Cafe Shibuya @ UP Town Center, No Ordinary Toast

After our lunch at Tokyo Tonteki, our group of foodie friends headed over to Cafe Shibuya to try out their desserts. We just had to walk a few rounds around UP Town Center checking out the other restaurants there to let our stomachs digest the earlier meal. Cafe Shibuya specializes in toasts, thick toast bigger than your fist, and this is just the baby sized ones. It’s one of the new and exciting concepts at the UP Town Center, oh how Katipunan has changed since my college days.

Cafe Shibuya interiors are really nice, a place I’d definitely like to hang out in if only it was closer. There are tons on interesting stuff on the wall, like that parade of multicolored rolling pins.

Look closely and you’ll be surprised to see a flour sack bearing Cafe Shibuya‘s logo.

One little nook has this for a backdrop and I have to wholeheartedly agree with the message on the wall. I always have a special place in my tummy for dessert.

We started with a pair of savory dishes, the first one was the Shibuya Benedict (P255), their own homage to the brunch staple. Start off with thick toast, layer in some farmer’s ham then a deep fried poached egg. You read that right, a poached egg that’s coated with bread crumbs and deep fried (deadly but you need extra skills to execute). Japanese mayo cream sauce is poured on top then sauteed shiitake mushrooms are added. A side of thinly sliced potato chips for munching.

Cafe Shibuya has their own rendition of the Menatiko pasta (P265). Al dente spaghetti noodles tossed in olive oil with chopped pieces of bacon (too fatty for me) with a dollop of cod roe and nori strips on top. You’ll have to mix the nori and cod roe into the pasta before digging in. I felt it was a bit too oil for me and less than stellar because of it, the Mentaiko pasta at The Cake Club is still the gold standard.

After a round of savory items, we now move to the most exciting part of the meal, dessert! I chose their signature Original Shibuya Honey Toast (P145/baby, P195/regular), their simplest but sometimes the simplest things are the best. A piece of thick toast, about three times as thick as the one they used in the Shibuya Benedict, topped with ice cream with a side of nutty whipped cream. Honey (diluted) is served on the side which you can drizzle on top of the toast. I bet kids will get a kick out of doing it.

The secret to Shibuya’s mouth watering toasts is because they bathe the thick toast in butter sauce after partially cutting it. This is then put into the toaster to give it a nice exterior crunch before layering in all the toppings.

The honey toast is simple, buttery toast with ice cream and a bit of sweetness just can’t be beat.

One of our friends ordered this pretty Below Zero Chocolate Frappe (P155), made with premium Ghirardelli chocolate.

The All American PB &J (P195/baby, P245/regular) sounded awesome in theory. Creamy peanut butter, strawberry jelly, sliced bananas and vanilla ice cream are all nice toppings. Combine them and there was just something missing, maybe they have to use crunchy peanut butter for more texture of cook the banana in cinnamon.

Irene’s choice of Sticky Toffee (P175/baby, P225/regular) was a great surprise. It reminded us of Wildflour’s sticky bun except it’s on toast. The sweet buttery sauce adds to the already rich butter flavor, it is then topped with walnuts for a nutty texture.

I really enjoyed my not so ordinary toast at Cafe Shibuya especially the simplest Honey Toast. I’m hoping they open one in our neighborhood because trooping to Katipunan for this is just too much. The 2nd time I visited Cafe Shibuya, the toast lacked a little bit of butter sauce, so it lessened the impact.

Cafe Shibuya

Ground Floor, UP Town Center

Katipunan Ave, 1105 Quezon City

Contact No.: (0947) 221- 3836

 

Operating Hours:

Sun-Thur – 10am to 10pm

Fri-Sat – 10am to 12pm

Cafe Shibuya on Facebook

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