12/10 December Love Affair! a hip Izakaya Joint by @thegirl_thebull (a review)

As featured in MAKATI: 10 Most Awesome NEW Restaurants in Makati 2014! @MakeItMakati

12/10 is a Japanese restaurant by Thea de Rivera and Gab Bustos, also known as The Girl + The Bull. The name of their second restaurant is a tribute to their anniversary date. The restaurant is an izakaya-inspired drinking joint featuring a customize-your-own degustation.

It’s like the younger, hip brother of Mecha Uma–another “graduate” of the BF Aguirre Food Street– offering contemporary Japanese cuisine to a mainstream foodie audience in the metro.

Went on a date with Rache plus the boys at 12/10, and here’s what we think it…

12/10 Izakaya Japanese Restaurant
7635 Guijo St., San Antonio Village, Makati
Operating hours: Monday to Saturday, 5.00pm to 11.00pm
Telephone: +63 915 663 2823
Email: hello@twelveten.ph
Website: http://twelveten.ph/
Facebook: 12/10 Restaurant

12/10 is located at a gentrified house along Guijo St. in Brgy. San Antonio, Makati (near Guijo Suites).

The ambiance is like that of an art gallery with an izakaya bar counter.

(Check out the dodecahedron, which looks isometric from this vantage point, marked with a “+” on the floor).

I spy with my little eye, a pyramid.

Make sure to get there as early as possible if you want to have dinner with your kids.

(Note: the menu is not kid-friendly, and they won’t adjust it for the little ones even if you ask nicely.)

12/10 menu: Cocktails | Beer, Wine | Food Menu

The restaurant specializes in cocktails, like whiskey sour, and you order small plates to pair with the drinks.

Negroni (P260 +10% service charge). Gin, campari, vermouth.

My negroni was a little sweet, with a bitter aftertaste–a good aperitif for the meal ahead.

Mushroom Salad (P230 +10% service charge). Rocket, pickled red onion, salted egg yolk, sesame, honey.

Fresh greens and onions mixed with shimeji, enoki, and shiitake mushrooms, with sweet honey and salted egg for contrast. Nice!

✮ Raw Tuna Salad (P240 +10% service charge). Kyuri, yuzu kosho, maple syrup, ebiko, shichimi, nori.

Fresh tuna with sweet, small Japanese cucumber (kyuri), chopped nori, sweetness from the maple, and umami flavors from the shichimi togarashi.

It was so good that Aidan and I fought over the last pieces of the salad with our chopsticks. Aidan won. 🙂

Blowtorched Salmon (P280 +10% service charge). Uni, caviar, panko, nori, shisho, ponzu, sea salt.

Loved the salmon, uni, and caviar combination, but the bitter shisho leaf was a bit off.

✮ Chicken Wing Karaage (P260 +10% service charge). Fish sauce caramel, tobiko, scallions.

The chicken absorbed the sweet-salty flavor, which pairs very well with the popping tobiko, balanced by a mild onion flavor from the scallions.

The boys loved this. Joshua demanded a second serving!

Katsu Sando (P250 +10% service charge) . Yuzu kosho, tare, red cabbage, kyuri, steamed bun.

It’s cua pao with fried patty pretending to be a burger. Forgettable but filling.

✮ Salmon Kushiyaki (P270 +10% service charge). Truffle oil, aonori, black sesame, wasabi, curry, corn flakes.

I loved these salmon skewers with flavors of truffle oil, black sesame, wasabi, and curry, with corn flakes for texture.

Healthy and interesting, and should pair well with a smoky, strong whiskey.

Korean Fried Chicken (P295 +10% service charge). Charred eggplant, gochujang, sesame, shiso, lime.

12/10 KFC version. It wasn’t as spicy as I expected, and the charred eggplant was bitter and not well-executed (Mecha Uma uses the same charred eggplant technique but tastes a lot better).

Best to squeeze some lime on the chicken for some added zest.

✮ Toro Onigiri (P410 +10% service charge). Foie gras, negi, dynamite, balsamic maple syrup.

This is the best! Japanese rice wrapped in seaweed, then topped with tuna, foie gras, chopped onions, spicy mayo, and sweet maple.

By 9pm, the place turns into a hip drinking hangout for people in the know.

Overall, the food is great and overshadows the drinks. We love the Raw Tuna Salad, Chicken Wing Karaage, Salmon Kushiyaki, and Toro Onigiri. Budget about P750/head.

Comparisons with Mecha Uma can’t be helped because of the shared BF history, the same style of presenting the Japanese-inspired food, and the same crowd it appeals to. I like 12/10 better though because of its Guijo neighborhood locale, the younger-brother-of-mecha-uma vibe, and its hip-artsy angst.

Congrats to Thea and Gab for 12/10! As they say, the first resto is a charm, but the second resto is the best, applying all the learnings from the first and having more confidence to express your art. Well done!