Banana Caramel Crunch
I’ve always wanted to experience the good ‘ole American diner, the kind I read about in my Archie comics, with girls and boys sipping on their chocolate milk shakes with abandon. A place where servers wear sailor hats and semi-dirty aprons.

For those like me who dream of the old days, The Ice Cream Bar (Flavors by FIC) gives not only the nostalgic satisfaction of servers wearing sailor hats, but it also gives the interior designer in all of us a quaint and fashionable place to enjoy our ice cream. The interiors have a clean feel (their base color of choice is white) with refreshing orange and red accents. They even have transparent chairs that look like vases.

Red chairs with a modern twist.
But enough about all this design talk! Let’s get down to what matters – the ice cream. First of all, I’ve been skeptical of ice cream with caramel on it because most of the time, it overpowers everything. But the Banana Caramel Crunch (P250) at the Ice Cream Bar manages to balance the taste of both ice cream and caramel quite well. The concoction is made up of caramel pastilles, vanilla and butterscotch ice cream, banana slices, caramel butterscotch syrup, and streusel, which gives the ice cream offering a crunch texture.

Soft Serve Frozen Yogurt

The Ice Cream Bar also serves Soft Serve Frozen Yogurt (P120). The “fro-yo” at The Ice Cream Bar has gotten a lot of buzz and I must say that it lives up to its reputation - it’s also a healthy alternative to ice cream. Toppings, ranging from fresh fruits, syrups, and cornflakes, can be added for P15 each. Imagine - 95% fat-free yogurt that has the texture of ice cream! FIC just sold itself to every diet-obsessed person in the whole world don’t you think? The offering is just in time for summer, when everyone is thinking about how good they’ll look in their bikini.

Another interesting item on their menu is the Mangga’t Suman (P120), a delectable pairing of warm suman with a frozen chocolate shell, sprinkled with caramelized muscovado, and topped with Mangga’t Suman ice cream - certainly a much welcome twist to the old Filipino favorite.

The bar also serves sandwiches and pasta which are just as good as the desserts that they serve. The Chunky Chicken Sandwich (P165) was the first one from the non-ice cream section to catch my eye. The Basil and Kesong Puti Pasta (P195) also tickles my “I’ve-got-to-have-that” bone because it’s first pasta I’ve seen with kesong puti in it. I also have to say that they hired a good copywriter for their menu, because when I finished reading it, I just had to have everything!

The Ice Cream Bar (Flavors by FIC) can be located in Joya Tower, Joya Drive (beside Power Plant Mall) Rockwell Center. Operating hours are 11 AM to 11 PM on Mon to Thurs, 11 AM to 1 AM on Fri and Sat, 10 AM to 11 PM on Sundays. For more information, please contact JC Sarmiento at (0917) 889-8274.