Category: Lifestyle

I discovered Tamarind through a group buying site.  They were selling coupons for 40%.  Since I have a monthly lunch out with my former teammates, I asked them if we can all avail of the discount for one of our luncheons.

A few weeks ago, we decided to use our coupons and visited Tamarind for the first time.  The place definitely looked like a high-class Thai restaurant even though the Thai theme isn’t that obvious.  Considering SM Aura was positioned to be a high class mall, I guess Tamarind took that challenge and designed their place as such.

I didn’t know that Tamarind was created by the owners of Jatujak, and only found out when I read about it.  A few years ago, I tried out Jatujak.  I wished they would open somewhere near Makati or Taguig.  Guess my wish was granted!

This time, they rebranded Jatujak and made it Tamarind.  While the menu is the same, and the place looked much more elegant, it came with a price —> higher menu prices to be exact!

The food tasted as good though.  I will definitely be back.

• Sampler Appetizer (Php 252)

Since we wanted to have a taste of everything, we ordered a sampler appetizer.  An order of it includes 2 pieces each of fried pork spring rolls, fresh vegetable spring rolls, and shrimp cake.  However, Tamarind ran out of fresh vegetable rolls that day so they offered to replace it with fried vegetable rolls.  Well, we didn’t have any choice, right?

Among the three appetisers, the shrimp cake was the best!  I wish we could have more but we had a lot more dishes to indulge to.

• Tom Yum Goong (Php 308)

We chose to have the Tom yum shrimp with mild spices.  Tom yum goong is my favourite Thai soup.  I think I won’t ever dare to try any other Thai soup unless they are given to me for free.  Because if I have to spend money, I’d rather order something that I’m sure I will love.  And Tom yum goong?  Guaranteed winner for me!  Tamarind definitely didn’t disappoint.

• Fried Rice with Crabmeat (Php 216)

It was either crab fried rice or bagoong fried rice.  But I just missed eating crabs so I requested that we order crab fried rice.  The order is good for 2 people but for those on a diet, 3 people can share this (which is what we did!).

• Thai Deep-fried Pork Spareribs (Php 293)

My colleagues loved this but I kinda felt it was kinda short of yummy.  I guess I just preferred the dry fried spareribs versus the one with sauce.  Next time, I’ll probably just try their crispy pata in curry sauce.

• Prawns with Garlic, Cilantro & Pepper (Php 388)

For almost Php 400, we got six pieces of the prawns.  It wasn’t spectacular but it was just okay.  The shrimps weren’t so hard to peel which proves that they were fresh.  I would have wanted a peeled version of this dish though.  I felt that the flavours were left in the shells versus the shrimp themselves.  Oh well, it was just me.

• Thai Iced Milk Tea (Php 98)

Best iced tea hands down!!!  I even took some home!  It was that good!  A must-order!  Made of super yum!!  I wish I can find how they prepared this coz I’ll definitely make one for myself everyday if I can 😛

• Sticky Rice with Mango (Php 113)

The sticky rice with mango is the best thai dessert for sharing.  It’s a great way to close a great meal.  I wish I had more space in my stomach.

Please forgive my photos as I forgot to bring my DSLR that day.  However, I brought my trusty iPhone 5 so I think the photos were decent.  Anyway, if you are craving for Thai food and you’re in Taguig area, Tamarind is a good place to go to.

Tamarind has great food, great ambiance and decent customer service.  When you go there, do not forget to order their Thai iced milk tea, shrimp cakes, and tom yum goong.  Definitely worth it!

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Tamarind
5th Level, SM Aura Premier, McKinley Parkway corner 26th St., Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City, Metro Manila, Philippines
+632-556-1156

Ramen restaurants pop out like mushrooms all of a sudden.  I do not know how the craze started but I do seem to be influenced by it.  Almost every week, I have to have my own dose of ramen.  Since there are so many Ramen restaurants in Metro Manila, I have so many places to pick from.

Last week, our pick was Ramen Nagi.  I’ve heard of the place because a lot of people have been raving about it.  I checked out some reviews on the net prior to going to the restaurant.  Wow, 100% of the reviews that I read were positive!  My gosh, every single review of the ramen was good!  How could that be?

I got more excited to try Ramen Nagi out.  We met up at around 5:30PM at 5th floor, SM Aura.

WAITING IN LINE

Yeah!  We were 21st on Ramen Nagi’s list.  Imagine it was even before 6PM and we were already number 21?!?!?! :O  My expectation for Ramen Nagi just went up further.  Why would people spend one hour of their precious time waiting in vain for a table at Ramen Nagi?

There’s even a catch.  You can’t leave the line or else, they will give your slot to someone else.

While waiting, I took some pictures of the restaurant.  I laid my eyes on the poster in front of Ramen Nagi.  There were four different types of ramen displayed.  I stared at those mouth-watering pictures for awhile before deciding which ramen to choose for ordering.

The excitement was killing me at the time.  I was hoping that our number would be called out soon.

RAMEN NAGI RESTAURANT

Finally, entered Ramen Nagi.  The servers were fast at work.  Going around serving orders, cleaning tables, getting payments, and greeting customers as they enter and leave the restaurant.

As for me, I just wanted to sit down, order, and eat Ramen Nagi’s specialties.  There were so many things that made me want to indulge quickly.  I couldn’t wait any longer! 😀

ORDERING

We were given a paper and pen each.  I looked at the paper and was pleasantly surprised how much flexibility Ramen Nagi is giving their paying customers on how they want their ramen to be!

We can choose the richness of the broth, the strength of the special sauce, how much garlic should be placed in the ramen, what part of meat they will put, and the type of vegetable we want.  We can even ask Ramen Nagi how soft we want the noodles to be.  Based on reviews, we should be choosing extra hard.

Lastly, we can order extra toppings for a fee.  Of course, we can order drinks too!  I didn’t order any drink as I was already satisfied with the service tea.

We passed the papers to the waiter.  I felt like submitting a test paper to a teacher for testing.  Hahaha, I even joked the waiter about it.

THE RAMEN

Ramen Nagi has four staple ramen in their menu.  They have a 5th ramen which they call Limited King which the restaurant choose to offer based on season.  During our visit, the Limited King was the Shrimp Ramen.  We were 6 in the group.  We agreed to order one of each so that we can try out everything.  Since I was the one who really wanted variety due to my wanting to post in this blog, I ended up getting the Limited King (while I really wanted to try out Butao King).

We got to taste a spoonful of broth for all our orders.  Based on my palate, I think I liked the Black ramen the most.  Let’s see, I’ll order that next time I visit Ramen Nagi.

• Original King (Butao) – Php 390

Fire sauce + Seabura + Tonkotsu

This is Ramen Nagi’s original ramen and is quite popular in Hongkong.  According to my friend, this tasted just the same as the one in Hongkong.  This further validates the authenticity of the ramen which is cool!

• Black King (Kuroo) – Php 410

Black ball + Garlic + Tonkotsu

Awwww, the Black King.  You m.u.s.t. wear black or bring extra shirt when you order this because you’ll see streaks of black in your outfit after eating this.  It’s unavoidable.

I must suggest to Ramen Nagi that they offer aprons for Black King customers.  It’s a must!

• Red King (Akao) – Php 410

Red Ball + Spicy + Tonkotsu

You want spicy, this one is for you!

• Green King (Midorio) – Php 410

Basil + Cheese + Tonkotsu

The Green King is an acquired taste but some friends do prefer this over the other Ramen Nagi dishes.

• Limited King (Ebio) – Php 410

Shrimp Powder + Shrimp + T0nkotsu

This was my order.  Funny that I was looking for shrimps in my order.  But apparently, the shrimp taste was embedded into the soup.  There was NO whole shrimp included.  However, when I tasted it, oh my gosh!  It tasted like shrimp that was made into soup.  It was so tasty, I couldn’t even describe it anymore!  If you love the taste of the shrimps, then you should order it!

One watch out I would like to give you is that the pork belly is 80% fat.  So if I am you, I will choose the pork shoulder instead.  To each his own, of course.

Other Limited Kings: Genkio (curry), Sakanao (tuna), Sansyoo (Japanese pepper), & Kosyoo (black pepper).

VERDICT

Ramen Nagi has the richest broth I’ve ever tasted among the ramen places here in Manila.  Ramen Nagi is now one of my top 3 ramen in the Philippines.  My friends agreed as they also consider Ramen Nagi as a new favourite.

Honestly, while there were spices available at the table.  I do not think you will need any of them.

The service was pretty good too!  Our ramen was served within 10 minutes.  Plus, the unique experience in ordering was awesome!

You have to know that you cannot bring home your leftover ramen.  Ramen Nagi is pretty strict with that because they are following Japanese tradition.  Conservative as they are, they do not want to sacrifice quality and taste.  When we eat Ramen Nagi’s food, they want us to eat it fresh from their kitchen.

I will be going back to Ramen Nagi again because I just couldn’t stop craving for it after our visit.  I will make sure that I arrive very early.  Ramen Nagi’s food easily goes out of stock.  While we were there, Ramen Nagi stopped accepting customers around 7:30PM because they didn’t have anything to serve anymore.

The long lines and the rapid flow of customers just proved how successful this new ramen restaurant is.  Congratulations Ramen Nagi!

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Ramen Nagi
5/F SM Aura Premier, McKinley Parkway, McKinley Hill, Taguig City, Philippines
Monday to Sunday, 10AM to 10PM