Chef Sau and Chef Jam have finally opened a Kapampangan resto serving heirloom recipes from their families. It is aptly named “Villa” because of the old villages in Angeles — Villa Gloria and Angela — where they grew up.
All the dishes we ordered were rich in taste, plated well, and had that signature Kapampangan quality. Looks-wise and taste-wise, this is the kind of Filipino food that can please an international audience.
The left wall of Villa Cafe is reserved for Chef Sau’s childhood photos, while the right wall is for Chef Jam.
Villa Cafe Menu (Heirloom Recipes from Angeles)
- Appetizers, Soups and Salads
- Mains, Snacks and Rice
- Wine, Cocktails, Beers, and Iced Teas
- Smoothies, Coffee, Tea, Soda, Bottled Water
The restaurant has minimalist interiors with an an open-home kitchen-type of setup. The first floor can accommodate 20 guests.
The second floor can be reserved for functions and can comfortably seat 16 people.
★ Tinapa Pate with Melba Toast (Free Appetizer)
Aidan couldn’t get enough of the Tinapa Pate mousse. It was so creamy and addicting. Appetizer pa lang, ulam na…
★ Bulanglang Pork Ribs (P175 +10% service charge). Guava, Gandus.
We started with the Guava Sinagang that had generous servings of meat. It was like drinking hot guava juice with the right amount of sourness.
★ Pastel de Lengua (P395 +10% service charge). Mushrooms, Chorizo & Sausages. Two thumbs up from Chef Jam!
The lengua chunks were perfect — full of flavor, really soft and tender, and complemented well by the chorizo and mushroom. The serving size was quite huge, good enough for 2-3 persons.
This was super creamy, buttery, and rich. Sarap!
★ Tinapa Caper Pasta (P375 +10% service charge). Garlic Confit & Fried Tomatoes.
We requested a non-spicy version of this pasta for Aidan. You can tell that they did not scrimp on the ingredients. The serving size of this dish can feed 2 persons.
★ Soft Lamb Shank Kaldereta (P625 +10% service charge). Parmesan, Vegetables (best served with Kangaroo Ridge Cabernet Sauvignon 2009).
My personal favorite! The fork-tender lamb shank went quite well with the buttery tomato sauce and cheese. This dish certainly tastes as good as it looks.
We weren’t able to try their best seller Dulce de Tsokulati, which was wiped out the night before, during Chef Sau’s birthday party. Instead, we got the Tsoknut Sansrival, which was kind of similar to the soft sansrival that they serve in M Cafe (without the crunchy layers) but not as yummy.
Have you tried their Dulce de Tsokulati?
The San Nicolas Cookies and Binuro of Atching Lillian Borromeo, one of Pampanga’s culinary icons, are available in Villa Cafe.
Congratulations to Chef Sau and Chef Jam for creating a Filipino restaurant that we can all be proud of! This resto will be the talk of the foodie town this Christmas. 🙂
What’s your take on Chef Sau and Chef Jam’s Villa Cafe?
Villa Cafe, Makati
by Chef Sau Del Rosario and Chef Jam Melchor
7427 Glory Building, Yakal St., San Antonio Village, Makati
(located a few buildings before I’m Angus and Santis)
Email: villacafe11@gmail.com
Mobile: +63 917 434-3143
Telephone: +632 478-2659
Contact: Chef Sau directly at +63 917 556 0917 or chefsau@yahoo.com
Operating Hours: Monday to Sunday, 10am to 1opm
Facebook: Villa Cafe
Related Chef Sau Restaurant posts:
- Chef Sau del Rosario, A Private Green Chef Experience
- Le Bistro Vert, “The Green Bistro”
- TORO Mexican Japanese Restaurant
Live an Awesome Life,
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Full Disclosure: We paid for our meals. We are not connected in any way to the owners or PR company promoting this restaurant.
★ Happily recommended 🙂
P.S. This is an interesting promo — All you can eat fresh oysters + a glass of Beringer Wine for P595 ! My dad would love this. We will definitely go back to try the other dishes.
I’ll have to try this 🙂
The pate sounds delicious… Though I run the risk of “tinapa overload,” I’d also probably go for the tinapa caper pasta during the same meal. Hahaha!
Love how you feature Kapampangan restos a lot, Anton!
We are really proud of our heritage and our recipes 🙂
We had the best seller Kaldereta lamb shank. The meat was so tender that if you stared at it hard enough, it’ll just fall off the bone. We had to request some extra sauce though. It is a stew after all. However, the flavor was spot on and the portion was really for 2 people (I believe most, if not all their dishes, are for sharing). The revelation for us was the rellenong bangus. Oi! We just can’t stop saying how good it was in between mouthfuls. I guess we just didn’t know what to expect and we were taken buy a really pleasant savory surprise. You hardly need to order any of the flavored fried rice because the dishes themselves were so flavorful. The best way to compliment them was with a cup of plain jasmine rice. It’s uncomplicated and yet utterly delicious, just like what your lola would make once a year at noche buena. The serving staff was also very charming but not obtrusive and aggressive. No hard selling.
Some points for improvement would be a) the exhaust; The open kitchen lends a homey ambience but you walk away from the place smelling like “ginisa.”
And b) the dessert menu; They have such a strong list of savory dishes that you wish they would finish with a solid sweet punch. The Dulce de Tsokolati is adequate (even the portion is to be shared) but it’s not a fitting ending to such a lovely meal. The coffee was complimentary though. How can you complain?
wow, this is near our place! will date rencie here one time.
I agree that the food is good. Flavorful and interesting. However, our group was disappointed with the extremely slow pace that they served the food. Our casual lunch took 3 hours with the bill taking 20 mins with a lot of errors. Try this place if you have lots of patience.
i tried this place for dinner, as i was intrigued when it was featured on ANC.
the place was small, but cozy enough. i decided to order the lamb shank, as i was told this was one of the house specialties. Since the dining area was small, you could see the open kitchen. i started to worry when i saw the cook using the microwave to heat up the lamb shank, and truly horrified when i saw him squeezing sauces or other condiments out of plastic bags. the dish was passable. but the slice of goat cheese was not warm, they should have cubed it and added to the sauce prior to plating.
since i am a big eater, i decided to try the pastel de lengua, another house specialty. i saw the infamous plastic bags again disgorging their contents into the chef’s cooking pan. the lengua was horribly tough and rubbery. the chorizo and sausages had almost no taste, and the potatoes were undercooked. the dish left an unpleasant meaty taste in the mouth.
guys, since you are operating a small place, kindly invest in some re-useable plastic containers which can be quite inexpensive. it is very unappealing to see food being squeezed out of plastic bags.
Hi Mr. Anton Diaz,
Would you know where Villa Cafe transferred? I don’t see it anymore in Yakal St.
Thank you in advance.
This is permanently closed na 🙁
ANTON DIAZ
Founder, Our Awesome Planet
m:+63 917 5683627