Mei Hua Pot & Noodle House (Trinoma)

Beloved and I ate at Trinoma's Mei Hua last night. We don't usually eat Chinese. So far, the only Chinese places we've eaten at are Chowking, Chinese stalls at food courts, and street siomai/noodles if they count. It's not that we don't like Chinese food, it's just that we don't usually crave for it, and if we do, we just end up at Chowking. Last night was also weird in that I was craving for french fries and we ended up here. The place is conveniently located near the Mindanao carpark entrance, so we pass this by often, especially since we frequent Sizzling Pepper Steak just across of it.

Anyway, Mei Hua specializes in noodles, apparently hand-pulled. We didn't get the opportunity to watch the chef pull the noodles themselves, but we did come in pretty late. Since they specialize in noodles, we decided to order one for each of us. Their soups come in meal and snack sizes, and the meal sizes were only a quarter more expensive than the smaller counterpart. Beloved ordered the Seafood Noodle Soup (180 Php) and I ordered their Ansio Beef Noodle Soup (170 Php), both meal-sized. Aside from noodles, they also serve the usual dimsum and rice meals often found in Chinese restos. I was a bit saddened that they didn't serve my favorite dimsum, which is hakao (shrimp dumpling), but we settled for an order of Jellyfish (145 Php) and Siomai (85 Php). We also ordered a couple of bottomless iced tea for our drinks (70 Php), even though they already served hot tea on the house like most Chinese restaurants/tea houses do.

Ariake (Tomas Morato)

Last night, beloved and I went to Ariake. If it wasn't apparent yet, this is a Japanese restaurant. We were deciding between this and another Japanese restaurant on the same street, but went here because we had to cross to get to the other one. We sort of just randomly went here based on reviews we've read and the location of the resto—which is just a few steps from Tomas Morato.

Looking at the menu, I am reminded of another Japanese restaurant which I just recently started to enjoy—Omakase. Much of their menu is dedicated to sushi and maki. Their maki/rolls are pictured to be liked the ones served at Omakase, which have lots of stuff in it and looks visually appealing. Since we were sort of celebrating, we ordered their Ariake Deluxe (680 Php), which is basically a sushi sampler, so that I can compare it to the said resto. We also ordered Sukiyaki (250 Php), since we weren't really feeling like ordering our usual cold or hot noodles. Drinks were Iced Tea, apple and lemon, both bottomless and both priced at 70 Php.

CnT Lechon (Ayala Center Cebu)

A few days ago, me and the father side of my family went to Cebu. According to most I've asked, Cebu's primary delicacy is their lechon. I've first tried their lechon at the hotel we stayed in, and I must admit that it was far superior than the ones we have at Manila. Of course, it could be because this was a five-star hotel quality lechon. A couple of days into our vacation, I had the opportunity to try out their real local lechon at the food court in the only Ayala Center in the city—CnT Lechon.

The queue was visibly long, and the menu was simple. Lechon. No fanciness attached. You order it by the kilogram, and it costs 440 Php per K. Since a couple of us were eating, we ordered half a kilo (220 Php). In addition to that, they serve rice wrapped in the same stuff suman is wrapped in, which costs 7 Php each. It took a while before our turn in the queue, but once we're up, the server chopped up and measured the lechon and put it on a plate quite simply and quickly.

Sushi-Ya (Tomas Morato)

Since our craving for raw fish wasn't sated from the last time we went out, beloved and I decided to try out Sushi-Ya today. We always see this store open at the wee hours in the night when we get hungry and pass by the McDonald's at Tomas Morato. We always get scared to try it out because we're unsure if raw fish would still be fresh in the said hours of the night. We're also unsure if they're really open. When we got in, we saw that their service hours run until 4:30 AM on Mondays to Saturdays.

It was a small store, and when I saw their menu, I found it to be pretty cheap for Japanese food in Tomas Morato. I especially found their bento box, which they labeled good for 2, to be a bargain. I also like how they made it so. You choose your main course, which you pay in full price, all of them I found affordable, and then you add 250 Php or 260 Php, depending if you want miso soup or iced tea with your bento respectively. The bento contents I'll reserve for later, but the main course I chose was three pieces of Ebi Tempura (148 Php) with their Iced-tea good for two Bento Box (260 Php). Beloved wanted sashimi, so she ordered Chirashidon (195 Php) for herself.

Sizzling Pepper Steak (Eastwood)

A couple of days ago, beloved and I went to Eastwood for dinner. We were supposed to eat at Ebisu only to find out it's closed. After a couple of hours of indecisiveness, our hunger opted us to eat at the closest resto that we know serves unlimited drinks. Even though we ate there a week before, it happened to be Sizzling Pepper Steak.

We're somewhat a regular on this chain, although not that frequent. Also we haven't yet tried this particular branch out. However, the same unique method of ordering applies here as that from our last documented visit. Beloved ordered what she always orders here—Fish and Fries (210Php). I wasn't really wanting to eat rice, but I ended up ordering their Bacon and Egg Hamburg (200 Php) with extra bacon (25 Php) and their Tamago Soup and Rice combo (55 Php) because I needed the starch, wanted a hot soup or drink, and was craving for bacon.

Sakura (Subic)

For dinner, still at Subic, we went to Sakura. Father wanted Japanese, and our choices were this, Teriyaki Boy, and a restaurant called Spanish Gate. Since this sounded the most Japanese one, we ate here.

Their menus featured their real Japanese names, so it was pretty hard to order without consulting the picture and the waitress. Playing safe, I decided to order Zaru Soba (220 Php), or ice-cold soba noodles that I usually order if you've read my other reviews. Beloved also played safe and ordered Hiyashi Chuka (300 Php), which is also cold noodles, but this one has more toppings and uses different noodles. We also ordered their Assorted Sashimi (600 Php). Our drinks are negligible. ...Okay I just forget their names and prices.

Xtremely Xpresso Cafe (Subic)

Beloved and I went to a trip to Zambales which turned into a trip to Subic after a day because of the randomness of the impulses of my father side. There, we got to try out a couple of restaurants that we decided to do a review on. When we got to Subic, we stopped by a cafe called Xtremely Xpresso Cafe for brunch.

Although there's plenty of coffee in their menu, it's more of a diner than a cafe, especially since they serve pizza, pasta, sandwiches, rice meals, and breakfast. Among them was a 22-inch pizza for around 450 to 650 Php, which seems to be a great deal. Unfortunately, they don't serve pizza during the time we got there. Instead, we ordered their pasta, Nut Pesto (220 Php) which comes with your choice of topping: seafood, Hungarian sausage, and... another that I forget. For drinks, I ordered Green Tea (50 Php) for myself and Iced Tea (60 Php) for beloved.