Za's Cafe

The book fair was really exhausting ah! Scrimmaging through the entire floor area of World Trade Center and squiggling your way through a throng of book crazed people can really be exhausting!!!

Famished and all, I thought of a nice old place where we could have lunch. Za's Cafe is the resto attached to the original Hizon's bakeshop in J. Bocobo, Malate. Yup, yup! Before the outlet's of Hizon's mushroomed in malls, we used to go all they way to J. Bocobo to purchase their ensaymadas, bankasuys, chicken pies, brownies (I still love their brownies!), raisin breads and ofcourse..the all time favorite mocha and chocolate birthday cakes! hahaha I remember everytime we go there, we hord stuff because we know it would take a while before we can go back! Now the novelty of Hizon's is gone...so when we got there, we headed straight up to the cafe side.


Their dessert specialty are the cherry and apple pies. These items are not to be found on the Hizon's side. They have cheesecakes, pineapple pie, sans rival...etc...

No cherry Pie that day though...

They offer traditional Filipino breakfast and what's great here are the savory entrees..

To start off...we were given these ultra soft, brioche like dinner rolls....

look at that...its almost like an ensaymada, sans the slathering of butter, sugar and cheese!!!!


It's cottony soft...look at this.....

we both had one of that bread basket each!!! Grabe!!! Ang soft kase...that when you bite into the bread..it dessolves agad...so light!!! We felt like we had dessert already! =)


The Creamy Shrimps

Served with rice.....it's really good! It's like a shrimps ala king!!!


the reason we were given 2 bread baskets was because we didn't take the rice that went with the Porkchops with Applesauce

two grilled porkchops served with rice or in our case, a bread basket, green beans, thick cut fries and applesauce....sooooo goood!!!


I am not a huge fan of pork chops...I mean..it's just pork chops right? Believe me these are really juicy and cooked really tender and very flavorful...you'll forget its pork! hahahahah

As if we were not yet full to the brim...we have to try one of them pies!!!hehehe We chose the Apple pie and had it served ala mode....

The waiter forgot my resquest to warm up the pie...kaya pala 'di nag me-melt yun ice cream! hahaha The pie wasn't so great..the pastry crust was similar to that of a savory pie...as opposed to a sweet pastry that should have been used. The apples were crunchy....and ma-apple naman...but it was something you can pass on =)

The menu indicated that they use HILLS BROTHER's for their brewed coffee...so old school...but it was ok =)

It's a real family place...good for Sunday lunch. The place is a bit old already...time has taken it's toll on the interiors, but still, it has this feel of taking you back in time...pati yun mga patrons parang from another time!! bwahahaha ;P---just kidding! An old family favorite...a bit pricey for the ambiance but the food is great =)