01:59: in a continuing effort to cheer my friend up (and because it was her birthday and i had missed the dinner party she held on saturday), we went out for a very late dinner. a new year means new things and new places, so off we went to this new place that just recently sprang out of nowhere - proud mary.
to be honest, we ended up there because no other place was opened at 22:30 on a sunday night. the place was practically empty, we weren't even sure they were open. only one other couple was there, dining two tables away. we later learned they owned the place. still, the place was quite nice. we didn't regret going there.
if there was one thing we learned in college, it was to look at things with a critical eye. my friend and i immediately started commenting on the decor and the design of the place. there's an area in the front with couches and coffee tables and magazines. almost like a reception area at a spa, i thought.
in hindsight, our local neighborhood bar has sort of the same set-up. it's just more grungy. proud mary has more of a lounge feel.
we were told that it's not completely finished yet. next week, they'll be bringing in the tv's to be placed against the wall. they've got wi-fi, too. coolness!
i'd imagine it's a great place to dine and watch the lifestyle network or discovery travel & living or some such channel. and the staff is friendly and accommodating, too. my only real complaint was that the music ruined things. the atmosphere called for longue or chill-out or starbucks-type music or even pogi jazz. i didn't mind the fact that they had the radio on, but at least put it on wave 89.1 or crossover 105.1 or something more suitable to the atmosphere. i know it's a sunday, but leaving the radio on rj?? i swear, every new (i should say old) song evoked a new facial expression of horror mixed with disgust. but enough about that. let's talk about the food.
i had just had dinner so all i ordered was a mango shake and a banoffee pie. if you like your banoffee with chunky bananas, you'll probably like the way they do it. personally, i'm in it for the toffee, which was rather good, but i felt there wasn't enough of it to balance out the chunks of banana. the mango shake was similar to what you'd find in bizu. it's practically liquid mango. yummmm!
i forgot what the dish was called, but my friend ordered a fried pork dish, which was pretty tasty.
the menu was interesting and i'll make it a point to come back. there are a number of things i'd like to try, like their crab meat soup, or the scampi pasta.
proud mary is located towards the end of tomas morato, just before you reach the abs-cbn compound.
after dinner, we went to kozui, a quaint cafe(?) that serves mostly green tea.
being a fan of chai and green tea, i've always wanted to go there, but never truly found the opportunity to do so. besides, it always looked so intimidating from the outside. i imagined it would look a lot like a chinese restaurant, not unlike le ching in greenhills back in the early '90s. not so. think of it as starbucks, only everything is lime green and everything on the menu is made of tea. and i do mean everything. take their cakes for example - green tea cheesecake and tearamizu (i'm a sucker for corny food names, i'm sorry. i figure this would go well with binalot's calamansi flavored iced tea, kalamantea. nyahahahahaha!).
the idea of having nothing but tea on the menu seems daunting but because green tea is so mild, it does go along with pretty much anything. they have different kinds of green tea and oolong tea, mixed with all sorts of flavors. so far, i have tried an ice blended green tea with butterscotch. i loved it. my friend ordered something with mint and lime. loved that, too. having just come from dinner, we were unable to try any of the food. but there's a lot more to kozui. they've also got cool merchandise for sale.
and the place itself is simple and inviting, not to mention the music was good. heheh.
on the second floor, they've got a nice, quiet area where i am sure i'll be spending lots of time in, either chatting with friends or quietly reading a book by myself.
i honestly wish kozui had more branches. so far it's just this one branch along tomas morato, across from mocha blends.
my review on kozui? i love it!!!!! if you're a tea person, i'm sure you'll love it, too!
(i aoplogize. my friend said if i was to blog about this, we would need proof that i was actually there. with everything around me so japanese, i couldn't help but do the pose.)Labels: hang-out stories, raves, updates
brewed by lifecafe
