Vyne Restaurant: Worth the skip

After a journalism forum at the nearby Mind Museum, I was wondering if I can still make it to a concert from afar after a blog tour organized by Zomato in Vyne Restaurant. It turned out, outside the concert venue was a basketball event that I would actually more prefer to attend. Eventually, the Vyne event ended at around 11:30 PM, already too late to still go there. I may have missed the two events, but the resto visit at Vyne really made up my night.

J.P. Enriquez, the owner of the restaurant and the same guy behind the Hyve Bar just next door and the Skye Lounge, said that Vyne was intended to be "a concept restaurant that has the flavors from all over the world." Indeed, the world was fused into one restaurant.

First served was the Pork Chasu Bun. For me, the appetizer alone can already satisfy my cravings because it was delicious.

Although I'm not really a fan of seafood, I found the other two appetizers, the Thai Scallops and the Mini Crab Cakes, delighting for me too.

Thai Scallop (left) and Mini Crab Cakes

Then in comes the sizzler, the prawn and ravioli laksa. Although I can "survive" a certain level of "spicyness", the soup really got me. While it's yummy, I also got a craving for a cold beverage because of it being hot and spicy. A blogger friend of mine told me that she loves spicy foods and just consumed the spicy soup in a jiffy. I was appalled by her.

And in came the salads. I liked the presentation of the Apple and Bleu Cheese Salad, but I liked the taste of the East Asian Salad. I liked the latter so much (maybe partly because I don't eat apples that much) that I "murdered" the dish.

Apple and Bleu Cheese Salad (left) and the East Asian Salad

Now, enter the Ramen Carbonara, a Japanese twist to an Italian noodle dish. In my honest opinion, although I liked the dish (especially the pork cuts), I find the taste too much carbonara. I prefer a good balance of the two sauces.

However, our blog tour of Vyne took a huge turn after the restaurant's trademark hamburger came. It was a tough luck that we, a group of four, had to cut the hamburger equally. But I really wanted to solely eat the burger. The 200-gram beef patty was cooked medium-rare, but it was still delicious.

At first, I thought the restaurant tour was already satisfying enough. But hold on! The main courses were yet to be delivered at that time. In the tour, we were offered the Pan-Seared Sole Fish and the US Angus Rib-Eye Steak. While the beef dish, like the burger, was cooked medium-rare, I found the steak too delicious that, like what I did with the East Asian Salad, I almost consumed all the steak (and the french fries, the side dish) on my own.

The Pan-Seared Sole Fish (left) and the US Angus Rib-Eye Steak

And now, the dessert. The lemon cheesecake was designed to be like an ice cream popsicle, which I found interesting. The cake overall was delicious, and I also lorded over the dessert like the others.

Blogger friend Dems Angeles, who also went to the Rappler journalism event
earlier in the day, "modeled" the lemon cheesecake.

To keep the customers alive, some nights have specific themes. It was a Wednesday, so it was music quiz time. We stayed for the music quiz contest co-presented by Play FM where on the line were John Legend concert tickets. We lost the quiz contest, but it was fun.

The "wild" crowd during the John Legend quiz contest.

Vyne Restaurant is located at the eighth floor of the W Building near the Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City. The restaurant is open at as early as 11:00 AM from Monday-Saturday. For reservation, follow its Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/VyneManila and its Twitter and Instagram pages at @vyne_ph.