste that great. I found the sponge cake too sweet and it just didn't jive well with everything else, mangoes and cream and everything. Not my cuppa tea.

Now, saving the best for last. (drumroll please) ... the Tre Colore


Price: P120.00

HEAVEN!!! This dessert tastes as good as it looks!! I cant stop raving about it. It's three layers of chocolate: white, milk, and dark chocolate. I'm not a big chocolate person but this dish just made it for me. Each kind of chocolate contrasted with each other that the dish overall ended up tasting really different. The sweetness of the white chocolate matched with the creaminess of the milk chocolate and neutralized by the bitterness of the dark chocolate. Genius. Totally, totally in love with this dessert.

I checked out the other things they have on their menu and they happened to serve plated meals as well. They had this dish that particularly caught my eye, a pesto omelette for their all day breakfast. Definitely on my must try list. Next time I will try to eat a meal there and I'll write a review for it.

We also ordered some choco balls which cost a measly P10 per piece, for our friends back at one of their car shops. Boy was it a hit! Everybody loved it and they surely couldn't believe that it was so cheap!

Overall, I like this restaurant. I can't wait to try their other desserts. Who knows their lava cake would taste different from the usual too. Stay tuned for another review from Fudge!


Eternally famished,

Pearl

Simply J's Cafe/Restaurant

Nothing gives me a bigger thrill than discovering a new restaurant to eat at. Luckily, a friend recommended this new place for a lunch get together a few days back and I felt like I found a treasure. I was pleasantly surprised with this restaurant because I pass by it quite often and have always felt drawn to the cute exterior but I never dreamt that there was a cafe inside that country crafts store! Out of excitement, I forgot to take pictures of the facade but here is a peek of their homey interior.




The place is very well decorated and has a very cozy and quaint feel to it. It's very much ideal for small family meals or just simply chit chats with friends. Even their menu matched their theme!



We ordered the calamares for starters, garlic and mushroom fettucine for our pasta and the baby back ribs, steamed cream dory with coconut and lengua for our entree.

I particularly think that calamares generally tastes the same and not too different. I mean, there's only so much that you can do with calamares. So for me this dish in general, not just at this restaurant, isnt anything out of the ordinary. I just liked that it wasnt thickly breaded and it wasnt gummy.



The baby back ribs were DELISH! The meat was tender and it just melted in your mouth. I liked that it wasnt overly sweet, unlike the Casa Verde ribs. I normally dont like sweet food in my meals so I didnt take to ordering this but wished I did after I took a bite from my friend's dish. The serving is also generous and very much worth its price of P200.



My other friend had the lengua which she said she's been dying to try because it was supposedly one of the restaurant's best dishes. And she was right! The gravy was not too salty and the consistency of the tongue was just right, not too gummy nor too soft. It was just right for my taste.



I ordered the fish. Cream dory has always been my favorite so it was a no-brainer when I decided to get this. It was wrapped in a banana leaf topped with a curry like sauce. I didnt expect that this dish was going to be curry since I'm not a big fan of it. But then again the menu said that it was coconut fish so I guess it was my fault. I was just taken with cream dory that I immediately ordered it without thinking. This dish wasnt' bad really, but it wasn't great for me either. Maybe it would suit some other person's taste buds with a liking for curry, but not mine. My friend happened to like it however.



The pasta was a nice breaker for everything else that we ordered. It was a good dish to neutralize the taste buds before moving on to another dish. It's lightly flavored with garlic and topped with mushroom, cheese and some herbs. I would recommend this to somebody on a diet. It doesnt feel sinful but its not exactly bland either. I'm not on diet, so this pasta was simply a side dish to my meal hehe.



For my drink, I had the Guava Lemon cooler. I liked its fruity taste (which was really like four seasons) so much that I had two rounds but my friend said it tasted like Tempra medicine. I havent had too much Tempra in my life to liken the taste to so. If you have, you might want to skip this.



Now let me just fast forward this story to later in the evening when I met with my boyfriend and some of his friends. I told them of my recent discovery which was lying just by the corner of one of the guys' shop. Curious with the place, they decided that we should all eat there for dinner. So I ate at Simply J's twice in one day but I didn't mind :)

They basically ate what my friends and I had for lunch but I want to slip in this article the Bolognese spaghetti that we had for dinner.



When it was served to us, we initially thought that it would taste sour since the orange colored sauce looked intimidating. But when we started to dig in, an array of flavors burst in our mouths. We were very surprised that it didnt taste as sour as we expected. The flavors blended very well with each other. I'm not sure what the ingredients of Bolognese spaghetti is since I'm not into Italian food as well but I can only guess that there was a hint of oregano in there, pepper, maybe some garlic and obviously tomatoes.

Rewind to lunch so we can move on to what we had for dessert. We had mango parfait, panacotta and fruity cheesecake. I was led to believe that there was going to be an assortment of fruits in the cheesecake but apparently its just plain blueberry cheesecake. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in catching up with my friends that my impatient self only got to take a picture of the parfait and just chomped down on everything, only realizing later that I didnt get to shoot the other desserts. Sorry, I'm still getting used to this food blogging thing. I still have to remind myself to take photos before I eat sometimes.



The parfait was good, there was a lot of cream in the dessert which is something I can totally feed on forever. The mangoes werent sweet though, it was borderline sour. But I can see a lot of potential in the dessert had the mangoes been better. I found the panacotta bland and the cheesecake tasted like, well, blueberry cheesecake. Again, its one of the dishes that I think couldnt taste any different, like the calamares.

For lunch, we spent under P1,200 for our meal. In general their dishes cost around P150-P200 each. I'd say their prices are mid-range but worth it for the ambiance and the taste of the food. I want to keep this restaurant a secret forever because I have a penchant for non-mainstream things but I guess it wont be too much of a secret now but I'm not too sure again because I dont think I have a lot of readers on this blog hahaha.

As mentioned, a con would be its location. Although it is strategically located (N. Escario extension near Parklane hotel), the restaurant is fronted by a crafts store which sort of conceals the restaurant from the public view but I think this is still an advantage in itself for the few people who patronize this cafe because it is quite small. If the place would be jam packed, its lose its quaint charm and it just doesnt vibe with the whole feel of the restaurant.

Here is a picture of the restaurant from the side, taken when we went back for dinner. Again I didnt get to take a picture of the facade but it's by the corner across those strip of establishments beside Parklane.






So that's that for now. I've just decided to sneak this blog in to idle my insomnia away. I hope you enjoyed this as much as I did.



Eternally famished,

Pearl