Food Review: Museum Cafe at Greenbelt 4

When i run at the Ayala Triangle in the Makati area (which isn’t often), i usually see this large cafe just beside the Ayala Museum brimming with office workers, runners and triathletes sipping coffee with their food outside the front door, al fresco and i thought this should be a perfect way to have coffee and a light breakfast after a training run. I did get to visit the place and thought of writing something about it.

Museum Cafe or M Cafe:  Situated within the periphery of the Ayala Museum, this engaging three-in-one offering (bar, restaurant and café) owes its distinct pedigree from the Raintree Restaurant Group that also owns the Grand Cafe Chelsea, Momo Cafe, Stella and the Kabila Filipino Bistro, which is just situated beside M Cafe.

M Cafe’s interior

The interior is contemporary. The hanging crystal-like baloon lamps, rug decor, high ceilings and modern art works has its charms, but on a warm night, it’s the food and the ambiance inside that diners flock to. I was able to check out the place 3 weeks ago on a late lunch when we were invited by PR marketing giant Ogilvy & Mather to a product-service launching.

The all-day menu has built itself as an Asian Cuisine with a modern twist. It fuses Chinese, Filipino and other Asian flavors in innovative combinations resulting in inventive, flavorful dishes i wished i get to sample everyday.

After an appetizer of crispy shrimp ukoy, i had some delectable sharksfin dimsun, freshly steamed with its special light soy, chili and calamansi sauce. The Vietnamese spring rolls is similar to our Lumpia Shanghai but made a bit spicier because of fresh Asian herbs that was garnished into it. The sweetfire chicken wings was another winner as it had that buffallo wings thingy taste–juicy and spicy and it did well with the garlic yogurt dip.

I also had a slicing of the pizza which had bits of Spanish ham (jamon), garlic onions, olives and cilantro. Although uniquely their own, there was nothing eventful about it.  The Mpanada was filling, with generous ground meat and herbs to give it a stirring taste. New to me was the Asian Crab Cake and their special, the Pipino Ensalada which is shredded cucumbers with red and white radish.

Prices here are not cheap, but there’s no arguing that this is a quality dining experience. Note that M Cafe shares the menu of their sister restaurant, the Kabila Filipino Bistro which is immediately beside them at Greenbelt 4.

Here are the pics of my food sampling:

Shrimp Ukoy – P195.00

Fried Vietnamese Spring Rolls (Crispy Lumpia) P295.00

Sweetfire Chicken Wings – P325.00

Pizza Rustica Spanish – P495.00

Ensalada Pipino at Labanos- P95.00

Mpanada – P195.00

Sharksfin Cilantro Dumpling – P225.00

M’s Asian Crab Cakes – P425.00

Dalandan Iced Tea – P125.00