a little bit about travel, a little bit about food, a lot of everything in between; as seen, tasted and experienced by different points of view..
Located a few steps away from the main entrance of the JP Morgan building, this casual dining restaurant offers the relaxing ambiance of Filipino dining while maintaining its traditional Chinese feel. We arrived here a few minutes past 5:30 and were seated comfortably to one …
this filipino restaurant satisfies my craving for comfort food and favorite filipino dishes when i don’t feel like cooking. this restaurant is not a carinderia type where there are already cooked dishes. you have to order the dish and then they will cook it so …
one of the perks of moving to california is easier access to filipino restaurants. i rarely go to jollibee back home except for the times i take out my nieces and nephews out. kids usually prefer jollibee over mc donalds because jollibee offers the filipino taste in their spaghetti, jolly hotdogs, palabok and burger steak. i was impressed by the number of items in their menu. they offer burgers from regular yum to amazing aloha, jolly hotdog, chicken joy, burger steak, palabok and breakfast meals (bangsilog, longsilog, cornsilog, tapsilog, tocilog and spam(!)silog), halo-halo, shakes and peach mango pies. an interesting addition to their sides are sweet potato fries, mashed potato and buttered corn. i guess this is to accommodate american taste. i ordered burger steak and halo-halo in two separate occasions. the burger steak tasted like burger steak i remembered and liked. it was so tempting to order a second serving. i was also impressed by the ice-cream flavors in the halo-halo: ube and langka ice-cream! i would have preferred no vanilla extract on the leche flan.
after work, i felt like treating myself to some japanese food. i’ve been looking forward to trying out this place specifically for its name. the place is small and had around 10 tables. the waiter/owner took awhile to entertain me. i ordered a dinner bento …
this place is expensive. the prices of the menu they were displaying outside the restaurant were outdated. i ordered chicken teriyaki bento. it came with onion and mushroom soup. i was a little disappointed they did not serve miso soup. the bento also came with …
it was accidental that i ate at this restaurant since i had a hard time finding parking space close to an organic mexican restaurant i wanted to try out. this restaurant has a mix of burmese and chinese cuisine. i ordered their chicken curry lunch special. it came with hot and sour soup and salad with crispy noodles for starters. i liked the sauce which came with the salad. it’s sweet and had a hint of sour taste. i was surprised they had samosa in their menu. i later learned burmese cuisine had been influenced by india. the samosa did not look exactly like the indian samosa but it tasted close. it did not
come with the indian sauce too. it came with sweet and sour sauce instead. the chicken curry was good. it tasted like filipino chicken curry. the chili sauce on the side satisfied my taste for a spicy chicken curry. i liked it so much i wanted to bring home the chili sauce. i was a bit turned off that they charged extra for brown rice or fried rice instead of white rice. i admired the friendly and attentive service of the waiters.
Verdict:
3.5/5.0
driving by pizza restaurants everyday reminds me of my craving for pizza. my first attempt to satisfy this craving was getting a frozen di giorno four cheese thin crust pizza from the supermarket. the taste was below average so i had another excuse to try …
i filled my first plate with salmon, tuna, white fish sashimi, mix of maki rolls, ebi sushi, and seaweeds wrapped in tamago wrap. my first plate started well. my second plate was filled with clams with salted beans that lacked seasoning, fried shrimp that was …
Kona Grill is one of our favorite Friday lunchout place. It tops in the number of times we eat here because of their lunch specials or what Kona calls as perfect pairings where one could pick two dishes from a list of delicious choices. Perfect pairings are only available from 11am to 2pm. I chose the mini club (a mini version of Kona’s clubhouse sandwich ) and crab crunch (a roll of maki with crab and tempura crunch). I’ve also tried their sushi combo (contains a piece of salmon, tuna and white fish), lunch roll combo (or california roll) and mini cheeseburger. My friends have tried Kona’s tomato basil bisque and clam chowder. Kona’s calamari is also among the best. Kona also gives freebies to birthday celebrants who joins their club. Every now and then, they also offer discounts.
STK Ta Bai is one of those local grill houses you usually go to when you’re craving for something to share in a group, be it a business meeting, a casual date or some bonding time with the family. This house-turned-restaurant eatery has quite …
Big Mao
After deciding between Chinese food and Thai, we finally chose something that we haven’t eaten from before. Big Mao has been in Ayala terraces for as long as I remember, though we were practically avoiding it like a plague since there were other Chinese restaurants that appealed to us more. at lunch time, the place was packed and the attendants were busy like ants, zooming here and there to attend to their customer’ needs. When we were finally attended to, we asked to have a plate of lemon chicken, an entree of jellyfish with century egg, radish cake, braised bean curd. We also had fried pork served with plum sauce and assorted dim sum.
I like the crispiness of the jellyfish, above anything else. The softness of the tofu is something to be loved too (crispy on the outside and soft on the inside). Shame the sauce that comes with it isn't even on the same page. The radish cake wasn’t as spectacular as we thought it would be, too. But the belly slices (we had two orders of belly, to prove it) and the dim sum are more than enough to compensate for it.
So overall, it's a split decision whether or not we’ll come back to the place. Select dishes are delicious while some others are just plain weird with mismatched sauces.
—
Big Mao
Ayala Terraces
Verdict:
A: 3/5
Service slow and the food isn’t that exceptional.
