Wee Nam Kee (Trinoma)

Beloved and I had dinner at Wee Nam Kee. This Singaporean-Chinese restaurant opened its doors at the topmost floor of Trinoma. Most Singaporean places we've been to specializes in Hainanese Chicken Rice. This place offers similar specialty as well as one dish I've wanted to try since learning about it. After learning the prices were fair, we took our seats.

The menu was actually not as varied as most Chinese places we've been to. Most of their menu is dedicated to the said Hainanese Chicken Rice dish. In fact, there were two kinds of said dish: one yellow and other white. According to the waiter, the yellow one used imported chicken from Vietnam raised specifically for this dish. As such, it's priced at a premium. We decided to get that—their Yellow Chicken (388 Php). Beloved also ordered their Chicken Rice (40 Php). As for the dish I mentioned earlier that I wanted to try, if you've been reading my blog, you know that a couple of blogs ago, I was quite interested in the Cereal Prawn (395 Php) dish from Wangfu. Since this place offered that, I ordered it. I also ordered their Chicken Noodle Soup (215 Php), because it looked nice in the menu and I didn't want to eat rice.

Yabu (SM North EDSA)

Because we were dissatisfied with Ginza Bairin, we found ourselves craving for great katsu. Since it has been tried and tested personally a couple of times, we know that Yabu serves just that. Since our last blog on this place more than a year ago, Yabu has expanded to many places, mirroring their success and perhaps starting a fad. One of their newest branches opened up in SM North EDSA, which is a more accessible place for us.

The events on this blog happened a few days after disaster struck in Eastern Visayas, and Yabu offered to donate all of their proceeds to the victims for one day only. Sadly for us, when Beloved got there on the day it was offered, the reservation list spanned until closing.

We insisted on going to Yabu, though. So the Friday following that, we went again. I was quite surprised that their prices have not changed by a lot, and it's now a better value since they offer unlimited miso soup in addition to the already unlimited rice and cabbage for no matter what set you order. Now, our dillema was I wanted black pig and Beloved wanted seafood curry. They did not have a seafood curry set or a separate order of curry sauce. We compromised by having Beloved order their Kurobuta Curry Set (595 Php) and I ordered their Seafood Katsu Set 2 (545 Php). We also had an extra à la carte order of Salmon Katsu (150 php). We were immediately given the ceremonial sesame seeds on a bowl with a pestle to mix our tonkatsu sauce in.

Ginza Bairin (UP Town Center)

Beloved and I had dinner at somewhat new UP Town Center a few weeks ago. UP Town Center is a bit of a special place for me, since here once stood the place where I spent most of my childhood. Of course, this blog isn't about the nostalgia but food. We learned that UP Town Center has a pretty good selection of restaurants that are somewhat foreign in the already food place saturated street in Katipunan Avenue. We actually wanted to go to this place somewhat earlier, during the time when it opened up. However, due to our busy schedule, we only had the opportunity to do so a couple of weeks ago.

Surprisingly, there were only a couple of places where we haven't been tried out yet. Of course, there were only a few places open up, so it was understandable. Among them is Ginza Bairin. This place reminded me of Yabu, with their specialty being the black pig or kurobuta katsu. I actually know of a couple more katsu places that offer said premium ingredient that opened up or would soon be opening up. This makes me a bit worried that prized black pig katsu might become the next (milk) tea.

Anyway, aside from the menu, the relatively expensive prices are also reminiscent of Yabu's. I guess it all boils down to quality. Beloved ordered their Seafood Set (525 Php) and I ordered their Kurobuta Rosu Set (595 Php). Beloved wanted katsu curry, so she ordered additional Curry Sauce (65 Php) because there wasn't a seafood curry set. Saving grace of their expensive katsu sets was the unlimited miso soup, cabbage, and rice that Yabu also offers. It also has the same ceremony where you make your own sauce by grinding fresh black and white sesame seeds.