The Coffee Beanery: Unlimited Cakes & Coffee

After attending the Bloggers Night & Wellness Fair at Gandiva Café, my date and I headed to Shangri-la Plaza for a leisurely stroll. We were both craving for a cup of iced cold coffee, so we went to the counter as soon as we saw the humble yet cozy-looking stall of The Coffee Beanery (TCB).

I was already asking the staff about their bestsellers when my date spotted a table top signage on TCB's counter -- Unlimited Cakes and Coffee. The staff manning the counter was very friendly and told us that their Unlimited Cakes and Coffee promo is available for only P150 per head. Although my date and I were still a little full from the free healthy dinner we had, we gave in and grabbed the chance.

We availed of their Unlimited Cakes and Coffee promo which includes unlimited slices of their premium cakes and unlimited servings of their brewed coffee. The staff told us that they have 7 kinds of cakes that night, and being the gluttons that we are, we aimed to try all 7 cakes. Although we know we are about to consume tons of sugar, we still went ahead and ordered their bestselling cold coffee -- Frosted Java Java (P145).

It was already past 9 o'clock when we settled at a TCB table, and since the mall will be closed by 10PM, we know we only have less than an hour to pig out on TCB's cake offerings. We were first served hot cups of their brewed coffee. Nothing special here though, all brewed coffee taste the same for me.

Our first servings of cakes were brought to our table afterwards -- Black and White Fantasy for me, and a slice of Snickers Caramel for my date.

This slice of Black and White Fantasy has a chocolate base cake with gooey chocolate and cream filling. It tasted good as it was not too sweet of a chocolate cake. However the base was a little dry and crumbly, probably because of staying too long in the chiller.

My date's slice of Snickers Caramel has a chiffon cake base with caramel filling, and topped with sweet icing, caramel drizzle and crumbs of Snickers bar. The base was soft unlike my slice of Black and White Fantasy and the flavor was good.

After finishing our first plates, we asked our server for next cakes to sample. This time we were given their Double Chocolate and Honey Mango cakes.

The flavor of the Double Chocolate cake is not as chocolate-y as we expected. The chocolate frosting lacked the strong cocoa flavor a good chocolate cake should have. The chocolate base cake was also dry and a little crumbly like their slice of Black and White Fantasy.

This slice of their Honey Mango cake was not quite memorable. It has the same chiffon base as the Snickers Caramel cake -- soft and quite moist compared to the chocolate-based cakes. The top layer had honey-glazed caramel bits but lacked the mango. The mango puree should've probably seated on the scraped off portion of the cake.

We were already getting really full after sharing 4 slices of cakes. But with a strong determination to try all 7 of TCB's cakes selection, we ordered for another round. This time we were served their Chocolate Pastillas and Satin Crunch.

Like the Black and White Fantasy and Double Chocolate slices, the Chocolate Pastillas also uses the same chocolate base cake. The cake layers sandwiched a yema-tasting filling (I know it should be pastillas, but my taste buds say it tastes more like yema!) and the slice is topped with sweet icing and a yellow gooey mixture which is probably the pastillas. I don't know if I was already getting the umay factor, but I didn't enjoy this slice. I was already at the point of forcing myself to finish the cake just for the sake of finishing it.

Since I was having a hard time finishing my slice of Chocolate Pastillas, my date offered to exchange cakes since he didn't dig his slice of Satin Crunch cake. I on the other hand, found this slice really interesting. It has macadamia, pecan and walnuts with caramel glaze seated nicely on a pie crust. Its side was also lined with icing which balanced out the nutty flavors. However as interesting as this slice of cake tastes, it was a little tiring on the taste buds after a few bites.

As much as we want to sample the 7th of their cake offerings that night, it was already a few minutes past 10PM. We were also too full and too tired of eating cakes so we decided to retreat already. Yes, mission of eating all 7 of TCB's cakes was a failure, but eating 6 was not bad at all.

THE VERDICT

After downing 6 slices of cakes in less than an hour, we felt really tired and sick of eating pastries. Until now actually, I am still suffering a cake-hate syndrome. Both my date and I find TCB's cakes quite mediocre. But for the price, one shouldn't really expect pâtisserie-quality cakes. Although we didn't enjoy the cakes as much as we would've wanted, we see ourselves returning to TCB because of their quality service. The servers were all friendly, courteous and alert. They really know how customers should be treated.

I wouldn't really recommend TCB's Unlimited Cakes & Coffee promo to people who are picky with their pastries. But if you just want to have a cozy place to hangout and some coffee and cakes to go with it, then you can give TCB's Unlimited Cakes & Coffee promo a try.

Taste - 3/5
Ambiance - 4/5
Service - 4.5/5
Price - 4/5
Overall Value - 4/5

The Coffee Beanery, Shangri-la Plaza Mall
5/Lvl. Shangri-la Plaza Mall,
EDSA cor. Shaw Blvd.
Mandaluyong City
Philippines
(02) 635-6672
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