A Vietnamese Culinary Experience... Not!

Last Sunday evening, we decided to use the voucher we had gotten from MetroDeal for A Vietnamese Culinary Experience: Delicious 4 Course Meal for 2 Persons at Ba Noi's for P445 instead of P1084.


I was really excited because I like Vietnamese food. And the excitement had built up because we had delayed having dinner there for several weeks.


Ba Noi's is a cozy and clean restaurant with authentic Vietnamese music in the background. It's a bit hard to locate but we did find it. 


When we entered, we were greeted by a waiter. When I told him that we were going to use our voucher but had failed to make reservations in advance, he clucked his toungue! He did, however, say that they could accommodate us. Things pretty much went downhill from there.


The deal promised a Vietnamese culinary experience of spring rolls, chicken noodle soups with mushrooms, stir-fried water spinach, generously sized chicken in caramel sauce, steamed rice, and two Vietnamese iced coffees. The spring rolls were beef spring rolls. The chicken noodle soups with mushrooms was nothing more than chicken sotanghon soup. The stir fried water spinach was actually ginisang kangkong. The generously sized chicken in caramel sauce filled up half the breakfast plate that it was served on and it didn't even taste good. At least the steamed rice was newly cooked. Instead of the Vietnamese iced coffees, we got two glasses of sugarcane juice. There was nothing uniquely Vietnamese about the meal.


Then, when I asked for the bill because I had ordered a Coke, it took almost 10 minutes for them to hand it to me. I had no intentions of leaving a tip, but my patience had run out so I didn't wait for my change nor my receipt.


Needless to say, this was a bad deal.

Jalapeño Cantina Mexicana review

I recently tried Jalapeño Cantina Mexicana at the Home Depot in Ortigas (along Julia Vargas Ave.) with my family. Now if you're craving for authentic Mexican food, I think this is the closest you are going to get here in the Manila area. Don't get me wrong, it's nothing compared to the hole in the wall joints California but it's definitely not your fast food "Mexican" food place.

We ordered four of their dishes and their strawberry iced tea.

Steak tacos and Pepper steak fajita

My boyfriend ordered the Steak Taco 2 pieces. Cliche, I know, but what is a Mexican food joint if they don't offer the taco. The menu described it as 6"tortilla, pepper steak, salsa verde, lettuce and cheese. That is what we got. When they took our order we were asked if we wanted a soft tortilla or if we wanted in those tortilla shells. Unable to make up our minds, they suggested we try one soft tortilla and one in a tortilla shell. Honestly, I don't know how it tasted because he devoured them both. I guess it was good because he can be a picky eater.

He also ordered the Pepper steak fajita. It was described as beef tenderloin strips, onions, cheese, bell pepper, sour cream, mexican salsa, mexi-rice, 3 pcs tortilla. Again, that's what we got, served on a hot plate. The tenderloin strips were soft, juicy and tastly. The rice well cooked. And the tortillas, yummy. My little one ate them up plain.

I ordered the Chicken and cheese quesadilla for the little one. It's 6" tortilla, grilled chicken fillet, cheese, sour cream, onions but I had them hold the onions because the little one doesn't onions. I know the 6" quesadilla was pretty big for a little person with only eight teeth, but I figured, we can always help him out or take it home. The little one liked it but he got bored (as little one year olds sometimes get when eating out). I liked dipping it in the sour cream. We ended up taking home half, and when I asked for sour cream, they generously packed some for me.

Lastly, I ordered a Solo plato for myself. It had chips and salsa, mexican beef soup, junior burritos, chili con carne, corn relish. The chips and salsa was nothing spectacular but the serving was pretty generous. I enjoyed it dipped in the sour cream. The beef soup tasted like chili con carne without the chili and with a lot of beans (I mean that in a good way). The cheese on top, was a tasty touch. I also added the corn relish to the beef soup. The chili con carne was spicy! I could see the red pepper bits in my little bowls. Since I had eaten half the quesadilla with the little one, I had the burrito doggy bagged.

Their strawberry iced tea was refreshing. It had a strong strawberry flavor. It was sweet but it didn't taste sugar-y. It calmed the little one down for a few minutes when I put it in his straw sippy cup. And it didn't keep him up. We're sure it wasn't spiked.

The next morning I heated up the quesadilla and the burrito for breakfast. The burrito had an ample serving of meat with the rice. It tasted fine considering it was cooked the evening before. That can only mean the food that was served was definitely freshly prepared.

Do you like Mexican food? Where you usually eat and what do you usually order? Have you tried Jalapeno Cantina Mexicana?

Wing Hub reviewed

I am not one to say no to an invitation offering chicken wings and beer. So, last night when my boyfriend suggested we try Wing Hub in Metrowalk, he didn't get any objections from me.

I think the joint just opened recently. It's really clean. Being a Sunday night, most of the patrons were with their family and kids. They have a bathroom and two immaculately white sinks (this is very convenient since they are, after all, a chicken wing joint). The staff was patient as we decided on what to order, and they stayed attentive during our one and a half hour stay.

We ordered three pieces of Buffalo wings, three more pieces of wings in their Taiwanese sauce and the Big Box Trio Burger.





The Buffalo wings tasted more like chicken with a slightly sweet, mildly spicy barbecue sauce. I was not impressed. The Taiwanese sauce was described to have a "sweet nutty flavor of peanut with ginger and honey". It was hard to imagine the taste and it's just as hard to describe but we found it pleasantly interesting. The Black Box Trio Burger was a serving of three mini burgers - one beef, one chicken and one lamb. Nothing significant or extraordinary.





The wings were huge. And we couldn't finish ours. We ended up having the last piece of each flavor doggy bagged. Their take out box is nice but I don't understand why they charged us (the customer) for the box. Almost made me not want to leave a tip.





I see our family coming back to Wing Hub. Mostly because it's convenient. It's one of the few well lit, family oriented restaurants in the area. Our family frequents Metrowalk - we buy our entertainment at the bazaars on the second floor, I enjoy dancing with my one year old to the tunes of the live music on Sundays (courtesy of a literally old school band), and we appreciate their free parking facility.

Have you tried Wing Hub? What did you order and how was it?

Handuraw Pizza in Eastwood

My family loves deals on group buying sites. And so far, we have not had any bad experiences. Yesterday, we tried our Handuraw Pizza voucher.

The restaurant is located on the third floor of Cyber and Fashion Mall. It's not really the high end part of Eastwood, but the place itself was clean. A bit small, but clean and well lit. The servers were polite and attentive.

For P325 we got:
Handuraw special pizza (12 in) P318
Carbonara P88
Potato jojos P60
Pitcher iced tea (I couldn't find the price)

I like their pizza! The thin crust was crunchy. It was topped with tomato slices, Italian sausage, ham, pepperoni, green bell peppers, black olives and mozzarella cheese.

 
The potato jojos were also good. The potatoes were sliced a bit thinly and coated in flour and spices so it was crispy but not like chips. It was served with a zesty dip but my one year old son and I preferred it plain.

Since we came in at around five, we weren't really that hungry yet, so we decided to have the carbonara doggy bagged. I was slightly disappointed when I ate the carbonara at home. The sauce was a bit bland and it wasn't enough for the pasta. It also had a flour-like taste. They did put some Parmesan though.

I would probably go back to Handuraw for their pizza and potato jojos... But not anytime soon.