Casa Reyes

Tapioca’s mom came to town from Singapore and she misses Filipino food so much. Her and Tapioca’s staple place is Aristocrat Restaurant, famous for their chicken barbecue with peanut sauce and java rice. Whenever she visits Manila, she never fails to pay Aristocrat a visit.

Last Friday, we went to Greenhills Shopping Mall for some last minute shopping. Tapioca was so in the mood to have Mexican burrito from Ristras. By the way, we rarely go to Greenhills so you can just imagine our longing for a food trip/adventure especially now that the Greenhills area is getting crowded with lots of food places bloggers raved so much. But this is not the right time do food tripping because her mom wants to have nothing but Filipino food and me, I couldn't’t care less. I just got my braces adjusted.

When we got to the mall, the first thing that we looked for was Aristocrat. But alas, Aristocrat already closed down and now replaced by its sister company Casa Reyes (also related to Reyes Barbecue) Well, it’s a sister company so it shouldn't’t be that bad.


For thirst quencher we had Sago’t Gulaman. It was so refreshing and the vanilla extract was so distinct in every sip. It was actually pretty good except they used really small tapioca which always got stuck between my teeth. Nevertheless, I loved the presentation and the flavor because of the vanilla extract.

. . . calamares

This was an overpriced calamares. Few little pieces of breaded squid rings with tartar/mayo dip on the side. I couldn't’t manage to munch on this. Tapioca and his Mom preferred this with vinegar, though.

fresh lumpiang ubod . . .

Tapioca and I liked this cos from the taste itself you can really tell the ingredients were fresh. From the wrapper to the veggies and the garlic sauce that came with it. It’s what you call perfection. Nice plating, too.

. . . kare-kare

We ordered a single serving of kare-kare and we got this. It’s actually pretty big for a single serving. It was an okay kare-kare though, nothing special. The bagoong that came with this was just okay, too.

palabok . . .

This was my order. The presentation was pretty good. My only concern was the serving of the sauce was not enough to coat all the noodles. We are still rooting for Red Ribbon’s palabok.

. . . Pork Barbecue

This was as good as the pork barbecue you get from Reyes barbecue. Very soft and flavorful. Same peanut sauce from Reyes barbecue, too.

Then came the worst part. As you know we came here looking for Aristocrat’s chicken barbecue. But since there's no more Aristocrat in Greenhills and Casa Reyes also offers chicken barbecue, we went in anyway. It took some time for the chicken to arrive and when it did, the meat was dry and tough. It was left in the grill for too long. The color of the meat was so scary. It’s so dark probably because it has been in the fridge for ages. While eating, Tapioca’s mom can’t help but dream of Aristocrat’s chicken and compare it to Casa Reyes’ chicken.


The experience was nice and all but the chicken was unacceptable. If you plan to dine here expect some hits and misses. That is obviously based on this post.