Category: Restaurants

It was 2010.  For months, I would pass by a Serenitea branch every day to buy 2 large milk tea drinks for take out.  It happened so frequently that my colleagues started to ask where the drinks were bought.  I had this nagging feeling that they were thinking that “Roch was crazy and an addict!”.  Imagine drinking two large milk tea everyday.  Are they really that good?  That’s the story of how I discovered Serenitea.

Fast forward to 2013, Serenitea is already a household name.  While there are more and more teashops have opened in Metro Manila, Serenitea has held its place as the first teashop to utilize a tea espresso machine in brewing its tea.

As for me?  Well, still a milk tea addict!  You will always see me getting jumbo drinks whenever Serenitea celebrates its anniversaries.

Last night, I spent several hours drinking every single variant of Serenitea’s new creations.  They are finally revamping their menu and will be introducing several new yummy drinks for tea lovers!  Let me share with you what they are before Serenitea starts to offer them in all their branches by end February 2013.  Exciting times!!!

• Tropical Yakult

• Lychee Yakult

My problem with lychee drinks is that the flavor of lychee is too much for my palate.  However, this new lychee yakult by Serenitea just had the perfect recipe!  It has the right amount of lychee and right amount of yakult.  This must have changed my outlook and I may order lychee yakult a lot of times when it officially comes out in Serenitea branches.

• Chaffe’ Milk Tea

• Cocoa Green Tea Frost

• Chocolate Pudding Milk Tea

this is a combination of Okinawa milk tea and chocolate pudding.  If you’re a chocolate lover, you would love this new drink!

• Cookies & Cream Milk Tea

I had to borrow this photo from Serenitea because I want you to see the cookie crumbs on top of the drink.  You know what’s unique about Serenitea’s cookies & cream drink?  They actually used REAL cream!  They stayed true to the name!

So the next time you visit Serenitea, say hi to the server, smile widely and order one of their new drinks!  You might have a new Serenitea favorite drink!

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Serenitea
Little Baguio, San Juan, G&L Bldg, J. Abad Santos cor. V. Cruz, Little Baguio, San Juan, Philippines
Sun-Thu: 11am-11pm, Fri & Sat:11am-12am
+63-2-3794166
http://www.iloveserenitea.com

My friends and colleagues can attest to the fact that I’m a HUGE fan of Yabu – The House of Katsu.  I started raving about it January 2012 when I first tried out Yabu’s Katsu set at their SM Megamall branch.  Whenever people ask me where to eat, Yabu will always be my favourite answer.  Ironically, I haven’t blogged about Yabu.  I guess when you eat food that you truly like, you would just want to relax, eat and stop thinking about documenting it.

I felt it would be such a shame for me as a blogger not writing the food that I’ve been raving about for a year now.  Yesterday, I went to Yabu’s newest branch at Mall of Asia, which opened officially last November 28, 2012 to try out their newest katsu sets. As usual, there were long lines outside the restaurant!

Yabu has established itself very effectively as one of the most sought after restaurant by foodies.  You rarely will see a vacant table inside Yabu.  That is proof how successful Yabu restaurant is!

Love manga?  Then you will surely dig Yabu’s interiors!  All branches have manga panels on the wall for your reading pleasure.

I’m not an alcohol drinker but boy, Yabu’s bar looked so slick with all those bottles beautifully lined up!

Since Yabu specializes on katsu, let me talk a bit about its beginnings.  Katsu comes from the word ‘katsuretsu’ which  means ‘cutlet’.  Katsu is considered as one of the staple dishes in Japanese cuisine.  When you see sliced pieces of meat that are deep fried and breaded, that’s katsu.  Now, if you want to eat the best katsu in Metro Manila, then you should head on over to Yabu.  You won’t get disappointed!

Here are the three new dishes by Yabu’s Chef Kazuya Takeda:

• Menchi Katsu Set (Php 350)

authentic Japanese minced meat, made with superior ground beef and pork, mixed together with Yabu’s special spices, and stuffed with creamy cheese.

The menchi katsu might look the same as other Yabu specialties but when you start to take a bite, you are in for a sweet, cheesy surprise!

Yabu put together ground beef and ground pork, quick-melt creamy cheese and wrapped it in Yabu’s fresh panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)!  The result was a tasteful menchi which I think is a hit especially for cheese-loving folks.  I, myself, was surprised as to how flavorful it was!

Dip each menchi katsu slice into the sauce which we had a hand in preparing.  Before we started our meal, a waiter handed out a sauce container with sesame seeds and a mortar.  All we had to do was to (1) grind the black & white sesame seeds, (2) pour sauce over the freshly grinded sesame seeds, (3) mix the ingredients, and lastly (4) dip the katsu into the sauce.  An activity I truly appreciate and made the Yabu experience even more exciting & fun!

With the uniqueness of menchi katsu, it’s definitely a good addition to Yabu’s already excellent menu.

• Menchi Katsu Curry Set (Php 370)

Authentic Japanese minced meat, made with superior ground beef and pork, mixed together with Yabu’s special spices, and stuffed with a rich combination of creamy cheese and Yabu’s curry sauce.

With Menchi Katsu Curry, you’ll get the same ground beef/ground pork/creamy cheese/panko mixture.  However, this dish was bathing in a thick Japanese curry sauce.  If you dislike curry, you have to consider because Yabu’s version is different.  The sauce actually felt like gravy with a hint of curry so it was pretty mild.

• Soft Shell Crab Set (Php 480)

one luscious Japanese soft-shell crab, coated generously with fresh panko, fried to crispy perfection.  soft-shell crabs are ordinary crabs harvested immediately after they’ve discarded their old shells, so their new shells are still soft.

Two of my ultimate favorite food items of all time are shrimps and crabs.  As soon as I saw that soft shell crabs is one of the newest offering of Yabu, I immediately ordered it for myself.

Soft shell crabs are the ones that have recently switched their shells thus making it soft and edible.  One order of Yabu’s Soft Shell Crab Set has one whole piece of crab.

When I sliced my order in half, I was in crab heaven!  Those crab meat exposed was just smiling happily at me.  It was sad that I can’t seem to stare at it any longer because I had to eat it immediately out of eagerness!

The Soft Shell Crab Katsu comes with a special Ponzu Layu sauce.  It’s a special Yabu creation made of radish, lemon and some other secret spices.  It gave a nice kick to the dish.. oh man, crabs!  I can live with eating crabs all my life!

We all ordered the new dishes as a Katsu set.

Each Yabu katsu set includes unlimited Japanese rice, miso soup, japanese pickles, unlimited cabbage with sesame dressing and a bowl of fruit.

I just have to mention that the fruits we had yesterday were superbly fresh and sweet!  We were actually surprised that even to the small detail, Yabu had to make sure that they gave us the best. 😀

Oh, and one more thing, the cabbage that Yabu serves is one of the things I always look forward to!  I can eat like 8 refills of cabbage.  It’s THAT good!  If you’re on a diet, you can skip the rice and just bulge on the cabbage.

Of course, enjoying an excellent Yabu meal with good friends is a perfect way to spend a good lunch!

Yabu has definitely gone a long way.  In just a short time, it has grown its brand beautifully and has expanded twice.  I hope they open more branches, Makati & Taguig people are waiting for Yabu!

With the new katsu dishes infused into the menu, Yabu continues to delight us customers and our yearning tummies.  I’ll see you again soon, Yabu!

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Yabu – The House of Katsu
2/F SM Mall of Asia, Main Mall Atrium, South Arcade, Pacific Drive, Manila Bay Reclamation Area, Pasay City, Philippines
+63-2-5117202

I still remember the first time I visited Ramen Bar two years ago. I was clearly raving about how delicious the food was. Since then, Ramen Bar became a place I go to for ramen. In fact, now that I work near a branch of Ramen Bar, I find myself eating their food at least once a week. There was one thing I noticed, Ramen Bar has a seasonal menu!

For the past 3 visits, I opted for my favorite yakiniku beef.  Last Wednesday, I was at Ramen Bar located at Venice Piazza and I decided to try out their seasonal menu.  I thought, if I loved their normal offerings, for sure the new menu would be just as good.  I think the seasonal menu will run for a few months more, but after having tasted the food, I wish they can just put the dishes as part of their permanent menu.

As usual, the beautiful ambiance and design of the restaurant made it enjoyable to dine in.  The wooden interiors, the bright lighting, the color scheme and the impeccable service — so relaxing 🙂

The service was still top-notch!  After more than two years of service, the servers were still friendly, accommodating and helpful.  Orders come at a decent time as well.. When you’re hungry, you sure will get your food within minutes!

Ramen Bar started offering the Seasonal Menu last November 10, 2012.  I’m not sure until when the items will be available but I hope they consider making them permanent.

• Cheese Gyoza (Php 180)

Gyoza is Japan’s version of dumplings.  It’s filled with minced pork and leeks, fried to perfection.  The unique thing here is that Ramen Bar infused cheese into the mixture.

With every bite, you can taste the wonderful mixture of flavors from the mixture.  The cheese just gave the dish an oomph!  Each order comes with a dip.

• Kakuni King Ramen (Php 380)

Those pork belly (kakuni) that you see in the photo?  They are amazingly delicious, amazingly tender and amazingly tasty – net, they are AMAZING… zing .. zing!  I’m not a cook but I could tell that the meat was prepared with much attention (probably pressured cooked).  It’s funny to realise that we actually finished the dish faster than the time that Ramen Bar cooked the dish.

• Bikkuri Ramen (Php 380)

The bikkuri ramen is my favorite among the three new ramen creations from Ramen Bar.  It’s miso soup mixed with chili and minced pork.  The taste actually reminded me of a Chinese tofu congee.  You know the small tofu chili bottle sold in chinese groceries? It tasted like that but of course, Ramen Bar prepared this fresh off the kitchen!

The noodles were smooth, chewy & firm perfectly complementing the broth and main ingredient.

You know what I sometimes dislike whenever I blog?  The sudden urge to eat the food that I’m describing here!  ughh… this is exactly what I’m feeling right now especially remembering the yumminess of this ramen … wahhh!

• Shoyu 2.0 Ramen (Php 280)

For Shoyu ramen fans, Ramen Bar has made an improved version of it!  The Shoyu 2.0 features a lighter broth with a mixture of pork and chicken stock boiled for 20 hours.  Even the egg was marinated for 48 hours!  The restaurant makes sure that we get to have the yummiest ramen by focusing on the way they cook their dish.  Like I’ve always said, this is something we, customers, truly appreciate.

The serving is quite big and I believe this can be shared between two people.  However, if you’re truly hungry and you have a big appetite then a single order is good enough for one!  When you get to taste authentic ramen like the Shoyu ramen, who would even want to eat any more noodles of the instant kind?

• Curry Chahan (Php 180)

When I saw the curry chahan and tasted it, I was thinking that I already had the same dish somewhere.  Apparently, it was from Yakitori Kitchen!  Too bad Yakitori Kitchen is now closed but at least, they brought one of the best seller dishes to Ramen Bar.  This fried rice was cooked with meat, curry powder, garlic chips and leeks as garnish.

So there… two ladies eating all those in one sitting!  Talk about stuffing our stomach for a strong work day ahead, hahaha!  It was my friend Gly’s first time in Ramen Bar so I’m glad that she liked the food!  I expect her to go back since her office is nearby.  I have a feeling I’ll be there again first wednesday of next year.  I just cannot get enough of good ramen!

And oh, Ramen Bar has three promos running exclusively at their Venice Piazza branch!  You might wanna check them out!

1. Twitter Tuesday  –  Tweet “I’m having the best ramen in Manila here at Ramen Bar Piazza!” and get a 10% off your food purchase.
2. #AwesomeNewRamen  –  Try out any of the 3 ramen dishes in the seasonal menu, take a photo, describe your dish and post it on your Instagram account with hashtags #AwesomeNewRamen, #RamenBar and #RBcontest.  Get a chance to win prizes from the weekly draw.
3. facebook Saturday  –  Update your status to “Ramen Bar is my choice when it comes to ramen and I’m here right now eating!” and get a free Tempura ice cream for dessert.

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Ramen Bar
G/F The Venice Piazza, McKinley Hill, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Philippines
(02) 552-1636
Other branches: Eastwood, Robinson’s Magnolia

I never thought that there will come a time that I would be raving about Korean-style fried chicken.  I was able to try out several brands and I liked the taste until I’ve tried Clucky’s!  It is so awesome that I’ve raved about Clucky’s twice-fried cooked chicken to my friends already.  Somehow, Clucky’s focus on quality has really paid off (for me at least!).

Clucky’s is a new restaurant located at Rockwell Business Center.  Take note that this is located in Ortigas (not Makati) near Medical City.  Even though the main product of Clucky’s is their Korean-style fried chicken, they have so much more to offer.  Their menu is extensive!  I must say after having tried most of their food items, I’m a fan.

Clucky’s location is a bit out of the way for me — it is probably why I havent discovered them before.  I’m really blessed because as a blogger, I got invited to try out Clucky’s specialties.  It was a super nice discovery that I’m so excited to share with you all!

Salad

I was able to try out two variants of Clucky’s salads.  I noticed both of them have the same dressing, but each has distinct characteristics.  The restaurant was pretty generous with their serving and the homemade dressing was just heavenly!  For health-conscious people out there, you can choose to go organic by adding Php 25 to your salad order.

• House Salad (Php 119)

The type of fruits included in the salad varies from time to time (depends on the season & availability).  If you’re sensitive with the type of fruits that you eat, it’s advisable that you ask the server before you order Clucky’s house salad.

• Spicy Crabmeat Salad (Php 159)

The spicy crabmeat salad is for people who LOVE spicy food!  Seriously, I was pretty stoked when I had my first spoonful of the salad.  It was still the same homemade dressing used in the house salad but this time around, it was spicy!  The crabmeat was more then enough and you will surely feel your money’s worth right after tasting this crab salad.

Clucky’s Mad for Chicken

Clucky’s is a partner of Mad for Chicken (one of the well-known Korean fried chicken brand in the U.S.).  The restaurant proudly serves chicken flavored with the sauce from Mad for Chicken. What sets Korean fried chicken apart from the typical American fried chicken is the way the chicken is cooked.  With Korean, the chicken is fried twice which results in the skin being crunchier and less oily.

Now, why do I like Clucky’s over other existing Korean-style fried chicken brands in Manila?  Simple.  Clucky’s does NOT use frozen chicken.  Their chicken are delivered fresh daily to the restaurant!  Honestly, I never thought that I could tell the difference since this is something customers usually doesn’t know.  But yes, it is much more delicious!

There are two types of chicken available: Soy Garlic or Spicy.  [My favorite is the Soy Garlic Chicken! :)]

• Tenders (Php 199)

If you’re the type who wants to quickly indulge in chicken goodness then you should get Clucky’s tenders.  The order consists of 6 pieces of chicken breasts strips coated with Mad for Chicken’s authentic Korean sauce.

• Wings/Drums/Combo

Wings – Small (8 pcs) at Php 229, Medium (16pcs) at Php 449 and Large (24 pcs) at Php 669
Drums – Small (4 pcs) at Php 229, Medium (8pcs) at Php 449 and Large (12 pcs) at Php 669
Combo – Small (4wings & 2drums) at Php 229, Medium (8wings & 4drums) at Php 449 and Large (12wings & 6drums)  at Php 669

I love to eat Clucky’s Chicken with its bones!  During the food tasting event, I was dying to eat the chicken already.  I had to wait for the bloggers to finish taking pictures.  The smell of the newly cooked chicken was killing me that time!

On my first bite, all I had to say was ‘Grabe! this tasted sooooooooooooo good!’.  The skin was uber crispy and so tasty!  Boy, the chicken meat was also tender!

I found out that there is actually a way for us to know if the chicken was fresh or not.  If the bone is colored-dark, then the chicken has been frozen.  As you can see in the photo below, Clucky’s chicken bones was light-colored proving that it was indeed fresh!  See how clean those bones were?  Yes, we finished every single piece of chicken served to us!

Sides

Clucky’s has items for sharing like Calamari & Parmesan Fries.  You know even for just simple menu items, I could tell that time was spent to perfect the dish.  For example, Calamari, which is lightly-breaded and at the same time, less greasy!  The taste is now focused on the squid itself and not the breading.  The parmesan fries, on the other hand, was a favorite among the guests that night.

• Calamari (Php 119)

• Parmesan Fries (Php 49/Php 79)

Clucky’s Meals

All Clucky’s Meals include 12 oz Soda or Iced tea.  You can add Php 10 to upsize your drink to 22 oz.

The Bulgogi & Kimchi meals can be a good combo with your order of Clucky’s Mad for Chicken.  Some people prefer to eat chicken with rice.  Since Clucky’s chicken is Korean-style, then the rice definitely is of the same kind too!

The Chicken Burger meal is a complete meal in itself.  It has a bit of everything — the yummy Clucky’s Chicken Tender strip, the sandwich bun which serves as your carbohydrate, and parmesan fries on the side.

I find it fascinating that the pricing are affordable considering the serving & quality of the food.  I can attest that every single dish that I tried out was good (no joke!).

• Bulgogi Meal (Php 149)

• Kimchi Meal (Php 149)

Three options to choose from: chicken, sausage and tofu.

• Chicken Burger Meal (Php 115)

Add P25 to upsize to large fries.

Drinks

• Iced Tea (Php 25/Php 45)

As far as I can recall, Clucky’s is the only fast food restaurant that served premium brewed tea.  I loved it, very refreshing!

• Red Horse (Php 40) & Stallion (Php 35)

For the boys, beer are available.  Clucky’s has a promo wherein you can get a bucket of San Miguel Light (6 bottles of beer) at Php 180.

Dessert

• Premium Gelato (Php 69)

For dessert, Clucky’s has the creamy Homemade Premium Gelato, made with the fresh ingredients!

There are 5 flavors available: Dark Chocolate, Coffee Choco Crunch, Oreo Cheesecake, Banoffee and Mango Sorbet.  We were able to sample them all and among them, I loved the Mango Sorbet (made from fresh mango puree) & the coffee choco crunch!

The owners are currently looking for people who want to Franchise the brand.  I hope they can either open more branches of Clucky’s or get franchisees ASAP so that more people can discover and love Clucky’s Mad for Chicken!  I wish they would open a branch in Makati, Fort or Quezon city so that it’s more accessible.

For now, its yummy chicken goodness is mostly being enjoyed by people who work at Rockwell Business Center and nearby buildings.  For a minimum order Php 300, their food will be delivered for free!

I couldn’t forget the food but I also couldn’t forget the cheerfulness of the staff!  The service was top-notch!  I was so impressed that I actually thought that Paolo wore a matching outfit so that he could fit in, hahaha!

I’m dropping by Clucky’s next week to get myself a Large order of Wings & Drums combo for take out.  I can’t wait!  See you soon Clucky’s! 😉

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Clucky’s
G/F Tower 2 Rockwell Business Center, Ortigas Ave., 1600 Pasig City, Philippines
+63-2-2341401
Monday to Thursday & Saturday -7am to 10pm, Friday – 24 hours :D, closed on Sundays

Transforming a house into a restaurant is becoming a trend nowadays.  One of the notable ones is Napa Restaurant & Bar located at Scout Borromeo Street in Quezon City.

Napa Resto-Bar caters to all types of diners: families, friends, barkadas, business associates and couples.

Napa Restaurant & Bar owe its homey design to Cynthia Gaerlan.  She got the inspiration from the vineyards of Napa Valley.  The look was pretty obvious while we examined the restaurant from the al fresco dining & bar to the main dining areas.  More than that, I was pleasantly surprised to see how huge Napa Restaurant & Bar was.  Take for example the main dining area.  It could seat a hundred people.  The Al Fresco area could have another fifty people, and lastly the private function room could seat 30 people.  The cozy ambiance of Napa Restaurant & Bar is perfect for people who want to enjoy their bonding time with friends and loved ones.  In fact, a wedding reception was ongoing when we had our meal at the restaurant. There is just a spot for everybody!

I really enjoyed the pleasing design and the comfortable setting of Napa Bar & Restaurant.  I wish I have taken more pictures but I was there to have dinner and spend quality time with my friends 🙂

The food being served at Napa Restaurant is created by executive chef Berna Hewins.  There are brick-oven pizzas, pastas, steaks, ribs, appetizers and other American-Italian inspired food items.  We tried to order one of each food type so that we get to taste most of Napa specialties.  The overall experience was good!

• Very Veggie Crisps (Php 145)

I super duper love chips but I’ve been cutting down on junk food.  However, upon seeing that Napa Restaurant & Bar offers an alternative to our usual unhealthy chips.  I was ecstatic!  I was pretty sure that the veggie chips would taste just as good plus it has that ‘healthy’ factor because it was made of vegetables.  I was right!  The very veggie chips is a must try!  It was crispy and you can definitely taste the different flavors of the vegetables used in the dish.  I didn’t even need to dip the chips into the sauce!

• Buffalo Wings (Php 210)

The buffalo wings was so appetizing to look at.  You can see the sauce evenly coated on the chicken wings.  It would be such a pain if you ended up just looking at it.  I immediately took one piece and munched on the tender meat of this yummy red wings.  Surprisingly, Napa RestoBar’s version of buffalo wings wasn’t spicy at all!  Instead, the flavors were on the sweet side which I appreciate.

• Pork Chop Grande (Php 395)

One thing that always concern me whenever I order pork chops is the tenderness of the meat.  Luckily, I didn’t encounter that problem with Napa’s juicy pork chops!  Their pork chop is grilled and flavored to perfection!  It didn’t take much time for the three of us to finish it.

The pork chops were served with a choice of 2 sides (baked potato, grilled vegetables, french fries, mashed potato, buttered vegetables, cole slaw, garlic rice, corn on the cob).  We’ve chosen french fries and mashed potato.  The mashed potato was a hit in our table, loved it!

• Napa Special (Php 495)

Napa Special is Napa’s homemade pizza that has everything in it!  Italian sausage, bacon, pepperoni, chorizo, green & red bell peppers, black olives, onion rings and mushrooms, name it and it’s there!  Like any other pizza, this is best eaten as soon as it was served.  Nothing beats a newly cooked pizza (especially loaded ones!).

• Lava Cake (Php 190)

Most of us usually order dessert after we finish our main course.  For Napa Restaurant & Bar customers, I highly suggest you order their blockbuster lava cake together with your main dishes.  Reason?  It takes 25 minutes for Napa to prepare the cake.  When you get to see and taste the dessert, you would understand why 25 minutes is worth the wait.

The lava cake might be normal looking with a scoop of vanilla ice cream & ladyfinger on the side.  However, once you put your fork into the cake, you’ll be wide-eyed with awe as the rich chocolate oozes out of the cake.  Such a nice sight to see and such excitement for those who would be eating the yummy dessert.

Napa Resto Bar is a popular destination for a lot of people.  This is a nice venue especially for folks who are craving for American & Italian food in a homey setting.  Decent food, great ambiance and nice service – Napa is here to stay.

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Napa Restaurant & Bar
12 Scout Borromeo Street, South Triangle, Quezon City, Philippines
+63-2-4148272