Cafe Oley is a family home converted into a restaurant and located near East Ave. The ambiance is homey and relaxing, and a perfect place for a date or a meal with the family. The restaurant serves classic Filipino comfort foods with a modern take. Be sure to save some room for dessert as the owners are pastry chefs, and the cakes they make are not only appetizing to the eyes, but to the tastebuds as well.
I had the opportunity of eating here through the invite of the owners, so meals and drinks are complimentary. For this visit, I tried a number of dishes including:
- Sisig Bombs (Php150) - another name for the famed dynamite - green chillies and pork wrapped in spring roll wrapper then fried. Instead of pork, they used sisig for a different taste and texture. I love the crunchiness and flavor of this dish.
- Tawilis Salad (Php170) - mesclun greens with assorted vegetables and cheese. The star of this dish are the tawilis, crispy fried small fish that gives the needed crunch and saltiness to the salad. I don't get to eat tawilis often, but I like how it taste. If you are more into the tawilis than the salad, they offer crispy tawilis in the appetizer section for only Php160.00
- Paco Salad (Php160) - seldom do I find this classic Filipino dish in a Filipino restaurant. I am very happy to see this here. The fiddlehead ferns are crunchy and the added tomatoes, salted egg, shrimps, red onions, and the sour calamansi vinaigrette just blends everything up to a very tasty dish. One of my favorite dish during this visit.
- Lengua (Php330) - literally melts in your mouth in rich mushroom sauce.
- Kare Kare Bagnet (Php290) - probably one of the most visually appetizing kare-kareng bagnet I have ever seen. It has a beautiful plating and a sweeter-than-normal peanut sauce which complements the salty bagoong of their own concoction. The bagnet is crispy and satisfying.
- Pork Belly Roll (Php460 for 500g) - I am not a fan of this, but most of my friends say it was delicious. Maybe I'm not really a fan of pork rolls. The meat was okay but the skin was disappointingly not crunchy.
- Grilled Tanigue Tail (Php260) - the fish is tender and you can taste the charcoal grill of it. I love the sweet and sour sauce it marinates in. This is a must-try.
- Stuffed Squid (Php310) - perfectly cooked whole squid stuffed with vegetables and cheese. I was surprised with the cheese because everything goes well with cheese. It made the fillings creamier. Although, the fillings would be better if they were sliced a little bigger so that everything would combine well.
- Adobo Rice (Php230) - what I like about this is that it is not oily and not salty.
- Seafood Pasta (Php310) - slightly spicy tomato sauced linguine with generous servings of fresh seafood.
- Penne Pesto (Php310) - lightly-creamed pesto with chicken chunks and tons of button mushrooms. A delight to eat.
- Rainbow Velvet Cake (Php140) - one of the few shops I know that serves really good rainbow cakes that are smooth, moist, and good. I am not a fan of food coloring, so a few bites is enough for me. :-)
- Exotic Cake (Php130) - a medly of coconut and mango. A refreshing taste.
- Ensaymada (Php90) - soft and fluffy and glazed with caramel. read more