OLIVE TREE KITCHEN BAR'S NEW TASTING MENU

        A few days ago we were introduce to some delicious and may I say beautiful dishes at Olive Tree Kitchen Bar. It's Manila's first Antipasti Bar located at the heart of Bonifacio High Street ( where Stock Market used to be). Olive Tree Kitchen Bar or OTKB is the creation of Executive Chef Rob Pengson with Sous Chef Jonvic Mangibin, and in partnership with the Del Monte Group. And now, Olive Tree Kitchen & Bar has created a new Tasting Menu that contains five courses plus antipasti and dessert on top of the 5 courses. From this tasting menu (P1,900), you will get a a little bit of the wonders that his kitchen has to offer!

        OTKB has an interior that will make you feel like you're at a really nice wine cellar, with its brick walls, dim lighting, and wooden furniture. I really liked it. it's really cozy, relaxing, yet very classing, and at the same time not too intimidating.

The Bar

The Open Kitchen

The Tasting Menu (P1,900)

         We started off with a beautiful platter of appetizers. It contains the Foie Gras Popsicle, Caponata Macaron, and an Eel and Apple Galatte. 

        The Foie Gras Popsicle had a great mixture of flavors with a slightly crunch texture. It's marinated in black beer and port, and then coated with Amaretto almonds for that added crunch. It's served with Marsala Glace and compressed pineapple chutney.

        The Caponata Macaron was also very good because it had a mix of sweet and salty flavors fighting in your mouth. It is flavored with Himalayan pink salt (not sure what that is exactly but it sounds good to me! Love salt! Haha!) and dehydrated black olives. While inside it is a black olive and Ricotta Caponata filliing with balsamic Modena with a roasted beetroot fluid gel center. 

        I would have to say my favorite was the Eel and Apple Galatte. A good savory appetizer. Very tasty, and went really well with the apple. The Eel is done Kabayaki style and then lightly smoked in Apple Wood. The Galette on the other hand is made of aged parmigiano, reggiano, potato and red delicious apple. Then it's served with a horseradish and bavarian cream

        Then we had the Coffee Cured Salmon, Texture of Carrots, and Ikura. Get a little of everything and eat it all in one perfect bite. It's really good and the carrots add a nice crunchy texture. The salmon is cured in-house in Italian coffee beans and orange rind. An interesting selection! There's a variety of heirloom carrots in the dish, which includes a spreadable carrot flan, pickled in white balsamic, roasted with coffee beans, and caramelized carrot dust. It is all then drizzled with an orange-pickled mustard dressing and olive oil marinated salmon Roe or Ikura as they call it.

        The Pork Trotter, Chicken and Porcini Mousse, and Garden Pickles is a dish that's very technical and hard to execute. (For me, all dishes are hard to execute hahaha!) Anyway the pork trotters are slowly braised, and then stuffed with porcini mushrooms and chicken mousse. Trotters are deboned, cleaned, and braised to tenderness. Then it's stuffed with textured mousse of porcini and chicken then once again braised in a pork hock jus. Crazy! This dish is served with calabrian cauliflower puree, chicken skin hash, some garden veggies that are pickled with apple cider. Then drizzled with sauce gastrique made from marsala and olives. 

Other Dishes on the Regular Menu

        The Hanging Tender Bistecca are hanger steaks that are sous vide to created a softer texture on the meat and also to develop its flavor. It's served with potato puree and a Mexican chilli sauce, plus bone marrow jus (calling all bone marrow lovers!)

        The Pumpkin and Bacon Bruschetta was one of my favorites. A good appetizer that has a refreshing mix of savory flavor from the bacon, and sweet flavor from the pumpkin

        The Chopped Salad was also refreshing. The walnuts added a nice crunch to the texture. It has mixed greens, red cabbage, carrots, zucchini, young corn, Calabrian Salumi, candied walnuts, black olives, provolone dolce, and an oregano-peperoncini vinaigrette. 

        The the pizzas arrived! There was the Honey Truffle and Egg Pizza. Looks really delicious. I love anything with egg. This is their breakfast-in-a-pizza pan. It has apple cider, honey glaze, aged parmigiano and bacon fat cream (YUUUU-MY!) then topped off with a nice brick oven baked egg, deep fried rosemary, micro mustard and light dousing of truffle.

        Now this one was my favorite among the three. The Apple and Gorgonzola Pizza is a mixture of sweet, and savory goodness! My type of pizza! It has an apple sauce base, crumbles of gorgonzola dolce, marsala braised red cabbage, red onions, candied walnuts, and steeped dates. Then it is drizzled off with wild arugula and black balsamic reduction. You can just imagine the burst of flavors in your mouth.

        For our fourth course, we had the Sunday Roast which was okay, but I found the dates to be too sweet for my liking. It's a traditional roasted chicken with a serving of mountain rice, with bread and butter jus. 

        The Roasted Chicken Diavolo was too spicy for me. But if you're into spicy food, you might want to try this one. It's roasted chicken with spicy peperoncini coating, served with mashed potatoes and cabbage slaw and sesame dressing.

        The Sopranos Sunday Gravy is an exciting Italian meatball and pasta dish. Why exciting? Because it contains lots of unusual ingredients you find in a pasta dish like ox tail, tripe, bone marrow, liver pate, sweetbreads, fennel sausage, ragu and angus meatballs. Then dusted with pecorino romano and gremolata. Inrigued?

        While I thought almost all of the things I have tasted were good, I would have to say that the dessert was really spectacular for me! Presenting the Chocolate Terrain! A rectangular plate of chunks of different kinds of chocolate. It was that simple but it really hit the spot for me! It has gateau, cake pop, brownie, mousse, rock and soil, meringue shards and shavings using varieties of chocolates. Death by chocolate? Most definitely! A death you'll gladly do over and over again!

The Drinks

        To accompany my meals, I tried the Glass of Lychee Mojito which is really good. The Mojito is not too strong. it's quite a refreshing drink. It has vodka, lychee, lime, ginger and syrup.

        Our friend ordered the Manila Mule which looked really pretty and he seemed to really enjoy it. That means a lot coming from a cocktail lover. It consists of vodka, ginger, kalamansi, and mango.

        This Sangria Bianco has white wine, brandy, orange liqueur, mango, peach, mint, and syrup. I didn't get to try this but my seatmate Hefty Foodie loved it!

        Richie and I may not be big drinkers (actually he doesn't drink at all. I do occasionally), but we can safely say Olive Tree and Kitchen Bar is one of the best places to enjoy good quality drinks and top class dishes!

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Address:

G/F B4, Bonifacio High Street, 9th Avenue, BGC Taguig

1634 Fort Bonifacio