Southbank Cafe + Lounge: My Last Dine-in Experience Before Lockdown

Hey everyone! This is my second official post here on Hive, but my first time to post in this #FoodiesBeeHive community, so I'd like to say hello! Anyway, in my introductory post, I talked a bit about my interests, one of which is FOOD. Prior to the lockdown here in the Philippines, I went out often to try new restaurants or go back to tried and tested classics. When traveling, I'd also check out highly recommended places and create a food itinerary for me and my friends. I can honestly say that I enjoy discovering new awesome food or try some interesting combinations or exotic dishes. Anyway, for my future food posts, it'll probably be about the restaurants I've visited and or the things I cook in the kitchen. Today, I'll be talking about the last time I was able to dine in before our third wave of lockdowns happened.

Southbank Cafe + Lounge

As the name suggests, it's a place that offers the usual things you'd find in a cafe like coffee and food. As for the lounge part, it integrates this kind of speakeasy vibe where you can have some cocktails and unwind after a long day's work. As you can see in the interiors, it manages to create an atmosphere that welcomes those who just wanna grab a bite to eat and those who want to catch up with friends with a drink or two.

The Food

The food didn't really follow a certain type of theme or cuisine, there were some fusion dishes as well, so I think they were aiming to have something on the menu for everyone. For this particular visit, my partner and I got one entree each and then had one appetizer to share.

We started off with the Bonemarrow Toast, which comes with a salad, some bacon jam, and crostinis. I was pleasantly surprised that there was a lot of bone marrow in it, cause I've experienced just having it mostly be made up of bone and not much marrow. The bacon jam was actually pretty good, it was a good complement to the richness of the marrow and paired really well with the crisp crostini.

For my partner, he got the 36-Hour Pork Belly where you can choose between Hickory BBQ or Honey Sriracha. Personally, I would have gone for the BBQ, but he's more of a Sriracha guy, which was I think a good choice in hindsight as it offered a more complex flavor profile than the usual barbeque. The pork belly was also well-seasoned and had a really good texture that almost melts in your mouth, probably due to the slow 36-hour roast. The egg was perfect as well, with just the right amount of seasoning, and had a slightly runny yolk.

As for me, I got the Salmon Aburi, cause I'm such a big fan of Japanese food or Japanese fusion. This also reminded me of one of my favorite dishes in another restaurant so I wanted to know if it's just as good. Fortunately, it didn't disappoint with the very good balance of flavor from the spicy mayo, furikake, and nori. The salmon was also perfectly torched and tasted pretty fresh. What I'm not too keen on however was the multigrain rice, maybe it's just me but I think I prefer just regular Japanese rice. Midway through the meal, we had to transfer inside cause it started to rain, which was great cause we got to see more of the inside.

The Drinks

My boyfriend is an avid coffee drinker (he has a coffee business as well) so it's no surprise that we sampled a couple of their coffee offerings. I started off with the Dark Chocolate Mocha, which is my usual order whenever I go to a coffee shop. On the other hand, he ordered a Dirty Chai cause he got a bit curious if it's as good as one of the chai-based drinks that he's had before.

The espresso they used to make the coffee was pretty good, it was pulled really well and had a balanced flavor profile. The chocolate in the mocha, however, didn't feel that "dark" to me but it wasn't so bad in just the regular mocha context. For the dirty chai, my boyfriend says that he's had better and that he was expecting something different. Although for me, when I tried it, I actually liked it. Lol. Sorry, I guess I'm just fond of complex and sometimes weird flavor combinations.

Because he wasn't satisfied with his first order, my bf ordered a Cappuccino. This time, I think he was satisfied with what he ordered - and the latte art was on point too. As for me, I had to try their cocktails.

It was honestly super fun to see my drink getting made. It's been a while since I've been in a bar or club because of lockdown so it made me feel pretty nostalgic. I wasn't a stranger to making cocktails so I also enjoyed asking the bartender a couple of questions regarding the drink that she was making.

I ordered the gin-based Okinawa, which was made with grapefruit, cherry blossom, lavender, and a spritz of lemon. I was honestly expecting it to be flowery, but I was pleasantly surprised that it had a good balance of that citrusy flavor from the grapefruit and lemon and the flowery notes from the cherry blossom and the lavender. I honestly miss drinking, too bad we still have curfew where I'm from and we're still a long way from having the majority of the population vaccinated. But hopefully, we get to get out more pretty soon.

Overall, our dine-in experience was pretty good. Would definitely come back here, especially for late-night drinks once it's possible. There are so many things that seemed interesting in their menu and I would definitely love to try them all.

All photos in this post were taken by me and if you're curious, I used an iPhone 12 Pro Max to take these photos. Anyway, if you wanna know more about the restaurant, you can visit their site at Southbank Cafe + Lounge. Do let me know your thoughts and what kind of food or drinks you like! Til next time!

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