BonChon Chicken (Regis Center, Katipunan)

Me and family had dinner at BonChon Chicken last night. I've only recently heard of this place, which apparently recently also sprung up everywhere for some reason. All of my loved ones who have tried this place say that it's fantastic. Mom had heard that their chicken is addictive, and they claim to be the best chicken in some parts of America. However, from what I've heard, this place is apparently a Korean fried chicken place. A pretty accessible one opened up in a somewhat newly-opened building at Katipunan Ave., and that was where we ate.

It was a fast food-style of ordering, with two counters and a couple of screens showing their menu. Their chicken come in bulks of different pieces, with the thighs, legs, and chops at a same price-per-piece and the wings at a cheaper one. They can also be mixed-and-matched. I do not recall the exact prices, though, since we got their set meals. Each comes with two of the larger cuts or three of the wings plus rice and drink. Also, you have a choice of spicy or sweet style of cooking. Some of their side dishes confirm the Korean side of things. They have Chapchae, Korean stir-fried noodles; Bulgogi, sweet barbecued beef, in burrito or shawarma form; and Kimchi, that extremely spicy Korean staple, in salad form. While they do have non-Korean exclusive sides, such as Fries and Calamari, we were about to find out that this was indeed a Korean fried chicken place.

Our orders were their BonChon Chicken meals. Mine were two chops for 145 Php, my brother got two thighs for 145 Php, and mom had three wings for 135 Php. We had half of them sweet and the other half spicy. We also got a couple of their sides: Calamares for 125 Php and Chapchae for 75 Php. For the prices, I thought they were pretty affordable...

Zensho (Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I finally had dinner at Zensho a couple of days ago. I say finally because this is one of the couple remaining Japanese restaurants we have yet to try at Tomas Morato. Why we put off until now was probably because we had no idea what their "A la carte Buffet" mean. And while the 595 Php tag is a bit enticing, we didn't know if this included their teppanyaki, which apparently what this resto is known for. After reading through the few reviews found on the web, we find out that this indeed include their teppanyaki, among other Japanese favorites. Since their sashimi was also included, it was a done deal.

We were given a slip of paper to write our orders down. It had a list of their selection for the A la carte Buffet (595 Php for dinner/495 Php for lunch). It was a pretty generous offering that it was impossible to try it out with just the two of us. Instead, we ticked what we wanted, hoping for the best, not knowing fully what to expect since it didn't have any visual aids and we were among the first ones to enter.

Sango (Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I had dinner last night at Sango. This newly-opened burger joint is located at our midway-from-our-homes turf, Tomas Morato. Specifically, it is found at the same building where Size Matters is. Like that place, this burger joint also has a twist to it, apparently a Japanese one. How that Japanese twist applies to burgers was for us to find out.

When we went inside we were greeted with huge posters of their food, one of which immediately caught my attention. However, I'll talk about their burgers first. Apparently, what makes them Japanese are the toppings and sauces that come with the burger—think Hapadog in burger form. However, they do also have their own Japanese hotdog sandwiches, and they also have, what caught my eye, rice burgers, similar to the defunct one they used to have in McDonald's. So, I got one of their rice burgers: the Yakiniku Rice Burger (295 Php). Beloved got one of their "normal" burgers: the Egg Teriyaki Burger (295 Php). See the numbers on the parenthesis? No, you're not seeing stuff—it's really that expensive. While they do have fries for their normal burgers and a choice of either fries or salad with their rice one, I still had my brows raised upon seeing the tag. We didn't stop our orders there, though. We ordered drinks consisting of Iced Milk Tea (80 Php) for Beloved and Green Tea Shake (90 Php) for me.