Hizon's - Za's Cafe

This is classic favorite of my family. We go to this resto to celebrate occassions which are important to us like my sister's baptism or Ruy's pamamamnhikan. When there are no occassions to celebrate, we just try to make one up just to have an excuse to eat here.




I first took Ruy to this place when we were already dating pretty seriously. It was a big deal to me, it was like welcoming someone into my home. I've had memories after memories in this place. The waiters know my family, my sister crawled across the tables when she was a baby. And for the first time, I was back there with Ruy and Andrea, my own family.



Low-key and unassuming. This restaurant is too easy to miss when you're cruising along Bocobo St. in Malate. Looking at the exterior one would not imagine being able to find treasures inside.

We were immediately greeted by Edgar one of the wonderful waiters of Hizon's. Edgar has always been the one to assist us although most of the waiters were more than willing to give us what we need. I've always adored how the waiters in Hizon knew what they were selling. They were like the old-time waiters. They know their products, they were polite and they were nice.


We were seated and given the menu. I was surprised to see that after over a decade, they have now changed their menus. When I say they have changed their menus I am talking about both the appearance as well as the content of the menu. I suppose they changed the appearance to accomodate the change in price. The content of the menu is now a streamlined version of their old menu. It seems they have decided to focus on their house specialty and their best sellers.






We were given our iced teas. Ruy and I usually try to be a bit more imaginative when it comes to ordering our drinks but not in Hizons. We adore their tea which is not the instant kind. It's made from black tea with calamansi and sugar syrup. I adore it and my mistake is that I always drown myself in iced tea before the food comes leaving me with little space for the food. And we all know we need serious space for food.











As soon as we sat down, we were given butter and our bread basket. The bread they serve is their famous raisin loaf which sells for 85 pesos a loaf. Each bread basket has around half a loaf of raisin bread but they're very generous about giving you extra if you want some more.



For this meal Ruy and I had: Surf and Turf, Grilled Porkchops with Apple Sauce and Camaron Rebosado. Each plate comes with it's serving of mashed potatoes and vegetables.









Grilled Porkchops with Apple Sauce. This is a very simple dish and the name pretty much sums up what it is. You get 2 huge cuts of pork chop grilled, yet remaining very tender. The pork has a certain flavor which tells me it's marinated. The marinade is light and doesn't overwhelm the apple sauce. I've had these chops both with and without the apple sauce and they were good both ways.










Camaron Rebosado. This is an all-time favorite with our family. Their Camaron has a tempura-like breading which makes it a bit crunchy and crisp. It's best eaten warm drizzled with the sauce. I have to warn you that the sauce might be considered too sweet by other people but for someone who eats dessert before, during and after a meal...I LOVE IT!





Surf and Turf looked measly when I saw the plate, but I guess it must have been heavy on the stomach as Ruy wasn't able to help out much with the other dishes. The steak was cooked just right and remained tender despite being well done. The prawn was sized well enough to accomodate my husbands appetite.



We had absolutely no space for dessert so we ended up buying things from their bakeshop to take home.




Once we arrived home I attacked the Lemon Pie. Now, I knew from the start that I would be eating around 70% of this HUGE cake as Ruy doesn't like sour things and he doesn't like cakes as much as he likes shakes and ice creams. I actually imagined (or is it hoped?) that he would take one spoonful and then give it all to me. Imagine my surprise when he actually had several and proclaimed that it's actually good "for a lemon pie"...trust me that's a good compliment. =)




What I usually hate about Lemon Pies in general is how the meringue is overly sweet while the filling tastes too much like candy. I've also tasted several where the filling is too starchy. Luckily this particular pie didn't fall into that trap. Despite loving it soo much and taking around 4 hours to finish one slice (that's with the help of Ruy already) I initially thought it was overpriced at 180 pesos. Then I realized that huge slice is the same size as two regular slices of cake put together. I therefore conclude that it's well worth the 180 pesos we paid for it.


The food remains good, the service wonderful and the price reasonable--I have every reason in the world to come back. What I am looking forward to the most is being able to create memories with my my own family, Ruy and Andrea, which is somehow connected to the memories I have created with my Mother, My Aunt, my sister, my stepdad, etc.


(P.S. I would have wanted to talk about the variety of bread and cakes offered in Hizon's bakeshop but it would make this post too long. I'll write another post about it in the future. =))