When the Veranda of Robinson's Galleria was still under construction, I already know that a new restaurant called Hyphy will be opened there, thanks to a couple of friends and business contacts who are silent partners in Chef Bruce Lim's latest baby. Yes, a new food adventure to try! A few months after it opened, they invited me to try it and the food was so good I had to ditch my "diet". Since then, I've been going back to Hyphy but I always didn't have my camera with me so I've never blogged about it. This time though, I was armed (with cam) and ready (to eat), and had a fun Satururday late lunch with friends.
Hyphy is Chef Bruce Lim's tribute to the San Francisco-Filipino dishes that he enjoyed as he was growing up. The exterior is simple, all-glass walls that even the kitchen at the back of the restaurant can be seen. Inside, it is just homey with the wood furniture and clean lines in the dining area. The stone wall was decorated with wood planks that are actually skateboards with wheels taken off.
The menu offered a variety of yummy treats from the light (soup, salad and sanwiches) to the heavy (pasta and rice meals) and sweet (pastries and frozen yogurt selections). For dinner and late night eating, they also serve beer, house mocktails and cocktails. Since we are a big group, we decided to order one meal each that we all can share plus three desserts. This way, we get to sample many dishes yet not eat as much and later on regret the calories we piled on.
First came the soup, Clam Chowder, a thick and creamy clam and potato soup served inside a sour dough bread reminiscent of clam chowders in San Francisco's Pier 9. The soup is so tasty and filling, especially if you decide to eat the bread it came in with.
The Cobb Salad is made of fresh greens with grilled chicken and bacon bits, cubed cucumbers and cheese, cherry tomatoes and black olives. A light appetizer (or a meal for the diet conscious). I love vegetable salads and this one in particular is a delectable variation.
I am not really into eating meat, specially beef since it is hard to digest, but I wasn't able to resist the SF Steak Sandwich when my friend urged me to try it. The thinly sliced beef of the sandwich is tender, juicy and made tastier with the cheese pimiento dressing with added ingredients -- pickles and corn kernels -- that was a surprising delight, giving every bite good texture and a burst of flavors. The fries, served on the side with honey-mustard dip, were long and evidently from large potatoes, well-cooked and not oily or soggy.
Next on my taste list were the pasta/noodle dishes. The Calamansi Tuyo Pasta was so fragrant (citrusy and garlicky) that I could smell it even from the other end of the table. The dish had chunks of our native dried salted fish (tuyo) sauteed in garlic oil, tossed into al dente spaghetti noodles topped with cheese and calamansi. I love this to bits! For those who want more tuyo in their plate, Hyphy added a whole fish to satisfy this craving, while those who want to offset the saltiness of the pasta, they can take a bite of the pimiento bread sticks (yes, the bread sticks are not just for decoration). Chowmien, on the other hand, has a very subtle flavor -- organic and earthy -- with a hint of sweetness from the julienned carrots and the mild spice of the sweet-chili sauce.
At this point, I felt full already but for the sake of writing this entry, I took bite-size portions of the remaining food while making a mental note to skip dinner.
I thought the Dapa Fillets are a variation of the 'pinaupo', 'pinaputok', 'nilasing' and other action-named dishes. It turned out the 'dapa' is actually the name of the fish, otherwise known as Pinoy sand dabs. The fillets were breaded and pan fried to golden brown color, topped with calamansi cream sauce and served with rice and buttered vegetables. One bite revealed a well cooked fillet seasoned perfectly.
The Bangus Steak or deboned marinated Milkfish is meaty and obviously fresh. The fish was marinated using Chef Bruce's grandma's special sauce, pan fried, and served with rice, buttered vegetables and pickled papaya (atchara) -- a perfect dish for pesco-vegetarians who crave for tasty meals.
Next on the list is the Roasted Chicken that was slow roasted with Pinoy herbs and topped with gravy. The chicken meat, cooked tender but firm, has a mild ginger flavor which reminded me of the taste of tinola. The Grilled Chicken is a backyard barbecue chicken that is juicy and tender, and tastes of herbs and spices.
For a taste of honest-to-goodness Pinoy pork barbecue, the aptly named Kanto Pork BBQ is it! The street food bbq flavor is perfectly captured and when eaten with spicy vinegar, rice and atchara, this is the ultimate comfort food (just throw calorie-counting out the window).
Another must-try offering on the menu is the intriguing Japanese-sounding Spam Masubi. I haven't encountered this fare before so I was willing to try. True enough, the dish looked like a giant Japanese maki -- slices of spam topped with rice and egg, wrapped in seaweed and served with sweet soy sauce. Chef Bruce used fuji rice with a special sauce to simulate Japanese sticky rice, whicc is more expensive and will need the use of rice wine for flavoring. Spam Masubi is a complete and heavy meal by itself.
To close the wonderful lunch, we ordered three desserts for sharing as well. When the Choco Chip Sandwich was served, it elicited expressions from us like children seeing a yummy giant choco chip cookie for a giant cookie jar. The homemade cookies sandwiched in vanilla ice cream with warm chocolate sauce was truly a sweet temptation but we had trouble in trying to cut it into nicely sliced portions because the cookie was thick and hard. So we ended up eating jaggedly cut pieces but we didn't mind because we devoured it the way kids would, crumbs and all.
The Bread Pudding is a melt-in-your-mouth delight, topped with raisins and banana slices caramelized in sugar.
Tablea Chocolate Duo Pudding is a dark chocolate creation, swirled with white chocolate, topped with whipped cream and dusted with freshly grated tablea. This dessert was the first to be finished on the table, proof that it was really good. A superb, bitter-sweet delight that really hits the spot.
Fun catch-up lunches with friends are a treasure in this busy world so I am so happy to have spent a few hours with them during the long weekend. A balikbayan friend will be in town next week and will have dinner with us so watch out for my next food blog.
