Chelsea, the sister restaurant of M Cafe, opened in Serendra last April 13, 2007. Now, one of my favorite resto in Serendra.
Freshest Ingredients, Satisfying Portions, Value for Money, Tasty and Juicy Freshness, Widest Menu Selection, they also have Wagyu Beef in the menu.
Super Friendly Staff in Black. But of course, you need to be patient with them since they are in their soft launch period.
A market for exotic local and foreign ingredients.
The best place to reserve for a group of 10-12 family/ friends.
Aidan poses for the camera. The only issue with Chelsea is that the airconditioning is not functioning well inside the restaurant. They should fix this one.
The Chelsea Food
Soup, Salad, Starters, Refreshers and Cheese
Sandwiches, Chelsea Signature, Dinner Plates, Pizzas, Cakes & Milkshakes
Focaccia Bread with mushrooms and pesto on top with roasted garlic. Free up to a second round.
Butternut Squash & Marinated Goat Cheese (120++). Whoa! Good for 6 people! Isn’t that great! Good thing we didn’t order another soup.
Roasted Portabello Mushroom, Marinated Artichokes, Roasted Asparagus, Tomato Confit 10 in. (P295++). The best vegetarian pizza in Makati!
Grandma’s Crispy Duck Confit & Mushroom Risotto, Peppercorn Sauce, Roasted Organic Vegetables (P295++). We loved the Risotto and fresh sweet vegetables. The duck breast was decent.
One of the best places for dessert in Serendra.
Toblerone Torte Sansrival (P150++) – Their Best Seller and Killer Dessert! Too much of a slice for us.
Watermelon Green Mango Shake (P110++). Recommended — Watermelon color but still taste more of the green mango.
Why would you need 10 variants of Rock Sea Salt? Can somebody explain, they all taste like salt right?
Chelsea Market Cafe @ Serendra
Tel# +632 9091711 for reservations.
the place awfully looks like a dean and deluca wannabe.
I was not planning to go to Chelsea anytime soon. Establishments during soft openings can be a bit frustrating. But Anton, your pictures are making change my schedule.:)
hi anton! i’m glad you liked chelsea. I was working that night. =) I saw you with your wife and aidan. You guys were seated beside the windows right? hehe=)
What perfect timing! I have a reunion with college friends there next Friday. I’m so happy you posted this review! 🙂
I don’t care about the salt or the food. I’m just trying to wipe the drool off my monitor after gazing at the shot of the desserts. Hooeeeey!
I walked into Chelsea last week because I recognized the items from Spices and Flavors (they sell the salts and spices near the bar), and thought they might be an extension of the spice mart. Nice set up but I’ll wait till they get over soft opening. Will this be a new Sunday brunch place for the future? The service crew weren’t sure but said it could happen. By the way did you mention that they are only open for dinner during soft launch?
As for why ten salts, some of the salts do taste slightly different. There’s a black salt that has a strong hint of sulfur, and I’ve used the pink salt for roasting. All those salts won’t leave or shouldn’t leave a metallic taste in your mouth after cooking. But there’s a good article by Jeffrey Steingarten in his books about whether it’s worth spending on gourmet salts (he says in the end, no).
Am not a big fan of M Cafe’s food but they have killer cocktails. But based on your photos, Chelsea is at least worth a try. Have to give everything a chance. Thank you for the post.
I like the duck confit pizza Anton…you can try that next time 🙂
I have an Alderwood smoked sea salt from that line there…it taste incredibly smokey…you can tell when you sniff it (don’t inhale too deeply!) Maybe next time we have another get together I will bring it 🙂
whoa..another resto to try out in Serendra =p
nice pics anton =)
hmm wrong number ata yun naka post…
went there last night, the place was packed buti na lang sarap ng food! thanks anton! but yeah, the AC was busted- grabe pinawisan ako 🙁
Went tonight. Yeah it was a bit warm, so more people went outside since it was breezy.
The pizza is so thin! Merienda size only.
We had pastrami sandwich as well. I liked it, but my companion didn’t, probably because the cheese was very tangy and the radish very sour.
I agree re: the soup and the watermelong/green mango shake. Lemon/lime soda is good.
Too bad we were too full for dessert!
Thanks for sharing this Anton! I’m a fan of your blog. 🙂 Do continue to inspire!
Thanks, Anton. Gorgeous pictures! The numbers for Chelsea Market & Café are (+632)9097011, 9097012.
hi. ate at chelsea last night because of this entry. the lemon lime mint soda was great! the five cheese pizza with arugula was also good. my sister had the patrami sandwich and she said it was sour. we ordered the lobster bisque which was just okay and served at room temperature while the pea soup tasted really good and was served hot (but cooled within the time we waited for the serving spoon we requested from the waiter-just wondering whether the soups were already made and just microwaved each time there’s an order). the portion of the menu which indicates “good to share” was a bit misleading, my brother shared his seabass with his girlfriend but it turned out that the order was actually just enough for one person…disappointing. anyway, the food was generally good. i’d come back to try the other stuff.
Your blog entry was so enticing that I dragged my family to Chelsea for lunch on Saturday. Sadly though, they were closed and told us to come back at 3pm. Yun pala, they were changing the prices on the menu (particularly, the cheese list).
It was so disappointing because the main reason I wanted to go there was because the original menu listed a choice of six cheeses totalling 900grams for Php695 — quite a steal! But they increased the prices and decreased the serving size — on the new menu the cheese servings are 100g each (not 150g anymore). For a choice of 3 it’s Php695, and for a choice of 6 it’s Php895. Dang. But since we were there already, we decided to go for the cheese board pa rin. We got Brie, Tete de Moine, Gorgonzola, Manchego and Livarot. I wanted chevre, but I saw in the counter that it was just the plain white Soignon log in plastic, so I opted for 2 servings of Livarot instead (love ’em stinky washed-rind cheeses!).
Anyway, soft opening pa talaga coz the servings were so small — each piece of cheese looked 50g rather than 100g. But we complained and they added more. Other than that (and a few mosquitoes, ants and non-functioning aircon), we loved the place and will definitely go back when they’ve ironed out the kinks. I already know what I’m going to get — the Reblochon & smoked bacon! Sigh — my dream restaurant (if only they didn’t raise the prices of the cheeses!).
Went there for my birthday last Sunday and I had a really horrible time!
First of all service was atrocious! We were halfway to the kitchen before ANY of the food service staff approached us. There was nobody to greet us at the doorway when we arrived and the waiters almost panicked when they tried to seat us in different tables that were reserved already.
So when we sat down we realized that it was hot inside and that the ACs were already at full blast so we decided to order some drinks to help cool us down. I had the lemon lime mint soda, my dad ordered the frozen lemon iced tea, and my brother ordered the chocolate-banana drink. My dad’s drink came in a glass that had a large crack that went from the rim of the glass down midway to the bottom! My drink, the lemon lime mint soda came warm so I had to ask for more ice to cool it down. First thing I noticed when these drinks came was that the straws they used were terribly inconsistent with the height of the glasses and therefore made drinking a little bit difficult especially when you’re almost through with your drink.
Comment on the “house specialty” lemon lime mint soda: it tastes EXACTLY LIKE SPRITE AND I FELT CHEATED! I felt like they served me SPRITE ICE with TINY lemon and lime wedges and a wilted sprig-let of mint. Horrible quality for the 95 pesos they charged me for it.
Good thing the chocolate banana drink was delicious because it wasn’t too thick. It could’ve spent a few more seconds in the blender though as much of the chocolate syrup was still unmixed into the drink and sometimes you could suddenly sip a big glob-ful of the stuff.
We ordered the meatball and sausage pasta stew and the roasted shrimp pizza. We were still full from lunch so we just had these two things.
It took the kitchen more than 30 minutes to get our pasta out and when it did come out it wasn’t very impressive. It was like they just dumped the pasta onto the plate and then just plopped the single HUGE meatball on the side. It would’ve been better if it had come out hot or at least warm but the pasta was room-temperature by the time it arrived on our table. The pasta was cooked good but the meatball was horrendous! It was tough and dry, more like chewing on a large meatball-flavored gum ball.
Then when we were done with the pasta, it took the kitchen at least 15 more minutes to bring out our burnt yet frigidly cold pizza. I think the kitchen was out of shrimps because for an entire pizza that cost 300+ pesos, there were only 3 pieces of shrimp. Some slices of the pizza didn’t even have anything on them except tomato sauce!
So to sum up, I guess I’d never go back to Chelsea’s ever again! Even if the meal is free! The service was HORRIBLE, the food NOT WORTH IT and the ambiance, EXCRUCIATING!
I personally don’t believe that restaurants should be giving us the reason that they’re on soft-opening because they’re charging us the full prices even if we have to put up with their mediocre food and agonizing service!
Hi Anton! My friends and I had dinner at Chelsea this evening, enticed by your write up and photos. The service was really wanting, but the staff was pleasant enough not to warrant a complaint.Complimentary iced tea to make up for the poor airconditioning was a nice gesture on their part.The food is genuinely tasty but the portions are far from generous and definitely not for sharing.The butternut squash soup barely filled half a small coffee cup when divided by four adults. All things considered, Chelsea is worth another visit,perhaps in a few months when they have (hopefully!) a smoother run of the operations. They could take a cue from nearby Abe which has had excellent food and service since day one!
Chelsea is like a sister of M cafe. You cant go wrong when both restaurants give unique establishments a name for itself. Just ate there the other night and even if the “soft opening” sign is still up it was like the icing on top of the cake. Cant wait until they are fully opened. Its exciting to finally go to a place that has that “something different” quality. The deli and unique design gives it a sense of being in a place that reminds me of europe/new york. ( ofcourse its designed by the famed new york designer Noel Bernardo thats what everyone says)
The portions were big and we couldnt finish our meals but I guarantee even if the weather is so hot nowadays we stayed for 3 hours just hanging out.
The jackfruit/cashew shake was to die for.(off the menu) you have to ask for it and the waiter was kind enough to tell us what was “off the menu” (hence good service)
We tried the roast chicken with wild rice (yummy) pizza with the duck confit was something my mouth still savors!
What a deal for 300 ++ you get a big coldcut platter imported from spain! Thinly sliced Jamon serrano, chorizo iberico , chorizo pamplona, etc………. nice starter!
Try the bloody mary or the bohemian cocktail! We all left happy and satisfied .
Leaving with some goodies from their exotic “grocery” 🙂
Re:
“radish very sour”- well “sauer”kraut is generally supposed to be a bit sour/salty because of the fermentation ( a bit like atchara)
Recipe:
Where can I find a recipe to make sauerkraut?
Most people buy sauerkraut already made, but the 1975 version of Joy of Cooking (Canada, UK) has a recipe for the truly patient.
It calls for 1 lb of salt for 40 lbs of cabbage (or 2 teaspoons salt for each pound of cabbage). Dispose of the outer leaves, core, quarter, shred the cabbage, and then mix it with the salt. Put it in a stone crock to within 2 inches of the top. Cover with a cloth and plate or board that fits inside the crock, and place enough weight on the plate to force the brine in the cabbage to rise high enough to wet the cloth.
When it begins to ferment, skim off the scum, replace the cloth, and wash the plate or board each day. At 60°F (16°C), the fermenting process will take at least a month. A higher temperature will speed up the process, but the taste will not be as good. Once the fermentation is finished, you should heat the sauerkraut to 180°F (82°C), place it in canning jars, adding enough kraut juice (or a brine of 2 tablespoons of salt per quart of water) to cover it, and process it in a boiling-water bath.
Went to Chelsea more than a week ago with my husband and son.
The AC was working fine that time, so no problem then.
The wait staff were slightly distracted, but were pleasant enough.
They really should get longer straws, and the refills of iced tea didn’t taste the same each time… and had varying color intensity as well.
The sea bass was barely for one and shouldn’t be labeled as “for sharing”, but i saw that the chicken priced the same was ne whole chicken so that would definitely be for sharing. =)
The arugula in my husband’s salad looked kind of messed up, the leaves didn’t look fresh and it looked like they tore away some bad parts.
The hershey choco-banana crunch pie is a pie crust with bananas and whipped cream and crunch bar bits on top. i had the “n” from crunch – and it cost P180++. The crust didn’t taste good – the bananas were the only thing that was good and you really can’t go very wrong with a banana. warning: it had the “try this” symbol on it.
The place was nice and homey, and i enjoyed the sea bass. My husband swears never to come back again because of his salad (granny smith with gorgonzola).
Hope this helps some. =)
hmm.. mixed reviews. i better give it a try then..
if your blog has calories in it, we’ll all be fat
For serendra chelsea is top choice!
id rather eat at chelsea than SILK and SILK is Louis Y’s restaurant – hence NUVO
Good Food! Keep it up!
Had dinner at Chelsea just 2 Saturdays ago, I have to say that I love the place and the food. I’ll definitely be back there again. 🙂
Thanks for posting your review about the place. Looking forward to your future recommendations.
hi anton,
i had dinner here last night and was pleasantly surprised by how good the food was (we ordered squash soup with goat cheese/ mushroom pizza / baby back ribs rack / mushroom risotto with duck confit) and how the portions were actually reasonable (in the case of the soup, much more than reasonable!)
pero Tere is right, they should get longer straws 😀
we spent sometbing like less than P700/pax, so not so bad given the location….considering too that M Cafe is so overpriced!!
Peter (yr Corregidor classmate)
Seriously, M Cafe?!? It’s a good thing I let certain time past after reading your entry. Kundi, Ill probably pull an arm/leg out of my friend to convince her to eat here after a bad exp in M Cafe.
Anyways, we have mixed reviews over the food we ate. We got the Pea and Mushroom Ravioli soup. While the soup got about, yup, around 6 servings, there was ONE (and ONLY ONE) ravioli ! 😮 So imagine the slice/dice we have to do with the ravioli – one of us have to give up even tasting it 🙁 The taste was not bad pa naman sana. Then our pizza – no terrible experience, we actually love the Duck Leg Pizza. We love it thin as what Italian ones were supposed to be. Almost didnt get to order this one – buti na lang may power of majority hehehe. It sounded quirky by menu descript but it was pretty good. And since we will die for quiche, we got Smoked Salmon Quiche (later on, we realize that our love have made us amnesiac about the fact that it fell under the Cheese selection section). We weren’t happy. You know that sad sad feeling you have when you ate something too rich. We did not have room for dessert anymore after the Quiche.
I love Sauerkraut but after seeing the word bacon in the word sauerkraut, I took a double take. Since when did sauerkraut got to be sauteed or even associated with Bacon?!?! 😮 I can hear my German pal reminding what makes a real German food versus not and how passionate he was about the unreal ones 😮
P.S. Is Serendra part of Makati? Di ba, Taguig na? Hehe 🙂
My daughters love the Butternut Squash soup here. My personal favorite is their seabass =)
Dinner was great! loved the sea bass! Service was fast even though there were lots of people and the waiters were very alert. air-con was weak but understandable. The only thing that got me very very disappointed was when this lady asked us to leave while we were still eating our dessert. She said that she needed to give our table to another party waiting outside. It didnt make any sense because we had made a reservation for that table. Well I guess they normaly do that there when there are lots of people.
During the height of the spells of rain last week, a friend and I popped on over to Chelsea after working up an appetite at Fully Booked. We were fortunate enough to get ourselves a table by the window, along with a cheery waiter that was at our beck and call. It was from here we watched everyone making their way through Serendra in the deluge while we enjoyed our carbonara and jalapeño cheese fondue (with olives, broccoli, cherry tomatoes, bread and nachos). To cap it off, my friend had the pavlova, and I had my favorite 4-layer Toblerone cake.
>sigh<
The weather may have been terrible, but it was warm and sunny skies all the way in our sated stomachs.
(Other things to try there too are the Grandma's Crispy Duck Confit, the lamb tagine dish, and the crusted sea bass)
was there last week! aircon was functioning well and they already added new stuff in the menu like this barbeque pizza which was so different from other pizzas and the taste – excellent!
i like this chelsea place very organized looks like the place me and my husband go to if i want to splurge on whole cake just for myself until i couldnt breath anymore LOL! it’s called PAPA JOE’S gourmet market…..i just got done eating hotdogs with organic sauerkraut and they’re yummy
…..by the way cake here is no way as expensive as in boracay….and boracay prices is not far from papa joe’s gourmet cake prices….but boracay’s friday has the best chocolate ganache to die for….i really miss those friday’s chocolate ganache i am craving for it right now lol!….
Had dinner there last Saturday. Worst place I’ve been to. Really not worth the money nor the time. Read my review on my site
http://mailboxck.multiply.com/reviews/item/11
Anton,
I have to check this! Good thing, i found this blog because i am looking for a place that my girlfriend and I could celebrate our 1st anniversary. Thanks!
My family went there last Saturday for a quick lunch. Looks like they fixed tha AC and the staff were attentive. But their boots were distracting! ^_^ It was not a busy time so we were seated immediately.
I forgot the fancy names but we had the ff.:
1. peach and strawberry iced teas – Loved them and I think they’re reasonably-priced too.
2. salad with roasted chicken and bacon strips – We were told it was tossed with caesar dressing but I’m not so sure because there was no hint of anchovies. But we liked the freshness of the ingredients.
3. hickory/bbq-flavored pizza – It was good but a bit too sweet for my taste. The crust could be better. It was supposed to be crisp but maybe because of the generous toppings, it has lost its crispness.
4. meatball pasta in red sauce – I like the taste of fresh herbs and tomatoes… but I would have wanted a more meatier meatball. Contrary to earlier comments, our meatball was far from chewy, it was almost, err, ‘soft’.
Some more comments:
The focaccia bread is great but my sister makes better roasted garlic with the cheapest of ingredients.
Hopefully, next time, everyone will be served mint-infused water.
Oh, my only real concern was the table we got (the one nearest the kitchen). When seated, the leg hits your knees so you have to adjust.
I like the ambiance but aside from selling spices, I think they should add more ‘gourmet’ items to improve the market/cafe theme.
Overall, the place deserves a second visit — because you all said you loved the sea bass and the duck confit — I should’ve Googled first. And next time, I’ll make sure there’s room for dessert.
Me and my family went to Chelsea yesterday to celebrate my graduation, I was excited to eat here because of the reviews i’ve read here at OAP. We went there around 1:30 in the afternoon, because my graduation ended at 1PM. The place is still packed with lots of people and we have to wait for about an hour just to get into our seats. There are tables outside but I think its not comfortable to eat there especially during lunch time because of the heat. The Menu is divided into 3, first is the (soups, cheese and drinks menu), second is the (Main entree, salads, pizza, pasta and other house specialties Menu), while the last one is all about cocktails and hard drinks. I not sure what everyone ordered because im thinking about what im having for lunch, i ordered the Onion soup, Caesar Salad, and the Seafood Linguine in Tomato and Pesto sauce. While i think my sister had the duck con fit with risotto, squash soup and salad in Balsamic Vinaigrette, my other sister had chowder soup and Norwegian salmon, my cuz ordered pasta with wild mushroom but i forgot its name and a 16 inch pizza of roasted prawns and prosciutto for everyone, my mom and aunt shared the roasted herbed chicken with brown rice which i think is good for more than 2 people because its a whole chicken. And for drinks, most of us had the frozen lemon iced tea while others just had water. The service was not bad and the food came in no time. They served complementary foccacia bread with i think baked garlic which kind of melts when you eat it and it doesn’t have that odor which make your mouth smell. Then the soup came out, i think the onion soup is kind of sweet for me, but tastes good in a way while the chowder tastes like clam chowder without the clams. Its taste is mild but not to creamy which was good. i wasn’t able to taste the squash soup because my other sister seats at the other end of the table. After having the soup, the salad was served, the salad was good for 2-3 people and the greens are still fresh and crunchy! I’m not a fan of salad in vinaigrette dressing so i did not appreciate it, I liked the Caesar Salad better because it has huge chunks of bacon with slices of chicken and almonds and the dressing doesn’t overpower the veggies which makes it very good indeed. Then the pizza arrived, everyone got their own slice but i noticed that there are only few chunks of prawns, not more than 5 i think. The presentation was nice but the taste was just Ok for me, not something that i would order again next time. The Main Entrees arrived and i envied the crispy duck con fit in red peppercorn Marsala sauce with mushroom risotto which my sister is having. The duck is huge and it looks pretty yummy! “my mouth watered during that time, hehe” I asked if i could have some and she gave me a slice of duck above a spoonful of risotto. The risotto is very creamy and its overpowering the taste of the duck, the duck is very tender and blends with the risotto perfectly if the rice just wasn’t that creamy. Then my seafood pasta arrived, it smells good and i quickly took a bite. The pasta is cooked “al dente” and the tomato sauce tastes fresh which is made from real tomatoes and the servings of the seafood is quite generous for its price. maybe an 8 out of 10 for me, as for the salmon, i took a small bite but didn’t quite taste the flavor i was looking for. But my sister said it was good especially the mashed potatoes and veggies beneath the fish. The roasted chicken which my mom and aunt ate was huge and is good for 3-4, i didn’t dare to take a bite anymore because i was very full, another bite could make me throw up. The left overs were packed up and the desserts we were thinking about earlier were no longer in our minds. But the desserts look nice but seems expensive for a slice. Maybe another visit next time to Chelsea would answer whether their desserts are worth it or not. My overall experience in Chelsea is quite good, the airconditioning unit as commented by KuYa Anton is true, another unit could solve this problem or maybe the heat during noon was just too hot. Two thumbs up for Chelsea. Expect a budget of 600-900 per person to feel the full Chelsea experience.
I recently tried its Podium branch and the service was really bad. After waiting for more than 30 minutes for our main course to arrive, we noticed that customers who arrived later than us got served earlier. We complained and the manager simply said she’ll give us soup like we were after freebies. No apologies were offered until I said to cancel the order and I’ll just settle the bill. They even had the gall the charge a service fee!