#highstreetcafe

I visited High Street Cafe a few weeks ago during its Sunday brunch service. The first thing that I really admired was its very bright and homey ambiance, similar to a classy living room in a classy house. Wooden bookshelves acted as separators between sections or neighborhoods, and it radiated a very relaxed and casual mood, like sitting at a friendly coffee shop.

It looks like I’m just sitting at home by the living room. High Street Cafe’s charming character is just part of what it has to offer, as guests can come and savour its nine buffet stations designed like a food hall. These stations offer Western, Pan-Asian, Chinese, Japanese, Mediterranean and Rotisserie dishes with delicious options from the Seafood bar, Salad bar and Dessert station.

A selection of cured hams are available to start the buffet like Prosciutto and Salami Milano, but the best one to get is the Pancetta which are like soft and silky bacon strips. There are also a few cheese options like Gorgonzola, Manchego and Parmesan.

I don’t really like salads so I obviously skipped the Salad Station, but there are enough green options here to keep the health buffs happy. The Mudcrab with Mango Avocado in a Jar is one of their specialties although I did not get to try it.

I was more interested in the Cold Seafood Station with prawns, mussels, and crabs. It’s better to have these cooked at the grilling station to give it more flavors.

Most hotel buffets don’t include beverages but thankfully High Street Cafe offers a couple of cold drinks to quench your thirst like the Moroccan Mint Iced Tea and the Fruit Punch. You can still order other beverages from their menu but these will be charged accordingly.

They also have a Noodle Station where you can request your preferred type of noodle dish. The Laksa is their signature dish at this station. High Street Cafe is set up like a food hall where your dishes are made upon request. While this means your food is served hot and fresh, it does take some time to prepare each dish separately and it can be a bit of a hassle to wait for your order each time.

The Japanese station is more to my liking with various sushi and sashimi. The big and fresh Sustainable Tuna displayed on the table is the highlight of this section, but they also have salmon sashimi, although you have to request this from the chef.

High Street Cafe also offers a few special items of the month that are served on a limited time basis. An example is the Paella Burger at the Sandwich station which is a fusion of the Spanish paella with chorizo and Iberico Jus. Another unique dish is the Beef Burger Patty and Cheese-filled Wanton, which blends Chinese wanton and American burgers this time. These are interesting dishes but I did not really find them too likeable as the combinations were quite uncanny. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see the chefs using their creativity and offering something different each month.

My favorite section at High Street Cafe would have to be the Chinese and Filipino Station. This is where most of the good stuff is.

The Roasted Lechon Belly is the highlight at this station. Its crispy skin and juicy meat makes this one of the most sought after items here. I was actually expecting to see some Roasted Duck but unfortuantely there was none available.

Another Filipino delicacy is the Chicharon Bulaklak and it was surprising to find this street food here at the restaurant. This is one way of showing other nationalities what our street food culture is all about.

I also like the Beef Bulalo soup but I felt that these were mostly basic Filipino dishes that we often encounter in other restaurants. They were good but I was hoping for something more.

The dimsum selection was quite disappointing, with only three kinds of dimsum including small pieces of siomai that was not of good quality. They did not even have hakao, which should be part of a buffet of this stature. But fortuantely, what made up for it was the Dong Bao Claypot Rice. This sizzling claypot dish is similar to the ones I saw in the streets of Hong Kong, topped with very tender pork and partly burnt rice at the bottom of the very hot pot. This is probably the best claypot rice dish I have encountered in the city.

Another popular item is the Lechon Macau which is cut and placed inside a wrapper, similar to Peking Duck. They also had very good Tempura and these partly covered for the limited selection of items at the other stations.

Another signature dish is the Kiss My Beef Cheek with its very tender and flavorful beef covered in a savory sauce. There were grilled items like steak, liempo and fish but these were not really that memorable. Maybe there were other dishes that I overlooked, but it was sometimes confusing trying to find out which dishes were offered at each station.

The Dessert Station had a better setup because you can see everything that you wanted. A great selection of cakes and sweets are displayed and the problem would be having to choose which one to get first. Twelve different flavors of ice cream are on hand, from the basic Cookies and Cream to the unique concepts like the Mangga’t Suman, Popocorn and the Burnt Rice. I wanted to try them all but my diet wouldn’t let me.

Everyone will love the macarons at High Street Cafe with five different variants starting with the Passiot Fruit, Black Sesame, Raspberry, Ube and Dulce de Leche. My favorite was the Dulce de Leche but everything else was just as good.

You can also order the Molten Lava Cake although it takes around six minutes for the server to prepare your item. Just come back to the station after getting some macarons then get your Molten Lava Cake topped with Vanilla ice cream. They also have a number of tarts and cakes like the Strawberry Tart and Mango Tart.

There were a few hits and misses during my experience at the High Street Cafe. My main concern was the lack of other prime items that you would normally see in other Shangri-la buffets like the roast duck, hakao, lamb and even lobster. While you can’t expect all of these items to be present, most of them should. Another surprise that other guests had was that the restaurant did not offer validation for hotel parking. While High Street Cafe may not overtake my other favorites like HEAT and Circles, it does offer another good dining option for those in the BGC area. With rates ranging from P1,550 to P2100 nett per person, I’ll probably give it another try one of these days when they offer a good promotion. But for now, I will just have to wait and see.

HIGH STREET CAFE

Level 2, Shangri-la at the Fort, 30th Street corner 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

820-0888

www.shangri-la.com/manila/shangrilaatthefort