The Food Tour of Ivan Man Dy (of Old Manila Walks fame) in Bonifacio Global City last April 24 was great! It’s actually a restaurant tour organized by Bonifacio Global City management to promote selected restaurants in Serendra, Bonifacio High Street (BHS) and Fort Strip.
The best thing about it is it’s for FREE and open to BHS, Serendra and Fort Strip visitors. You can register as walk-in guests at the Concierge Desk in Bonifacio High Street for the upcoming May 1, 2pm tour.
Here are some of my interesting discoveries during the food tour…
Red Velvet Vixen (P72 – big size). Traditional Southern Cupcakes made with Belgian Cocoa and Cream Cheese Icing. Part of the proceeds of the Red Velvet Vixen cupcakes goes to support Red Cross.
Inspired by her stints in Magnolia Bakery in NY and Sprinkles in Hollywood, Sonja started the Cupcake Craze in Manila. To this day, she still retains the title of Queen of Cupcakes. She consistently serves fresh, top quality cupcakes in her nice and homey shop in Serendra.
During the May 1 Food Tour, this is the only restaurant destination that will be repeated from the April 24 tour.
I was glad to see Oskie Ravanera, Juliana and daughter Mian Alampay from the recent Ultimate Batanes Tour Batch April 2010, and Ed Legaspi and his wife from our first-ever Ultimate Batanes Tour Batch 1. We had a fun time sharing memories (and controversies) of the Batanes tour. 🙂
If your birthday is on May 1, join the BGC Food Tour and treat your friends to a FREE Food Tour around Serendra, Bonifacio High Street and Fort Strip. Ed Legaspi celebrated his birthday during our tour.
At Friday’s, I learned that the Filipino Pork Liempo (P395) is only carried by the Friday’s chain in the Philippines. We were told that people rave about it.
One of our favorite yogurt places was part of the tour — Yoh-gurt Froz in Bonifacio High Street, which is hidden inside Hobbes & Landes. Everyone in the tour group was treated to a cup of Yoh-gurt Froz with whatever toppings we liked. This coming Saturday, it is Ice Cream Bar’s turn to treat people joining the food tour. 🙂
For me, the highlight of the tour was the finale, which was a 6-course meal at The Establishment. 🙂 It’s quite rare to get inside The Hall wearing shorts and slippers. Usually, you really have to dress up to get inside The Establishment.
Tuna Belly Tataki with 9 Spice Aioli. Seared Sashimi Grade Tuna, Mixed Greens, Tobiko, Crispy Scallion
The Establishment is launching a new Pan-Asian menu. We got a taste of it during our last stop in the food tour. The second-floor Chinese restaurant is not fully constructed yet, so they decided to focus on the restaurants on the ground floor first.
Beef Miso Zuke. Grilled US Beef Tenderloin Marinated in Lemon Miso Soup
Some of our blogger foodie friends attended the event, but most of the participants were previous clients of Ivan Man Dy.
On May 1, the tour will end at the Amber Lounge, where the pizzas are good. 🙂
Thanks to all the foodies we met during the Food Tour last April 24! Don’t miss the May 1 Food Tour with Ivan Man Dy. Here is the itinerary below:
Food Tour with Ivan Man Dy (May 1, Saturday, 2pm)
2:00-2:30 POLU KAI, Serendra (Meeting Place)
2:30-3:00 CUPCAKES BY SONJA, Serendra
3:00-3:10 Walk to Bonifacio High Street (BHS)
3:10-3:40 ITALIANNI’S (BHS)
3:40-4:25 STOCK MARKET (BHS)
ICE CREAM BAR (BHS)
4:25-4:35 Walk to Fort Strip
4:35-5:05 TRIO Italian
5:05-5:35 AMBER
As they say, the best (and awesome) things in life are FREE! 🙂
Live an Awesome Life,
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Call or Text Me: +63917 5683-627 (LOVE-OAP)
Follow Me 
Facebook
Twitter
Flickr
Youtube
P.S. Don’t miss the schedules of the other BGC Passionfest events this coming weekend!
WOW what great timing! we’re planning to go to Fort on Sat 🙂
Clarify ko lang Anton, this is open to ALL, even with kids? and we just have to register where? I assume the group will be limited? Sorry I am not a regular at the Fort so not familiar with the spots and happenings here as well 🙂 Thanks!
for freeeee?
How do we join this food tour?
So we’ll just walk-in and register? That’s it? And all for free? Cool!
I’ll definitely go along with my friends!
Hi Cherry,
Walk-ins can register at 1pm at the BGC Concierge along High Street.
You can also email Ivan Man Dy at fun@oldmanilawalks.com for more details…
Anton
Yes, it is open to all but with limited slots. Walk-in Registration starts at 1pm at the BGC Concierge Booth Unit B8 Boni High Street near Sheshiedo. FIRST COME FIRST SERVE.
Yes it is for FREE but limited slots and first come first serve. The tour last Saturday was not maximized, that will give you an idea how big the group they are expecting…
Anton
Thanks for sharing Anton 🙂 we’re excited!!!
I can’t wait!
for Free?? how many people will they accept for the food Tour?
Oh, sayang. I didn’t know about this! I could have joined my Batanes tourmates!
will they have other schedule after May 1?
Karnie,
The last tour will be on May 01, there are only 2 runs of this special food walk.
looking forward for tomorrow’s bgc food walk.
hope it won’t rain!
hi!
will there be another schedule for this?? i really want to try this one but we cant make it on sat.
Depends with Bonifacio Global City management. I will let you know…
Sent from Mobile
I saw this kanina! I was surprised to see a lot of people swarmed in front of Sonja’s–then I recognized Ivan Dy.
I overheard Ivan say, “Biglang dumami ah!” as participants (with BGC stickers) and non-participants grab one of the cupcakes displayed outside.
Hi Anton! I just want to share my disappointment with this event.
I saw this post of yours yesterday. Upon reading, I immediately called up the Bonifacio High Street Concierge. They told me that “yes, it’s free”, “registration is on a first come, first served basis”, and that “the registration will start by 11am”.
So we were there by past 11am. My husband and I signed up, and was told by the lady at the concierge that she will just text or call us when the food tour is about to start. We left after signing because the food tour was still 3 hours away.
Around 1:30pm, we still did not receive any notification so we headed to the concierge at B8. On the way, we passed by Sonja’s and having read the itinerary you posted here, we knew that Sonja’s is part of today’s tour. We became excited when we saw the staff of Sonja’s neatly arranging mini red velvet vixens on a table in front of the store.
Upon arriving at the concierge, there lingered a number of people. The lady at the concierge whom we talked to earlier was not there. Since there was the group of people idling nearby, we assumed that they were also waiting for the tour to start. Alas, 2pm came and still, no organizer nor concierge person in sight. We were getting worried, the food tour is scheduled to start by that time and there we were, wondering whom to approach.
Just then, a woman came armed with a phone and carrying 2 sheets printed with “Registration for Culinary Food Tour is now closed.” We stood by coolly, thinking “Hey we’re registered! We’re in!” But before I managed to speak to the woman, the lady beside me spoke up and asked for the meeting place of the food tour and if they could get the stickers that will identify them as part of the tour. The woman who turned out to be an organizer told us that the tour is starting already in Serendra. That they have confirmed the master list before 2pm. She further told us that the registration was done from 11am to 12nn. She offered to call a person who has the master list on hand to verify if our name was indeed on the list.
We did not make it to the list. Imagine my disappointment and dismay. I was so looking forward to the food tour. I even asked a friend to join us. Apparently, there was an online registration for the food tour. They were THE priority. Also, the organizer informed us that out of the 45 slots, 30 is reserved for food bloggers and food critics. Additional slots will only be available if the people who reserved online failed to appear personally at the concierge by 1pm.
I was frustrated with what I have heard. I called up the concierge and they did not mention anything about an online reservation. Nor does the numerous streamers that advertised the event. All of them mentioned only “Registration on the event date at the BHS concierge, B8” and that it was on a “First Come, First Served” Basis.
We walked away from the concierge, feeling an utter loss for an experience we really looked forward to. Going to Market2x, we passed by again Sonja’s cupcakes. The same staff we saw earlier was there again. But this time, she was tidying up the table that held the red velvet vixens half an hour before…
awww shucks! we were at the fort this afternoon and i was wondering what that big group was! had i read this earlier, we would have joined! sayang 🙂
Hi Anton,
I had somewhat of the same experience with Miss Vanessa.
upon learning of this food tour thru OAP, i called up BGC last friday to ask if there is any way we can book online or thru phone in advanced. I was told that no advanced booking is allowed. and that they will start accepting registration Saturday 11am sharp. So this morning (saturday) i got there 11:05am.. was actually delighted to see that there was no queue. But lo and behold, we were told that we’re already on the waiting list. then what made it worse was when i checked the listing, found out that indeed there was a pre registration made (previous walk tour clients of ivan i was told.) — computer print out/not hand written. i asked further, how come the wait list is this long when registration was supposed to start 11am .. found out they started accepting walk-in registry 10am.
ok so the concierce – a certain miss rise ramos told us that she will begin texting the names on the waiting list at 1pm. i told her can we at least get a text confirmation even if we didnt make the cut so we wont be waiting. she said yes.. and even told us she will start informing us at 12 noon.
130pm we came back to the concierge – we didnt make the list.. and was not even sent an sms msg. then found out the ff (confirmed by Rise Ramos) :
tour can only accommodate 60..
40 of which are PREregistered…
that leaves 20 slots to walk-ins.
Im so disappointed at the way they handled the whole thing, we felt wronged. Now thinking twice if our grp should still book our planned binondo walk tour.
Hi Vanessa and Jerson,
Apologies for you not being able to join the BGC event, I think there was mis- communication between the lady at the concierge booth and will forward your comments to the B.G.C. management for their evaluation. Jerson, just to be clear, there was never any priority given to those who have joined our tours before, as the host(not organizer)of this activity, we sent this notice to our mailing list (whether they have joined any of our walks or not) and those that were early enough to confirm got in the online registration slots. But then again, some people confirmed in online but did not show up. Hay naku.
Hi Ivan,
the info about previous walk tour clients being given priority was what the concierge lady (Rise Ramos) told us… thank your for that clarification.
Re the online registration, sana they limited it to maybe say half of the allotted slots, just to give everybody else a fair chance of getting in.. or Maybe they could have informed us before hand that online registration was allowed for the mailing list so we’d know what to expect.
I think its just a case of internal miscommunication amongst BGC staff. concierge lady’s occasional smirking didnt help alleviate the disappointment.. maybe she resented having to report to work on Labor Day. hehe.
Jerson,
There were allotted slots for walk-ins, on our part, it was made clear that walk-in participants will only signed up at 1:00 PM On our part, it was made clear that walk-in participants will only start at 1:00 PM but then again there were things that happened which is beyond our control. Again, my apologies this. Thanks for your comments,have forwarded it to the organizing committee for their evaluation
Sayang I wasn’t able to join this tour. I wasn’t free on Apr. 24, and May 1 had no more slots (as evidenced by comments above). Anton, Ed Legaspi is my tito. He’s a big fan of your tours. 🙂
I'm really sorry for this and I'll bring this up with BGC management. Not sure what really happened here.
Wow, I didn’t know it went that bad for the first batch, I just hope that nothing of this sort happened on the May 1, which I attended. Not only did I get free food, but friends as well 😀 Kudos to BGC and Ivan!