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We liked the food at Cafe Provencal on the second floor of Shangri-La Mall (the old wing), so we were a little distressed to find that it was gone. In its place is a cafe called Duck and Buvette. We would’ve tried it sooner except that we thought everything on the menu had duck. It doesn’t.

As a devout meatatarian we hardly ever order salad of our own free will, but we had the weird urge to eat leaves. Maybe we had a roughage shortage, maybe our taste buds were just bored. So we ordered the grilled romaine salad with parmesan and anchovy garlic dressing. It was excellent, and we don’t even like vegetables. As you can see, they did not stint on the cheese.

For our main course we wanted the duck pie with foie gras, but they didn’t have it yesterday. Also we could feel the lettuce expanding so we decided to have something light. We had the brandade de bacalao dip—creamy cod and potato on grilled bread. Not only was it very good, but we could fool ourself that we had had a virtuous lunch.

A buvette is a food stall by the market, carinderia, basically. Duck and Buvette is bright and casual, reasonably-priced (mains are about Php390), and with an interesting wine list. We will be back to try the rest of the menu, with a glass or three of their bubbly. They also sell freshly-baked goods. Here’s their menu.