I spent five days in Manila and was surprised by how infrequently I ate Filipino food and how often…read moreI ate in chain restaurants and giant malls. I wasn't picking the restaurants, but I got the sense that these choices were at least somewhat reflective of the local dining scene.
For example, we had a perfectly nice lunch at Wildflour Cafe + Bakery, a casual sit-down spot in The Podium. When I was telling my husband about all the chains later that day, he mentioned offhand that the Manzkes, who run a successful restaurant group in Los Angeles, opened an offshoot in the Philippines. It turned out that this was in fact Wildflour Cafe, meaning I went all the way to Manila to eat at a franchise that started two miles from my house.
I'm a big fan of the Manzke restaurants at home and I did like my lunch at Wildflour. The space was comfortable and elegantly decorated, and we were able to reserve a table for our large party (I think we were about a dozen people). Service was great, too, polite and reasonably fast. The staff did a good job with our huge table, though there were a couple of mistakes and delays with the long menu of specialty drinks.
Those drinks were hard to resist, though, as varied and interesting as the food. I ended up getting a black sesame latte, and it was delicious, nutty and lightly sweet. I also gather that Wildflour does excellent pastries, something the Manzkes are known for in L.A.
For my lunch, I went with the Thai green curry. It was different from any Thai green curry I've had at home or abroad, a very thin, brothy curry with chicken, eggplant, coconut milk, chili, kaffir lime, and cilantro-lime rice. It was quite lovely, though, warming and flavorful. I definitely cleaned the bowl.
I wouldn't go out of my way to come back to Wildflour, not when it takes less than ten minutes to get to Republique. But I'd recommend it if you're looking for a cute restaurant at a Manila mall.
