Katsu Sora (Trinoma)

Beloved and I had dinner at Katsu Sora. This katsu place is located right beside Hokkaido Ramen Santouka, and I believe they have the same owner or franchisee, at Trinoma's alfresco area. This place is a direct competition of Yabu, one of our favorite food places, specializing it katsu. But does it offer any competition at all?

One big thing we noticed is that they are also a buffet. No, they don't offer unlimited katsu. Instead, they have a salad, soup, and rice buffet with their sets. The last one we can forgo, but Beloved and I were quite piqued due to the first two. After investigating the menu, we also learned that while they offer the sought-after kurobuta, or Japanese black pig, they offer an even more premium Iberico, which, I believe, is also black pig, but from Spain.

Because of that, I opted to try out one of their most expensive items in the menu, the Iberico Pork Set (655 Php). Beloved ordered their Menchi Katsu Curry Set (350 Php), which offers a sampling of all of the different kinds of pork they offer (Iberico, Kurobuta, Shimofuri, and Sakura). I also ordered their Calamansi Sprite (70 Php), because I like Calamansi and I like sprite, but I've never thought of combining them in one drink.

Nanbantei (Bonifacio High Street)

Beloved and I had dinner at Nanbantei. This Japanese restaurant is located at Bonifacio High Street, a place we rarely go to. According to Beloved, this is not the only branch of this place, and her uncle frequents the same restaurant's Greenbelt branch, which is another place we rarely go to. This place specializes in yakiniku, or Japanese barbecue. What differs from the norm is that this place isn't a buffet like YakiMIX or Sambo Kojin, nor is it a barbecue place where you grill stuff on your table. Instead, it's just your typical sit-down restaurant specializing in yakiniku.

Most of their menu consists of these yakiniku offerings, basically meat or veggies on stick, grilled Japanese-style, each having two pieces per order. However, they also serve platters which are collections of their yakiniku offerings for a cheaper overall cost. We ordered their Best Sellers Platter (985 Php). We also ordered two different kinds of their rice offerings. Beloved got their Yakimeshi or Japanese Fried Rice (110 Php) and I got their Shiitake Rice (100 Php) because it sounded interesting. Because they also had a promo on their cocktails, taking 50% off the price, we got those as our drinks: Japanese Mojito (175 Php normally) for me and Hibiscus Mojito (150 Php normally) for Beloved.

Hokkaido Ramen Santouka (Trinoma)

Another ramen place? Sure, why not. Beloved and I had dinner a couple of times at Hokkaido Ramen Santouka at Trinoma. This relatively new ramen place opened its doors at Trinoma's fourth floor alfresco area, replacing our old tambayan Timezone Arena. Good old days.

Anyway, our first time was a couple of weeks ago with friends. Since that was a bit unplanned in Beloved and my part, we weren't really sure what to order there. Luckily, our friends have been here a couple of times and, to my surprise, they recommended not their ramen, but their set meals. They actually have quite a few, pairing up ramen with salad, dessert, and another main dish. Most of their stuff in the menu were the usual Japanese fair, such as tonkatsu, Japanese curry, and ebi fry. However, I found one item unique, which was why I went for that. I ordered their Set J (470 Php) with shoyu broth. Beloved ordered their Set G (470 Php) and added 20 Php for their kara-miso broth. We also ordered their Kurobuta Gyoza (240 Php) because the sets didn't look very filling for us (very big disclaimer for normal eaters here).

Hot Star Large Fried Chicken (near Katipunan)

Beloved and I had afterbrunch, or perhaps more of a brinner (dinner as breakfast, coined by me), at Hot Star's somewhat newly-opened Katipunan Branch. It's not actually at Katipunan itself, but on one of the side roads, F. dela Rosa to be precise. From the title, you can probably assume what it serves: Large Fried Chicken.

Now, I'm not virgin to this place. Our office had lunch here the day before, and I've seen how Large their Fried Chicken was. I didn't order their chicken and rice combo, however, and instead opted for their chicken sandwich. While hefty, it wasn't as huge as the chicken that came with their rice meals.

Anyway, they offer four kinds of "Large Fried" meals, named simply "HS" followed by a number. Beloved ordered their HS1 which was their Original Fried Chicken for 110 Php. To this she added 35 Php for rice and drinks and additional 10 Php to upsize said drink. I ordered their HS4 which was their Large Crispy Fish, also for 110 Php. Instead of adding rice and drinks to mine, I also ordered their French Fries (60 Php) and had their Combination Ice Crush (45 Php) for drinks.

Ramen Nagi (SM North EDSA)

Beloved and I had dinner at Ramen Nagi for the last two Fridays. This ramen place is apparently the most-reviewed so far this year. We never had the chance to visit it because of work even though a somewhat accessible one opened shop at SM North EDSA. We only had a chance recently because, for some reason, both of our Fridays became a bit more schedule-friendly.

But that's aside the point. The SM North EDSA branch of this apparently world-famous ramen place is located at the first floor of the City Center, a.k.a. "Main". Since it's very well reviewed (although a bit mixed), we were somewhat prepared on their specialties. Apparently, there are four kinds of broth, easily distinguished by their color. They have brown, red, black, and green-colored broth all named as "kings". Yes, we were weirded out at first with the latter two. We decided to spend two weeks to try out all the kinds of broth.

While there was a slight queue (not as terrible-slash-amazing as Ippudo's), the turnover was very quick. We discover that, similar to most ramen places, seating was communal. They also have a now familiar ordering process where they have the tickets left blank and you fill in your order. This showed how pricey their ramen were. Anyway ordered the Butao King (390 Php) for me (the brown one). My customizations were normal richness, normal special sauce, and light garlic for soup base; belly for pork, and green onions for vegetables as toppings; just one level of spiciness (you can go up to 10) which, according to the instructions, is the suggested standard; and hard noodles. I also added tamago (50 Php), pork shoulder (100 Php), and extra noodles (70 Php).

Beloved ordered the Red King (410 Php), shoulder and green onions as toppings, and 7 levels of spiciness and forgetting the rest of the details. She also added tamago (50 Php) to hers.