Chez Karine at Serendra is the newest addition to the Serendra restaurants one can visit when visiting The Fort or High St. With its homey vibe, huge windows, and colorful pastries one is instantly drawn to come and check out what they had. I’ve been raring to go and hearing that it has some of the best pastries in town so I just had to check it out. After all, my office is just a quick 2 minute walk from the place right? Armed with a list of things I needed to try, I decided to go one particularly sunny friday afternoon.

Upon entering the store one is greeted by cheery staff but none of that matters as you quickly see an assortment of goodies they have for that day. I barely glance at the menu as the meager yet good selection of pastries greet me. Yes I agree in the Philosophy of simplifying things and limiting choice. It was much easier to select what I wanted to try without wanting / wishing I had more choices.

The selection they presented was enough for me to want to try everything but decided against it for fear of a hurting wallet or diabetes. (I don’t know which is worse to be honest!)

The glass case showcased each treat as if in a jewelry store and the attendants were knowledgeable about each product and I could tell that they really have tried the desserts upon asking which tasted better.

I was definitely excited to start trying these out.

I quickly made my selection of the Muscovado Royal Pudding.

I’ve heard great things about this pudding.

They come in these tiny little jars with the bakery’s name on it. At the bottom of the jar is the muscovado syrup. On top of it layers of Royal Pudding.

How was it?

As you can see it didn’t last very long.

It was smooth, light, and every bit tasty. For Php 100 a bit on the pricey side but more than worth it if you ask me. Its a lighter version of our Leche Flan but just as tasty. I was pleased with this that it didn’t disappoint.

There are other variants of the Royal Pudding such as Mango, Kiwi, Strawberry and Vanilla which entices me to come back again.

Next on the must try list was the Macarons.
I was skeptical on this. I’ve tried lots of different Macarons. One from Diamon Hotel, Bizu, Bacolod’s Felicia’s and Calea, my friend Alex’s version, so I thought I’ve tried them all. I never quite liked Macarons since they’re mostly air and sugar. Most tend to make them a little bit too sweet for my taste.

But I think I’ve found my Macaron of choice. The Dark Chocolate Macaron was just heavenly. It was like there was great big huge chocolate party in my mouth! My tastebuds were dancing for joy! It was chocolate that was rich and decadent without being to sweet. I didn’t even mind that I was eating half air. At 50 pesos a pop these aren’t the cheapest macarons out there but definitely worth my money.

Since I knew I couldn’t try everything bringing friends with me has always been a great excuse to eat out and be able to try more than one can eat. I was with Karrots Nazareno host and blogger at Karotitay.com (she’s hilarious btw!) and Frances Sales of http://www.topazhorizon.com/

Karrots ordered the Strawberry Gourmandise

I think she liked it because she finished the whole thing by herself!

Frances then had the Honey Bread. I had no idea what that was until it came out. Basically its a Japanese Cake. Layers of chiffon inside a bread housing with Chocolate Icecream, whipped cream, macarons, bananas and nutella. HOW.CAN. YOU.GO.WRONG?

And this thing was HUGE.

and GOOD! Look at that Nutella goodness dripping. They topped it with almonds and bananas. Did I mention how epic this thing was?

And yes, we finished every single bit of it!

Overall it was a great experience at Chez Karine. The staff were friendly, even the customers were nice and friendly. A good selection of coffee and shakes and tea were available. I would definitely be back to try out the other goodies such as the Chocolate Mousse whose name escapes me at the moment but looks like this.

If you’d like to try Chez Karine they are located at Serendra Bonifacio Global City, Taguig.

Cheers!