A Berry Banapple Birthday!

As far as birthdays go, I'm a very simple, no fuss kind of girl. Loud parties marked with an abundance of booze, free food and wasted bodies gyrating to dance music are not really my kind of thing, as these usually lure people you really don't want to spend your birthday with. I think the last time our family hosted a huge birthday party was when I turned 7 and my brother turned 1 (yes, we do have the same birth date, which can be kind of annoying when you're a kid who doesn't want to share the attention and the budget for gifts, mind you). From that time on, our family celebrated birthdays with simple meals and a lot of cheesy togetherness.

For my mom's birthday this year though, my dad wasn't with us for work reasons. Being the eldest and all, I took the initiative to fund my mom's birthday brunch.  My family is kind of hard to feed because of our varying preferences, but the one thing that we all actually agree on is good dessert, so off to Banapple we went (this was last November 21, but I procrastinated blogging about it for a month!).


Insalata Rustico
We started the meal with some healthy greens. We chose Insalata Rustico, which was basically just fresh mixed greens with black olives, diced tomatoes, grated parmesan cheese and slivers of toasted almonds. The greens were very fresh and crisp, and the helpings of olives, cheese and almonds were quite generous. The dressing was cream based, garlicky good but far too sour for my liking. 

Herbed Chicken Rolls with Basil Cream Sauce
This was basically just breaded chicken breast, stuffed with ham and cheese. The sauce was slathered all over the meat, making the breading quite unappealing and soggy. The meat was really tender and tasty though, so the sogginess was quite forgivable.

Salpicao Rafael
The meat was not as tender and garlicky as I would have liked, but well marinated nevertheless. I think it would have fared better had the beef cubes been more lean and tender.

Hickory Smoked Barbecued Country Ribs

The meat was fall-off-the-bone-tender with generous helpings of perfectly sweet and tangy barbecue sauce. Quite a steal at less than 200 bucks (come on, where else can you find delicious ribs sold for less than 200 bucks?), this dish was as fatty as ribs ought to be, but not overwhelming so.

Chicken Breast Parmigiano

Although this was basically just breaded chicken fillet topped with tomato based sauce and generous amounts of melted mozzarella cheese, the sauce (and the chicken and the cheese!) tasted so delicious that this became an instant hit at the table. My mom said she would try to cook something like this at home, but that is yet to happen. (Shoutout to Mom! It's Noche Buena tonight!)

Baked Creamy Cheesy Penne

Among the different types of noodles,  I would have to say that penne is one my favorites. It's not as hard to eat as spaghetti or fettuccine (no twirling with a fork and sucking noises involved) and it absorbs whatever sauce you put on it quite well because of the noodle's big surface area (I swear I'm not a geek! I just couldn't think of the proper words to describe the damn noodle's, uh, surface.) Anyway, that was a totally lengthy and unnecessary introduction, so allow me to return to the dish. Banapple's penne noodles were cooked al dente, coated with tomato based sauce and topped with cream based sauce and generous helpings of melted cheese. My taste buds did a little dance number with the combination of cream and tomatoes in one dish and so did my brother's! He raved about this for a good two minutes after wiping the bowl clean.

Now, on to the desserts that lured us into driving all the way to Quezon City!


Banoffee Pie

I do not like bananas, but I love Banapple's Banoffee Pie. Each bite is an explosion of different textures each and every time! The chewiness of the base, the softness of the banana slices and the lightness of cream all went well together quite awesomely. I just  love how it can be so delectable without being sickeningly sweet.

White Chocolate Truffle Berry Cheesecake

Oh, this was love at first sight! The cake was in this light shade of pink that looked way too cute to eat! I love Banapple's cheesecakes because they put just the right amount of cream cheese in the mixture. Each bite actually gives you something to chew on, not like cheesecakes from other brands, which have bodies that feel like cream, flan or panacotta inside the mouth.

Oreo Cheesecake

I didn't want to order the Oreo Cheesecake, as it was sitting amidst more awesome sounding cakes and pies such as Jeepers Creepers and Snickers Fudge Cheesecake, but my sister was insistent that I do. This particular cheesecake was nothing spectacular (I like Starbucks' version a wee bit more), but it tasted okay and portions were notably large for something within it's price range.

Expect to spend around Php 250-300 ($ 5-7) per person when you dine here.


Banapple is open Mondays to Sundays at the following locations:

226 and 225 Katipunan Avenue, Blue Ridge Avenue, Quezon City
2nd Level Il Terrazzo Tomas Morato cor Sct Madrinan, South Triangle, Quezon City.
Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati City.


I hope they put up a store in Global City soon as well!