First Bite: Maisen BGC

I was so excited when I found out that my good friend F accepted a job offer near my office. I finally have someone to drag with me for random cravings or sudden desire to burn some cash. (And by cash, I mean less than PHP500.) After two weeks of planning, we finally decided to have lunch one Friday at the newly opened Maisen branch at Shangri-La, Fort.

Hello, Maisen!

I headed straight to the new Japanese restaurant in town as I was expecting a long queue. (Maisen had an opening promo where they offered their 80g katsu for less than PHP100 for its first two days.) Luckily, there were a few seats by the bar so I managed to skip the queue and got a seat for me and my friend. 

As I waited for F, I read the menu highlighting Maisen’s new offerings and was curious with Cold Udon (PHP175). After a few more minutes, I decided to order it and paired it with a glass of Calamansi with Grenadine Iced Tea (PHP100, refillable).

Soon, F arrived and ordered a katsu set which I wasn’t able to take note of as I was too hungry as I skipped breakfast. 

While waiting for our orders, I took a peek of the main dining area of Maisen and was surprised that it was pretty small. I think a max of 40 diners will fit the air conditioned area. 

Love at First Bite: Nadai Fujisoba

Random date nights (on weeknights) are the best. It’s a nice break from work and preparing dinner at home. R and I hardly have those lately so it was refreshing when he suggested that we eat out last week. And it was perfect as I just checked a list of restaurants I wanted to visit along high street. One of the restaurants I was eying was…

Nadai Fujisoba.

The cute soba and udon restaurant was half full when we arrived. Since R was hungry, we hurriedly ordered O-Ebi Ten Mori Soba (PHP260) and Niku Fuji Soba (PHP260). We also got Sobacha Pudding (PHP80) which the server initially described to be made of soba but it was tea pudding.

Service was very quick as our food was served within the 5 minute mark. I was impressed.

R’s cold noodles was served with two pieces of tempura and a cup of some sort of watered down soup which the server suggested to be mixed with the remaining dipping sauce and drink it like tea. It was said to help blood circulation. Not sure if it’s true but… okay!

Restaurant Discovery: Oudon

Every time someone tells me that a restaurant serves good food, I get curious. (And more often than not, I get too curious that I pester some friends to try it with me.) Luckily though, it wasn’t hard to convince my colleagues to try new restaurants and one Thursday afternoon, we decided to go to…

Oudon.

Oudon is a new Japanese restaurant at The Forum at Fort Bonifacio. The place, adorned with sakura, had a charming and welcoming vibe.

The dishes though are pricey as most are around almost PHP400 while the really good ones are at PHP700 to PHP800. And since I was feeling stingy that day, I opted to get Zaru Oudon with Tori Gomoku Gohan (PHP320) and Hiyayakko (PHP160).

After 10 minutes, our orders were served.

I was surprised with the size of my bowl of noodles. It was big enough for me to wash my tops! (I was a bit worried with it at first because the menu shows a small serving of noodles. But I found out that they give one free refill of noodles so I gave in.)

Restaurant Love: Omakase

I absolutely love Japanese food. I cannot count how many times I mentioned that in my blog but… who cares? I love Japanese food. It never fails to make me smile (especially with a plate of salmon sashimi on the table). And those random Japanese dinner dates are loooooove~~~ <3

Hello, Omakase!

It has been a long time since I last visited Omakase. I still remember the maki platter and the super friendly prices. I think I went crazy over the platters.

This time, R ordered Spicy Tuna Salad (PHP250), Soft Shell Crab Tempura (PHP550) and Dynamite Roll (PHP250) while I got Salmon Sashimi (PHP240) and Zaru Soba (PHP195). I wanted to order one more dish but R said that I always waste food. TT_TT

After a short wait, the spicy tuna salad arrived.

It wasn’t really that spicy. I loved the salad dressing on the cubes of tuna and the crunch of the tempura crumbs.

The salmon sashimi was pretty okay too. Not the best as it was not the type that melts in your mouth (or so how my former officemate calls it—party in the mouth) but it was still delightful.

Soon, the soft shell crab tempura arrived and R noticed that the serving size seemed to be smaller than before. (Or that the serving size is still the same but is now more expensive.) It’s best to ask for an additional sauce when you order this.  

Colleagues’ Choice: Watami

It’s always fun to bond with colleagues outside the office. You get to know them better and you get to freely talk about other things without feeling guilty of slacking off. And since one of my officemates will be leaving soon, we decided to have a team dinner. After a few suggestions here and there, we decided to dine at Watami.

Hello, Watami.

I was super hungry when I got there with one of my officemates who happen to live in the same area. Due to lack of self control, I ordered right away. I went with: Watami Salad (PH255 for half), Salmon Irodori (PHP195), Cold Soba (PHP225) and Shochu (PHP150).

The Shochu arrived first and it looked like water. Upon sniffing, I could definitely tell that it’s alcohol. It was pretty strong too.

The Watami Salad and Salmon Irodori were served next.

I noticed that the salad’s meant for sharing as it was served with tongs but… no. *sharing no likey* (Kidding! But I really didn’t share that night.)

Long Time No Taste: Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

I was so proud of my self control last week as after yoga, I just had salad for lunch and a light dinner after. I couldn’t really say the same is true last weekend for I ate… a lot. Oh well.

Hello again, Ikkoryu Fukuoka.

It has been a long while. The last time I visited Ikkoryu Fukuoka was during Black Day (April 14) with my 14^th of the month date J (of T3). This time around, I visited the Rockwell branch with another J, the architect.

I was quite hesitant to order as I know that the salt content of ramen is pretty much… wild! So to compromise, I started to look at the salad options. I was about to order the cold noodles when the server recommended their limited edition Ebi Hanadango Tonkotsu (PHP400), I gave in. (Darn you, “limited edition”!) I also ordered Kurogoma Ice Cream (PHP100) to somehow cleanse the palate.

Ramen of the South: Ramen Yushoken

It has been quite a while since I last did a food trip. I have been super busy lately that I had no time to explore and visit new places. (Goodbye food trip Saturdays! I miss you so much!) But God has been so good to me. On our way to visit my all-time favorite grandma, something caught my eye. MOLITO. It’s the foodie hotspot Molito! As soon as I posted it on Facebook, I got some really good foodie advice.

Right after a quick trip to the Alabang bazaar, we visited our first Molito stop, Ramen Yushoken.

I’ve actually heard of Ramen Yushoken from several people when I tell them that I’m scheduling a south food trip. But it always gets cancelled or end after one stop.  Anyway…

The place is quite small but could easily sit around 25-30 people. I heard that there is always a long wait during dinner. Good thing we came in around 4:30 p.m..

We ordered three ramen bowls: Shoyu Ramen (PHP350), Miso Ramen (PHP380) and Hiyashi Chuka (PHP370). We also ordered two plates of Gyoza (PHP150).

Not Just A Bakeshop: Jipan

Oh soft croissant bread stuffed with gooey chocolate filling… where did you go? That bread was the reason why I used to frequent JiPan, a Japanese inspired bread shop located at Glorietta and Megamall. When they stopped selling the bread I love the most, I was heartbroken and decided to go somewhere else till one night, we were reunited.

I never noticed that JiPan also offers savory dishes aside from bread. They have breakfast to dinner meals that are reasonably priced and some of them sound tempting. So, one night, during our last minute shopping spree, we decided to have dinner there.

 

My sister was not in the mood to eat dinner so she just ordered Corn Soup (PHP130) while my mom decided to go for the Chicken Teriyaki Set (PHP230) while I went for the Seafood Teppanyaki (PHP240) and Zaru Soba (PHP180). I also ordered Papaya Shake (just to avoid possible indigestion).