Manila - Philippines - Kai Neo Japanese Cuisine

One cuisine I always tend to enjoy indulging in, because it is both plentiful, usually of decent quality and surprisingly cheap while in the Philippines is Japanese! (Surprisingly I didn't eat at any Filipino cuisine restaurants on this trip...sorry if you were looking forward to that!)

Kai is a trendy, 'fusion' spin on traditional Japanese cuisine, they were originally based at the mall in Greenbelt 2, but once the sparkling new Greenbelt 5 opened, they closed down and re-opened not too far away. I had been at the old Kai, and I feel they've done quite a good job with redesigning the new location better.

The neutral tones inside, with the slightly dimmed lighting, casts a cool, minimal and laid back vibe through the restaurant. There's a small little sushi bar in one corner, but otherwise the tables for four are all very nice and cosy.

I was accompanied by 3 other friends so we ordered a small smorgasbord to share between the 4 of us!

This dish is apparently the favourite of one of our other friends (who was not with us that night) who is a regular here, wasabi oysters. The batter around the outside was quite thick, but at the same time was quite light and very crunchy, whilst the oyster itself was still quite fresh. I didn't find the wasabi taste came through immensely, but still enjoyed this dish to start with.

Spicy tuna, essentially, tuna sashimi with some chilli sauce smeared over the top. Frankly could have been a little spicier for my tastes, but to be fair the tuna sashimi was quite excellent!

I can never pass up miso eggplant, wherever I go, and it's always interesting to see the variations that turn up for it!

Kai's interpretation was a small (my only complaint really) serve of elegantly sliced eggplants, that were not overly oily and not over dressed with miso paste either, with a lovely soft texture that was not mushy. Very much enjoyed that these were lovely and hot when they arrived at our table as well!

Soft shell crab tempura, I honestly don't have a great recollection of what this was like, but I think I do recall picking on it quite a bit.

On paper, this beef dish with quail egg on top, sounded like quite a treat, but I was immensely disappointed (considering it was under the 'meat' section) that it came out looking so tiny! Where's the meat on that thing?! Not the easiest dish to be split between 4 people and I do wish the staff might have said something!

But on a positive note, the beef was sensational. Mmmm.

These were so good, we ordered one serve, demolished it and ordered a second quite promptly afterwards! I absolutely adore scallop sashimi, especially when it's done well and is icy cold. I love the sweetness and how absolutely smooth and velvety the texture of it is. It's even better when it's resting on half a wheel of lemon, but alas they did not do it at Kai.

And since we didn't feel like we had enough, we went back to the menu and ordered a couple hundred grams of stone grill kobe beef (I think? I didn't order!), which probably turned out to be too much. Ah well, always eating with your eyes first before your stomach non?

The stone grill, was very much in the Japanese or Korean barbeque vein, where you cook the meat yourself, which I don't normally go for. However, I did think our tiny little stone grill was absolutely adorable, and on a plus side, as it was not smoky at all, we did not all have to smell like we just walked out of a chimney afterwards.

It was quite a lot of fun cooking the meat, after rubbing the stone grill with a piece of fat we were given (!), the slices were intensely thin and only needed a very quick searing on both sides before they could just be popped into your mouth and enjoyed. Not the most tender meat I've had, but really very tasty.

You might have noticed we didn't have any sushi rolls while we were at Kai this time, I've had their 'fusion' rolls before and have not been impressed, so have stayed away from those and delighted in the other areas which I think they do a bit better. The four of us really quite enjoyed our night and really did end up polishing off everything we ate.

Oh and they have always done, and still do, a fantastic lychee sake-tini. Who needs a better reason to come back?!

Kai

Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center

Makati, Philippines

Manila - Philippines - Chef Jessie Rockwell Club

Whilst I am not Filipino (as some people have thought I am, although I've also been mistaken for Japanese, Vietnamese and Korean...), Manila is somewhat of a second home to me.

When my family moved from Hong Kong (where I was born) to Australia in 1998, my father ended up getting a job in Manila, so he spent half his time there and half his time in Melbourne with us (he has racked up the miles, believe me) and of course, when both my younger brother and I were in primary and high school, we were there almost every holiday.

In 2009 I started working for my dad and spent every other month there. Whilst I like the place, I'm glad I'm now in Melbourne predominantly.

So over the years I've gotten to know Manila pretty well and when I am there, especially on short trips like this one was, I tend to write up a little itinerary of favourite restaurants I want to eat at.

Chef Jessie is located in Rockwell, and used to be Le Souffle, but obviously has been taken over by the head chef there, who I've met briefly once and is a lovely lady.

When this was still Le Souffle, I much preferred this location over to the Le Souffle (which I think is now closed) in Fort Bonifacio, as the interior here is much lighter, brighter and whilst not so youthful, maybe a little more fresh and frinedly at least.

My Dad and I love getting a table next to the window that over looks the pool, it's especially pretty at night!

We started with 'caviar' with cream cheese on crackers. Simple, sinful, delicious. We both completely forgot I wanted to take a picture and immediately dived onto it once it hit our table, hence the half eaten picture. Whoops!

This is an old favourite of mine, it's always hard to pick what to eat when you're in a restaurant in the Philippines I generally find, as the menu is absolutely insanely massive. It's really not my kind of thing, but it's theirs apparently.

However, whenever I see the wild rice risotto (which is really not a risotto at all. More like a very neat and tidy stir fry?), with vegetables, I can never go by it. The wild rice is so beautifully nutty and wholesome, I absolutely love the almost crunchy, quite al dente texture to the rice. Slow release carbohydrate...hoorah! I was asked if I wanted it with chilli, which I replied to positively, only to find that they were certainly not being light handed with it! It was really exceptionally hot, and I can usually take decently spicy!

Still loved it though. Nice to feel healthy-ish!

My dad always loves their angel hair pasta here, he's always marvelled over how perfectly it's cooked and how tasty it is. Forgot what toppings he had here...was too busy battling chilli in my dish...

I was feeling rather peckish for sweets this evening. So we went for two desserts. Ooh la la.

Previously I had had their cheesecake here with mangoes and loved it, so I ordered it again, except with blueberries this time.

It was good, but quite different, this one was obviously baked with the crust around the outside of the cake that wasn't there in the past and I was hoping it would be more refrigerated, as I do like them cold. This was a bit too room temperature for my liking and although it was lovely that it was light, I was really looking forward to something thick and dense, which it wasn't. But I guess it's better for me that way and it was still an excellent dessert.

Just a shame when you're hoping to get one thing and get another you know?

However, their souffles were still divine. As you might have caught on before, the previous name of the restaurant was indeed 'Le Souffle' and they have a very, very generously sized souffle menu with almost every flavour you can imagine, chocolate, pistachio, almond, baileys, bananas...(my mum always orders a ginger souffle when she visits, which has never been on the menu). So you can only begin to possibly fathom how difficult it is to pick just one....

We decided to go with the milk and white chocolate souffle. It takes 15 minutes to get to us, but a well waited 15 minutes. It is airy, light, fluffy, absolutely everything it should be. And chocolatey.

Oh and they served chocolate sauce on the side with it. There's seriously nothing better than digging a hole in the middle of the souffle, watch the steam freshly spiral out (as of course it is freshly baked), and fill it up with sauce. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

So whilst I may not get chilli in my wild rice 'risotto' again, I always love going to, the now, Chef Jessie and knowing that I will always consistently get food which I enjoy.

Chef Jessie

Ground Level, Amorsolo Square, Amorsolo Drive

Rockwell Center

Manila

Philippines