Author: Rochelle Sy Chua

Kokoro Ramenya is a newly-opened Japanese ramen restaurant located in Manila.  I remember seeing the restaurant along Roxas Boulevard while I was driving my way to the airport one time.  I said to myself that I would try it out one day.

Last Sunday, it was raining hard and I was craving for hot noodle soup badly.  I decided that it was time for me to try out Kokoro Ramenya.  There are a lot of ramen places in Metro Manila already, but trying out new ones still excite me a lot!

We parked in front of the Avenue of the Arts building, and took the stairs going to the 2nd floor.

Kokoro Ramenya is huge!  It can definitely cater a lot of people.  It can also be a good venue for intimate birthday parties or school reunions.  Considering the modern ambiance of the place plus the great selection of food, I believe people would enjoy it at Kokoro Ramenya.

I sat facing the kitchen but on the other side, you’ll get a good view of Manila Bay.  The restaurant’s cozy interior combined with a view of nature definitely gives a relaxing effect for the dining public.

Kokoro Ramenya was put up by two Japanese friends who merely had the idea when they were chatting over their Japanese instant noodle lunch.  They did research, cooking experimentation and food tastings for one year.  They got themselves support from a few of their Filipino friends and then they put up the restaurant.

It’s nice that the ramen that we are having here in Manila is getting authentic considering that the chefs that cooked the food are real Japanese.  In Kokoro Ramenya’s case, it was Japanese head chef and ramen connoisseur, Chef Susumo Murata.

While I browsed through the restaurant’s menu, I noticed that Kokoro Ramenya prides itself for its selection of popular regional Japanese ramen.  The pictures alone made my tummy yearn for the food!

Apart from ramen, Kokoro Ramenya also has good selection of sushi, appetizers, ala carte dishes and desserts.  I tried to order as much as we could so I can share with you more dishes that you can get when you visit the restaurant.

• Kokoro Ramenya Beverages

First off, we ordered drinks.  I’ve chosen Matcha Milk Shake (Php 85) because tea is getting so popular these days.  I couldn’t help but get myself at least one glass of it in Kokoro Ramenya.

My friend ordered Kokoro Iced Tea (Php 50).  I was also able to taste it and I’m glad that the iced tea was freshly brewed and not powdered.

Two thumbs up for both drinks!

• Gyoza (Php 155)

I never fail to order gyoza whenever I’m in a Japanese restaurant.  I somehow felt that this was a bit expensive considering the number of pieces in one order.  However, as soon as I tasted the gyoza, oh my gosh, it tasted soooooo good!  You can even see through the picture above that the dumpling skin was toasted!  When I took a bite, it was even better!  The gyoza was juicy and it also helped that the dish was newly cooked when it was served.  A must-order!

• Beef Teppanyaki (Php 445)

The beef teppanyaki dish was such a mouthwatering dish!  I think it only took us approximately 8 minutes to finish this dish.  The meat was on a buttery side but I didn’t mind.  The bean sprouts covered with corn was a nice touch!  This is another successful dish for me!

• Crispy California Maki (Php 195)

Crispy california maki is not a new kind of dish but what I like about Kokoro Ramenya’s version is that they took a unique twist to it.  First, the california maki wasn’t really fried, but it was rolled with tempura skin.  Next, the sauce that came with it was perfect for the dish.  The sauce was a combination of mayonnaise and sweet chili sauce.  Lastly, there’s more than enough california maki in each order (8 pieces).

As soon as we finished this dish, I was already a bit full.  However, I knew that I need to have more stomach space for Kokoro Ramen’s specialty, the ramen…

• Kokoro Ramenya Ramen Noodles

Kokoro Ramenya pride and glory is its selection of Ramen noodles.  What I appreciate on their preparation is that the noodles are freshly-made everyday.  Apart from that, they even have their own Japanese noodle-making machine to ensure the noodles are of the highest quality.

We ordered two of their bestsellers – the Hakata Classic and the Gekikara Ramen.  Other recommendations by Chef Murata include the Karakuchi-negi, Seafood Sapporo Ramen, Gomamiso, and Kokoro Ramenya original.

I ordered Gekikara Ramen (Php 275) because I love spicy food!  This particular ramen is miso-based noodle soup with chashu and breansprout, made extra spicy.  The bowl was filled with tons of vegetables and chashu that I ended up taking home half of the ramen noodle.

Guess what?  I had it for lunch earlier and my officemates were asking me where I got the Gekikara ramen.  The dish still looked so good that they had to find out where I got the ramen.  I let a colleague taste it and she was raving about it the whole time.  It further confirmed my fondness for the dish.  It was yeah, delicious!

Rich and creamy tonkotso noodle soup boiled for 18 hours topped with kikurage, chashu and soft boiled egg.

The Hakata Classic is Kokoro Ramenya’s specialty and this is a MUST-ORDER!  It’s available as a single-order (Php 325) and Sumo bowl (Php 525), good for two.  My friend was so satisfied with the dish that he kept raving about it the whole time he was eating.  And when we got home, he even had to post a photo of the noodle with a description, “YUMMY!”.  Now, do I even have to describe how good this dish is?  I suggest you just order this dish when you get the chance to visit Kokoro Ramenya.

• Kokoro Ramenya Desserts

The Uji Kintori (Php 95) – green tea ice cream topped with sweet adzuki beans.  This tasted similar with the matcha green tea drink that I ordered.

Japanese coffee jelly & ice cream (Php 85).  The coffee jelly was made from real coffee!  Best to eat the dessert as soon as it’s served.

Since it’s rainy season, now is the best time to dine at Ramen places.  One of those that I can recommend is Kokoro Ramenya.  Make sure you order their gyoza and Hakata classic.  Time to warm yourselves up with yummy ramen!

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Kokoro Ramenya
2/F Avenue of the Arts Building, Sta Monica cor. Roxas Boulevard, Ermita, Manila, Philippines
+63-2-2549716

I’ve always wanted to try out Pino Resto Bar in Malingap street.  I remember when I first attempted to go there with friends a couple of months ago, we weren’t successful at getting a table.  I said to myself then that I would go back and ensure that we get to eat at Pino next time.

Good thing my church mate was very organized because he was able to reserve a table for the 8 of us last saturday.  Finally, I was able to sample the much-praised menu dishes in Pino Resto Bar.  The restaurant is owned by Chef Ed Bugia, Star Jose and PJ Lanot.  As I researched, Pino meant Filipino (Pili’PINO’) food and Pino (filipino term for ‘fine’ which means good).  In short, the restaurant promises to serve good Filipino food.  Well, I must say that I liked the food.  I appreciate the creativity of the chef on creating the dishes that they serve.  Imagine kare kare that has bagnet in it or tacos that has sisig in it – those are definitely something new and we, Pinoy foodies, would appreciate.

This is especially obvious as the place is always jam-packed with customers.

There’s an artistic vibe in Pino Resto Bar.  Art work, photographs and cute handwritten notes were hanging/plastered on the walls of the restaurant.

There were eight of us so we ordered almost every bestseller in Pino’s menu.  I was glad we did because I wouldn’t have blogged about Pino Resto Bar here if we ordered only 2-3 dishes.  So this can be of help to you if you want to have an idea how the dishes looked like in Pino.  I must say that the food did look delish but they also tasted just as good too!

• Pino Iced Tea (Php 80)

While we waited for our orders to arrive, we ordered a pitcher of Pino Resto Bar’s homemade iced tea.  One pitcher (Php 80) can fill 5 glasses (see photo above).  The iced tea is also available single-serve.  I liked Pino’s version of the tea, it reminded me of ‘Sunquick’ – not too sweet but super tasty!

• Buffalo Chicken Skin (Php 145)

My cholesterol level is very high but that didn’t stop me from ordering Pino’s new dish: Buffalo chicken skin.  As they say, the yummiest food are the deadliest of them all.  It is crispy chicken skin coated with special buffalo style sauce, served with bleu cheese dressing & celery sticks.  Delicious!  Order at your own risk!

• Mini Sisig Tacos (Php 215)

I love tacos but I’m used to eating those ones with beef.  However, I was curious as to how a sisig taco might taste like.  I actually loved it!  Pino was very generous in putting the ingredients in – pork sisig, lettuce, tomato salsa and the beautifully craved cheese on top.  The dish needed to be taken by the hand.  Forget about poise and image when you eat this 🙂

• Nori Cheese Sticks (Php 165)

Buttermilk cheese rolled in nori and wonton wrappers, served with pesto and strawberry sauce.

It is a unique way of recreating cheese sticks Filipino style.  The sauce was heavenly!

• Tempura Oysters & Pearls (Php 185)

Oysters fried with wasabi tempura batter, topped with lumpfish caviar, wasabi mayo and tempura sauce.

Two words: unique & appetizing!  When you’re at Pino Resto Bar, make sure you order this dish as one of your starters.

• Plain Rice (Php 20)/Bagoong Rice (Php 30)

The rice selection wasn’t in Pino’s menu.  The waiter enumerated all the rice dishes for us to choose.  We ordered plain rice.  We thought plain rice was best because we could taste the flavors of the different dishes that we ordered.  I, on the other hand, wanted to try out as much food as possible so I opted for the bagoong rice.

• Longganisa Rice (Php 35)

Most of my church mates ordered longganisa rice.  I tried it but I didn’t like it.  You can hardly taste the longganisa at all even if you can see bits of it in the rice.  Best to stick with either plain or bagoong rice if I may advise.

• Kalderetang Lengua (Php 415)

Lengua or beef tongue is a food item that is really high in fat but most people still prefer to order often.  Pino’s version is stewed, another way of cooking lengua (in contrast with the usual mushroom sauce).

• Bacon and Cheese Stuffed Chicken Breasts (Php 365)

I’m not fond of chicken breasts.  If I may say, I prefer to eat just the chicken skin.  Even if this Bacon and Cheese-stuffed chicken breasts dish did look good, I didn’t bother getting a second serving.  If only I could taste the bacon better then I would have loved this.   Maybe the flavors of the bacon was overshadowed by the chicken and cheese.

• Red Wine Adobong Tadyang (Php 415)

This was basically beef short ribs cooked adobo style.  Another twist to the usual beef stew, reminded me of the famous Korean beef stew.  You should eat this as soon as it’s served as the ‘sebo’ or fat easily comes out once the dish gets cold.

• Kare-Kareng Bagnet (Php 565)

Last, but definitely not the least, is Pino Resto Bar’s specialty: Kare-kareng Bagnet.  It was pork belly from Ilocos served with peanut sauce.  I think bagnet chunks were cooked separately and then the peanut sauce was poured into it.  At first, I was looking for bagoong but apparently since the bagnet is already salty, there is no need for it.   Well, I had bagoong rice so it was a perfect combination at least for my palette.  A great dish and a successful one, I loved it!

Apart from the yummy Pinoy food served at Pino, the service is something to commend for as well.  Their servers were always ready to get our orders or any requests (like changing the temperature of the aircon as it was cold in the area that we were in) for that matter.

One thing that stuck in my mind was the beautiful wall art at the restaurant.  It was made by Wee Will Doodle and it did have several images inside it like people, music, art, street signs, the Pino name and so much more.  It definitely contributed to the artsy vibe of Pino Resto Bar.

We love taking photos and of course, we had to take it with the beautiful doodle art.

Pino Resto Bar is the second restaurant I tried out in the Teacher’s village.  I have yet to try out the other places there.  I’m eyeing on the Burger Project next which is owned by the same people behind Pino Resto Bar.  Since I liked Pino, I’m sure I’ll like it there as well. Let’s see.

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Pino Bar & Restaurant
#39 Malingap Street, Teachers Village, Quezon City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+63-2-441-1773

Meralco organized an intimate get-together a few weeks ago to share with us a bright idea: Switch to Induction Cooking.  The event was named as ‘Extra Jolt: An Energizing Evening with Meralco‘ and it was held at a secret location in Makati.

I loved how exciting the dinner was!  Apart from the educational side where I learned the advantages of Induction cooking, I appreciate the mysteriousness and the fun concept of the event.  I have been curious about Pinoy Eats World, and I’m just so glad that I was part of Meralco’s guest list.  I love how Pinoy Eats World conceptualized their guerrilla dinners.

Extra Jolt was hosted by Pinoy Eats World founder chef JJ Yulo and Ms. Universe 2012 3rd runner-up Shamcey Supsup.  Chef JJ Yulo introduced each dish to us as it was laid out in the table while beautiful Shamcey hosted the games wherein some of us could win an induction cooker.

The menu itself was so interesting that I took a few minutes reading and analyzing it, even imagining the food in my head. Imagine a menu with names like Meral Cow (a funny way to connect it to Meralco), Sea Nergy (energy?) and Meralco-Liflower soup!

The food was as good as how it was named.  Kudos to Chef Namee Jorolan of Pinoy Eats World who cooked most of dishes during that night.  I couldn’t forget about the sugared bacon and the fried chicken wings.  They were too delicious to even forget.  I wish to experience the food prepared by Pinoy Eats World again.

• Meralco Liflower Soup

Cauliflower soup with pine nuts and chives plus crispy bread w/ blue cheese topping.  A very simple presentation but the taste was definitely divine!

• Mysterio

I never imagined a caesar salad that has bagoong in it.  When we were asked to guess what the mysterious ingredient was, I couldn’t get it right!  The prize, an induction cooker, was awarded to Annalyn who correctly guessed the exact ingredient – bagoong balayan.

And yes, bagoong worked very well with our classic caesar salad.  I wished I had more of it!

• Tunay na Tunay

When this was served, I was a bit sad as I really don’t eat raw food.  I usually skip sashimi when I dine at Japanese restaurants.  In this case, I was set to skip the dish as well even if it looked delish.  However, my seatmates were enjoying the food too much that I ended up getting myself a piece of the seared tuna.  I put tons of ginger creams on it though just to escape the taste of the rawness of the tuna.  I loved the dish honestly but I knew it was raw so I didn’t get a second serving.

• Meral Cow

Meral Kow (cute name!) was composed of kitayama beef, wing beans and mashed potatoes.

The beef was seared that the middle was obviously raw.  It was cooked though in a way that the outside of the beef was cooked really quickly at high temperature.  I sighed when I saw the dish, it was once again raw and I don’t eat raw food.  I ended up eating the wing beans and mashed potatoes which were so yummy!  I wish I’ll be braver in the future to try out raw food.  Let’s see.

• Electric Cute

My favorite of the night was electric cute – chicken wings with cilantro.  Just by the looks of it, it was pretty telling that the food was delicious and must be eaten ASAP!  It was mouth-watering and I couldn’t wait for all of us to finish taking pictures of it!  It looked so good that I felt it was a disgrace not to take a piece of it quickly.

The chicken wings were flavorful as expected.  I must say though, I couldn’t taste the dip provided.  I even took a spoonful of the sauce just to find out what it was.  I’m very picky with chicken and this has got to be one of my favorites!  I wish Pinoy Eats World would sell their chicken wings w/ cilantro as I will definitely buy one!  I don’t mind eating the whole dish by myself!

• Sea Nergy

We had prawns served with basil and lots of garlic!  I appreciate that Pinoy Eats World not just cook and prepare food nicely but they also choose the best ingredients for their dishes.  This particular prawn dish had the freshest ingredient and we can really tell when we eat them.

• Sweetness

Last, but definitely not the least, was Pinoy Eats World special dessert: Chocolate Bananas.  While the bananas were the main attraction in the dish, I was eyeing the sugared bacon.  I actually asked my seat mates if any of them don’t eat bacon as I would happily eat their share 😛

I had a fun time with Meralco and Pinoy Eats World.  It was also nice to see mommy Jane at the event.

Pinoy Eats World do organize food tours, theme dinners and guerrilla dinners.  I was so lucky to have experienced one!  Their food was unique and delicious plus their staff were so accommodating and friendly.

Thanks to Meralco for giving us the opportunity to eat good food and to learn about Induction cooking & thanks to Pinoy Eats World for the beautiful exciting dinner that you have prepared!

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Pinoy Eats World
Food tours.. Guerilla Dinners.. Theme Dinners.. {f.}+Art Dinners
+639178044433
info@pinoyeatsworld.com