I’ve visited Wildflour Café + Bakery a couple of times with family in the past year. Here’s what I thought of it.
CONCEPT
I was amazed upon entering Wildflour for the first time last year. It looked like a hipster-themed concept bakery in New York. That’s because owners Ana de Ocampo, husband and wife Walter and Margarita Manzke, and Allen Buhay. All of them, except Walter, finished culinary arts in one form or another, in Le Cordon Bleu. According to the “About Us” section on their website: “They established the resto in 2012 to offer delicious premium-priced food and efficient service married with the perfect ambiance at prime highly accessible locations.”
ENVIRONMENT
Wildflour stands out along Rada street’s several establishments. From the outside its plain brown welcome mat, black window frames, and simple logo on the front door don’t look like much. However, this bare facade wonderfully frames Wildflour’s signature interior look.
Inside, the combined hues of black upholstery, white shelves and counter tops, maroon brick walls, and brown tables and chairs give it a modernly urban, yet homey vibe. The yellow ceiling lights add to the overall warmth. To me it was quite surprising that people began crowding the restaurant as early as 9 AM, either from their homes or right after a morning jog.
The first thing you encounter as well upon entrance is the white pastry table where all of their freshly baked sweets are neatly displayed for all to see. In fact, 9 times out 10, customers hang around that area and place their orders before even having a look at the sit-down menu. Kahit ito lang yung i-order, sulit na din kasi sobrang malasa!
CLEANLINESS & SERVICE
From the entrance, to the kitchen, and even to their bathrooms Wildflour’s cleanliness is world-class. There’s no dirt or grime to be found everywhere.
In the two times I’ve been there, the service is great. I even wonder how the staff manages all its customers, especially on a full day.
The second time I was there I just had one not-so-good experience in terms of service. I asked for a tall glass to go along with a beer I ordered, since I know they have that kind of dining utensil. I got a weird look from the staff, who seemed like she understood my request. When the beer got there, it was accompanied by a small glass instead of the tall one I asked for.
FOOD
Wildflour has a wide variety of menu options available for breakfast, lunch, dinner, merienda, desserts, and even drinks. The first time I ate there was over a year ago on my 26th birthday. My family was supposed to treat but I decided to treat them instead. I ordered their Roast Organic Chicken (Php 675; their take on coq au vin) and ate almost the whole thing by myself (I shared with my family of course). It was memorable because it was soo delicious, honest, and quite expensive. I remember paying around P8K for the entire meal. Pero worth it.
The second time I was here was early April this year for an early family breakfast. Kinda groggy and unused to being up so early at 9 AM, I tried a relative’s order: Wildflour’s version of French toast with bacon strips and it was absolutely divine! I probably felt that way because the toast was puffy instead of the usual flat.
I’ve been consistently practicing intermittent fasting for close to a year now. My first meal is always at around 12 PM. Because of this early family affair, I gave a bit of leeway. Since I didn’t want to have anything heavy, I had the Granola & Yogurt (Php 350). I tried bits and pieces of what my other relatives ordered, but stuck mainly to my meal. The pastries tasted so fresh and creamy. I could still taste the egg yolk used for baking! My Granola & Yogurt was both sweet and sour to the taste, but deliciously filling.
To wash down my food and help jumpstart my digestion, I ordered a beer (Pedro’s Endless Summer Wheat Ale; Php 250). This raised a few eyebrows, but at this point I didn’t really care. I’m old enough to know what works and doesn’t work for me in terms of my diet. Plus, they woke me up early for this, so I needed a breakfast pick-me up.
Again, the food was quite pricey as before, but with the world-class ingredients and taste, it’s really, really worth it.
OVERALL
Aside from my recent not-so-good experience with the service, it looks like Wildflour is going to stay a long time in the restaurant business. Their location is great along Rada St., Makati. They offer internationally-competitive cafe food and prove that – with grit, hard work, and good business sense – Filipinos are world-class restaurateurs.
Pricey, pero sulit at world-class. Dapat dayuin ang Wildflour kahit isang beses sa buhay niyo. Magugustuhan ninyo.
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