Recess by Chef Chris Locher: Where the Familiar Becomes Extra Special

Recess by Chef Chris opened last November of 2013 and is located in Jupiter St., Makati. If you are familiar with the famous panizzas in C Italian Dining in Pampanga well you’re in for a treat because Recess by Chef Chris serves these roll-up pizzas in new variants alongside familiar dishes that are well-loved and executed wonderfully.

I tried out the resto with Tiff, Conci and Patty during our lunch break. Us four are all working girls in Makati and so a lunch meet-up was perfect to try out this resto.

For starters, we had the Recess Salad. It was a light salad of mixed greens, grapes, apples slices, oranges, cherry tomatoes, and caramelized almonds. They were tossed with a grape seed oil dressing that brought all these fresh and light flavors together.

 

 

Next up were the Originals by Chef Chris! These are actually the Panizzas but they are calling them Originals here in Recess for business and official reasons 😉 We tried out two kinds. The first is the Platinum.  A classic pizza flavor with tomato sauce, cheese, angus beef, bacon, pineapple and mushrooms. To eat the Original (or a Panizza) you have to tear off a strip of the pizza, then you take a bit of arugula, a bit of alfalfa sprouts then you roll it up and then you devour! Haha 😀

 

We also had the Tito, which is part of Chef Chris’ Pinoy Originals and is a definite must-order!! What’s not to like in a pizza that has smoked bangus, tomatoes, red egg and onions. The red egg is wonderfully creamy and has melted into the cheese sauce perfectly. The bangus provides a smoky contrast to the creaminess and the onions give a nice kick. Roll a slice up with arugula and alfalfa sprouts and you have a perfect meal in a roll-up. It’s soooo good. This was one of my absolute favorite dishes that afternoon.

We tried a few more dishes but the standouts (other than the Tito) that afternoon were:

Baked Salmon with Mustard Cream Sauce (Php 750). The salmon was tender and it was served on a bed of grilled tomatoes and roasted potatoes. Everything was so good and tender and the mustard sauce is not overpowering. I especially loved the grilled tomato. It provided a perfect sweetness to the dish that I made sure I had a slice of it with each bite of the salmon.

Lengua Estofado (Php650) – I love lengua. It’s one of my favorite dishes ever.  Recess’ lengua is done the classic way with tender beef tongue, olives, and gravy. You know what makes this so much more good though? The butter whipped potatoes. Also the gravy is very light which I love because I am not a fan of lengua that is drowning in gravy. My favorite lengua dishes are those which bring out the light, fatty flavors of cow tongue and Recess’ lengua estofado is one of the best I have tasted.

We capped off the meal with a beautiful and light dessert done by Chef Chris’ wife Kristine.  The Recess Pavlova (Php 280) is  composed of silky layers of meringue with fresh kiwi, strawberry and almond slivers. It was a perfect way to cap a heavy and satisfying meal.

The servings for these dishes are all generous and each order is meant to be shared. Aside from the awesome food, one more thing to love about Recess is the interiors. Recess sticks to the school theme with lockers and large index cards as place mats. We asked about the concept and Chef Chris told us that Recess is everyone’s favorite time of the school day. And so this restaurant and the food would like to bring back those fun memories of hanging out with good friends over familiar food. Of course this time the grown up version of Recess means familiar food done exquisitely well but in a place that would make you want to stay and extend your lunch break and chill.

Good food, good people, good grief we were so full! Thank you Chef Chris and Kristine!!

 

 

Recess by Chef Chris
Jupiter Street, Bel-Air
Operating hours: 11am to 10pm
Phone Numbers: 8991818, +63 9177264992
Google Maps (here)