I’m truly honored every time a restaurant that I reviewed invites me to their first year anniversary or any special occasion they have. They acknowledge and know how to say “thank you” in a special way for the objective review I did about their restaurant. This is one of the “perks” of my blogging because I pay for our own dinner. We just love to eat and share our experience about the place for others to try it out.
After one year, In-Yo has bloomed to be one of the awesome restaurants in Metro Manila. The anniversary coincided with the victory of De La Salle over Ateneo to take the second spot in the UAAP 2007 games. So I was shouting “Animo La Salle” inside me as I passed by the Ateneo campus on my way to In-Yo.
Congratulations to Chef Nino Laus and Cris Orocio for a very successful one year anniversary! It was one of the best anniversary dinners we have attended. Only thing was we missed was taking a picture of Aidan with Imee Marcos because Aidan fell into the Koi fish pond after the dinner. We were shocked with what happened to him but he was alright, just half drenched. Hope he learns his lesson to stay put with Momma.
On that anniversary night, Aidan met his shadow. It was fun looking at him being fascinated about where his shadow is coming from. He would often look under his shoes to see the origin of the shadow or trying to jump over. He was even amazed at how big his shadow can be and how it changes as he ran in circles.
Chef Nino (at only age 26 — can you believe it?!) and his culinary team prepares for the degustation menu.
In Yo’s 1st Anniversary Degustation Menu
(A Special menu for the Night)
Trilogy of Foie Gras.
Torchon with cranberry jelly
Pan seared with syrah braised caramelized onions
Poached with truffled mashed potato
Served with mixed greens in raspberry vinaigrette
Among the three, we loved the pan seared version with the caramelized onions. The foie gras tasted like a sponge full of taste with the right texture and without the lansa taste. Even Aidan has to agree to it! He kept asking for more and almost ate his Momma’s share. The torchon version tasted like liver spread and we liked the truffle goodness of the mashed potato. This reminded me of Parallel Forty Five’s four dances of Foie Gras.
Mesquite Smoked Tomato Soup with Basil Froth.
Garnished with parmesan shavings and sun dried tomatoes.
Awesome! It taste like the real tomato soup with the right creaminess, right cheesiness and right consistency. The basil froth makes this look like the cappuccino of soups. Love it!
Honey Glazed Grilled Salmon.
With sweet citrus miso sauce served with light wasabi mashed potato, grilled asparagus and demi dried tomato.
The salmon was cooked medium rare and Rache accidentally ate it and loved it but had to refrain from eating it (pregnant women are discouraged to eating anything raw). I liked anything with wasabi so the mashed potato made me want to shout Animo wasabi. The salmon was tender but firm on the outside and tasted like smoked ham. Can we have another serving of this?
In between meals, Aidan would go to this display of antique sewing machine, and wooden drums that came from Vietnam.
Calamansi Yuzu Sorbet. How I wish I had asked for more of this! Too bad we weren’t fast enough to capture Aidan’s expression when he got to taste this. The yuzu here is a japanese lemon. It got the right taste and blend so it was just perfect!
Spiced Vietnamese Coffee Rubbed U.S. Top Blade.
Served with mushroom ragout and grilled vegetable stack.
Have you tasted a steak flavored with vietnamese coffee and a little bit of rum? Awesome combination! Also, the U.S. Top blade was so soft and it still tasted good even when Rache asked for it to be cooked well done. She loved this too! This is a perfect way to end the meal.
Aidan insisted to take shot of the food as well. At 32 months, he now know how to take some pictures. Chef Nino commented, is this the next Anton Jr.?
Banana Sampler.
Filo wrapped banana with chocolate hazel nut sauce with green tea ice cream.
Banana brulee
Tempura banana served with frozen vahlrona choxolate truffle.
We liked the sosy bananaque where they wrapped the banana in filo sheets with mixture of poppy and sesame seeds and green tea ice cream on top. The creme brulee is now served in a decent serving size and something to rave about. Their dessert is now something to look forward to. I can’t think of a negative comment even if I wanted to.
Aidan with Chef Nino and Master Chef Humphrey Navarro who will open a new french restaurant in October called Aubergine.
In-YĆ Fusion Cuisine.
66 E. Abada St., Loyola Heights, Quezon City (behind Katipunan Avenue)
Tel# +632 426-0301, +63920 960-7202
In Yo Menu
Appetizer, Salad, Soup, Fish
Operating Hours
Tuesday-Sunday
11am – 2pm; 6 – 10pm
Anton,
Thanks again for gracing In-yo’s 1st anniversary. You were really instrumental in spreading the word about the resto. It was nice to finally have met you. It was unfortunate that I was not able to really talk to you and your blooming wife, Rache… And sorry about what happened to Aidan.
God bless!
Dindin (sister of Cris and avid follower of OAP)
Hi there,
Your posts are really informative (and inspiring, hehe, made me start my own blog!).
My boyfriend and I never run out of date places because of your posts! Keep the discoveries coming!
P.S. We’ll visit In-Yo! đ
Maybe aidan was trying to show his shadow to the fish. Time for him to take swimming lessons!
bf and i really fell in love with inyo the first time we tried it. it’s the perfect ‘getaway’ within the city. đ
everything tastes really interesting. đ
That is SO CUTE about Aidan and his shadow! đ
Felipe likes In Yo so much that he has gone there on his own. Hmm…maybe it’s time I returned there.
the meal looked so…pink.
I have heard of this from my cousin since last year. He can not just pinpoint where it is. Kaya thanks to this post, at least, I have an address na! Hahahaha… will drop a message after my visit – hopefully soon đ
my man and i loves in yo..
thanks for sharing!!
kudos!
I was back to in-yo for the third time and my expectations were really high as my previous meals were all above average in Manila’s standards. For the starters we had shitake mushroom salad which was as good as a year ago. The oven baked sushi style prawn roll was mediocre as compared to some of their other appetizers. For the main course, the seaweed crusted red mullet with truffle mash and tempura vegetables was nice, the fish was perfectly cooked and went well with the mash, though the tempura batter on the vegetables were too thick. The king prawns was fresh and nicely cooked. for desserts, we had the mango pavlova which was huge in portion and is quite good, the heaven and earth which was a food for the gods cookie stack with ice cream and served with spricot was very very good and unique. Overall the meal was satisfying but I notice a big difference in terms of price compared to a year ago. I think they increased their prices a bit too much!
hi anton. do you have more details about chef humphrey’s new restau? is it up already? đ thanks!
hey wait, Chef Navaro owns Aubergine in the Fort?
The hubby and I, together with dear old friends, visited In-yo last night after belatedly reading your blog about it. I just have to say that you are absolutely right about In-yo – the place, the food, and the service are simply SUPERB. We made our reservations and the lovely Ms. Edna seated us in the second floor which we really liked because we had the place to ourselves. Thank you for taking the time to share wonderful discoveries with us.