Lately, I've been craving for pancakes. Yes, visions of fluffy, pillowy soft pancakes with
real maple syrup and butter has been flooding my mind for days. It doesn't really help that I can't find even a single box of pancake mix in our nearby supermarket and to make it worst, I saw photos of this not-so-recent brunch get-together that Paul and I had back home while organizing my files tonight. Once again, my mouth watered at the sight of a stack of 6 pancakes with blueberry syrup and a scoop of butter on top. Oh, sheer torture. Wish I can just quickly hop on the plane to have brunch in Manila once again.
Well, call me crazy but I shall be telling you more about that practicular brunch experience at this relatively new restaurant called
Maple in
San Antonio Plaza near Forbes Park. Operated by the same group who's running
Pancake House,
Maple actually has a similar concept but it brings a more premium feel. While I will always go to Pancake House for their Tacos, Chicken Asparagus Sandwich and their Bacon Waffles;
Maple's line up deviates from the local, homemade feel and is leaning towards a more gourmet and international approach.
We were joined by some members of the Food Club for this brunch session and these were the dishes that we were able to try that day:

Okay, let me begin with the pancakes.
Maple's Blueberry and Cream Cheese Pancake Tower (Php. 450) was truly a sight to behold. It's really too beautiful to eat but hey, these pancakes were calling out to me that day so I just let my fork dove straight into them right away. No turning back and definitely no regrets here. I enjoyed the perfect consistency of the pancakes which was no surprise as the owners of
Maple sure know their pancakes by heart.
Actually, we had pancakes for dessert so allow me to backtrack a bit.

We began with a bowl of
Chili (Php. 250) each. I love chili as it's the kind of tomato-based soup that's just right for me. Not too tangy, not spicy (despite the name) and it's filled with beans, beef, veggies and topped with sour cream. Nothing can go wrong in a bowl of chili except that I wasn't too impressed with
Maple's Chili. The bread tasted artificial and they just added way too many toasted bread in the bowl that I could hardly appreciate the full flavor of the soup.

We tried the
Spaetzle Jambalaya (Php. 390) which was pretty good. Our companions Richard and Irene have tried
Maple prior to this particular visit and they were raving about this. It's an interesting pasta dish made with Jambalaya sauce, shrimps and mussels and cooked in a piping hot skillet.