Banawe seems to have a couple of interesting newcomers on the local food scene! I am still not over from our eventful visit at Wild Indigo Kitchen & Cafe because their food is good (and IG-worthy) and the ambiance is chill but fun. I highly recommend this place, and while I want to visit it again, otherwise there's another new food find in the area that caught my attention ever since I first spotted it on my Facebook feed -- Dim Ka Phe.
Dim Ka Phe is one of Banawe's little-known newest gems, having opened just a few months back. Getting to know about Dim Ka Phe, my first impression of this is that it was most likely a Vietnamese coffee shop. But when we got to pay a casual visit a few days ago, I found out that it was actually a Chinese restaurant.
Upon reading that, you might dismiss Dim Ka Phe as another stereotypical Chinese restaurant in this sense. But it's actually a delightful hodgepodge of a Chinese restaurant, a coffee shop and a board game cafe. In fact, its interiors were cozy, modern, maybe a bit sterile because of the white walls (except for one corner near the entrance, where it was awash with pine green colored paint). Seating was quite ample, and there was a shelf chock-full of a variety of board games to choose from.
So yes, Dim Ka Phe's appearance belies its extensive Chinese menu that you cannot tell outright that this is a Chinese restaurant (it's devoid of the usual decor and colors that you usually find in other Chinese restaurants). It had an ambiguous first impression on me but I think that's a good part of its identity. It wants to surprise customers who have no idea whether it is a coffee shop or a Chinese restaurant.
Dim Ka Phe is known for its best-sellers, their baked rice dishes.
But while we were browsing their menu, what drew us more was their wide selection of beverages -- coffee, non-coffee, green-tea based coolers, frappes and their own "Legacy Drinks." The concoction of several of their drinks was rather unusual, far removed from the usual iced coffees and frappes. That got us so excited!
It was not surprising that browsing Dim Ka Phe's menu for the drinks took us a bit long -- they were quite many and they were very, very interesting! We were utterly undecided. If only I had all the time (and the money, as well as a bottomless belly) to try them all. But as usual, yours truly is an impecunious food lover! Hehehe.
As for choosing for the comestibles, that was fairly easy -- we ordered two varieties of their best-selling baked rice dishes. Later we ordered a couple of sweets.
1) Baked rice
No wonder why it is one of Dim Ka Phe's best-sellers. It has looooooooaaaaads of cheeeeeessse!!! Their baked rice dishes will make every cheese-lover happy.
Strangely but happily, I did not find their cheesy baked rice dishes as nakakaumay, unlike, say, the cheesy baked rice dishes at Tori Chizu. Even if our stomachs, later on, came close to giving in, we still tried to get some spoonfuls kasi masarap naman talaga sila eh. But we had to have room for our three drinks and some dessert.
2) Drinks
We ended up with having three drinks to try. Because, why not? If only we could try them all!
3) Desserts
Dim Ka Phe doesn't have a Wi-Fi service as of the moment... but we think it is okay na rin, so that it can encourage real-life conversations... and play their board games!
We were only the two of us, so at first we had a hard time choosing a board game as most of these selections required a minimum of three players. But we finally found one -- Geek Out! It was more of a card game than a board game, actually. And although it was the first time for both us playing it, it was a blast! We ended up splitting our sides so I hoped the crew didn't mind us... as I was thinking about it, we were actually quite loud. I would like to apologize for being too embarrassing! We could not help LOL-ing... but we came to like the game so much! :)
Because of having too much fun playing this game, we didn't realize that it was raining hard outside!
The staff was nice, smiling and patient with us. Even as wanted to transfer to another table on a whim, they still assisted us in bringing our food and drinks.
Even if we tried only their baked rice dishes, that provided an auspicious prelude to the restaurant's style of cooking. We thought we could finish their baked rice -- we got to take home our leftovers instead but at least we would have something to eat at home! At ₱280 per serving, their baked rice meals are really sulit! They're indeed good for sharing.
We would have chosen their "duo" baked rice variant, but it consisted of a combination of Tomato Porkchop and Seafood White Sauce. I only wish customers can order a combination of their own choice of baked rice variants too, with this option.
When I came back to the cafe again, I tried a couple of items:
Dim Ka Phe is a cozy Chinese restaurant, a coffee bar and a board game cafe in the Banawe area that provides a fun and chill cubbyhole from the stress and distress of every day life. Check out their vast Chinese dishes and a wide variety of beverages that will tickle your foodie fancy in no end! If you have been to this wonderful place, spread the word! It deserves to be on the radar of every foodie.
Dim Ka Phe
86 Maria Clara St.,
Quezon City, Philippines
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/dimkaphe/
Instagram:
@dimkaphe
Zomato:
https://www.zomato.com/manila/dim-ka-phe-banawe-quezon-city
Thank you for sharing this very informative and entertaining content. Hope you could visit our restaurant bakery in the future 🙂
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