A hands-on lifestyle baking school and bakeshop that grew a full-blown restaurant through Nikko's delicious home-cooking!
In late 2013 when Nikko was conceptualizing Nikko's Baking Studio, she had a clear idea of what she wanted it to be - a baking school with a small patio where people can have coffee and enjoy her cakes and pastries. The idea was to spread her love for baking, and just have food available (like pasta and sandwiches) for when her students get hungry in class.
Come August 2014, Nikko opened the school, but instead of getting class bookings, she would get people walking in, ordering the dishes that she had initially planned to offer her students.
"For a year, I worked on pushing the school, but it seemed God had different plans for me. More people from the neighboring offices would come by to have their lunch at the studio regularly. Some became friends of mine and were soon expressing their wishes for rice meals.
This happened quite frequently so I decided to do something about it and brought what we ate at home to the store … literally!"
Nikko started offering an all-day breakfast menu featuring their favorites at home - her dad’s garlic longganisa, her son’s Spam, her daughter’s flaky tapa and their Yaya Jen’s daing na bangus and started serving them with rice and eggs.
"My baking studio has turned into a dining area … My worktables have turned into dining tables … my pastry kitchen has turned into a make shift hot kitchen and the baking school I have dreamed of has turned into a quasi restaurant."
At first, Nikko became frustrated at the fact that everything was not going as planned. For her, it felt like God was playing tricks on her and she even had thoughts of just closing down the business. But after meeting with a business consultant and talking with her mom, Nikko eventually decided to push through with turning Nikko's Baking Studio into a homey restaurant, yet still have a kitchen for holding random classes.
Nikko's Baking Studio is an extension of their Quezon City home where the dishes served are the same dishes they have at home - each one with its own story and made with love.
Our visit to Nikko's Baking Studio was a food fest like no other! If I had known we were going to be trying out more than half of the menu, I would have skipped breakfast and lunch! Haha! I definitely had my favorites (can I also mention that the prices are quite reasonable!) so without further ado, here are Nikko's most loved dishes:
126 Cheese Sticks (P180)
Chicharon Bulaklak (P320)
Banana Chips (P180)
Chorizo Empanada (P260/2pcs)
Chicken Empanada (P180)
Mushroom Soup (P140)
Pumpkin Carrot Soup (P140)
Kesong Puti Pandesal (P180)
Boracay Chori Burger Pandesal (P180)
Tuna Melt (P220)
Shrimp Thermidor (P320)
Lucban Longganisa Pasta (P270)
Dad's Hamonado Longganisa (P280)
Dad's Garlic Longganisa (P280)
Bro's Adobo Flakes (P270)
Marlon's Salpicao (P360)
Sinigang na Baboy (P280)
Ayala's Roast Beef (P380)
NBS Chicken Inasal (P280)
Mom's Kare-Kare (P380)
Mom's Callos (P320)
Turtle Pie
Calamansi Pie
Vanilla Crepe Cake
Pineapple Crumble
Deconstructed Sansrival Chips
Leche Flan Cake
It's unfortunate that I no longer work in Makati, because I could have Nikko's food every single day. There's so much to try here - I especially loved her NBS Chicken Inasal, Cheese Sticks, Shrimp Thermidor, and Marlon's Salpicao!
