St. Marc Cafe (Greenbelt)

Beloved and I had merienda at St. Marc Cafe. We've actually been to this place a couple of times on their Megamall branch. In addition, Beloved has already visited this particular branch by herself, so we were quite aware what this Japanese-style cafe offers. They don't really offer traditional Japanese dishes. They have pastries, desserts, coffee, and tea—usual cafe food and beverages. However, most if not all of them has that Japanese touch, such as incorporating matcha and having an inordinate variations of parfaits.

We come here not for their desserts nor for 90% of their pastries. We come here for the unique pastry they carry called the "Chococro". A portmanteau of chocolate and croissant, this confectionery essentially combines chocolate filling with flaky croissant. They are placed in self-service containers in front of their baking area, making them fresh most of the time. However, after our second or so time here, we always ask for them to be reheated even if it will take a bit more time.

Aside from the classic chocolate-filled Chococro (55 Php), which we ordered one piece of, they also offer other variations of the pastry, some only seasonally available. We basically got at least one of what was available that day. In addition to the classic one, we also got their Salted Milk Chococro (65 Php), a pair of their Chococro Marble (60 Php), and one White Chococro (65 Php). For our drinks, Beloved ordered their Iced Vietnamese Coffee (140 Php, large) and I got their Hot Matcha Latte (170 Php, large).

The Seafood Club by Red Crab (Greenbelt)

For my birthday, Beloved and I had dinner at The Seafood Club by Red Crab. If the obviousness doesn't strike, this seafood restaurant specializes in crabs. More appropriately, they specialize in alimango, since Red Crab is self-titled "alimango house". While the Tomas Morato branch is a place we often pass by, the particular branch we ate in is located at Greenbelt 3.

Aside from crabs, their menu consists of other seafood and some meat items. However, since we were here, we didn't bother with the meat. We ordered for ourselves their Crab Relleno Salad (295 Php) because it looked good in the picture. As for our main course, we got their King Seafood Platter (995 Php) which was apparently good for 2-3 people. They also have a slightly cheaper Queen-sized platter, but the waiter said it didn't have any crab in it. We also ordered garlic rice, but that's just so we don't tire of too much seafood.

Pepper Lunch (Greenbelt)

While at Greenbelt a couple of days ago, beloved and I found ourselves having a late lunch at Pepper Lunch. Apparently, this is the restaurant is what borne Sizzling Pepper Steak that we frequent a lot. According to beloved, this restaurant uses superior quality ingredients so I should expect premium prices. Similar to Sizzling Pepper Steak, this is a Japanese teppanyaki restaurant where they put meat on a hot plate and you do the "cooking" on your table. Anyway, because we were in the area and most of the restaurants were closed in the afternoon, we ended up going here.

Unlike Sizzling Pepper Steak, Pepper Lunch uses a fast-food style counter to take orders. While I expected a huge price difference, it wasn't really that much with their non-premium meat. Their Beef Pepper Rice, which is a common item on the two comparable restaurants, are priced equally. We didn't order that, though. Beloved got for herself their Curry Beef Pepper Rice (218 Php). As for me, I took one of the premium items seeing as I probably won't be going here again and wanted to make the best of it. I ordered their Shimofuri Pepper Steak (610 Php), which I don't have any idea what it means but I liked how the beef has a lot of marbling so I got that. I also got their Yakiniku Sauce (30 Php) for the heck of it. For our drinks, beloved got for herself their Orange Juice (40 Php) and I had Hot Green Tea (40 Php), both are given right away from the counter fast-food style.

Qoola (Greenbelt)

After dinner, beloved and I had dessert at Qoola. This was a yogurt store with a twist. If you've read my review on Red Mango, you'll know how beloved didn't like her first yogurt experience. Well, after quite some time, she's ready to try again. Our choices here was either this one or Red Mango. Because we already know the latter would turn out to be, we risked it with the new one.

I mentioned above that there's a twist in this store. It was that their yogurt was priced at 75 Php per 100 grams. That's pretty cheap considering how the usual yogurt was priced. However, you're the one to put how much yogurt you want. Basically, if you don't know how to estimate weight, you can be screwed out of your money. As an additional challenge, you can put as whatever and as many toppings as you want, which varies from fruits, to chocolate chips, to candies, to marshmallows, to cereals, to different syrups, and even to wafers. Their yogurt also comes in four varieties: original, green tea, wild berry, and white chocolate macadamia. All of this is self-service and you pay based on weight.

Mesa (Greenbelt)

Last night, beloved and I had dinner at Mesa. We were in Greenbelt, and had pretty much little choice as most of the restaurants there were out of our budget's reach. Not that Mesa is for the impoverished, no, but we could afford it. We also don't usually eat Filipino food, which is what Mesa specializes in. Filipino food for me is composed of either stews or not-so-tender fried/grilled meat or soupy veggies that I don't really fancy. Not that I don't eat them, but when given a choice, I don't pick them. Although we did have a choice today, beloved read a good review on this and also saw that they serve ostrich, so we went ahead.

As I've said, Mesa specializes in Filipino food. I guessed that their menu items are good for two to three people considering the prices and how that's usually the way Filipino restaurants are. As expected, it's filled with the usual Filipino favorites—stews like sinigang and kare-kare, sisig, grilled meat and seafood, et cetera. It's also pretty much a bar so they serve a lot of cocktails as well. Anyway, as I've mentioned above, beloved saw that they serve ostrich, so she got herself their Salpicao Ostrich (320 Php). I was torn between crispy pata and inihaw na liempo, but saw that their pata had a twist, so I ordered their Crispy Boneless Pata (440 Php). Even though they also serve different kinds of rice good for many, we just ordered ourselves a couple of cups of plain ones priced at 30 Php each. We also ordered their bottomless iced tea at 65 Php each for our drinks.

The drinks came first, but that's negligible as it's your usual instant one, nothing interesting there. We had to wait for quite some time before our order came, and they came in all at once.