Seoul Garden (SM North EDSA)

A couple of days ago, beloved and I ate at Seoul Garden. This was one of the first restaurants to open during the opening of the brand new Annex of SM North EDSA. From it's name, it's safe to assume that it's Korean. What kind exactly, I wasn't too sure since every time we pass by, I see there's only a few people in to pique my interest. However, I notice there were plenty of dividers inside, so I couldn't be too sure. I grow curiouser each time we pass by, especially after our wonderful experience on YakiMIX and realizing that Seoul Garden was a do-it-yourself-barbecue-and-hotpot-buffet. The day before yesterday was our chance to try it out.

As I've said, this was a Korean buffet. They specialize in hot pot and barbecued items, although they also serve some bibimbap and other cooked Korean staples. Perhaps what was keeping me from being too enthusiastic (although still curious) on trying this place out was the fact that it eludes Korean just from its name alone. And, quite frankly, I'm not really fond of Korean, especially its spicy side. Anyway, this was an opportunity, so I said why not. They charge 585 Php for adults on weekends on lunch, which was the day and time we happen to eat there. We went in and they showed us our table. Each table had its own stove where you cook your food. They also asked us what soup base we would like for our hotpot. The choices were chicken soup, kimchi, spicy somethings, and Chinese herb. Because all the others sounded spicy, we picked the Chinese herb one. While waiting for our soup, we went to the buffet table to get our raw stuff.

My first impression on their available meat was disappointing. As I expected, everything was marinated in something spicy. They had kimchi beef, peppered chicken, spicy curried fish, spicy pork, et cetera. Luckily, they had pork belly, or, in my favorite words, plain bacon. They also had crab and shrimp balls, shrimp, and fish sticks for the hotpot. There's a lot of choices of vegetables as well. Since this was a hot pot, we got a very varied plate filled with meat, seafood, and balls, without any space for veggies, before going back to the table.

Bigoli (Trinoma)

Yesterday, beloved and I ate at Bigoli while doing my errands. It certainly wasn't the first time we went here. In fact, this is one of the most frequent places we eat at in Trinoma. Not that I fancy Italian food that much, which is what Bigoli specializes in. And even for an Italian place, it's not among my favorites. However, for the fact that they offer unlimited bread sticks and bottomless drinks for a very affordable price just makes it somewhat impossible to just shun this one away. Beloved also likes this place due to the fact that they serve cream dory.

Obviously beloved ordered Cream Dory with Italian Rice (130 Php). As for me, I wasn't really feeling for pasta, and I usually order their pesto just for their bread sticks. This time, I ordered their Bacon Stromboli (120 Php) because it's been a while since I had bacon and I was feeling bacon deprived. I also ordered a slice of their Shrimp Bianca Pizza (85 Php), which I always get after discovering it with whatever others I order. Of course, we also ordered their Bottomless Drinks (55 Php). No sharing!

fyi (Il Terrazzo, Tomas Morato)

After dinner, we had dessert at fyi. Yes, it's written in lowercase. It's a yogurt stall near Omakase. For long-term visitors of this blog, you'll know that beloved hates real yogurt. However, if you've read our experience at Qoola, you'll know that beloved loved the yogurt she had there. Perhaps because of this last experience, she actually wanted to try it out. Or maybe because I won't allow her to eat ice cream.

The place was pretty much similar to Red Mango, only orange. They have small and large cups and a decent selection of toppings. Beloved wanted to order a large cup for herself. After raising my eyebrows, she conceded to just the small cup (85 Php). She did, however, add granola toppings to her cup (15 Php) for a grand total of 100 Php.

Omakase - Revisited III (Il Terrazzo, Tomas Morato)

Last night, beloved and I ate at Omakase. It's been a while since we last ate here, and since it was a somewhat special day, we decided to celebrate by going there again. Also, we chose to go here instead of YakiMIX since beloved wasn't hungry enough for buffet. Because it was a Saturday, we expected there to be a queue, and, as expected, there was. It wasn't a long wait compared to the one we had to endure at YakiMIX, and since we are sure of the quality of the food, it didn't really bother us. We were sure to order some kind of maki here, as we have concluded in our two visits that this is indeed their specialty.

There's not much change in their place nor in their menu. Maybe their prices got a bit steeper, but I didn't notice. We wanted to try out something new, so we ordered their TOP Platter (645 Php). As per their maki platters, it consists of three different maki—Tiger Eye, Omakase, and Philadelphia—which, I'll expound on later. We also ordered cold noodles for ourselves, because it's also been a while since we last ate some. Beloved ordered the same one she had the last time, which was Hiyashi Udon (180 Php), and I ordered Cha Soba (180 Php). They had new flavors for their bottomless iced tea, and beloved got their Panama Orange one. I sticked to their classic lemon iced tea. Both drinks were priced at 60 Php.

Parvati (Trinoma)

Today, me and Inggo went to SM North and Trinoma for his errands. I've been wanting to go to this new dessert shop ever since I saw it but never had the chance and the reason to do so. (Plus he won't allow me to eat desserts.) We finally went here today because we were in need of change to go home.

Anyway, there are a lot of yummy desserts to choose from: cookies, food for the gods, pastillas, cakes, etc. I picked the Triple Decker Chocolate Cheesecake for take-out. It's a 4"x4" pretty box for 130pesos.