Restaurant Favorite: Pho Hoa

I love Pho Hoa, its chicken dishes, marinated prawns, spring rolls, tenderloin beef, crepe, and their sweet vinegar dip. Now, let me share with you my love affair with this restaurant.

Vietnamese food? Why?

That was my first reaction when my mom told me to try this restaurant. I was quite iffy since I have never tried Vietnamese food… ever (before).

I then read through the menu and I was surprised that not everything sounded so foreign to me. They have grilled meat, several chicken dishes, soup, salad, and even desserts such as crepes. I remember that I was fond of chicken when I was young so I ordered Grilled Chicken with Fried Spring Rolls (which I thought was just like your ordinary lumpia). I was surprised though that they served it with vinegar… sweet vinegar. And that was the start of our wonderful love story.

Years later, I have tried several other [non-spicy] dishes and I would say that I’d still go back for more. My must-orders though are the Fried Rice Paper Roll with Pork and Vermicelli (PHP127) and the Tenderloin Beef with Rice (PHP295). And that was what my mom brought home for me for dinner one happy Tuesday night.  

Fried Spring Rolls freshly removed from the take-out container

The Fried Spring Rolls were still the crispy and scrumptious rolls I remember. You could taste the pork in every bite. It wasn’t as oily as well. It was not the type that will make your lips shine and blind people when the light hits it. Plus dipping it in the sweet vinegar brought out the savory flavors of the stuffing of the roll.

Celebrating weekend freedom with Fredom Fries

To celebrate Candy bagging the Golden Rocket Awards, the publishers behind the great teen magazine organized a Publishers’ Lunch at Army Navy.

It was my first time in Army Navy and the first thing I noticed there was the interior. It was pretty cute. It has the camp feel—stylized camp feel.

The name of the restaurant was painted on the cemented walls. There was also the cute Oscar-the-Grouch trash bin. The counter was also like the ones you’ll see in some camps serving potatoes and everything else mashed.

When we reached our tables, there were already several orders of Freedom Fries (PHP60) waiting to be eaten. My boss told me that Army Navy’s burritos and Fearless Fried Chicken (FFC?) are good but I got curious with the soft tacos and my boss never tried it before (I thought that at least I could tell her what it tasted like). I then ordered Soft Taco with Chicken filling (PHP125) and a regular Libertea, Army Navy’s brewed iced tea (PHP45).



The Freedom Fries was one addicting snack. The flavorful, thinly sliced long fries were not very oily and it was not salty at all. Zesty as the menu described it, it was something I will definitely order when I visit again.

 After finishing all our Freedom Fries, our orders arrived. My order has a very strong smell. Very oniony—a scent I do not like at all. I had to remove most of the onions to get a taste of the other ingredients such as—chicken.

The lime and the salsa didn’t play much of a role. It was like onion soft taco. K

At least the popular Libertea was good. It was definitely LEMON ICED TEA.

Next time, I'll stick to burrito.

Army Navy Burger + Burrito is located at the GF Strata 2000 Bldg., F. Ortigas Jr. Road, Ortigas Center, Pasig City.

A Singaporean Lunch for 0.5

My colleagues and I decided to go out for lunch and meet up with a fellow publisher we miss dearly.

Since we only have a few hours to spare, we went to SM Megamall for lunch which (luckily) is about 10 minutes away from our workplace. 

We went straight to Orchard Road since we targeted to have desserts at Blenz. Always the curious George, I ordered something I haven’t tried yet. Soon, I uttered “Black Pepper Chicken, and one Chin Chow.” Well, it looked appetizing.

  

The service was fast. I got my order in less than 10 minutes (it somehow reminded me of how much I wanted Pizza Hut to fail their 10 minute challenge so that I could get my meal for free).

Now to describe my meal…

Chin Chow

My drink, Chin Chow (PHP65), was served right after paying for my meal (it was pay as you order type of restaurant) so I took a sip while waiting for my lunch. Well… it was just like the typical black gulaman only the gelatin/jelly was shredded thus the slim straw. It was also extremely sweet. I thought that the ratio of the syrup and water was 2:1. It was served lukewarm as well which I did not like… at all.

Black Pepper Chicken

Now for the main dish—Black Pepper Chicken (PHP175). It was… okay. I find it overpriced since the serving was too small, even for a toddler (well, a toddler with a healthy appetite). There were too much pepper (doi! It was a given but it was way too much) and the chicken cuts were more of nibble size than bite size. There were about the same number of green pepper slices and chicken cuts wherein I believe that the green pepper should have been a garnish. Oh well.

I was a bit envious of my colleagues’ orders since two of them ordered Hainanese Chicken and the cut was quite big. I didn’t order that since I just had Hainanese Chicken two days ago. 

The tapioca dessert seems promising though. Perhaps on my next visit, I will stick to dumplings and dessert. But I’ll probably skip Chin Chow and stick to water. 

Orchard Road is located at 2nd Level, Bridgeway, SM Megamall, EDSA corner Julia Vargas Ave. Mandaluyong City.