The First Dessert All You Can Buffet in Caloocan!
Do you have the heart for sweets?
Looking for a place where you could have your favourite cakes, ice creams, cookies and eat to your heart’s satisfaction? Then this place is for you!
Introducing, GEM’s Dessert Garden! The first and only Dessert-All-You-Can Buffet in Caloocan.
Where you could enjoy treats ranging from cakes, cookies, brownies, salads, ice creams, pana cotta, halo-halo… and even non-dessert foods like pasta, dumplings, cheese sticks, nachos, dynamites, and many others.
Situated in the City Hall district, you’ll find GEM’s in the 2nd Floor of the newly constructed Plaza Filipino Bldg. just across Ministop (#80 Gen. Luna St. corner Libis Espina St., Caloocan) – this cool restaurant is quite easy to locate.
Gem’s Dessert Garden offers an Eat All You Can Dessert Buffet for only P199.00 with bottomless drinks included. They have a happy hour (yippieee!), Mondays thru Thursdays between 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm where you can get your favourite treats for only P159.00 per head, for at least a group of 2 persons. You could also enjoy this same rate during their closing time daily, from 9:00 pm – 10:00 pm. Quite interesting aye? :-)
Once you enter their store, you’ll feel the glow of the place brought by their bright and jolly ambience which really suits the food they offer. Imagine Care Bears eating candies on clouds :-) (if you know the cartoon Care Bears though).
I tried first the gelatin which was okay. It has the genuine smooth squishy feel and not too sweet... followed the bite sized brownies with the thick chocolate flavour - having that dark chocolaty feel.
Beside the brownies are the bite sized caramel bars which definitely gives the caramel blast in our mouth, but just with an enough amount of sweetness so it wouldn’t wreck your brains out through the nostrils.
After a few bites of some sweets, I tried their other foods. “Pantanggal-umay” as they refer it to.
There’s singkamas which you could dip in bagoong, though I'm not really into it, I tried it nonetheless.
Cheese sticks, oooh I love cheese sticks! These are not the common thin sticks that you encounter - having more wraps
than cheese. It has a thick layer of cheese that melts in your mouth and gives off a small hot flavour.
In the same platter is the dynamite. It’s exactly what it is but with a manageable level of hotness. One bite and it also gives a creamy feeling in your mouth.
They offer spaghetti and carbonara for their pasta, but on the day of my visit carbonara was served. It did not disappoint me at all with its creaminess and has a
just-enough tenderness for its pasta.
It’s toppings are actually more organic, having more veggies than meat. Thumbs up for the vegetarians out there! It doesn’t lack the taste at all even without the usual meat you find on such a plate.
The siomai is more like the Japanese gyoza than your typical Chinese siomai. Like the carbonara, it contains more vegetables than meat but doesn’t lose its quality. Dip it in soy sauce and chili-garlic and you’re good to go!
What makes their nachos special is that its variety of dip was freshly made in their kitchen – no artificial flavourings of sort was used. On the platter are choices of dressings and toppings to make your own salsa.
After tasting their merienda treats, I tried their desserts again and went for the chocolate mousse (my favourite since I was a kid). It has its usual taste with the creamy texture from top to bottom.
Alongside the mousse is the red velvet. It’s okay, though I was hoping for a firmer texture for the cake itself.
One of their best sellers is the blue berry cheesecake (my favourite cake of all time aside from the mousse). It does has the thick layer of cream with the blueberry bursting in your mouth. Where else can you get such a treat for a very low price?
After diving on some cakes, I went for the cookies. Their oatmeal and nut cookies (whatever that is since I forgot to ask for its name, haha) offers just a small amount of sweetness which is a good treat for those who isn’t really into so much sweetness in desserts.
The crinkles taste how you expect it to be. I only wished it was a bit softer.
The chocolate chip cookies are good! I like the texture with just enough sweetness in it.
I like their sans rival too! Where you’d experience the battling taste between sweetness and saltiness in your mouth. Combine it with its creaminess and crunch of nuts. Awesome!
Unfortunately, I couldn’t have a taste on more of their pastries since I could only take so much.
Gem's is actually an abbreviation of the owners' names: Grace, Ethel, and Melanie. They've been operating their restaurant for a few months now. Customers from nearby cities within CaMaNaVa, Tondo make their way all to Caloocan just to grab these wonderful desserts - even those from Obando and Marikina too!
What really interests me is where they get their cakes. Their local suppliers are actually moms within the city who usually bake upon order. This is a great partnership between Gem's and those moms because this could really help them a lot.
Gem's resupply their pastries every two (2) days to make sure they serve fresh cakes and no replays.
This is a place recommended for small celebrations and gatherings that are up to sumptuous fun treats. They even offer a videoke system! I haven’t tried it yet though.
For reservations and inquiries, you may contact them at 978-1916 or 925-0058.
Check out their Facebook Page through this link:
