The Unemployment Diaries v2.0: In-Yo Fusion Cuisine

Saturday, Dec 13, 2008

B and I had dinner at In-Yo Fusion Cuisine.
I've been dying to eat here since March of last year. Due to it's location (Quezon City), I've been postponing my visit 'til there was some excuse to be in the area.

Well, today there was a very very GOOD reason... *wink* *wink*

Today, we planned to finish our Christmas shopping so that we weren't rushing next week. God! Behold the number of crazy and wild Christmas shoppers in the malls next week. Am sure the gift wrapping section will be pandemonium, let alone the expected long lines at the grocery and at the local department stores. Arrrghh... And don't get me started on THE parking a.k.a chaos in a box!

Anywhoo, B and I headed to Tiendistas to buy the frame for the dining room. It was still there (thank God, or else I wouldn't have heard the last of it from B!). Hehe... So we we're planning to go to Metrowalk after Tiendisitas to check out the store, (I think), of Gary Dulatas (hope this is correct). The stall carries imported items from McQueen, Evisu, and a few other brands (that am guessing, they bought from their many travels). Anyways, that plan was scrapped when we saw the traffic on Julia Vargas. We headed over to the new bigger and better Podium a.k.a Eastwood Mall! Hehe... I'll talk about the mall in a later post. Today, it's all about In-Yo!

Anyways, I'll speed track a bit and get right down to business...

I made reservations for today at 7:30 pm. We however, arrived at 6:30 pm, and suprisingly, we were happily accomodated and seated on the second floor of the quaint and homey place. The whole ambience was so perfect. The background music, and backdrop, the whole feel of the place was just perfect. (LOOOVE!!) My expectations, place-wise, was pretty much met. I did however imagine the place to be much bigger, because from the pics that I saw online, the place seemed a lot like Prioes Cafe (garden-wise) in Fernwood Gardens. But to be quite honest, being smaller doesn't neccesarily mean it's a bad thing. I liked the place! The fact that it was smaller made the place even more intimate and so much more conducive for those subtle nights of blissfull "memory-making". Hehe...

The stairs going down to the first floor...

It's pretty much an UPGRADED FAT MICHAEL'S!! Looove!!

The second floor dining area...
We were at the table at the far right (by the window).

So moving on...

Let's go to the most important thing on the agenda... THE FOOD!!

I'm no food critic. I am just someone who loves to cook, bake, and EAT! And with that, all I can say is that the food they served was a taste of HEAVEN! It surpassed all my expectations and definitely lived up to all of the rave reviews people had about the food. Though it was a bit pricey, I would've gladly paid twice the amount of our bill because the food was just oh so-so-SO-SO great!! The only thing that I could've probably suggested is that they improve thier wine list and add a wider and extensive selection. We were sadly just forced to pick red or white. Urrgh...

So with that, here's our first course:

The Oven Baked Sushi Prawn Roll.

I wanted to try the Trio of Foie, but sadly B didn't feel like having it tonight, so we opted for this one which didn't disappoint at all. The flavor of the nori and the baked prawn was perfect. And that cream on top was a slice of heaven.

God! What was that?! Yummmm!!! The dressing they used for the salad was also very good. I loved it!! Guess i'll have to try the Foie on our next visit. =)

Next on the menu was the Soup of the Day (pumpkin soup)... (no picture due to an overexcited blogger, hehe). The soup came in a small mug with a cloud of froth 2/3 past the cup. This was nothing special, but it wasn't bad. I found it a bit bland at first, but after adding salt and pepper. The taste was just right. LOVE!

And then, dum daradam!

The main courses...

I had the Honey-Glazed Salmon with Wasabi Mashed Potato.

This was truly to die for. The salmon steak was tender and cooked to perfection. B never eats salmon, but I was forced to give B half of it (need I say more??) In short, it had LOVE written (or more like grilled) all over it. The mashed potato was also a dream! If you've been following the blog, you would've probably realized that wasabi is one of the many simple pleasures I deeply hold in life. This was just perfect. I could've definitely had more.

B, on the other hand had the Hanging US Tender Steak with Veg and Cheese Risotto.

The steak was perfectly grilled to medium-well. I preferably would've had it rare though. Hehe... Like I always say, steaks are meant to have blood. Anyways, this was also good. Though I thought it was quite thin, the serving was pretty large. The cheese risotto was nothing special, I would've probably preferred a mushroom or asparagus one instead. Hehe...

And for dessert, we had the Mango Pavlova. Being a pastry major, I've preferred, more often than not, to end every meal with something sweet; something to balance the palette's endless number of emotions. This was quite good... Though I would've thought it should've been called a Mango Cannanogi (did I spell that right), minus the name, it was the perfect ending to a sinfully wonderful dinner.

This was truly a great place!