Prior to Maerose's wedding, she lived oceans away from Cebu. When she's around we'd usually gather around over dinner and/or coffee. It was unfortunate that this time, only Jelo and I are available, but we still pushed through with our catch-up dinner.
I think it was only a week after my dinner with Janelle and knowing I still wasn't at my best shape, everyone agreed to meet at 88 Banawa Centrale, another mix used development a few meters away from Paseo Banawa. I chose *Wildfire , an Asian fusion restaurant, located at the first floor of the left wing of Banawa Centrale. It is right next to Calm Street, another must-try restaurant in Cebu, which I will talk about in another post.
Despite ordering our mains separately, we ordered a few items for sharing just like the shrimp tempura, Seared Nigiri (4 pcs for Php 230) and Salmon Wrap (4 pcs for Php 230). Jelo ordered their Ebi Pantai Ramen (Php 310) made of egg noodle, with 2 shrimp tempura, egg, wakame and mushrooom. On the other hand, Maerose and her then-fiancé, Stephen, had Katsu Ramen composed of egg noodles, breaded pork, mushroom, egg (Php 295). I heard excellent review of their Beef Gyudon (Php 310) so I was excited to try my order.
I couldn't speak on behalf of my friends but personally, I find *Wildfire's food beyond exceptional. For one, they're reasonable priced for the quality you'll get. The Beef Gyudon I ordered was the most tender beef gyudon I had in my whole life and that's no exaggeration. Aside from my main dish, the seared nigiri and salmon wrap, both topped with different types of cheese, were to die for. They melted in my mouth leaving satisfaction as the ingredients exploded with flavors and texture I didn't imagine was possible at their price point. It was truly a delighful dining experience.
Afterwards, we moved into Dragonfly Café which is on the same strip, about 1-2 stores away from Wildfire. Normally, we'd get something sweet and cold for dessert; coffee/chocolate blended drinks and a slice of chocolate cake are our go-to choice of dessert but this time we deviated from the convention. We were in agreement to settle for hot pots of loose leaf tea; we ordered different variants tho. One had an iced strawberry spritz drink.
Our surprise was evident when our order was delivered at our table. The loose leaf tea container was huge (about 300ml). It was my first time ordering a tea that big plus the colors were popping; the aroma from our teas dispersed not only in our table but 3-4 tables away.
We had so much fun drinking the tea. From the plastic pot, you have to put it on top of a small glass, apply a bit of pressure in the pot's handle. Basically, you're pushing it against the brim of the tea cup. Tea will flow from the bottom of the pot all the way to your cup leaving the tea leaf in the pot. I didn't know it was the traditional way of making loose leaf tea as it was my first time ordering one. We were laughing about this experience; we looked like kids having fun over a new toy! 😂
We didn't know we could get a refill until one of the baristas offered the free refill. We all got our refills and continued sharing life updates.
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