Kubiertos

The Secret Recipe is an award winning global cafe that was first formed more than ten years ago. Although several of its awards include Best Restaurant or Best Casual Dining establishment, the place is more popular for their selection of desserts especially their famous cheesecakes.

Their chosen name makes me think of a homey place that serves comfort food that will make you keep coming back. This thought though stops with the restaurant’s name.

I admit that it was my idea to have our high school "barkada" (a.k.a girlfriends) reunion at the Secret Recipe in Shangri-la Mall. I grabbed at the opportunity for lunch out with my friends plus the chance to try out this much talked about place.

My first thought as we entered the place was actually impressive. The colors and decoration were funky in a splash of red and white. The vibrant ambience created a feeling of youth and life to say the least. There were pictures of the food they offered that hung on the walls and my mouth watered at the thought of subjecting my taste buds to the dishes that my eyes feasted on.

I was debating between ordering the pasta carbonara and the dory with lobster sauce when I heard the server say they did not have both prawns and lobster sauce in stock. That made me scramble to pick another dish which took me another 30 minutes as I could not find one that really catered to my mood at the time. I settled with the Caribbean style sea bass in cream sauce thinking that at least I was getting premium quality fish. I ordered Spaghetti Bolognese for hubby and kid’s portion of it for my eldest son.

Bolognese Pasta Php 180.00

The Bolognese pasta was described to be butter spaghetti noodles topped with minced beef (or chicken) and mozzarella cheese. It appeared as described when it was laid down in front of my husband. His expression after the first forkful contradicted the assumption that it was good. Thinking my hubby was just being picky, I urged my kid to eat his. He put a big portion into his mouth with excitement. And then he looked at me and crinkled his nose. Uh oh. My kid obviously did not like what he was eating. He reached out for the fries that we had earlier ordered and stuffed his mouth full with it.

I was surprised because kids always like spaghetti. Ok, I braced myself and spooned the sauce inside my hesitant mouth.  Hmmm. Ok. Weird. I could not tell what I was tasting. Sure there was the beef, and definitely some tomato sauce, but I could not pinpoint why it did not taste at all like Bolognese. I looked closer and saw some bits of what looked like carrots mixed in with the ground beef. I tried to look for other stuff that would have altered the traditional ragu taste but it looked like the normal red sauce to me. Whatever it is, it did not work for me, my hubby and my kids (oh even yaya hated it).

Caribbean Sea Bass Php 350.00

The fish was unceremoniously lacking in any kind of presentation. My first impression was bland and lifeless, not even ordinary. The size of the fish smothered in pesto cream sauce overwhelmed the small plate that I wondered how the big leaf of lettuce managed to fit in. I meant, the big leaf of wilted lettuce softened by the dressing it was dipped in. For 300 bucks, I expected more. I did not get it. Although what it lacked in presentation it certainly made up in taste. The pesto cream sauce was unusually light but tasty. The sauce made the dish bearable as I hardly tasted the fish which disappeared underneath all the sauce. I could tell hubby loved it as he finished almost half of it (or maybe he wanted to get the Bolognese out of his mind and mouth).

Not wanting to end the experience with such disappointing fares, I convinced my friends to order dessert. I personally selected caramel cheesecake. The cake looked so smooth and pristine inside the glass display together with all the other seemingly yummy dessert selection. It did not disappoint. Our frowns turned into grins as my kid and I tried not to finish the whole slice of cheesecake as we promised everyone we would share the desserts. I was forced to take home a slice as I could see my kid was still salivating over the leftovers.

I wish that Secret Recipe would evolve into truly the award winning restaurant it so clearly boasts of. Although their desserts were top quality, they marketed their place as a restaurant rather than as a dessert place. And really if you came for the food and found it inadequate, do you think a good dessert will make you forget it? I don’t think so.

Secret Recipe
Level 5, Shangri-La Mall,
EDSA corner Shaw Blvd.,
Mandaluyong City
Tel. no: 637-0367

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 23rd, 2008 at 10:06 pm and is filed under Cakes and Pastries, Fusion, Secret Recipe . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.