Sand Under My Feet: The Yard at Xavierville: The Ice Box

Filipinos love to eat, that’s why the food industry here is steadily growing for years. Malls and town centers are rising up from the ground like mushrooms filled with both old and new restaurants. Also, I have noticed that after the success of Maginhawa, Lilac and Kapitolyo, a lot of food parks are springing around the metro. This is great because you can just go to one place, eat and try different kinds of food and cuisines to your heart’s content. Something new and a far cry from going to a single restaurant. Yeah, talk about food tripping!

Just like this newly opened gastropark in QC: The Yard at Xavierville. The yard is a 3-floor food park built from steel shipping containers. The first and second levels contain the 30 vendors offering almost every type of food and cuisine you can think of – from appetizers, to mains, to drinks and desserts. At the third level is just an al-fresco dining area where customers can stay when the seats at the first and second floors are full.

The place is quite small and narrow but the spaces are well maximized. Parking can be a bit tedious because The Yard has limited parking slots at the entrance. Since it’s the rainy season, I suggest that you take a table that can give you cover, just in case it rains.

I love the overall industrial feel of this food park. I find this place very hip, yet doesn’t cater only to a certain group of people. I was there one Saturday night and I saw a lot of groups of friends and families alike. There’s also live musical performances by DJ and bands on weekends by the way.

I was able to try quite a few from the 30 food stalls inside The Yard: Halal Kabab Express, Black Plate, Little Wondang, Milkshake Lab, Wakamojo, Tokyo Tempura, The Gulp, Takami, Dip N Dough and Ice Box. Here’s a map of the food park (click to enlarge photos):

The Ice Box The Ice Box offers ice cream and desserts made by using liquid nitrogen. The use of liquid nitrogen makes freezing ice cream faster and makes it more creamier. The moment ice cream starts to freeze, ice crystals start to grow. The longer it takes to freeze, the larger they grow, and the more grainy the ice cream is. So when using liquid nitrogen, ice cream is frozen so quickly, the ice crystals hardly have a chance to grow, which results in extremely small ice crystals and the smoothest, creamiest ice cream possible.

It was the first time that I tried frozen ice cream and I was pretty thrilled about it. My blogger friends ordered to variants from The Ice Box: Matchacolada and Koffee Krunch. The Ice Box's presentation of your ice cream is a sight to behold. They put your bowl of ice cream in a wooden tray wherein there's a dry ice that emits cold fog, like the photo above.

Matchacolada - I'm not really a fan of matcha, I don't hate it nor I don't love it that much, besides, I drink green tea. I like that the green tea flavor on this ice cream is very subtle.

Koffee Krunch - Although I'm not a connoisseur, I'm definitely a coffee lover. Just like the Matchacolada, the coffee flavor on this one is subtle too. Which, to be honest, kinda disappointed me, I was expecting an in-you-face coffee taste, just a personal preference I guess.

The ice creams that we tried from The Ice Box were just OK. The texture and consistency wasn't that creamy or smooth as we've expected. We've only tried two and they still have other dessert offerings so I really can't judge if it was something to rave about or not. But I'm giving them props presentation-wise.

THE ICE BOX The Yard at Xavierville 83 Xavierville Avenue, Loyola Heights, Quezon City, Philippines The Yard: Facebook: facebook.com/theyardatxavierville Instagram: instagram.com/theyardatxavierville

The Ice Box:

Contact No: 6612822 Facebook: facebook.com/The-ICE-BOX-220341308361349/ Instagram: instagram.com/theiceboxph

For more information, complete menu and restaurant reviews, check out their Zomato profile: