Foodies in Manila became all excited when former Prince Albert Executive Chef Cyril Soenen came back on the scene with his own restaurant at Manila’s newest boutique hotel, Hotel Celeste.
I only had praise for his work at Prince Albert, which is arguably Manila’s most established fine dining restaurant.
I was intensely curious, so off to Celeste we went — only to discover there is no parking at this establishment.
Hotel Celeste’s parking is reserved for those checked in at the hotel, and guests of Cicou have to find their own parking on Pasay Road or around the Greenbelt area.
At the time of our visit, there was no valet parking available. Undeterred, we found parking at nearby Greenbelt and walked in the rain to Hotel Celeste.
The restaurant is decorated in congruence with the rest of the hotel, with lots of shiny metal, rich fabric and glass.
We sat down to a lunch of tuna belly with red onion confit and romaine salad, squash soup with duck liver flan, salted black cod two ways, and slow-braised Kurobata pork with apples.
The tuna belly was evenly done, and the roasted romaine salad was a fine pairing. However, the tuna was too strongly seasoned so that it concealed the true flavor of the tuna. One wonders, what are they’re hiding under all that seasoning? The squash soup was rich and creamy as it should be, but the soup itself lacked body. It came with a tiny duck terrine and a small portion of brownish liquid that our server identified as oyster sauce.
Frankly, both duck terrine and oyster sauce were superfluous for the already flavorful dish. The slow-braised Kurobata pork was close to perfect and satisfyingly fatty, with a balance between salty and sweet, thanks to the apples.
For dessert, we had a very adequate rendition of tarte tatin and a refreshing dish of tropical fruits in a light and sweet, cinnamon-flavored broth.
Service was a bit slow and uneven. Our server even forgot to bring our order of pumpkin soup—surprising really, when you consider that we were the only guests around.
There’s good hotel food, and there’s bad hotel food.
Cicou falls right smack in the middle. It’s reliable, tasty, but hardly outstanding or groundbreaking. And that’s if you can get past the fact that there’s no parking.