It’s one of life’s greatest mysteries. Will you go for the expensive but delicious, or the reasonably priced but with “just ok” flavors?

Short History of Pepper Lunch

The first branch of Pepper Lunch operated in 1994. The star of the show? The hotplate where food is served is actually an electromagnetic cooker. Plates are heated up to 260 degrees Celcius allowing the food to cook while being served. The diner then has the choice of eating beef strips medium rare or well done.

To date, there are over 200 branches all over the world extending well into the United States. Pepper Lunch started the DIY (do it yourself) teppan (iron plate) craze.

Sizzling Pepper Steak: local copycat?

They never claimed to be the first, but they are, admittedly, cheaper than Pepper Lunch. It is a local company that aims to bring the same teppan goodness at less than P200 plate. A noble cause, I think.

Food is served in a similar electromagnetic cooker and you can only stop the cooking process when your pour the sauce. Your meal remains hot even until you’ve gone past the half empty point. It’s full service and there is no need to queue in front of a counter to order. They have a sign that calls waiters for you and you don’t have to stretch your neck trying to call for one, especially when you badly need it. Sadly such level of service is not available at Pepper Lunch.

Admittedly, Pepper Steak is not as good as Pepper Lunch. So there, I said it. However, Pepper Steak’s service is something to consider. People waiting to be seated are not herded like cattle. There are benches where you can wait comfortably and the staff will check up on you from time to time, offering to serve you drinks if you’re thirsty.
These are the small things that make a world of difference. Sitting on a bench is still better than standing in a long line.

The difference between Pepper Lunch and Pepper Steak?

Pepper Lunch in Rockwell doesn’t have this level of service because diners are expected to follow the Pepper Lunch rules of processing orders. Their staff is nice but they tend to get grouchy when the lunch crowd gets impatient, and impatient you’d get if pictures and videos of the food are continuously shown while you’re waiting in line. The most obvious difference that you will immediately see is the price, then the taste and lastly the service. If you’re the patient kind with money to spare and unwilling to compromise taste, Pepper Lunch is for you. However, if you’re more like me who thinks pricing and service are more important than taste, then Sizzling Pepper Steak is the way to go. I’d love to know what you think so please feel free to comment.

The Diamond Hotel finally let’s us all eat cake with the opening of The Cake Club, a dessert oasis smack in the middle of Power Plant mall’s Archaeology area at the second floor. The Diamond Hotel’s Executive Sous Chef Melchor Taylo and Pastry Chef Rodel Galvez have painstakingly brought their wonderful creations nearer to non-Manila residents, and now, you can even enjoy these dessert masterpieces at your own party as Cake Club caterers bring these to you through their fleet of refrigerated vans. You can have your own Cake Club party by calling the Diamond Hotel at 528-3000 or 526-2255.

What can you get by going to the Cake Club? The best cakes and desserts that the Diamond Hotel has been famous for! Remember their ensaymada? For me, their ensaymada is the best around, but a visit to the Cake Club should you give you more than just one or two specialty items. You should sample the entire collection. Just look at these cakes!

This is the “mystery cake” that was used for a game that required us all to taste the cake and tell which nuts were part of the cake. Definitely it had walnuts.

More cakes!

They were nice enough to have fed us before the program.

And everyone was really happy about it!

Including the bloggers…

And the manager.

Interested parties may call Diamond Hotel at +632 528-3000 or +632 526-2255.

Some hard-to-find items may have been worth the visit. However, I still couldn’t get over the P50.00 (US$1.22) entrance fee into the Rockwell tent, where the non-food stalls abound. I really think they would get more foot traffic into the place if they let the concessionaires pay for the venue rentals. Experience tells me that markets with the entrance fees are actually more expensive than those without (like the wildly successful Salcedo Market and the Lung Center market.)

Nevertheless, Noreen liked the flowers. We didn’t buy any though.

So why am I blogging about this place? One food stall had so many people flocking to it and that’s what made my visit worth braving the heat. They called it Dream Ice Kakigori or Japanese shaved ice dessert. I hope I got the name right.

The setup was really simple. They had this machine that shaved ice so fine, finer than the average halo-halo. I was right when I told Noreen that the secret to a good summer dessert was in the ice.

I got the melon flavored kakigori.

After shaving the ice, green melon syrup was poured then condensed milk.

The result?

I don’t know where else you can buy Dream Ice Kakigori. I’m betting it could had at your neighborhood mall. With this heat, a large tub of kakigori will help you keep your cool.