Arts and Crafts In a Coffee Shop

Shop, dine and be inspired in one of Cubao’s most underrated cafes! With creative food concepts, a relaxing ambiance and multiple locally made gift items that you can check out, this place can definitely provide you with a little entertainment and comfort in the middle of the big city.

Opportunity

The Gift Avenue Cafe is opening their doors to entrepreneurs from all over the Philippines, who would like to sell their items inside a mall. If you’d like to grab an opportunity to finally put the products of your hard work on a shelf, then just message the owners of this little shop and discuss the details with them. You may find their contact information at the end of this article.

During our visit, we were given the chance to try out some of their dishes and drinks and here’s what we thought of each.

The Taste Test

Appetizer/Snack

Barkada Wheel

This gave us carnival feels. It is such a fun and practical way to serve food. It not only looks good, but also saves everyone the hassle of asking people to pass the dishes around. The Barkada Wheel, which actually turns by the way, contains a variety of snacks you may choose from. We were given the Salted Egg Fries, Croquettes, Nachos, Onion Rings, and Churros to eat.

Churros: 

We loved this! The churros were very soft on the inside and slightly crisp on the outside. The chocolate dip was not too sweet, nor did it harden in room temperature. This could have been a 5, if only the chocolate sauce was not too watery. Nonetheless, we enjoyed it.

Salted Egg Fries: 

Unlike a lot of the powdered fries out there, this one was not messy to eat at all. The salted egg really stuck to the potatoes, and worked well with it. We have been loving salted egg dishes a lot more lately, which probably added to why we liked the dish so much.

Nachos: 

The nacho chips were nice and crisp. They did not sog fast, even with the cheese poured over them. The beef toppings were a little burnt which made it taste bitter, but complimented the flavors regardless. We do hope that in the future, they can get the cook just right. We also wish that they’d add more cheese as it was only present of top of the first few chips. Once we got to the bottom, there was barely any.

Onion Rings: 

This was fried really well and was somehow similar to the onion rings of 8 cuts! The only issue we had with this dish, was the way that the breading kept falling off.

Croquette:

Who would have thought that a French delicacy would be part of the Barkada wheel’s snack options? Although we also couldn’t stop munching on it because of it’s perfectly fried coating, there was really nothing so special about how it tasted.

Main Courses

Chicken Teriyaki: 

If you’ve ever tasted Frankie’s Nagoya flavored wings, you’ll be surprised to know that this particular dish tastes just like it! Very flavorful, with a ton of Asian spices. It was cooked nicely and even blended well with the vegetable sides. We enjoyed eating this.

Salted Egg Shrimp: 

Yet another plate to further our love for Salted Egg dishes! It gave off such a burst of flavors in our mouths. The shrimp was cooked and seasoned very well, and was surprisingly delicious with salted egg. We hope that they consider serving this without rice or provide an option to remove the side.

Pizza Burger:  

We liked the idea of this dish – Pizza, burger and fries, all in one order! The patty was really juicy and beefy. As a matter of fact, it took the chef 81 attempts, to get this part of the burger to taste as good as we thought it did. Although, to be honest, we were unable to appreciate the patty to it’s greatest extent because there was just way too much cheese. As a suggestion, we hope that they’d cut this down a little bit so that the other flavors in the burger could come out. Also, we hope that in the future, they will serve this dish with a knife and a fork. A few tweaks here and there, and maybe we would come back to try this once more.

Pasta

Carbonara:  

In general, we think that of all the kinds of dishes that we got the chance to try out, their pasta needed the most work. The flavor of their noodles only came from the egg on top of it. This unfortunately means that if we decided to put the egg aside, the whole dish would have tasted completely bland. The bagnet didn’t really pair well with the rest of the dish either and was a wonder as to why they placed it on top of the carbonara in the first place. Overall, we think that this still requires a lot of work.

Pesto: 

As people who love pesto so much, we were pretty disappointed with this dish. It was extremely dry, making the texture very odd as well. We would have preferred a more oil based pesto pasta. Also, there were way too many peanuts, which completely overpowered the Pesto taste.

Desserts

Coffee Cream: 

This was the PERFECT dessert. The coffee flavor was nicely blended with the creamy base. It had great texture –soft, hard, creamy and almost melting at the same time. We even ordered more of this for our families to try out, and they loved it just as much as we did! If there is one thing to come back to The Gift Avenue Café for, it would surely be this!

Tiramisu: 

At first, we thought that this dessert would taste dry, but we were surprised to find our that it was actually moist, soft and sweet. The cake crumbs gave a more enjoyable texture to the dish. The desserts they gave for us to try out were definitely on point.

Matcha Frappe: 

If you’re looking for a good matcha fix, Gift Avenue Cafe’s version of the Matcha Frappe might be perfect for you! If you’ve ever tried the original matcha Kit Kat flavor, this is very similar to it. We also liked how their whipped cream was very thick and did not melt fast.

Salted Caramel Frappe: 

One of their best sellers, the Salted Caramel Frappe, definitely did not disappoint. What made  it different from the usual salted caramel drinks that we’ve tried, is that theirs is coffee-based. Although it tasted good, we’re giving it a 4 out of 5 because we would also like for them to explore the option of offering a milk based salted caramel frappe.

Mint Tablea: 

Since the Christmas season is coming up, what better food or drink to serve than one with a hint of peppermint? It isn’t just any ordinary chocolate drink too, as they use tablea! Yum! Something that will keep you feeling cozy and warm this holiday season.

Regular Tablea: 

We had high expectations for their regular tablea, simply because we love hot chocolate on cold days. We were not disappointed. It tasted good, but we noticed that it was more watery than most tablea drinks that we’ve gotten the chance to taste.

Here’s a copy of their menu for more of their dishes:

This quaint but proud restaurant in the middle of Cubao is definitely your next go-to place, not just for your daily local product finds, but also for satisfying your craving for unique food with great taste. Who knows? Maybe you’ll find your perfect Christmas gift, in the Gift Avenue Cafe, Cubao.

Gift Avenue Cafe

Opens 8AM and Closes 9PM

Contact Number: +63 9178060792

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gift_avenue_cafe/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/giftavenuecafe/

Address: Ground Floor, Gateway Mall, Araneta Center, Cubao, Quezon City