G.U.S. NITPICKS (v. 7)!!

LIFE COFFEE & TEA

This rather oddly-named coffee place is located at the rather oddly-named Aseana Power Station, basically a strip mall complex which is a stone’s throw away from SM Mall of Asia.

Turns out it is a Taiwanese franchise, although I would think the local owners were given a lot of leeway by their franchisors. Aside from some murals on the walls with Chinese characters, there is really nothing in this coffee place that says “Taiwanese”.

This is not necessarily bad, since as far as I know, Taiwan is not a country renown for its coffee beans and tea leaves (oops, did I just mention one of their competitors? Hehe ;D)

Anyways, on to our meal. Life Coffee serves a wide array of coffees (hot coffee, hot mocha flavored selections, cold coffee drinks, blended frappes [similar to frappuccinos]) and teas (freshly brewed cold teas in passion fruit, grapefruit, mango, peach, etc. flavors, and the like). They even have fruit smoothies!

But it is so much more than a coffee & tea place. Their menu is pretty extensive, covering the ff:

- Paninis (Roast Beef, BBQ Chicken, etc.), ranging PHP120 – PHP130

- Pastas (their Cream Pesto Pasta with Mushrooms (PHP130) was simply quite superb!)

- Rice toppings, such as Pork chop with black pepper sauce (PHP145) and Spicy chicken in garlic pesto sauce (PHP135)

- Salads

- Pizzas, 6 choices all in all (we tried the King Triton Pizza (red and green bell peppers, sardines, black olives, capers, mozzarella cheese; very flavorful and crust was thin and crunchy. Quite good). Prices range from PHP175 – PHP250.

- Cakes

Also worth a special mention is the Life Coffee special nachos (PHP135), which is an ideal snack and the way it is presented is quite lovely indeed.

In my opinion, Life Coffee serves very good food and drinks at reasonable prices; and definitely worth a visit, esp. if you can’t bear having to go to the mall and looking for parking space, just to eat.

Also, it seems to be more of a family resto, and not so much a “hang-out” place. So perhaps the owners should consider repositioning it a bit.

And one minor quibble: Those chocolate-brown cushioned chairs with rounded backs aren’t very comfortable at all. My back hurt after sitting in one for more than an hour.

(Life Coffee & Tea will open its second branch at SM Hypermart in Libis, Quezon City, besides Tiendesitas, later this month)