We love Mall of Asia. You need to get use to it before really appreciating the genius of its design. We live near the area so we like to hang out here during the weekdays. Usually, Weekends are a no-no for us, but the Typhoon Milenyo weekend was an exception. With most establishments in the Makati area still having no power, Mall of Asia is back to business as usual. This is the kind of reliability that you need from a mall specially during times of crisis 🙂 Aside from this, we love MOA because of its family oriented design where you can find play/ game houses for the kids in every corner and very good shopping places for my wife. This is the first time when we fell in love with a mall.
However, I felt I had exhausted all the new cool resto places in MOA when we suddenly can’t figure out where to eat. We haven’t tried Bed Scenes, but the food i hear is not that good (please let me know if you hear otherwise). There are the celebrity-owned restos facing the bay like the Yaku Japanese resto owned by jason webb and family and Lamesa Grill with Sen. Kiko Pangilinan as one of the owners I heard. But I cannot seem to drag my feet into those restos– can’t seem to find a reason to do so. Pink Peppers– we are not sure too. We don’t usually repeat any restaurants when it is just me, my wife and Aidan.
Out of nowhere, we came across Tokyo Cafe with its cool white interiors and seductive menu line up. It reminded me of Teriyaki Boy kind of food but without the Chicken grill in the menu. We saw the actor, Michael de mesa and family eating there so we decided to check it out too. I’m sure there is no Tokyo cafe in Tokyo and this would be a Manila version of what a Tokyo cafe would look and taste like. I’m not sure who the owner is and I was not able to get more info about its existence and ownership. Let us know if you know the story of tokyo cafe.
The Verdict? It is very good as expected for a fast food type of resto. We don’t mind going back here to check out the Pizza and Pasta items.
It’s a small cozy place and Here is the –> Tokyo Cafe Menu. The prices are a bit expensive at P200+ and it is exclusive of VAT but with no service charge.
Kani Crab Sandwich (P139). Japanese kani sticks in zesty dressing. We love this the moment we took a bite of the crispy bread where our teeth sunked into the shredded crabsticks. This also reminds me of the Oliver’s sandwich version but the difference here is that the bread is thick and crispy all the way through. This one of those food items, that has a photo in the menu and it deserves to be there. You won’t go wrong with this.
Chicken Cheese Balls (P213).Fillets of chicken legs stuffed with melted cheddar with caramelized soy. A bomb cheese! I took an immediate liking to this crunchy chicken balls with the cheesy creamy filling. The terriyaki sauce added flavor to it. It was like eating a tonkatsu except for the cheesy filling. Best eaten when hot! We love the cheese squirting out of the chicken balls every time you bite it or slice it in half.
Shrimp Bisque (P73). Full flavored shellfish soup. No special taste that came with this cream soup, just itsie bitsie shrimps. True it is tasty but I could not describe its taste. I wouldn’t recommend this not unless you are really into Shrimp bisque.
Tokyo Cafe is directly across the Kopi Roti in the Mall of Asia in the South wing. Enjoy!!
Hi Anton! Visited this place last June. When we asked the server to recoemmend to us their best seller – she pushed for us to get the Tokyo Chops and a pizza. I loved the pizza, as I am a pizza girl. But my Panget was really disappointed with the Tokyo Chops – we thought that it was something special and it just turned out to be Tonkatsu with a nicer name! Customer Service was great though!!:)
Just a recommendation … Mall of Asia is so HUGE it would be very helpful if for all your MOA resto posts you have a little area map of the mall where you can highlight exactly where the restaurant is. =)
buti ka naka picture sa menu…bawal daw eh..na sita ako! 🙁
i ate there like last June pa. I like the place and the food but it was quite expensive
hi anton! i love this place 🙂 rumor has it that this was kohikan (the one that closed down in gh). my fave is their breakfast fare 🙂
you went pala to shanghai? i super loved it there!!! you should go to beijing! super food trip everytime i went there! u should also try to go to vietnam! hahaha=) Bangkok was a shopping haven. ;P i kept on eating along the street while doing my night market shopping! hahaha=) outrageous! My next stop? Cambodia, Malaysia, Hongkong and Singapore!
tokyo cafe is owned by bryan. he was the one who invented teriyaki boy then sold it to pancake house. he is back in the japanese restaurant business?!
oh yeah, bryan was the franchisee of kohikan as well. but he closed that and then opened tokyo cafe.
I thought the food here was like UCC, I wasn’t too fond of their main course (such as pasta), but knowing that it has the same owner as kohikan then I better try it then! Love their milk tea. =)
Try the pizza > the pasta..esp if you are onto those thin crusted ones 🙂 The pasta is no big wow but okay lang. DEFINITE MUST TRY – The coffee! Talk about weirdly having it WITH lunch (not after) – my EQ went down when I got the whiff from the other table! Ang bango tlaga!
Aww…the shrimp bisque pa naman ung pinakamaganda ang shot sa menu 🙂 If not given the task of finishing 3/4 of the pizza, I would most probably go for the soup too! oh well. 🙂
P.S. Offtopic but I found my sea bass! It’s in Kai! It is the taste – no “fishiness”, just about right soft. Ironic is…it fell flat on their unagi! Weird for a Jap resto.
Not really as Japanese as I expected but food was nonetheless good. I really adored its minimalist design.
Aidan looks so cute. Lot is due end of the month..Kitakits tayo after
I’ve also eaten here in June and I liked what I ordered. My only complaint is that they don’t serve Coke. I’m such a coke lover. So, even if I like their food and been wanting to eat there again, the thought of not having a Coca cola drink prevents me to do so.
And yes, I agree MOA is actually easy to navigate on your second visit. I also love going there because it’s spacious.
About the coke, I was very happy that they already serve coke here. It made my day.
Just went today.
NO WONDER the coffee drinks were familiar! It was Kohikan at a lower price! Too bitter for my companion, though.
Yup, the kani sandwich was good. For me it was like eating sushi in a sandwich.
The chicken cheese rolls with sauce, quite plain.
What happened to Kohikan? Franchise fee too much? It was pretty good and well visited, too.
Hi Anton! I loved their Shrimp pasta with cream sauce. It’s a lot like Saganaki of Pazzo.
I think your site is great for culinary adventure seekers!!
TOKYO CAFe is one of my favorite restaurant in MOA. Anton is right you really can’t figure out where will you eat when you’re in MOa because MOA is so big. As in, Our Korean friend told us MOa is like an airport to hear haha=) Actually Marami namanmasasarap na restau sa MOA kaso some of it are really pricey and some of it naman pinagsawaan na naten. Kaya buti nalng may bago this TOKYO CAFE in MOA. Our first mpression for this restau it’s like a cheaper version of UCC. kase un set up nila halos similar with UCC. My favorite food in Tokyo cafe are: Chicken ala Pobre, Ebi Shrimp Pasta ata un shrimp with cream sauce, tapos un Chicken in the Basket( parang homestyle pagawa nila) i haven’t tried their dessert pa. But i think it’s very yummy kase sa labas ng makakikita mo un fake na crepes naka display hehe=) so i therefore conlcude: TOKYO CAFE is one of the newest YUMMY restaurant.!
PS: YOu can ask for a map in MOA para di kayo maligaw. Siya un Booth na nagbebenta ng prepaid cards etc. =)
I recently tried Tokyo Cafe and had Chicken and Cheese Rolls, a new addition to their menu. Good food, huge servings and top-notch service.
you should try the yoshi burger… =D also, try one of their cold espresso drinks…
The food was great especially the burgers. They have excellent service too no matter how many people are in the restaurant. I would definitely go there again to try the pasta and chicken basket. =)
I’ve there last saturday with my hubby..I thought the prized there was too expensive like other resto. But I was wrong,,I love their menu and most espcially the ambiance——–awesome
while at MOA, I suggested to my two friends to have dinner at Tokyo Cafe since I’ve read a lot of great reviews about the place. We were left in awe because the pictures in the menu look so good! And they were very prompt in serving water. After just drinking half of the glass, they were refilling it again!
We ordered shrimp bisque, garlic cream hamburg, 2 orders of chicken cheese rolls (not balls, rolls)one with rice and one with garlic bread and strawberry crepe. The shrimp bisque came. nothing to rave about. Then the burger. Since it’s was served on a sizzling place, we expected the burger to be sizzling hot. but nooo! room temperature burger.The grease built-up after a few minutes.
rice and garlic bread for chicken cheese rolls came. then…never ending wait. waiting.. still waiting. waiting for the cheese rolls to arrive. after 30 minutes, we asked them where are those damn chicken cheese rolls. they said five more minutes. bahaw na yung kanin! wala pa rin yung chicken!
moreover, i saw other friends arrived then seated at the other table and their order came first! they had the same cheese rolls! considering we came and ordered first like 15 minutes before them. it’s forgivable if we have to wait 30 minutes for the chicken cheese rolls just like everybody else.
their service sucks. maybe this is an isolated case. but still, a customer is a customer. and the waitress is a little bitchy when we were demanding for the chicken cheese rolls. she just left without uttering a single word.
too bad, the chicken cheese rolls were really great. it’s just that the bad service was overwhelming that the good food doesn’t matter anymore.
Thanks for the review, Anton. I guess I should take advantage of the promo they have on CashCashPinoy. More power to you!