Hopeless Romantic: Private Dining- Chef’s Table

I can’t wait to start my Hopeless Romantic (HR) posts! I’ve always been a romantic and I love love planning date days for me and H. So I wanted to help out other girlfriends and wives out there to plan the perfect date for your special someone. I will be doing some reverse blogging and will also post my new date ideas too. Hopefully I get to give you some good ideas based on my experiences. 🙂

I want to share one of the lasts special dates I’ve planned before we got married. It was Feb 10, 2009 when we celebrated Valentine’s since we don’t normally celebrate it the 14th because of traffic and unfair price increase.

I planned my special gift. Was supposed to cook for him, but didn’t have enough time and resources to do so. Also, I don’t know how to cook so maybe it was for the best. ;p I decided to take him to someone who KNOWS what he’s doing… cooking I mean.

We headed to a secret place in Makati, the Chef’s Table. I didn’t want to tell H where we’re going, (it was all a surprise), unfortunately he didn’t know Chef Bruce. If you don’t watch TV like H, I’m pretty sure you don’t know who Chef Bruce Lim is. He has several TV shows (cooking shows and segments). Anyway, I got his private dining service. I wanted to feel rich for a night and have our own personal chef if you may call it.

The place screams romance. We were their only clients there so it was indeed private dining. 🙂 We sat inside the studio so we can watch Chef Bruce in action. He cooked all our meals, explaining each and every meal, sharing step by step procedure. For one second I thought, should I bring out my pen and paper and take notes? Haha! He’s also very charming. He told us stories, he studied in London. He also trained under Hell’s Kitchen Chef Gordon Ramsay But H watches the show, so when he found out that the HK Chef calls Chef Bruce “asshole”, he put his guard down and enjoyed the rest of the experience.

Chef Bruce told us that we were his first batch of clients for his private dining service. I was thrilled! The food is Superb! It was perfect and sooo filling. The experience… amazing. 🙂 It was all worth it! Definitely one of the best we’ve gone to!

On to the food: *Disclaimer: The food photos do not do justice at all. I didn’t know how to use the camera properly. 🙁

H’s menu:

Minestrone Soup

Root vegetables simmered in chicken stock and enriched with tomato sauce

PCB Skewers 

Pork, Chicken and Beef skewers marinated in ginger soy and grilled to perfection.

Served with a warm cilantro vinegrette

Sirloin of Beef

Garlic and herb marinated sirloin pan seared to medium rare.

Served with buttered sigarilyis and roasted garlic mashed potatoes.

Mango Strudel

Fresh mangos rolled in cinnamon sugar and rolled in phyllo dough. 

Oven roasted to golden brown and topped with a mango crème anglaise.

My menu:

Citrus Salad

Mixed greens tossed in Asian vinegrette and topped with peanuts, oranges, pomelo and crispy fried noodles

 

Fresh Yellowtail tuna mixed with Asian aromatics and topped with crispy kamote strips

   Pork Loin Picatta

Pork loin dusted in flour and pan seared in butter till golden brown.

Topped with a caper butter sauce. Sat on a bed of Penne pasta.

 

Decedent cream custard crusted with sugar topping

Chef Bruce in action!

We weren’t able to have our photos taken with Chef Bruce. But the whole experience was really romantic and amazing. I cannot stop talking good things about our experience there. 🙂

Btw, just a quick update, Chef Bruce has already opened his first restaurant, named Chef’s Table Restaurant.

But if you want the private dining we had, it’s at Penthouse of 1238 E. Jacinto Street, Guadalupe Nuevo, Kalayaan Road, Makati City. You may contact Ms. Michelle Lim, Chef Bruce’s wife, at michelle@chefstablemanila.com.

Hope you guys have fun like we did! 🙂