Wangfu Chinese Bistro (Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I had dinner at Wangfu Chinese Bistro weeks ago. This Chinese restaurant replaced (thankfully) Teriyaki Boy at the second floor of the building across McDonald's Tomas Morato. This is actually the second branch in the same street, the first being in Il Terazzo. Beloved had a chance to visit that place, and wasn't that pleased with the serving size considering the price. So I had a pretty good image that this place isn't your budget friendly Chinese place.

The menu isn't a purely Chinese list. Some of their items have obvious influence from other cultures. Also, I confirmed that this was indeed one of the pricier Chinese places we've visited. I guess the direct competition would be a place like Lugang Cafe. We ordered their Hongkong Beef Curry (368 Php), Chicken and Mushroom Clear Soup (228 Php), Hakaw (98 Php), and Seafood with Dried Scallop Fried Rice (248 Php). For our drinks, Beloved ordered their Teh Tarik (78 Php) and I ordered Calamansi Juice (78 Php).

Shi Lin (Lucky Chinatown Mall)

Foremost, I would like to apologize for the lack of entries for the past month. Beloved and I have been preoccupied and have been lacking funds as of late, mostly due to the release of the 6th Pokémon generation. We did manage to go to some places, but a couple of them is pending a revisit. This one, we probably won't visit again sometime soon so I decided to write about it.

Shi Lin is a Chinese restaurant located at the alfresco area of Lucky Chinatown Mall in Binondo. That particular day, we were visiting Binondo to shop for bargains. We were supposed to try out the "must-try" places. Sadly, they were full and we didn't want to wait. The other places were places we've been to before, are accessible from where we are, or just didn't match up with our tastes and budget that day, especially since we were in a frugal mood. Shi Lin was the only place that wasn't full and had stuff that we fancied at a somewhat reasonable price (although still not as cheap as we wanted), so we tried it out.

I found they had interesting dimsum. Although it's not as extensive as other Chinese restaurants, they were among the most unique. We ordered their Xiao Long Bao (155 Php), Shrimp and Pork Shao Mai (188 Php), and Mushroom and Vegetable Bun (125 Php) from their dimsum offerings. Since we were quite hungry and wanted something with soup and noodles, we ordered their Braised Beef Noodles (275 Php) which we decided to share. Finally, I asked for their a refillable pot of their Taiwan Phoenix Oolong Tea (40 Php) and Beloved asked for their Iced Taiwan Milk Tea (118 Php).

Gloria Maris (Gateway)

Beloved and I had dinner a couple of times at Gloria Maris. This Chinese seafood-specialty restaurant had a newly-opened (or maybe moved?) branch at the top floor of Gateway near where the cinemas are. Beloved usually associates Gloria Maris with expensive and classy, the former being the reason why we don't consider going here. The first time we went, they were still on soft opening. Although it still looked classy and had an expensive feel, after surveying the menu, we found out it was surprisingly not-as-expensive as Beloved expected. Not fancying anything in particular that night, we decided to try it out.

As with most Chinese restaurants, most of their stuff is good for sharing. We found out that they have a soft opening promo wherein if you order more than 500Php worth, you get a free order of Yang Chow Fried Rice. We made sure to hit the threshold by ordering their Vegetables in Oyster Sauce (198 Php) and Steamed Fish Fillet and Beancurd (268 Php) as our main dishes, Steamed Seafood Roll (99 Php) and Hakao (99 Php) from their dimsum choices, a couple of orders of Seafood Spinach Soup (88 Php), and an order of Butchi (88 Php) for dessert. I asked if their juices were fresh, and received an affirmation. I ordered their Calamansi Juice (55 Php) and Beloved asked for their Watermelon Shake (78 Php).

Yang Chow (Eton Centris, Quezon Avenue)

Beloved and I had dinner a couple of times at Eton Centris Walk's Yang Chow. If you know your basic food knowledge, you know that this is a Chinese place just from the name. Beloved has been here a couple of times before, but these were my first two times trying it out.

Our first visit greeted us with a full house, and we had to wait a couple of minutes for a table. Luckily, since there were just the two of us, we got seated before a big party that came before us. It's apparent, though, that their setup is your typical Chinese tea house meant for big Chinese families. Their menu consists of the usual and slightly unusual Chinese fare, conveniently printed on the paper placemats. It was actually a pretty difficult choice due to the huge list of dishes available and the somewhat lower price tags compared to the competition. We settled for the following: Hakaw (90% Shrimp) (75 Php), Shark's Fin Dumpling (65 Php), Sesame Fried Butchi (45 Php), Yang Chow Fried Rice (180 Php), Seafood Vegetable Soup (200 Php), Mixed Seafood with Beancurd in Clay Pot (200 Php), and Abalone Mushroom with Broccoli (220 Php). Beloved also ordered their Chinese Milk Tea (60 Php), and I got their Chinese Lemon Tea (70 Php), which was essentially iced tea.

Hap Chan (Ali Mall, Cubao)

Beloved and I ate at Hap Chan a couple of times the past few weeks. Yep, you heard that right; this one took a while in the making. Why do it like this? Well, it's sort of an experiment. Basically all of our reviews have been mostly first impressions. While important, I think the most important part is consistency, and visiting again would affirm that. Also, this gives a chance to those places I didn't enjoy the first time around because of wrong order choices or irresponsible servers or unfortunate mishaps et cetera. So, unless we spent more than reasonable, or the place is very special, expect two visits from future reviews.

Anyway, back to the current one. Hap Chan is a Chinese restaurant—one of the more popular ones, in fact. To some people I know, Hap Chan is Chinese food. I've been to this place, although a different branch, with family and friends for quite a few times before. However, I was a bit surprised that Beloved never had the chance to visit. Since I recall no bad experiences, it was a pretty safe guinea pig for this two-fold review.

I also recall that most of their menu items serves two or more, typical for any Chinese restaurant-slash-tea house. Their prices are also very competitive and quite affordable, if you consider the serving size. During our first visit, I ordered their Lobster Ball Mami (160 Php). Beloved got their Hap Chan Special Hotpot (300 Php) and rice (30 Php) to go with it. We also ordered my favorite dimsum, Hakaw (95 Php) and my favorite Chinese dessert, Buchi (50 Php). We also got special drinks—Hot Lemon Tea (60 Php) for me and Milk Tea (60 Php) for Beloved, even though they already serve house tea, which I expect from any good Chinese tea house.