Artisan Emporium by Chef Mira : Market Street Bakery In Review

Market Street Bakery, hmmm, what comes to mind are the good ol' days in Europe. Bowler hats, sounds of steam engines from big ships docked at the pier and even Titanic! Mental pictures of crates full of yummy breads placed on the sides of the street with Don Corleone choosing his bread carefully. 

Okay, going back to the present time...my family and I, we're a big bunch of bread lovers and believe me when I say that we usually consider hunting for new bakeries as an ideal date for the whole family! Even my 2 year old son, Choi-choi, is a little bread monster! He would choose bread and biscuits over rice any time of the day. 

A little flashback too, I took up baking class at the community center when TESDA held a pastry making class as a livelihood project. I have an NC-II, passed the final exam but unfortunately, it's different when you're at home. I can't perfect even simple pandesal! So here I am, happy with buying my bread. Ok, moving on...hahaha...

Recently, I have been invited to an intimate event facilitated by Certified Bloggers to try out this new restaurant/bakery/cafe (which is currently on soft opening) located at the ground floor of Estancia Mall at Capitol Commons, Pasig.  I had a fabulous time at the event and so I would like to share my experience with you guys so that you can drop by and try it too! Let me introduce to you:

Artisan Emporium by Chef Mira

Chef Mira Cruz of Artisan Emporium


"Artisanal - Of a product, especially food or drink) made in a traditional or non-mechanized way (definition from Oxford Dictionary Online) "

Artisan Emporium is the brainchild of Chef Mira Cruz. To give you a brief background about the chef, she was a teacher for 8 years at the renowned culinary school, CCA. She is also a hotel and restaurant consultant for Epicurious at Shang, Hizons' Catering, Shawarma Brothers, Del Monte Kitchenomics and 8 Suites Tagaytay to name a few. Chef Mira has an extensive experience in developing, consultancy and improving of so many other restaurants that at one point, she felt that it was time for her to manage her own baby. So, Artisan Emporium was born!

My favorite display!


Artisan Emporium boasts of everything handcrafted. From their breads, to their dips, jams and butter, I noticed how every detail was carefully made by hand. Chef Mira jokingly called it, the carpal tunnel method, because everything was handwritten. This chef is not only kind and charming, she was one funny lady too! She shared the reason she named the place Artisan Emporium because she wanted it to be a one-stop shop for all handcrafted baked goodies. Artisan Emporium is divided into 3 categories: bakery, cafe and pantry (for takeaways). Not only do they offer pastries but they also serve comfort foods that you will definitely come back for more.

The Food


Bread basket and mushroom soup
For starters, they served bread baskets for us including soft rolls and spanish bread. (Soft rolls in layman's term monay) Both breads are free from preservatives, magic words for us Moms! Just a little trivia from Chef Mira, her breads are not as soft as the ones you will find in your local bakery as the breads from Artisan Emporium are all freshly baked, all natural and has a shelf life of about 3-5 days only. The minute I took my first bite at the spanish bread, I felt like I was transformed back to my childhood days. The soft rolls on the other hand if paired with either the blueberry liver pate' or yogurt butter makes for a perfect starters until they serve the Mushroom Soup. 

The Truffle Mushroom Soup was so tasty and deserved to be redundantly named because there's mushrooms everywhere! The soup was served in a big bowl/cup that I wanted to swim in the creamy goodness of the soup. It was smooth yet creamy, thick but not gooey, salty enough  and I loved it!


Bread basket with Yogurt Butter and Blueberry Liver Pate'
the mushroom soup in the big bowl/cup

After I cleared my soup bowl and had my more than fair share of the breads, the All-meat lasagna was immediately served to us. The word all-meat had my full attention. My love for lasagna comes 2nd to my love for pizza, so imagine my delight when it was served to us in a lyanera/llanera, the pans which we traditionally use to make leche flans? Well, this time, Chef Mira boldly broke that tradition and baked her all-meat lasagna to perfection in those little babies! The result was perfect! The lasagna was baked to perfection. For salty-food lovers, the lasagna tasted just right, enough to fill your tummy, not with butterflies but all-meaty goodness,  but for non-salty food lovers, I would advice you to pair it with the bun they serve it with. The bun puts balance into the salty taste of the lasagna. 

Artisan Emporium's All Meat Lasagna

The lasagna was so good but I had to leave a space in my tum-tum for some more yummy goodness from the kitchen. I waited with anticipation for the next dish to be served. What came next was chicken galantina. When I hear of this dish, usually, an elaborate presentation of stuffed chicken comes to my mind but this time, the galantina was served simply in a stainless bowl, no frills yet the taste, oh the taste was that of an old recipe from grandma. It was the perfect combination of salty and bland (when not paired with the gravy). 

Chicken Galantina
I was already so full by this time that I knew my taste buds was ready for sweets! So, in comes the stars of the show:

Salted Graham Panna Cota - I tasted one like this in another posh Italian resto in Makati, I thought that was delish, I didn't know there's going to be something even more sweet and better! 

Chef Mira shared that this dessert was only accidental. She said that she was just playing with recipes when this sweet treat was born. 

And what a happy accident it was to result into this amazing treat! The panna cota was soft like flan, melts in your mouth like ice cream and the salted graham topping was tasty! I finished off the whole jar in just seconds and I wanted more. So Chef Mira served two more panna cotas' with different flavors for us to try. One was red velvet panna cota and dark chocolate panna cota. Boy, oh boy, the next two was equally as good as the first. So, in the end, I had 3 new favorite flavors of Panna Cota. I enjoyed it. 

Red Velvet Panna Cota

Another all-time favorite dessert of mine was served to us, the blueberry cheesecake which was baked and chilled. It was a bit bland from what I'm used to but hey, it's still cheesecake, and I'm nuts over cheesecake. So, I enjoyed it too.

baked chilled blueberry cheesecake


Refreshments

What's all these exquisite comfort food without refreshments, right? True to her word, Chef Mira, makes everything. So, you can expect all natural and lovingly made goodies. To pair with all the dish she served us with, moringa iced tea became my favorite drink immediately! It was sweet and sour and lemony with just a little hint of moringa. This is a must try guys!

Moringa Iced Tea is a must try!

The Artisan Emporium Design/Interiors

The bakery/cafe/pantry had a simple, clean yet edgy industrial design. Everything was unexpectedly masculine considering how girly Chef Mira is. I like the wood crates, the wood tables and the lighting. I also love how they pack their desserts and drinks in cute jars that you can recycle at home. I must admit, their decoration might look like something you have seen before but it's so refreshingly unique. That's the word familiar yet unique.

Those crates are my favorite!


The cute display of the jams, oils and other goodies they sell.

Rock, wood and steel makes the interiors minimalist yet unique. Masculine even!

They sell cakes and cheeses too!

The simple table arrangement. The placemats are handcrafted too!

What I Think

I found Chef Mira's take on the currently limited menu of the Artisan Emporium as refreshing and honest. She said that though she aims to make it a one stop shop for everything handcrafted in terms of pastries, she doesn't want her menu to have so many dishes that the customer can't decide which on the menu is their favorite. 

The price of the dishes and breads, though a little bit pricier than others makes up for the delicious, fresh and mouthwatering taste of each food. 

Over-all, I give Artisan Emporium 5 out of 5 stars!

Selfie shot with Chef Mire and famous food photographer Mark Vitug who happens to be a
good friend of the Chef. 


Wait! There's more:

Artisan Emporium is open from 11:00 AM - 9:00 PM from Mondays thru Thursdays and 10:00 AM - 10:00 PM on Fridays thru Sundays. They hold a 20% discount ONE HOUR ONLY sale on their breads from 8PM - 9PM during Monday up until Thursdays and 9PM - 10PM on Fridays till Sundays. 

For advanced orders: you may call 0917.527.5555 or 02.638.5555.

Follow them on INSTAGRAM: ARTISAN EMPORIUM or check out their website, ARTISAN EMPORIUM

with fellow CERTIFIED BLOGGERS
(Photo courtesy of Ms. Sol Razo of www.solrazo.com)








Rolled Into One Mom

8 comments:

  1. I like the Titanic-era-feel, too with the yummy scent of food! Great mix.

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  2. Everything looks yummy😜 especially the graham and red velvet pana cota ☺

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  3. Oh my goodness everything seriously looks delicious! I'm curious about their panna cottas; they look divine!

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  4. I'm a bread lover and everything looks yummy!

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  5. This place looks good and their bread looks yummy too!

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  6. Moringa iced tea?! I am intrigued...
    That blueberry cheesecake looks deliciously tempting.

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  7. Moringa iced tea?! I am intrigued...
    That blueberry cheesecake looks deliciously tempting.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Oh I'd love to try these yummies!

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