Category: Restaurants

The other day, my colleagues & I decided to eat out for dinner.  We planned to dine at another restaurant but ended up going the wrong way.  We saw this newly opened restaurant called XO Kitchen & decided to try it out.

The place is actually just small but it was well designed.  They have this cute red dragon dressed up as a chef painted on their wall.  XO Kitchen basically serves Chinese food.  We were excited to taste their food and see if it was delicious, we might have found our new hangout place!

Here is what we ordered:

• Hakaw (Php 95)

All time favorite dimsum of the Filipino-Chinese community hehehe 😛  We never failed to order this whenever we dine out at chinese restaurants.  To explain it in simple terms, hakaw is basically a shrimp dumpling.  It’s best eaten w/ XO kitchen’s chili sauce, try to put soy sauce also. The shrimps seemed to be cooked separately before the hakaw was prepared.  Could have been better if it was cooked together or blanched slightly to ensure that the shrimp taste wouldn’t be diluted.

• Fish Fillet w/ Mango (Php 230)

This is a food item that everyone should try out.  We were like, “what?” when we saw the menu.  We immediately ordered it as we were so curious to find out how fish w/ mango tasted like.  It didn’t disappoint, it was good & delicious!  The fish was prepared really well, crispy on the outside & very tender inside.  Not sure if everyone would like this but the fishy taste in the fish was gone, you can actually confuse it with other meat.  For me, I was very satisfied w/ the dish.  Glad we ordered it!

• XO Kitchen Special Beef (Php 230)

True to their word.  This dish is truly XO Kitchen special beef, I haven’t tasted anything like it.  I didn’t notice it at first but this dish was cooked with sibut broth.  What is sibut?  It’s a Chinese herbal soup.  A very unique way of cooking beef, genius idea chef!

• Chinese Kangkong w/ Garlic (Php 120)

This might look like a normal kangkong dish but it was actually very tasty.  Garlic can definitely be cooked crispier to give some contrast to the very chew-friendly kangkong 😉  With dishes like this, it’s important to have some contrasting colors and texture to make it not only appetizing to the palette but to the eyes as well.  Like I have always said before, when it comes to cuisine or food in general, one always feasts with the eyes first.  Always good to note for restaurants owners creating their menus.

• Steamed Rice (Php 25)

• Yang Chow Fried Rice (Php 120)

My favorite among the ones we ordered.  This is like one of the best fried rice I have eaten!  According to my friend Maus, it looked like they made use of asado oil (based on the greasiness & the color).

• Iced Tea (Php 50)

Bottomless iced tea, served in a small glass.  They also have bottomless softdrinks w/ the same price.

They obviously just opened because right after we finished eating, the head waiter approached us and asked how the food was.  We said it was okay.  He offered their delivery services & gave us pamphlets.

The service I think was okay.  There was just one waiter who was so engrossed with the TV that we didn’t bother calling him anymore LOLz!  The owner was there but was busy taking care of the restaurant.  I think it would have been better if the owner approached us and tried to be friendly.  I’ve seen a lot of restaurants having loyal clients because the owner were very much accommodating.

Overall, I loved the food!  The recipes were very original & I liked the presentation.  Would have been better if they provide a greater serving amount to their ala carte dishes.  The dishes are really just good for 2.  You might want to order more if you’re hungry 🙂

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XO Kitchen
134 Jupiter Street, Bel Air 2, Makati City, Philippines

The official dining place of Nurture Spa Village is Tanglad Bistro.   They serve breakfast, lunch & dinner.   When you purchase a package at Nurture Spa, it usually includes breakfast & lunch or dinner.

Christina & I chose to have dinner there instead of lunch so we could just relax, enjoy the atmosphere, and not have to leave the compound.  Nothing extraordinary with the restaurant’s design but the food was decent.  We had 2 options as to where we wanted to be seated.

The indoor area w/ an Indian inspired theme (is it really Indian? felt like it :P).  Most of the guests who brought laptops prefer to stay here.  There’s wifi available & you can easily call the waiters to your table since most of them tend to stay in that area.

The outside area only has 1 table.  I’m thinking that they might be using this area for romantic dinner setups.  It’s especially beautiful to dine there at night because you get to see the beautiful view of Nurture Spa village while you eat.

The only thing that I disliked in the outdoor area were all the mosquitos.  There was just too many & it gets really distracting while you have your meal.

We tried to dine at both areas.  Might as well get to experience everything right?  We had breakfast at the indoor area while we had our dinner at the outdoor area.  Different experiences altogether.

For dinner:

We were served a full set meal (Php 650).  We get to choose from their entree menu & get to have soup or salad + dessert.  As both of us are trying to be healthy, we ordered fish.

We were served potato leek soup which was their soup of the day that time.  The potato leek soup wasn’t really out of this world, but it was still good.  Creamy, which you expect from potato soup, and the added leek gave it a little of a unique taste which was nice.

After the meal, we were served dessert.  The dessert of the day was supposed to be chocolate cake but I requested if we could be served a different menu item as both of us aren’t fond of chocolates.  I was so glad that the server obliged with our request.  The dessert ended up being crème brûlée, which was definitely more to my liking.

I was impressed that they can be flexible with their customer’s needs. 🙂

As I mentioned, both our main course were fish.  Christina ordered the Black Treasure Fish w/c is a Pacific Dory fillet cooked in oyster garlic sauce, bell pepper & shitake mushroom.  I honestly think the combination of ingredients in this dish really are excellent together.  The oyster garlic sauce with the mushrooms is really something that just makes sense with a fish dish like this.

I, on the other hand, ordered the Spice Blackened Pacific Dory.  It’s basically pan-fried Pacific Dory with sauce made of mango butter.  It was delicious!  I loved it!  I especially liked how the mango wasn’t too overpowering but complemented the sauce quite nicely, it still had that nice butter sauce taste with a lingering taste of mango.  Great execution on this dish.  The fish was cooked nicely too, still very tender and moist while keeping that nice outer crust.

For breakfast:

The next day, we had our breakfast at the indoor area. I was expecting a buffet type of breakfast but apparently not, w/c actually made a lot of sense as there aren’t much people in the place.  Best to serve the food ala carte & newly cooked.

Just like their dinner offering, it was also a set menu (Php 350).  We were given 4 choices: Filipino, continental, American or healthy breakfast.  All comes with coffee, chocolate drink or tea.  I must say, their tarragon tea was just superb!  I think I asked for 3 refills of this.  It was that good!

I ordered the Filipino breakfast. I wanted to eat healthy but cereal is really not my thing.  Christina ordered the healthy one.  It is fruits topped with oats served with soymilk & yogurt.  It soooooooooo looked yummy!!!

To top it all off, fruits were served as well as dessert.

I ordered the Filipino breakfast, particularly the tocino one.  The other choices were longganisa, beef tapa & bangus.  As usual with most Filipino style breakfast, it comes with fried rice & egg.

One thing that I most love in the restaurant & throughout the Nurture Spa Village is their service.  The staff were really accommodating, helpful & friendly.  Most of all, they really do focus all their activities with the customer in mind, which other establishments’ staff don’t have.

Great food coupled with excellent customer service = good dining experience.  That’s what I felt when we dined at Tanglad Bistro.

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Tanglad Bistro
Nurture Spa Village, Brgy. Maitim II West, Tagaytay City, Philippines
(02) 584-4228

It was the day when Typhoon Basyang striked Metro Manila.  Most of us didn’t have electricity & much worse, some of us didn’t have water & phones as well.  At dinner time, we decided to dine out at Shinjuku Ramen House.  Since it was rainy, ramen was the best food item to eat.

There were lots of customers that day but most are foreigners (Japanese to be specific).  Since Shinjuku is a Japanese restaurant, this isn’t something to be surprised about.  Although I find the restaurant’s prices to be expensive, I must admit the food does taste good.

Service is also not something I’m impressed with.  When I asked for the soup that comes w/ my order of fried rice, I had to follow up 3 times from different servers before it could be served to me.

Here is what we ordered:

• Gyoza (Php 250)

Probably one of the best gyoza I have eaten so far.  It was made perfectly, I wish I knew how they did it so I can try it  at home 😛  I think if you want to make a great gyoza like this, you really have to make sure that when you pan sear  the pan definitely has to be super hot!  Thus, you get this wonderful crisp outer covering.  And the taste is just mouth watering.  The difference in textures really give this dish that extra level of detail.  You have 2 choices, either order the 4 pieces gyoza (Php 165) or the 6 pieces one (Php 250).  Dip it with Shinjuku’s special sauce & you got one of the yummiest gyoza.

• Gekikara (Php 280)

If you love spicy food (like really spicy) then this ramen is for you.

• Chashu Men (Php 280)

We can probably describe this dish best as the basic Japanese ramen.  The great thing about restaurants that are authentic Japanese restaurants is that you get soup just like this.  The basic ramen, but with attention to detail.  I’m pretty sure that their broth has most probably been slow cooked and simmered for hours, which makes these soups just a bit above par from the normal run of the mill broths.  With great fresh ingredients, definitely worth ordering.

• Shoyu Ramen (Php 230)

I have no idea regarding the difference of this dish with Chashu Men coz both definitely looked the same to me.  Must be the broth I guess?  Well, on second thought it definitely is the broth since this broth was a bit lighter.  I just wished I asked the difference in the taste.

• Ebi Chahan (Php 240)

I know Shinjuku’s fried rice is overpriced.  With just one cup of fried rice, it will cost us Php240.  It was yummy and I can’t help but order that day.  Every bit of rice was tasty, I guess the only premium ingredient in that dish is the shrimp (Ebi in Japanese).  Nevertheless, I enjoyed it.  The soup is a great complement to the fried rice too.  But it is definitely a gourmet type of fried rice since it’s really filled with ingredients too, so in that case, it’s a bit above and beyond the normal fried rice.

• Yakisoba (Php 240)

The restaurant’s version of yakisoba.  It has a lots of ingredients, a full-blown menu item, very rich with taste & flavor.  It includes squid, shrimps, meat, vegetables, wow, too many in 1 simple dish good for one.  If you’re a seafood fan, then this may be something you want to try out.  A sort of mini seafood platter combined with noodles.   It definitely could be refined in its presentation, but other than that, definitely a very interesting dish.

Shinjuku is located at Makati Avenue.  It has lots of parking spaces so you don’t have to worry about that.  I can see myself eating there often for the next days to come as rainy season is here.  I just have to be careful as the prices are steep, might hurt my budget hehehe 😛

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Shinjuku Ramen House
7853 Makati Ave. cor. Hercules St., Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines
(02) 890-6107

My last stop for our Ongpin adventure was Sincerity Cafe & Restaurant.  I wasn’t able to join the whole day trip as I had a seminar to attend in the afternoon.  Sincerity is famous for their chicken & I was only able to sample it just last month when we ordered takeout at their Greenhills branch.  But like the saying goes, best to eat dishes at their original branch so that’s were we had our lunch.

They may not have the best of ambiance and decorations, but the fact that, as expected, it had a very Chinese feel when we entered the restaurant, made dining very authentic.  Red lanterns, Chinese symbols, Buddha & Chinese people all around the place.  Authentic Chinese FTW! :P:P

You will see articles written about the restaurant & posters of their famous dishes framed & hung on their walls.  Something to view while we waited for our orders.

The restaurant is a busy, busy place.  They had a steady stream of customers every few minutes or so.  When I asked the waitress if she could take a picture of us, she practically declined.  What a disappointment but I guess they prioritized getting orders delivered fast.  That’s how busy they are.

It was a quick lunch.  We ordered the ff.:

• Sincerity Fried Chicken (Php 150)

This is what Sincerity is famous for.  I think the thing that separates them is how they fry their chicken.  It’s basically the home-style way.  Their chicken parts are not too big so you can easily finish a few pieces of it on your own.  Once in a while, home-style fried chicken is just what we need.  No extra spices, no special sauces, but just great chicken that is perfectly fried and seasoned.  Sincerity definitely provides this.

• Fried Oyster Cake (Php 120)

They say that Sincerity Restaurant’s oyster cake is also to die for.  I do not know why but I wasn’t impressed with this dish.  I like oyster cake even if I’m not fond of oysters.  But the oysters really stood out in this dish which didn’t make me quite appreciate it as much.  My colleagues loved this dish by the way.  So, if you’re fond of oyster cake that is actually really loaded with oysters, then this dish is probably for you.  But, if you’re like me and prefer a more light tasting oyster cake, then try to stay away from this dish.

• Ki-Kiam (Php 100)

We call this the true kikiam hahahaha!  We ordered 2 pieces of Kikiam (Php50 each), they sliced it into bite pieces.  It’s basically a pork appetizer dish.  It was good especially if you dip it in ketchup.  If you prefer spicy, then dip it in hot sauce 🙂

• Black Gulaman (Php 40)

I loved this!  Nothing special as all black gulaman taste the same but still, who can really go wrong with black gulaman since it’s one of my favorite drinks anyway 🙂

I think I already got my dose of Sincerity Chicken.  I probably won’t be craving for it anytime soon.  Not really something I would want to eat often, probably just once in awhile.  Glad that I was able to try it, at least I’m not behind of what’s hot in the must-try Chinese restaurants in the metro.  If you are planning a food trip of sorts in the Binondo area, then go ahead and try Sincerity’s Chicken with it’s very authentic Chinese dining atmosphere.

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Sincerity Cafe & Restaurant
497 Yuchengco Street, Binondo, Manila, Philippines
(02) 241-9972

My colleagues & I had a great Binondo adventure last weekend.  We walked around Binondo, Manila & sampled every popular Chinese dish in the city.  It was munch munch day for us!  No diet for the day 😉

Our 1st stop was at Tasty Dumplings.  We ordered all their specialty dishes & we were all happy & ready for more!   I was quite surprised that a lot of them hadn’t yet tried Tasty Dumplings as I know they had a branch in Greenhills & Quezon City.  Originally in Manila, it’s best to sample the dishes in their maiden branch.

Here are the dishes we have sampled late morning that day:

• Dumplings (Php 70)

Since we wanted to try out everything, we opted to have the dumpling order with both fried & steamed.  Some of us wanted to be healthy & so just ended up sticking with the steamed version, while I just wanted to eat delicious food.  In my opinion, fried is still more yummy although it will have a bad effect on my health hehehe 😛  Tasty Dumplings is the name of the restaurant so it’s a given that their dumplings is the best in town.  And with any dumpling a most important part of such a dish is the actual filling itself.  If it ends up being too salty or lacking seasoning, then it ruins the entire dish.  But as always, Tasty Dumpling just seems to know their dumplings, and as usual, it was delicious!

• Hongma (Php 130)

Best-Seller for the day!  This is actually a dish that everyone just loved.  Not for the health conscious, but definitely a great dish.  It’s basically braised pork that is a combination of salty and sweet at the same time.  The best thing about eating braised pork like this is that it’s slowly cooked so the meat is tender, it absorbs a lot of the flavor of the sauce, and the sauce in turn gets that really defined pork taste.  The result is a good marriage of flavors.  I think they may have probably used a little soy sauce and maybe brown sugar for the added sweetness, but I’m not sure.  All I know is that everyone kept raving as to how delicious the dish was.

Of course, the fat in any meat dish gives it more taste, so just don’t expect “healthy” when you order this dish.  Just think DELICIOUS hahaha!

This dish can actually be eaten together with either rice, noodles or bread but I will insist you to eat it together with Tasty Dumplings’ Silver roll bread.

• Silver Roll Bread (Php 42)

I can safely say that this is fried bread.  I don’t know how they cooked it, but one word to describe this menu item is “PERFECT!”  The best thing about this bread is that fried taste you get with the crust, and that oh so soft middle that is just light and fluffy.  The sauce from the Hongma, the pork itself, coupled with this bread is a definite must-try combo.  You’ll never go wrong when you eat this with their “Hongma”.

• Pork Chop with Noodles (Php 99)

It’s ironic that even though the restaurant’s name is Tasty Dumplings, I always relate it with porkchop.  As I believe, their porkchop is the more popular dish in the place.  You can either order their porkchop as ala carte (Php 76) or with rice (Php 99).  We opted to order with noodles since we’re going to eat again in another place in like 10minutes after we leave hahaha!  Anyway, their porkchop is huge!  I think they sliced it very thinly in the middle then made it look like 1 giant piece of porkchop, the term is to butterfly a thick cut of the pork.  And actually this method is also good because you get more of the fried exterior which is always usually the best part of any pork chop.

And with Tasty Dumpling, that crispy, perfectly seasoned crust is really the reason why it’s just so good!  And to add to the perfection of it all, is that you can also choose to eat it with their special sauce (w/c coincidentally is used for their dumplings as well).

• Wintermelon Juice (Php 40)/Soya Milk (Php 28)

Tasty Dumplings not only serves good food but also good selection of drinks.  My favorite has always been wintermelon juice & soya milk.  Other restaurants do already serve wintermelon juice but it’s at Tasty dumplings that I had my 1st encounter with.  Their soya milk is served cold by the way.

With great company & great food, you’ll never go wrong.  The Hongma & Silver Roll Bread were our favorites.  We’ll definitely have our Ongpin trip repeat within the year.  Eating yummy & affordable food in the Manila streets is just fun, fun & fun!  And with Tasty Dumpling, it was definitely a great start to our Manila street food trip!

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Tasty Dumplings
620 Ongpin Street, Binondo, Manila, Philippines
(02) 242-5195