After I got invited to taste the Lenten offering of Yoshinoya, I couldn’t stop but feel uneasy.  I need to step foot inside a Yoshinoya Restaurant!  I was craving for beef bowl for the longest time.

It was heavenly when we entered the restaurant finally, I was excited to finally have my serving of Yoshinoya’s famous dish!

Yoshinoya must be my favorite Japanese fast food restaurant in Manila.  Come to think of it, are there any other?

I appreciate the beautiful interiors of Yoshinoya.  I find it adorable that fast food places here in the Philippines are investing their resources in making their restaurants look so much better.  They can actually compete already with normal restaurants.  Would you believe in the picture below that it was just a fastfood restaurant serving quick affordable Japanese food?

We were starving and I believe we ordered too much!  What the heck!  We still finished all our orders.  We had a complete meal with soup, appetizer, main dish, dessert and drink!

• Gyoza (Php 90)

As much as I enjoy gyoza, I felt that the price wasn’t fast food-ish.  Php90 for a 4-piece gyoza, too expensive 🙁

• Pork Tonkatsu Bento (Php 145)

You have a big appetite?  Then Yoshinoya’s bento is for you.  You can choose between tempura, mixed seafood, pork tonkatsu & Japanese fried chicken bentos.

My friend, however, has chosen Pork Tonkatsu.  Bento has rice, veggies & tofu included too!

• Beef Bowl (Php 99)

Beef Bowl was the sole reason why I kept going back to Yoshinoya.  Gee, I was so giddy when I was eating my order of beef bowl. hahaha!  I had to order for extra sauce (Php5) as it was the sauce that made the dish taste so magical.

• Beef Bowl Power Meal

Just in case you want a full meal then you can order the power meal.  It has red iced tea, beef bowl, miso soup and coffee jelly!  Yum yum!

I was able to satisfy my craving and it did affect my day.  So funny that if you get something you want, your day seems to be so complete right after.  So that was how my day went when I had my serving of Yoshinoya’s Beef bowl.  So happy… so jolly! 😀

——————–
Yoshinoya
UG-F Unit 160a Building A, SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City, Philippines
(02) 632-1276

I’ve been hearing a lot about Banchetto.  So I was ecstatic when I knew that my friends and I would all be going that friday night.  I was ready to be awake all night long just to be able to experience what Banchetto Overnight Street Food Fiesta was like.

Even if we knew that Banchetto starts at 12 midnight, we still went as early as 10PM.  As expected, there weren’t any stalls yet.  Around 11PM, vendors were starting to setup one by one.  We walked around still just to get a feel of it.

I was so excited that I started taking pictures even if 90% of the stalls weren’t ready yet.  I was watching out for the barbeque/grilled dishes.  Look at the smile on my face below.

Just as I thought that we would be relaxed during the visit, I got the shock of my life when it turned midnight.  There were TOO MANY people!!!!  I can’t hardly move while walking around the stalls.  I felt that I was just being dragged along the crowd just to be able to proceed further.  They were that many.

Anywhere I look (left, right, front & back), there were people!  It was truly a street party of food AND people!

The front stairs of office buildings nearby Banchetto were jampacked too.  That was just 5-10% of the crowd of Banchetto.

Banchetto offers a wide selection of food items.  It was overwhelming actually.  I was watching over my weight so I was only able to sample a few but if I didn’t, I would have eaten so much.

See this mouthwatering barbeque?  They were Angus Beef skewers.  Who wouldn’t want one?  They were pretty affordable too!

My favorite would be the different barbeque dishes.  They have like so many of them but I decided to stick with Isaw & hotdogs.  Street food galore!!  You can be assured that the food are clean.  Prices are a bit higher than normal but still affordable and cheaper than in the malls.  The food are cooked fresh so you have to wait for a few minutes before it gets done.  I believe it’s all worth it.  Newly cooked food are the yummiest to eat 🙂

Banchetto also has stalls that sells rice dishes.  Very cheap at Php50-60!  If you are trying to have late dinner or heavy midnight snack, then this is for you!

This was one unique item, the mini tacos!  I said to myself that I’d go back to buy one set but due to the vast amount of food, I forgot!  I actually only remembered when I was reviewing the pics I took at Banchetto.  Oh well, there’s always next time.

There were pizza, pasta, lasagna too!  I wouldn’t wanna eat those as it can make your stomach full right away.  As it was my 1st visit in Banchetto, I wanted to eat light so I can eat MORE! 😀

You can buy cakes for take-out.  Just in case, you have family members who can’t get awake that late.  It would be such a nice surprise when they see you brought pasalubong for them.

I was really shocked when I saw lechon & sushi in one of the stalls hahaha!  The things businessmen can think of selling.  Since it’s in Banchetto, then it should be successful.  I have heard of stalls closing down because of poor sales.  Based on my observation during my visit, seems like they got the right formula already.

I’ll definitely be back as there were so much to try out!  I will make sure I try some more sinful dishes hehehe 😛

I know a lot of people have been going to Banchetto to eat Monster Burger.  Honestly, I wasn’t able to notice it while we were roaming around.  My friends told me that it’ll take at least an hour to get your own order.  I guess I have to make sure that when I go to Banchetto next time, I would order the monster burger first before anything else.  I took a picture of a man cooking burgers, not sure if this was the popular monster burger they were talking about though.

Another popular stall was the Hot Siz stall wherein 2 beautiful Korean ladies were selling barbeque dishes.  They were smiling all throughout and were striking poses when they saw cameras flashing at them.  They were soooo cute!  No wonder they never ran out of customers.

While everyone was going gaga on Korean stalls and monster burgers, my eyes were fixed on isaw.  Yes, isaw!  I was eating isaw all throughout and I just kept ordering and ordering till I can’t eat anymore.  They were pretty cheap at Php20-30 per piece.  There were large ones and small ones.  I prefer the bigger one but gee, just by blogging about it, I wanna drive to Banchetto and eat some more.  Unfortunately, it’s not friday today.

Banchetto is only open during friday midnight till saturday 11AM.  I’m so glad I finally visited the place.  Banchetto will definitely be one of my favorite places to go to during weekends.  I cannot wait to go back.  I cannot wait!

P.S.  Banchetto is currently closed but I’m positive it’ll be back soon.  If you’re like me and you wanna support Banchetto, then go over this link and show your love.

——————–
Banchetto Overnight Street Food Fiesta
Along Emerald Avenue, Ortigas Center, Metro Manila, Philippines
Friday Midnight till 11:00AM Saturday