First Bite: Ikigai Kakigori Café

Bingsu has been popular in Manila last year when Café Seol Hwa made such an impact to the foodie community (especially to those struggling to survive from the summer heat). Since then, several bingsu restaurants popped literally everywhere.To spice things up, a Japanese shave ice concept came to Manila--Ikigai Kakigori Café. Since we were already around the area, we decided to drop by after Kozui Green Tea. (Yes, it was right after wolfing down a bowl of soft serve ice cream simply because we were really melting that day.)

Hello, Ikigai Kakigori Café.

The quaint looking café has a very Japanese vibe with its adorable façade and decors. The restaurant itself is cramped and could sit a maximum of 10-12 diners, sardines style. Moving around the restaurant was barely possible when we were there. Anyway, on to our orders.

One thing I love about these looloo foodies is that they are game to try anything. We got our orders down in less than 2 minutes. We got the bestsellers Matcha Kakigori (PHP190 | PHP250), Mango Kakigori (PHP180 | PHP240), Kuromitsu Kakigori (PHP180 | PHP240) and Strawberry Ichigo Kakigori (PHP210). 

Service was quick and first served was Strawberry Kakigori. 

It didn’t look as appetizing as the ones I'd get from bingsu places like Hobing or Seol Hwa but it was spot on with the milkiness of the shaved ice. The strawberry chunks were a bit mushy and covered in milk and sweeteners but still delightful to munch on. This was the best one we had at Ikigai.

The Matcha Kakigori was served next and it came with matcha ice cream, adzuki, shiratama (mochi) and extra matcha syrup. 

It was quite plain and needed more matcha syrup (more than what was given as extra) especially for hardcore matcha lovers. I liked the shiratama and adzuki though as it added a different texture to the bowl of shaved ice. The matcha ice cream was pretty good too.

Love at First Bite: Hobing Korean Dessert Café

It’s the time to sweat bullets and feel so icky after walking a couple of blocks. It is also the time to have that insatiable desire for anything cold. Oh yes, summer is here. As a person who is not exactly fond of summer, the only thing I look forward to this season is having a convenient reason to have a cold treat or two on a daily basis. And yes, one of the rewards I look forward to is bingsu. Finely shaved milk ice topped with delectable fruits and other sweets… what’s not to love? The best part? More and more players are popping here and there giving us foodies a wider variety of toppings.  One of the new players in the market is Hobing.

Hello, Hobing!

After a filling dinner at Melo’s, R and I decided to walk towards BGC Stopover to visit this new bingsu place for dessert.

The place was packed when we got there around 8:30 p.m. With only one empty table available, we hurriedly ordereStrawberry Bingsu (PHP215, small | PHP330, large) with ice cream as topping instead of whipped cream at no additional cost. (We feel that ice cream is more value for money than whipped cream.) 

Our bingsu arrived after 20 minutes. Quite a long wait but understandable given the crowd and we were still full from our steak dinner.