Friends & Family now offers pastries with a Filipino twist

MANILA -- Raintree Restaurant's Friends & Family now offers pastries with a Filipino twist with its new pastelleria.

Friends & Family had parallels to sister restaurant Jones All Day in surviving and even prospering during the pandemic. Both stayed open to deliver food to those living in the condos in the Bonifacio Global City area. They both have a retail area which serves as a mini-grocery for ingredients and ready-to-eat meals.

Following the footsteps of Jones All Day, one of the new additions to Friends & Family is a counter for baked goods. 

Raintree Restaurants executive chef Kalel Chan calls the new addition a “pastelleria.” Think of a panaderia that serves up pastries from around the world with a Filipino twist, like the Pain de Chocnut, French pastry with Chocnut cream inside -- perfect for grab-and-go snacks.

Friends and Family’s version of Spanish bread is the Spanish Croissant, which is filled with the panaderia favorite buttery cream. Jeeves de Veyra

Jones All Day’s Italian donuts, the bombolonis, are a favorite in Serendra. Chan made Ube Bombolonis for the pastelleria. Jeeves de Veyra

The Bombolini Banana Q is a delightful interpretation of a Filipino favorite. The donut is filled with banana cream then has that crunch from the hard sugar bruléed on top. Jeeves de Veyra

Chan pours hot dulce de leche on his cakes. Also available with rich thick chocolate sauce. Jeeves de Veyra

Besides the new pastelleria, Friends & Family now opens much earlier to serve breakfast. The menu has a revamped breakfast section. The Two-Way US Beef Tapa Silog is a great version of the Raintree Restaurant’s signature Mr. Jones Tapa. The tapa is deep-fried then shredded just like adobo flakes on top of traditional tapa with eggs that can be done any way you want.

There is also the Grilled Bacon Tocino Benedict with Calamansi Hollandaise sauce. Think sweet bacon slabs on top of pan de sal that invite the diner to just break the poached eggs for the yolk to ooze on down the dish.

The new schedule caters to the office crowd which has begun trickling back to the buildings around the Bonifacio High Street area, especially for those who start their drive early in the morning to beat the morning traffic jam.

Besides the office crowd, Friends & Family hopes to attract fitness enthusiasts who run, jog, and ride around BGC early in the morning. Sister bar-restaurant, The Coconut Club, next door even offers safe bicycle parking for cyclists who have breakfast at Friends and Family.

Friends & Family can be found at C3 Bonifacio High Street Central and is open 7 a.m. to 10:30 p.m. (Sunday to Tuesday) and 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. (Wednesday to Saturday).