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.

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).