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..
We visited Lemon Grass Restaurant yesterday on the way to an office mate’s house party for a quick bite of food while they were still out of their apartment. This restaurant offers a curious twist of vietnamese and thai cuisine that’s definitely a fresh way …
This is the first time we brought our 97 year old grandmum out to a decent restaurant in ayala center Cebu. What bothered me was that Cafe Laguna had average PWD facilities, making it almost impossible to use wheel chairs.
Upon entering the facility, the servers were too busy with what they were doing despite the fact that the place was vacant. I never really understood why that was the case, but it continued for 20 minutes tops.
We had their Pinoy High Tea which is composed of mini treats like small buns with tuna flakes, some bibingka (rice cakes), espasol (rice treat with ground rice powder and caramelized sugar), and turon (caramelized sugar placed on top of fried banana). We also ordered an additional serving of Puto (rice cake from manila), puto bumbong (again, another rice delicacy with melted butter, graded coconut and sugar) and bibingka. It seemed like they forgot the serve us the tea once, and when it was served, it was warm.when it should have been HOT, and oh, did I mention that no one wanted to attend to us when we were requesting a few glasses of water?
The food is exceptional I’ll grant that. But it seems like we just caught them at a wrong time and date.
Café Laguna
Ayala Center Cebu Branch
Level 1, The Terraces
Ayala Center Cebu,
Cebu Business Park, Cebu City
(+63 32) 231.0922
Verdict:
3.5/5
I’ll be fair and give it a passing 3.5 when it should have been a 4.5. Maybe The service will improve eventually.
We came upon this korean-themed restaurant in IT park one fine evening after gym and decided to try why many people opt for this restaurant. The interiors looked cozy enough and even the atmosphere was pleasant enough. Oh boy, how wrong we were… As I’ve …
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 of the establishment’s couches. The restaurant was as empty as it could be, perhaps because of a bad choice of location or simply the budget. But it was one of the things I liked about this place, the absence of chit chattering individuals who can’t seem to stop yapping about who did what in their workspace.
I was surprised by the service of this place; within five minutes after finalizing our order and myself coming back from the public washroom, several plates of food were laid out in front of me and my sister for our consumption. We had crispy noodles, macao roast pig, radish cake and kung pao chicken.
The crispy noodles were somewhat of a disappointment, having been immersed in too much sauce for one to enjoy. Although to make up for it, the noodles absorbed as much juice that complements what’s left of the crispiness it’s supposed to have. The roast pig is good, soft but dry and the sour spicy sauce is very good. The radish cake is an excellent order, if I say so myself. The Kung Pao Chicken is okay, as I don’t have a basis to compare it with something else as of now.
Chopsticks
Unit 101, E-bloc Tower 1
Asiatown I.T. Park Lahug
Verdict: Perhaps an update in the menu would be a good thing seeing how there’s very little to choose from. Promos to attract customers too would help. The place lacks… a certain appeal that would make their customers regulars.
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.
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Big Mao
Ayala Terraces
Verdict:
A: 3/5
Service slow and the food isn’t that exceptional.
Don merto’s Don merto’s has several branches in cebu that offer delicious meals at affordable prices. But interestingly, their main branch near vacation hotel offers all you can eat tenderloin steak for the meat lovers looking for a new place to satisfy their cravings. During …
One of the best places to relax on a sunny afternoon is at Casa Verde’s where you can enjoy their mouth watering rib racks and their sumptuous feasts-on-a-plate. For starters, we had karlamari, shrimp pesto cream and watermelon salad. The appetizers were followed closely by …
From the outside, Harubang is a peaceful place that offers a number of korean dishes anyone can sample. It doesn’t disappoint though, not to mention the affordability and the satisfaction you can get from your dining experience. We arrived around 6:30 in the evening and was seated in one of the few available tables since several other spaces were occupied by groups of merrymaking Koreans.
Other than the noise that they made, we were satisfied by the all you can eat beef short plate that all three of us (my sister, my brother and myself) enjoyed. Surprisingly, it is much cheaper than the cost of the food in Chosun Galbi, the korean resto house we frequent. Perhaps we just visited at a wrong time.
They didn’t have that cold noodle that I enjoy quite a lot however. 🙁
Harubang
IT Park Lahug
Verdict:
A: 3/5
The food is great, but I can’t dine in peace with that much noise. It brings down the ambiance that you’re paying for, especially if you’re used to little noise when you’re eating.