Secret Recipe at Shangri-la Mall

So yesterday I went over to Shangri-la Mall because I heard about a Kiehl's challenge over at Animetric's. That's gonna come later. I'm excited about it, but that has to wait!

Shangri-la Mall East Wing

 The new wing at Shangri-la Mall. It was actually a pretty nice shot until these two walked in. Haha.

TWG Coming Soon

 Hee. TWG is coming over to Orti. It's not looking as nice as the one over at Greenbelt, but it would be nice to have a tea place close by.

Shu Uemura - Shangri-la

 At Floor 2/3 -Is a Shu Uemura.

Kiehl's - Shangri-la

And a Kiehl's where I got my 5 free samples.

While waiting for some family members, I ended up waiting at Secret Recipe on the highest floor of the Mall and ordered an Americano with milk (P95 - according to munchpunch, it's called a Flat White).

Americano and Free Cake

 Apparently, you get a free slice of one of their cream cakes when you order a coffee hot or iced. Yay!

Coffee and Terry Pratchett

 I'm not a big fan of Terry Pratchett, but he is funny, especially his footnotes.

Chocolate Banana Cake

 The free slice, while by no means can be considered a sliver, is a little on the lean side. I don't know why I got a plastic fork with it, but it was yummy! :))

Americano

 I did like the foam art, along with the service: very prompt and very hospitable servers. I got a glass of iced water sometime while I was reading without prompting. The coffee went excellently with the cake.

Chocolate Banana Cake again

I would definitely buy this if it were a bit bigger :)) But I'd rather have it free with a coffee, even if it's a smaller slice.

Would I return? Definitely yes, if I ever had to wait for someone at Shangri-la, or any other mall with a branch as long as they had this promo and I had a good book.


Secret Recipe is at the 5th floor of Shangri-la Mall.

Review: TWG at Greenbelt

Hi M! This post today is care of my friend M who treated me out to a wonderful girl's day out at TWG in Greenbelt 5! Since we were trying to be poshy-posh (and succeeded) in the restaurant, we did not take any pictures. Because pictures are for tooles and we ARE LADIES!! :D

We got there at 4 pm wherein we were told that reservations were only accepted from 12 to 1 so we decided to walk around until 5 pm. When we came back we were seated relatively quickly (because time for low tea was over) and spent 30 minutes deciding what teas to get.

M's impression of TWG: "Gold and Gilded."


What we ordered:
1. Chic Set Menu - P500
Includes:
2 Scones with clotted cream and jam (apricot?)
3 Assorted sandwiches (cucumber, turkey ham and shrimp)
Snow Mountain Tea +100 (not a normal tea)

2. Imperial Set Menu - P650
Includes:
Creme Brulee Tea
Pastry (we had a strawberry tart)
3 Croque Royale (salmon cheese thingies)
3 Macarons

3. Christmas Lights Tea - P195

Very obviously, we decided to have high tea instead ^^ We spent several hours eating. Let me tell you, even with the small, dainty servings, we were able to stuff ourselves mostly because of the teas!

Snow Mountain Tea: neither of us liked this very much. Needed to commit to sugar (a lot of it) in order to be palatable. They say this was a citrus but tasted like the "floweriest of flower teas."

Creme Brulee Tea: when they poured it into our cups, you could smell the scent of strawberries wafting in the air. The first sip was a disappointment tough, but it got better with the second sip. M discovered the sugar on this and made it really good. Half a teaspoon would work.

BTW, the sugar in this establishment/tea house was not in real cube format - aka lumps! M says they could still be considered cubed because of their shape but I do not consider them valid sugar cubes (Sorry M!). So no lumps of sugar for us.

Christmas Lights Tea: M's favorite because it matched the desserts we had perfectly. Didn't really need sugar but tasted good with it. The Creme Brulee tea didn't complement the food while the first tea was horrible.

Morrocan Mint Macaron: Yummy! Tasted like mint. Enough said.

Bain de Roses Macaron: Flowery and ok.

Blackcurrant: Sweet. "Too fruity, lacking substance."

The Macarons cost P50 per piece. I would definitely consider buying the Morrocan Mint Macaron again, though maybe not the other two. I could see myself buying their other flavors to try. While the macaron's were not very elegant, missing the cookie to filling 1:1 ratio, they were sufficiently crumbly and chewy.

I really enjoyed my time there with M. Unfortunately, financial incapabilities prevent something like this from happening as often as I wish.

If you want to have a girly day enjoying high or low tea, then this is the place for you. If you're on a budget, just buy two pots of tea (one per person - it's a rule they have) and enjoy. Expect to spend at least P200 per person, excluding tipping if you don't want to get any food.  While one tea set may be sufficient for a group of two if you just want to experience low tea (I'd recommend the Royal set as it seems more appropriate for low tea), you won't be satisfied if you don't buy at least one dessert per person.

The only negative point of the experience: the servers, while being very nice, polite and helpful, did not seem to be trained to pronounce the names of their products properly. Also, M would prefer that they be capable of recommending teas for your palate/preferences - or give a basic tea test (like you do wine). Hmm... that's an idea, a tea tasting event for TWG! (HEHE, MY IDEA ^^).

Unfortunately, the teas in TWG seem to be VERY EXPENSIVE and the list is overwhelming. I wouldn't trust the tea guide they gave because we found Snow Mountain to be misleading (or was it just us).

THANK YOU M FOR THE MOST WONDERFUL DAY EVER! I LOVE YOU!!

TWG is at Greenbelt 5. Their tea sets are available from 3-6 pm.