New Favorites at Bench Café

Bench is one amazing brand. From a humble retail store, it has expanded to more than just selling clothes. Now seen as a lifestyle brand, it now has spin off brands like Bench Fix and one of its more recent ventures, Bench Café. Its festive and flavorful dishes were instant hit to the BGC market that even those not within the area brave the traffic just to have a taste of the famous Tinapa Cones, Sisig and to die for Halo-Halo. And its newest dishes charmed us as easy as counting 1-2-3. 

Hello again, Bench Café. 

Bench Café recently revamped its menu and added some stellar new favorites in its menu. Now offering more a la carte dishes perfect for sharing, Bench Café becomes a family destination. 

In this FOODEE Crawl with looloo, we got to sample Chef Carlo Miguel's Sinigang na Beef Tadyang sa Santol (PHP370), Dancing Fish in Escabeche (PHP350), Chicken Pork Adobo (PHP249), Crispy Pata (PHP620), Pinakbet Rice (PHP59, solo | PHP139, for sharing) and Banana Cue with Tsoknut Sauce (PHP55).

It was my first time to eat sinigang with santol as the main souring agent. And it was delicious! It had that enticing aroma where one whiff would make you drool. Each slurp of the soup was packed with that delectable tangy taste. The tender beef tadyang was also something else. It was so soft that I didn't have to exert much effort to cut it into smaller pieces. Needless to say, this dish made me sleepless for days as my taste buds kept wanting more. 

Fish lovers would enjoy this picturesque crispy butterfly tilapia which is available in three sauces. We had ours with escabeche.

The sweet and sour sauce was spot on and complemented the fresh and crispy fish. One order is great for at least 4 persons and even 6 if you are ordering other dishes to go with this. 

The classic Chicken and Pork Adobo was further enhanced by Chef Carlo by topping it with generous amount of garlic. This local favorite is best eaten with rice as the garlic flavor might be too overwhelming for some. 

And if you're visiting Bench Cafe with the family, make sure that you order Crispy Pata.  Prepared for over 6 hours to ensure the perfect combination of crispy skin and succulent meat, expect nothing short of jaw-dropping goodness. I was pretty impressed with the crispiness of the skin. There was not one bit that was hard to chew. Though the meat from the edges tend to be a bit too dry for my liking, the meat in the middle was juicy. So go for the middle part!

And to balance all the sinfulness of the meats we devoured, this plate of Pinakbet rice was perfect! Topped with pumpkin chunks, string beans and onion, it was like having another viand on the table. 

To cap our (first) meal, we all feasted on banana cue with Tsoknut. 

Who would have thought that this street food favorite would go so well with the childhood classic snack? Though I still prefer to enjoy my banana cue as is, dipping it in the sweet peanuty sauce was good too. 

I can't wait to go back for more Sinigang sa Santol! 

Bench Café is located at 9th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.