METRO MANILA | Banapple at Quezon City

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Banapple's Cozy Interior An impromptu afterwork snack with a couple of friends found us at Banapple at Tomas Morato. They have been raving about this place for quite sometime now and it was my first time to try their menu.

Banapple is bakery café that started out in 2000 by a husband and wife team, the Jimenez’s. They serve freshly baked cakes, pastries, desserts, pastas and coffee. Their original branch is at Katipunan with an offshoot at the place we dined in at Il Terrazzo on Tomas Morato. The place got its playful name from their bestselling desserts, the Banoffee Pie and the Apple Caramel Crumble.

Their ambience is quite casual, diners can opt to eat inside their cozily lit interior or have it al fresco on the seats outside. I’m not sure if it’s just the summer heat as it was really warm outside even if there is an electric fan sweeping the area. Seating capacity is limited and fills up pretty fast during lunch and the early evenings.

Serving time is okay, not really that fast but you won’t be waiting much too.

First off to arrive was the Cheese & Mushroom Pie, priced at Php65.00, it was huge and was definitely enough for two persons. It has a subtle cheesy taste, with chunks of diced mushrooms nicely filling up your palate, great for vegetarians. The taste can get a bit tiring after a while though so it’s best paired up with their pastas, which arrived a few minutes later.

Their Baked Creamy Cheesy Pene’s (Php155.00) presentation was really not that enticing, it looks like they just Banapple's Chicken Breast Parmigiano (P165) dumped the whole thing down to the bowl, added the white cheese and the meaty tomato sauce, then baked and served it as it is. But don’t let that fool you, as it is superb, very very flavourful. It comes with two Pesto Butter breads that helps tone down the strong flavor of the pasta. Really good and serving is generous, but could have been better if only they clean up the presentation a bit.

I didn’t get to try the dishes ordered by my friends; the Lasagna Roll-Ups (Php160.00) a tomato meat sauce based lasagna filled with herbed cream and Parmesan cheese topped with Mozzarellas, and the Chicken Breast Parmigiano (Php165.00), which is basically chicken breasts encrusted with Parmesan crumbs in stewed tomato sauce and Mozzarella. Their presentation looks real nice too compared with the pasta we had.

Banapple; good food, huge servings and cozy ambience. Great place to hang out with friends. Next time I’ll try out their desserts too.