Maong: “Where are we going to eat?”
Anton: “sa inyo…” (in your place)
Maong: “sa amin?” (in our place? )
Anton: “no, sa In-yo”
I always love discovering new places and make my wife or friends guess where the new place is. At the rate that I’m discovering new places, it is seldom hard to find a nice resto that we have never eaten before. So when the buzz about the new In-Yo cuisine kept on arriving in my inbox, we decided to check this place out. I have a good feeling going to In-yo, since it’s a filipino house converted into a restaurant and a promising Nino Laus as head chef.
This is the official meaning of In-Yō : “In Filipino, inyo means yours. In Japanese, in and yo represent the two opposing forces in the world, much like the yin and yang; and when these elements work together, a fusion and a balance are achieved. In-Yō Restaurant is a casual fine dining restaurant that offers delectable creative cuisine complemented by a one of a kind ambience. In-Yō was brought about by the love of the owners for good food and the fondness for tasteful interiors, scenic landscapes and gardens. “
It is French and Japanese fusion that I’ve never tasted before. Head chef Nino worked for Parallel 45 and Kai, then decided to create In-Yō along with his partner Cris the manager of the resto. They converted a part of his lola’s house along E. Abada (in front of Ateneo), to a unique Filipino zen like ambiance.
There are two floors, and the 2nd floor can be reserve for special occasion for 10 people. This is where we stayed and disarrayed everything for our impromptu photo shoot. The Staff were very friendly and accomodating. Definitely a dating place that we want to keep hush hush for the moment. It is cash basis only as of now, but hopefully credit card services will be available in 2-3 weeks time. Expect to spend P600/head if you plan to eat a 3-course meal.
The verdict? In-Yō delivers on its promise of being a place of delicious food, relaxing ambience, and excellent service — at a friendly price. This is one of those word-of-mouth secrets that I hate and love to share. Congratulations on In-Yō’s first month anniversary last night!! Thanks to Thomas, Bing and Kitch for the tip on In-Yō! Lastly, another friendly tip, stay away from the ice tea and the desserts if you want to save on your bill 🙂
- The In-Yō Ambiance.
The following quotations below came from an In-Yō email invitation by Charisse Pau (sister of Nino Laus) to friends.
“In the midst of a busy and fast-paced society, we wanted to bring a piece of the province’s relaxed and peaceful atmosphere thru the creation of a restaurant with a homely feel paired with a contemporary eclectic Asian design (most of the furnitures that you’ll see in the resto are either re-used from the old house or given as gifts from friends and family who travels around asia). “
“The design concept of the restaurant was inspired by the existence of an old house right in the heart of Katipunan. (Yes, it’s the same house along e-abada where i spent more than 20 years of my life… that spells my age! my friends would call our house “gubat” or forest due to the abundance of fruit bearing trees). “
“Btw, you will also see on the inside walls of the restaurant original artworks from well known artists in different media such as paintings, photography and sculptures (for the art lovers out there, you may purchase anything you find fit for your home). “
The place is not child-proof so we were afraid that Aidan might once again break something specially with the different works of Arts around the resto. What we love about the interiors is the different old musical instruments like a wooden xylophone, a guitar that resembles a ukelele, and drums. We were fortunate to stay in the second floor (pictured above) such that Aidan can freely wander and play around the room so we can take time with our photo shoot.
In-Yō Fusion Cuisine.
Menu (the menu items and prices may change)
Appetizer, Salad, Soup, Fish and Poultry
Meat, Pasta and Beverage
Set Menu and Dessert
Roasted Fresh Tomato Soup (P120++) served with Cajun spiced shrimp and In Yo Special Iced Tea (P55++).
I don’t agree with their special iced tea. My friend even boasted that she makes better iced tea than this one. Sipping the hot soup was such a delight to me, especially to Aidan. It reminded me of liquid pizza made of tomato and cheese.
Shitake Confit Salad (P149++) with honey ponzu dressing sprinkled with crispy julienned tofu.
After eating a bite of this salad, you would wonder what is this magic honey ponzu dressing that turns this ordinary salad into something special. We asked the chef, and he said that it is a Japanese sauce with kiko man and Japanese vinegar. You should try this 🙂
U.S Hanging Tender Steak (P347++) with red wine sauce served with buttered seasonal vegetables with pumpkin risoni.
I just loved the pumpkin risoni that came with it. The lean steak was cooked medium rare which was fine with us. Could we add more veggies on the side? We have no doubt that this is one of the best seller in the house for carnivores out there. (just a question how is a risoni related to a risotto?)
Smoked Local Halibut (P295++) with watercress relish and saffron mussel emulsion served with agli y olio pesta.
O man, the fish was cooked perfectly — it is firm, tasty and does not crumble easily once you chew it. The pasta with garlic and saffron sauce was cooked al dente and salted to perfection too. This is maybe one of the reasons that you should not order the degustation set menu so that you can order this best seller. (btw, what is pesta vs. a pasta?)
Broiled Coconut Lime Chicken (P185++) served with ginger garlic rice and buttered seasonal vegetables.
This is by far the most “worth it” dish we had last night. You will definitely get your money’s worth and more. The generous serving of meat was full of coconut flavor and tanglad / lemongrass. The presentation of this chicken drumsticks (literally) looks like a lamb serving and this is the kind of presentation that you would hate to eat.
In-Yō Dessert
Chocolate! Chocolate! Cake (P190++). A recommendation but it was too plain for us…I think we’ve tasted too many valhrona choco cake that would not match with this one.
Trio of Creme Brulee (P109). Didn’t meet my expectations on their dessert. Not even a spoonful to let us get the full taste of the three flavors. I think they can do better than this and of course, add more to the serving. Go, go Chef Nino!
The panel of ordinary experts (from left to right): my friend, Maong; my son, Aidan; and my lovely wife, Rachelle.
Sous Chef Gary Reyes and the gang of chef looks on as they prepare our dessert.
Here is my collection of chefs: Head chef, Nino Laus with sous chef, Gary Reyes.
Let me leave you with this….
Aidan caught in the act of eating…
I love to play this poppa.
In-Yō Fusion Cuisine.
66 E. Abada St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City (behind Katipunan Avenue)
Tel# +632 426-0301, +63920 960-7202
Operating Hours
Tuesday-Sunday
11am – 2pm; 6 – 10pm
As you can see, I was excited to write this post. Please let me know your experience with In-Yō.
OMG! i know charisse and i’ve been to their house on e abada countless of times when we were in grade school. great to see that they’ve converted it into a restaurant.
oh, p.s. tanglad is lemongrass in english.
finally! a restaurant in QC!
Will definitely go to this restaurant, Anton! 🙂
Aidan really knows how to smile for the camera :), i love the kiddo!..back to food…Just by the looks of it, the Trio of Creme Brulee served on congee spoon will not work for me. It looks so lonely, not enough for the tastebuds to register any kind taste.
yey! it’s so accesible! i’ll go there tom!or maybe even right now! the food looks super enticing! good job on the find anton! u have every reason to be excited to post this right away!
i THINK the link for the “meat,pasta and bevarage” was well, mislinked.hheheh
Tried their pasta vongole two weeks back, and it was really good! The best I have tried so far….but I think they change their menu for their main course every week, which gives me a reason to come back.
I have to agree with you Anton, their iced tea was nothing really special…..
Nice ah… GAling mo talaga Anton!
it’s great you liked the place! sa uulitin sa in-yo! 🙂
My hubby and I serendipitiously chanced upon this place while we were driving home(we live just a street away from this place)and it so happened it was their opening night.
Although I found their clams a bit salty (I remember having pasta with clams)and their iced tea not so special, overall our meal was delightful. Definitely a place worth coming back to.
I really enjoyed my dinner at In-Yo. The food was great (i loved the chicken and my boyfriend loved the vongolle pasta), the ambiance was warm and intimate (it was raining so hard the night i went there so it added to the romantic mood), and the service was really excellent. I normally take into consideration the customer service that the resturant offers in deciding whether to come back or not (i hate snotty waitresses!) and In-Yo is one place i definitely plan to go back to.
very very good food!! I tried the chix also and the tuna is awsome!! service is good but we need card!! hehe i don’t have any cash left so i havnt try the dessert. sana they accept credit card na!!3 weeks pa ba?.
FYI, risoni is pasta shaped like risotto.
FYI, risoni is pasta shaped like risotto.
went there last night with my gf.
we tried their set menu.
the place was nice, food was great, service was excellent!
easy 10,000 pogi points!
nice place to bring a date.
my only comment is … their portions were less than generous
medyo bitin…
degustation menu should be served half portion only. even in the hotels its too much if you served full portion every course that would be overwhelming i think!!! coz i tried it also!! its like thomas keller said “you dont want your guest saying sobrang nabusog ako but gustong mong marinig na sobrang nasarapan ako heheheh!!!
Just had dinner in In-Yo…was intrigued by all the buzz about this must try hole-in-the-wall resto. I must say that they have very tasteful interior, excellent service, and an ambiance that could earn you lots of brownie points. As for the food, it wasn’t as I expected considering all the rave about this place. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t bad though. We really loved their appetizers (oysters, prawn rolls), especially the shitake salad. The 2 ways crab cake was also something tastingly different. And the free bread is absolutely good!!! Food presentation was excellent. Thou we thought that our main course could be put to the next level by making it more flavorful.
went back there yesterday for my mom’s birthday. my mom loved the food– that’s saying a lot since she is really hard to please when it comes to trying out new things. was immnsely pleased that their iced tea and dessert– ice tea has more flavor and there were more choices for the dessert. according to Chris, they really took the time to address your reader’s comments(complaints) and fixed what needed to be improved.
I tried eating in this resto after i read Anton’s blog last month. I am a student in UP and when my friend and I got there, I forgot about the prices. Mahal siya for students, or even officeworkers na nagtitipid.. but I suggest, just to enjoy the food.. Order honey glazed salmon and raspberry vinaigrette salad paghatian nyo 2 to 3 people — around 800 plus siya. Sulit ang food dahil kahit may kahati soooobrang sarap parin, and you can’t wait coming back. I suggest go there with your mom or dad, or a bf willing to spend for you 🙂 , that is if you are unemployed or a full-time student. There is free bread with cream cheese as starter– delicious too 😛
I love the crab and forest mushroom bisque sobrang sarap i’ve never tried it before so d ko inexpect na ganun sya kasarap saka yung main course namin awsome!!!!!!!!!! we will difinitely go back.
The tender hanging steak was a slice of heaven! Although the portions were not big, it was so addictingly good. I couldn’t taste the pumpkin in the rissoni though. Tasted more like cheese to me.
We also tried the coconut lime chicken but it was all chicken breast and the tasty sauce just didn’t penetrate it enough.
The double crab cake was also a surprise. I was expecting them to scrimp on the crab but I underestimated them. This was really a quality appetizer. You can really enjoy the crab meat, no savory sauce to blanket it.
If the price were not slightly prohibitive, I’d eat here every week but then I probably wouldn’t enjoy it as much.
Thanks for this discovery Anton!
I’m so happy to have tried eating in this restaurant. Great ambiance, great food, great service! When we arrived at the restaurant, I immediately had a dejavu… When i saw that the chef’s name was Nino Laus, I knew why the place was familiar… a friend of mine is a friend of Charisse and Carla Laus and we used to pick her up from that house back in the high school days. 🙂
Secret haven this place is! It’s like discovering paradise in the city 😉 Food is just dee-lish! Especially the hanging steak and risoni. For taste, plating and presentation, I’d give the HOT iron chef and his crew a 10. Ambiance is perfect for a date, family and barkada dinner. It’s so relaxing, you can leave all your worries outside in-yo. Everything was just so tastefully put together. The manager Cris, was so warm and accommodating. You’d certainly feel like you we’re just eating or having dinner at a friend’s house because of the hospitality. It’s indeed perfect for those dates or bringing your barkada when you want to brag about discovering a new place.
The owners – Chef Nino and Manager Cris are such a young and awesome tandem! There’s so much in store for you guys and In-yo! Congratulations 🙂
Oh My! This place is absolutely a food haven. The interior is very relaxing and at the same time this place is the perfect date place in town. The food that we had was absolutely delcious!!! We had the Shitake Confit Salad which was really good specially the honey ponzu dressing. The Honey Glazed Salmon with Wasabi Mashed Potato was the best salmon dished that I ever have in my life, the sweetness from the honey compliments the slight kick from the wasabi perfectly, plus the salmon was perfectly cooked. The Mesquite Smoked Halibut was also outstanding as well as the Seafood Medley cooked in Wasabi Coconut Sauce which was fabulous too. For the desserts, the Mango Pavlova was really good, though the Chocolate cake with Caffe Latte Cream was just ok, since the cake was a bit dry. Overall a very nice restaurant with good food at affordable prices.
i really loved in-yo’s tender hanging steak..not only that..also the place it’s sooo relaxing..
great find Anton! this place offers unique dishes which are absolutely delish! all the food we ordered tasted perfectly. from the salad to the main entree’s. we had the crab 2 ways, shitake confit salad, pesto pasta, beef salpicao, Mesquite Smoked Halibut ,the Seafood Medley cooked in Wasabi Coconut Sauce and honey glazed salmon.
just noticed though that the prices increased by almost 20%…kinda pricey but worth it. we averaged around P800 per pax ( without desserts).
will definitely go back to this place to check out the rest of the offerings!
I went back to this restaurant simply because it was really awesome the last time I was there. This time we had the crab cake two ways which was very good and it was full of crab meat, from the presentation to the taste to the portion of the appetizer, I can really say that I was very satisfied. Although the Prawn souffle was just so so and nothing really special and the taste was a bit bland and too creamy for me. The pumpkin soup was a bit of a dissapointment since it doesn’t had much pumpkin flavor and they just added way too much cream to the soup. For the mains, we had the U.S Hanging steak with pumpkin rissoni, the steak was tender but the taste was nothing special though I really like the pumpkin rissoni, but I also agree that it tasted more like cheese than pumpkin, The duck confit with mango rice pilaf that we had was just so so, the duck was not crispy enough which a duck confit should be. The strawberry surprise was a disaster, it was sooo sweet and the flavor was very artificial, I really felt so bad that I pay for PHP240 for that kind of dessert. To be honest, it was one of the worst dessert that I had for such a long time! Overall the food here was good and they had a very nice ambiance but they really should do something with their desserts.
I’ve been threre now twice and my experience there were as good as the first one.i like the crab cake and the sushi style prawn roll.i tried duck leg confit for my main course ang my boy friend tried the degustation.
Hi Anton! We just had dinner at In-Yō last night and I have to say THANK YOU to your review.. you were right, this restaurant cannot be missed! keep em’ coming Anton hehe 🙂
….somehow it has historical ambiance in it but i could’nt pin point as to where it’s coming from…..meaning this place must be special….must be relevant to something unusually good or wonderful…a MUST ‘dine in’….in a historical sense….
me and my friend jackie had dinner awhile ago in In Yo, Christine (the manager) was a batchmate of ours in the blue and gold. how could you not fall in love a place where you step on a glass floor and see fishes swimming by and a hanging frond and glowing yellow lights outlines your companion’s laughing face? just being in that restaurant was wonderful, warm and quaint. do i need to get on with the food? Chef Nino, as i said, you’re so galing. hope you guys see what their hardwork and wonderful partnership has come to.
My family and I have eaten here twice and on both times I did was not able to finish my entree. I find all their food to be overpowering, too salty for my taste.
hi anton…fan mo ako since last year pa hehehe..lagi akong nagche-check ng blog mo to update whats new..:)..sana nga makita kita and ur whole family one time sa mga bagong place dito sa manila…well, in case u wanna try,may bagong resto along kalayaan avenue sa quezon city near eunilane supermarket,ADARNA Food and Culture..maganda ung place and masasarap ang food.nice ung ambiance,puro antiques ang nakapaligid.in case u wanna try..boss ko kase ung isang may-ari..nice place for the whole family..see yah..and congrats sa bago nyong baby.. 🙂
After one million years (haha!) I was able to book and eat here! Yey! I think I told you last year I will but I got shut off because of no booking 🙁
I don’t have negative to say about the food fare – oh, only for 1, they have bad wines 🙁 Limited beverage selection that you have no choice but to drink iced tea, softdrinks, or concentrated fruit juices 🙁
And, lastly, I hope there will be better ventilation coz it was foggy most probably from the kitchen) when I eat in. The food smell is tolerable or perhaps, I was enjoying my company and am too hungry to notice what am eating. 🙂
I think we have a bigger serving of the Shitake Salad hehe 🙂 Good for sharing talaga. We ordered that and Steak Salad and Create Your Own. I didn’t taste the Steak one coz it’s beef but you are right with the Shitake, there’s something magic with the dressing. I find myself eating half of the plate – thinking back.
Since we are a big group and we are fish/seafood eaters, I think we order all the seafood in the menu. And you know my pet peeve with seafood, this place PASSED my mark. I am just so glad because there are so many posts above that are on the negative side and even my cousin was dissuading me to eat here too. Whew. It’s still not the softness that am looking for but it’s almost there. I ordered the same – Local Halibut which has the smokiness (it reminds me of tinapa! Yum) and the pasta that you will completely forget that it’s there w/c for me is nice coz it’s not fighting with the Halibut’s taste 🙂 Also like the Red Mullet Fillet because this has a softer meat (vs the Halibut) – it was nice. I can not speak for the others like duck, beef, and prawns – but my uncle swore that the duck confit is the must-order in the house 🙂
We got ourselves Pannacota and Mango Merengue for desserts. I like the last better coz it’s less sweet but I still can not appreciate desserts so Ill probably stick with Appetizer/Salad/Main Course should I come back 🙂
thanks for the post, i was looking for different places i wanna try when i visit the philippines this year. I most definitely am going to put this on my list=)
Reviews surely helps the chef (and the entire resto to improve) hopefully all resto-owners are like that, welcome to criticisms and improvement. More importantly, this review is helpful to us, who would want to try good food at home! I’ll surely visit this place…thanks!
I like the tender hanging blade. I get it every time I go there. Initially it came with mushroom risotto which was great tasting so I felt a bit sad when the waiter said the risotto had been replaced with risoni. But after trying risoni, I was taken in. So it’s till the same entree for me each time.
pasts vongolle and tender hanging steak for the win 🙂
sad though, we got there dinner time and the place was full so we only got seats outside (loved the koi pond by the way) so we didn’t get to see what was inside. great experience overall 🙂
Hi, I just noticed a typo error:
Menu (the menu items and prizes may change)
Thanks for the feedback! I changed it already 🙂
Will check it out! Thanks for this great review.
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how much per pax???