Category: Restaurants

It’s pretty obvious that I love eating out.  One thing you have to know is that my ultimate favorite Filipino restaurant is Barrio Fiesta.  It has been my favorite since I was a ‘lil kid.  This is mainly because of their mouth-watering dishes like Crispy Pata and Adobong Kangkong.

A few days ago, a Facebook friend posted a picture of Heart Evangelista with a big sign of Barrio Fiesta Greenhills at her back.  Heart is a famous celebrity here in the Philippines and she’s part of the family who owns the Barrio Fiesta franchise.  Seeing that picture immediately made me wanna go straight to Barrio Fiesta and sample their awesome food.  However, I had to wait for dinner time.  I called up a friend and we went to Barrio Fiesta Greenhills for a delicious dinner.

It didn’t take long for us to find the place.  It was a bit ironic that Barrio Fiesta is located beside its direct competitor.  The competitor’s entrance is located at EDSA side while Barrio Fiesta’s entrance is at the back street.  I only have eyes for Barrio Fiesta.  No other restaurant have stolen that ultimate favorite Filipino restaurant title from Barrio Fiesta in my eyes yet.

The ambiance of the Greenhills branch is far from my impression of Barrio Fiesta.  It looked like they applied the accepted design for modern restaurants.  The place was well-lighted and well-designed.  The art work displayed on the walls gives that distinction to Barrio Fiesta.

If you go to Barrio Fiesta’s Makati branch, you can see the difference when it comes to interior design.  The Makati branch has the Filipino ambiance with their tables and seats designed as a Jeepney (Philippines’ famous transportation vehicle).

No matter how different the restaurant design between Barrio Fiesta branches are, their food is just the same (even from 10-20 years ago!).  I always have the same food order whenever I visit Barrio Fiesta.  However, I wasn’t able to order everything during our visit [missed Buko Juice (Php 65) and Sinigang na Hipon (Php 356)].  I’m really in a tight budget right now but next time, I’ll be back to getting all my original favorite dishes.

• Crispy Pata – Large (Php 587)

Anyone in their right state of mind will order Crispy Pata in Barrio Fiesta.  The dish is what made the restaurant famous.  Barrio Fiesta now offers their crispy pata in three sizes, small (Php 487), medium (Php 550) and large (Php 587).  I don’t care if there was only two of us dining but large size was our order.  It was as crispy as ever!  The meat didn’t feel dry at all.  Gee, just writing this entry makes me wanna go back there again.  I must resist!

• Adobong Kangkong – Half (Php 134)

Another must-order in Barrio Fiesta is their Adobong Kangkong.  Available in different sizes: Half (Php 134) and Medium (Php 253).  What I like about this dish is that the meat and vegetables are swimming in tasty sauce.  Every spoonful was so heavenly especially when you pair it with rice.  You should try it out if you haven’t.

• Garlic Rice – Family (Php 129)

Last, but definitely not the least, Barrio Fiesta’s Garlic Rice/Sinangag.  I know this is weird but there’s just one distinct taste in this dish.  Maybe, they put a secret ingredient in the rice or they just perfected the recipe of garlic rice.  I just couldn’t get enough of it!  We even ordered their family size which is good for 4 people!  The server was recommending the cup size (Php 36) but he didn’t know that we could finish the bigger size.  It’s that good!

You have to note that I’m not in any way related to Barrio Fiesta and I paid for our own food.  I really just love Barrio Fiesta and it will always be my ultimate favorite Filipino restaurant.  Whenever I go to this restaurant, I always have this huge smile on my face.

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Barrio Fiesta
Edsa Cor. Rochester St., Greenhills, San Juan, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 726-7836

I always had this impression that Feng Wei Wee serves delicious food.  So when my friends asked where we can eat for dinner at Greenhills area, I recommended Feng Wei Wee.  I noticed that it was newly opened and it looked high-end, definitely a very upgraded version of their Banawe, QC branch.

As we entered the place, we immediately noticed the bakery inside the restaurant.  We initially thought that the bakery is part of the restaurant but it’s not.  It’s actually Formosa Bakery.  What’s really interesting is that the owners of Formosa Bakery and Feng Wei Wee doesn’t know each other but they share the same space.

We went there for Feng Wei Wee so we continued on and searched for seats.  We loved the ambiance!  Feng Wei Wee was well-lighted and the chairs were pretty comfortable to sit in too!  I also appreciate good customer service.  The server was ready to recommend dishes and explain what they are.  It didn’t take a long time for us to order.  I was sure that based on my previous experience with the restaurant, the food will be good.  There’s a huge difference between the 2 branches though as I remember the Banawe branch to have a canteen setup.  I wonder if they changed their style there.

Without further ado, here’s a list of our orders:

• Kong Pao Chicken (Php 250)

I was expecting something different so I was a bit disappointed when I saw the dish.  When I got to taste it, I realized I didn’t like the taste either 🙁  Don’t get me wrong.  My friends loved it!  I guess the different flavors put into Feng Wei Wee’s version of Kong Pao Chicken wasn’t something I would like.  I initially thought that the dish would have so much spice & nuts plus the chicken would be fried & crispy but I was wrong.  Oh well.

• Salt & Pepper Spareribs (Php 250)

There isn’t much difference with this dish compared to other restaurants’ version but I must say that Feng Wei Wee cooked it perfectly.  It has the perfect combination of spices.  The pork was crispy too!  The important thing for me is that the meat wasn’t chewy like a bubble gum (I’m very particular with that).

• Cuchay Tokwa (Php 200)

I’m delighted that we followed the server’s advice for us to order Cuchay Tokwa.  Cuchay is basically a type of vegetable and tofu is obviously tofu 😛  I loved the combination of the two.  I wish we could have more but the serving is only good for 2-3 persons.

• Taiwan Fried Rice (Php 250)

Most of the fried rice dishes in the menu is good for one.  As for sharing, we had a choice between Yang Chow and Taiwan fried rice.  Taiwan fried rice was recommended.  The rice was definitely a tasty one.  It had so many ingredients in it, like chinese sausage, onions, eggs and some other stuff I can’t name anymore.  I do admit that I love to share my foodie experience through this blog but I’m really not an expert with food and worse, I can’t even cook.  So I hope you don’t expect too much from me.

• Jasmine Tea (free)

Last, but definitely not the least, the Jasmine Tea.  Yes, it was a service tea and freely served.  But the jasmine tea was just too good!  Even if we were just 6, we requested for two tea pots in our table.

You see, even my friends readily posed for the camera with the Jasmine tea!  This picture should pass as a marketing material hahaha!

I’m just glad Feng Wei Wee has turned into an established restaurant.  Good job to the owners!  Before I forget, it’s Feng Wei Wee and not Feng Wei Wei (I had it misspelled for the longest time!  just check my previous post) 😛

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Feng Wei Wee
Unit 2, Madison Square, 229 Wilson St., Greenhills, San Juan City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 571-8955

Having lunch at the Pandan Island in Honda Bay was a blast!  Some of us even used their hands in eating.  I stuck with using spoon and fork though 😛

The food was exceptionally good.  If you’re wondering how much this costs, the buffet lunch is included in the Puerto Princesa Adventour Package (with Honda Bay tour) by AirPhil Express.

We ate at the available wooden tables and chairs in the beach.  It was a different setup compared to what we usually have in the restaurants but eating good food with a view of the beautiful beach was just perfect!

Not to mention how delicious the food looked like.  We were like soooo drooling as we see the food being plated in the buffet table.

The food tasted as great as how it looked like!  We had the ff.:

• Cucumber & Tomato Salad

• Chicken Adobo

• Shrimps

• Pork

• Fried Fish

It was a complete meal.  We had servings of pork, vegetables and seafood!  Everything were home-cooked.  Some dishes were even prepared in the beach itself!  We had such a wonderful meal in Pandan Island at Honda Bay!

If you want more, there are vendors who will offer crabs and other food items that they can cook on the spot and serve on your table.  The prices are actually very reasonable.  We didn’t get more as we are very satisfied with what our tour guide prepared for us 🙂

We were just so lucky to have Anne as our tour guide.  Not only was she very cheerful but she was one multi-talented lady.  Aside from being able to provide history in each of the places we visited in Palawan, she was able to prepare such a beautiful meal for us in Honda Bay.

Suffice to say, sometimes, eating food in this setting is much better than eating in a fancy restaurant.

As promised, I’m sharing with you the wonderful dishes served to us while we were staying at Marianne Home Inn.  It didn’t feel like hotel food because it felt like you’re just in your house.  The pantry of the hotel gave this homey feeling.

To be totally honest, I was always looking forward for our meal at Marianne Home Inn.  I really enjoyed dining as we sat in the table sharing food, passing dishes around and chit-chatting all throughout.

Breakfast is free for all guests checked in at Marianne Home Inn.  However, if you want to dine during other times of the day, there are dishes available for order.  I’ll share the full menu at the end of this post.

Here are the dishes served to us when we had our meal at Marianne Home Inn:

We were all raving about the food!  Each dish was a winner for us, truly delicious!  We were actually asking for more and eating continuously until we can’t eat anymore.  I especially loved the squid!

Breakfast at Marianne Home Inn is nice.  They serve Filipino breakfast and each plate has 2 food variants then there’s egg and rice.  Drinks are free flowing.  You can get coffee, hot chocolate or water in the pantry (self-service).

Marianne Home Inn Menu

• Beef Tapa, Longganisa, Tocino or Danggit with egg (combination of two) with rice, coffee and juice) – Php 100
• Fried Chicken with Rice and Atsara (quarter chicken, marinated in calamansi, soy sauce and spices, fried in vegetable oil) – Php 60
• Pork chop with Rice and Atsara (marinated in calamansi, soy sauce and spices, fried in vegetable oil) – Php 60
• Pansit Bihon – Php 120
• Sinigang na Isda (with local vegetable) – Php 120
• Sinigang na Hipon – Php 120
• Sinigang na Baboy – Php 120
• Chopsuey – Php 80
• Fresh Fish with local vegetables – Php 120
• Fresh sinigang na hipon – Php 120

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Marianne Home Inn
Quezon Street Extension, Puerto Princesa City, Philippines
(048) 434-2138

I pass by Araneta Avenue in Quezon City every single day.  A couple of months ago, I noticed this new restaurant in the old trailer-style place.  I was actually surprised that this Japanese Restaurant, Atsu Atsu Ramen, opened there as most of the establishments that were there before had already closed down.

It’s ironic though that Atsu Atsu Ramen has tons of customers in spite of the bad location.  There must be a reason why people keep going back to the restaurant.

So when I saw the promo at one of the group buying sites early this year, I immediately bought it.  My friend and I used the voucher a couple of weeks ago.

I got the Ramen Set for 2 so the food was perfect for both of us.  Luckily, the food was good!  The servings were just right too!  I felt a bit sad though that both the group buying site and the establishment weren’t honest enough with the real value of the meal.  It was said in the site that the original price is at Php 680 but in actuality, the real price is at Php 450.  Anyway, it was still at 15% off so it’s all good.

Here’s what’s included in the Ramen Set:

• Kani Kyuri Salad

A full order of this is at Php 100.  However, our mini salad was more than enough for us.  The salad we had undertaken has cucumbers, crabstick and of course, vegetables with Japanese mayonnaise as dressing.  A nice twist to our traditional salad.

• Gyoza

A Japanese meal no matter if authentic or not won’t be complete without gyoza as starter.  This can be ordered steamed or fried.

• Tokyo Ramen

We ate at the right time as it was raining!  Perfect for ramen indeed and our choice for the day was Tokyo Ramen.  Atsu Atsu Ramen’s Tokyo Ramen is a shoyu-based ramen topped with simmered pork, green onions, hard boiled egg, bamboo shoots and fish cake.

According to the menu, they followed Japan’s way of cooking ramen wherein the soup was boiled overnight.  They also pride themselves with noodles that are imported from Japan.  Can I tell?  Actually I can’t as I haven’t been to Japan but I can say that the soup was delicious!

• Garlic Rice

I’m not sure why garlic rice was included in the ramen set.  I’m thinking it might be because of the fish tempura.  For us, the tokyo ramen is more than enough to fill our empty stomach 😀

• Fish Tempura

When this was served to us, it became clear to me why rice was included in this set.  Even though I was already full, I still finished this dish as I wouldn’t wanna miss the opportunity to be able to try out all the food served to us.  Actually, as for tempura, I prefer this more than ebi tempura.  I feel less guilty when eating fish tempura.  It’s healthier, agree?

• Coffee Jelly

For dessert, we had coffee jelly.  I was actually surprised when I started eating it.  Atsu Atsu Ramen’s coffee jelly might look normal but it had real coffee there!  It was like coffee with jelly on it.  The dessert actually tasted good which made me think that cold coffee with black jelly will work well as a drink!

• Iced Tea

• Hot Tea (free)

Atsu Atsu Ramen’s complimentary tea isn’t really a part of the Ramen Set but we can request to have this served at our table.  I just have to share this with you as I find the presentation soooooo cute!  Don’t you agree?

The food was decent.  I also like that the food being served in Atsu Atsu Ramen are very affordable.  Service was nice too!

It’s also ironic that even though it didn’t look so nice outside, but when you enter the restaurant, it’s like being transported to a different place.  The interiors are top-notch.  The place feels very cozy.

I’ll stay away from Atsu Atsu Ramen till August 2011 as I know that there’s an ongoing promo.  A lot of people will surely go to the restaurant and it might be hard to get reservation.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ll be back soon. 🙂

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Atsu Atsu Ramen
1281 Araneta Avenue, Quezon City, Philippines
(02) 741-7159