Jipan – Japanese Bread in the Philippines?
We went to this Japanese Café & Bakeshop called Jipan because girlfriend saw it from one of the blogs she follows. I find it a bit weird to combine sushi and pastries but I like bread, and if Jipan has the flaky and buttery goodness I’m looking for, then I’m good.
But to be honest, I wasn’t expecting much as I don’t associate breads with the Japanese.
They have a wide variety of pastries to choose from. I was overwhelmed and wanted to try all. But since we are also ordering mains, we ONLY got 5 pieces.
The menu.
I appreciate that they have free hot tea.
The Orders
- Green Mango Shake – P115
- Spicy Salmon Pizza – P315
- Fire Dragon Roll – P499
- Choco Fiesta – P65
- Chocola Chocola – P65
- Curry Pan – P48
- Squid Ink Epi Bread – P55
- Kouign Amann – P75
We love Green Mango Shake. The acidity plus the right amount of sweetness is refreshing and cleanses the mouth of any “umay”. Jipan’s version was far from green, the mangos are obviously ripe already given the color. It was still refreshing but it is not the Green Mango Shake we ordered.
The Fire Dragon Roll is a huge contemporary fusion sushi roll, and is priced quite high at P499. The thick roll, sliced into eight pieces, barely fits my mouth. I like to eat sushi in one go and this was a difficult challenge that I successfully finished. Size is not the only good thing about this roll. It is tasty and has a crunchy bite to it. The roll consists of ebi tempura, avocado, cucumber topped with tuna or salmon (we chose salmon) with their torched special sauce. Despite its high price, I will definitely order again.
Jipan offers Sushi pizzas which is a first for me. Japanese rice is fried and serves as the base or crust of the pizza, and is topped with Tuna or Salmon, both with spicy variants available. We ordered the Spicy Tuna Pizza. The serving size is ample. A few slices of avocado were wedged between the rice and the sashimi. The avocado gives this unusual dish a refreshing bite. For Filipinos, avocado is mainly used in desserts, maybe that’s why I enjoyed the contrast. As for the whole experience with the dish – the gimmick works. Priced right at P315, will order this again.
Now comes the fun part. As mentioned earlier, I like breads. I fell in love with Erik Kayser croissant and if this half as good, I’m going back.
Girlfriend wanted to try the Squid Ink Epi Bread. It is a bit savory with a hint of squid ink taste and olive. She liked it.
I like curry so I got the Curry Pan. They did not skimp on the amount of curry filling on this bun. The outer bread can be compared to the Mini Stop breads but the inside is a different story. The curry flavor is more pronounced unlike the usually watered down version of curry we have here in the Philippines. Our version is good too, but the Curry Pan’s filling tastes more like the curry versions of Malaysia and Singapore. You’ll get a taste of the filling until your last bite. Two thumbs up.
I almost finished this by myself. I thought gf was able to taste already, and really, I was just too distracted by the flakiness and chocolatey goodness of this bread. The Choco Fiesta is the perfect combination for me–I like bread with layers, plus the added bonus of chocolate. Like the Curry Pan, the filling on this was not skimped. The last couple of bites had chocolate still. Sarap nito.
The Chocola Chocola was chosen by the gf. She was intrigued by the bread and we thought it had layers that will give it that flakiness we were looking for. I prefer the Choco Fiesta to this. This is a bit too dense for me.
At first I thought this was a croissant but the Kouign Aman is a bread on its own. From wiki – It is a round crusty cake, made with bread dough containing layers of butter and sugar folded in, similar in fashion to puff pastry albeit with fewer layers. (I’m getting hungry just writing about this.) It was really good too, but definitely no where near CiÇou’s version (well, malayo rin naman ‘to sa presyo ng CiÇou).
Verdict
I’m surprised that the combination works, savory dishes plus pastries. I guess I’m a convert and will try to visit Jipan if I’m in the area. Thanks gf for forcing me to eat here. 🙂
This Jipan branch is located at Estancia Mall but they are also present in Megamall Building A, Glorietta 4 and Additional Hills Mandaluyong.
Price to Taste Ratio – 3.5/5
Budget Per Person – P350
Location – Estancia Mall, Philippines
Facebook – Jipan