Back to Manila, Back to Basics at Burger King BGC

B is for Burger King at BGC

          It's official! I am now starting my local working life in a global company at the beautiful Bonifacio Global City in Taguig City, Manila.  I went to Burger King yesterday to grab a quick lunch and forgive me as what I have on the photos here are already half-eaten by this starving blogger, nevertheless let's start the ball rolling for Burger King BGC's food review. Here we go:

Cheeseburger: BK's cheeseburger still tastes like the classic all-time-favorite that I have been eating in the Americas ( most especially in Costa Rica). Good news is that there is consistency in its taste. That means what cheeseburger you will taste in the U.S. or Central America and in the Philippines ( specifically at BGC) are all the same. Yeah! I was expecting and craving for this taste and I just got what I was asking for in my mind. Bonus point that it was served fresh from the kitchen, hot and palatable, the same old BK cheeseburger I so loved many years ago when I was a growing adolescent in the Philippines. Because of its consistent taste and respectful hot and fresh from the grill serving of food, I will give it a whopping five (5) stars! Yuhoooo!

French fries: You will get the usual french fries that you will normally have at McDonald´s or Jollibee, plump and cruchy on the outside and chewy potato inside at its best. No frills, it's french fries, and that's what you get. I am giving the fries that were served to me at BK BGC four (4) stars.

Iced Tea: You'll get a regular iced tea just enough to quench your thirst during a hot summer lunch. I'll give BK  BGC's iced tea  three (3) stars.

Strawberry sundae: The vanilla base of their ice cream needs improvement in terms of texture, needs to be creamier and smoother to match with the vanilla based ice cream of its competitors ( such as McDonald's and Jollibee). BK BGC's starwberry sundae  is another 3 (three) stars for me.

          I am generally happy with my first dine-in experience I had at Burger King, Bonifacio Global City right after ten years of not being able to taste it here in my beloved country. The waiting time for food serving was not long, the crews were courteous and for only Php125 you will get your meal hot, fresh and delectable! That's why I am giving Burger King a "B" and I will definitely come back for another lunch, or two, or three... I don't know...let's see:-)

Pancake House Almost Made It If Not For The Last Touchpoint

Pancake House SM Southmall: To Eat or Not to Eat Again?

          I took out my two mamas out for dinner and we chose Pancake House at SM Southmall during the second day of March' 3-Day Sale. The first thing I have noticed was the inviting look of the inside as I could see there were still space to conveniently accommodate the two seniors I was with, so we got in and ordered our meals.

          At first we were welcomed by the crew named "Cielo," a very bright and attentive lady who listened well and recapped to us our order. The supervisor (I forgot his name) also checked us for other needs and I felt that was a good intro, so I interestingly waited for the taste-testing of the food they were going to serve us that night. I ordered for "hot pot roast beef" meal and my mum had "spaghetti club special" and Oche had her "roast beef with rice and salad." 

         Now it's feedback time, and as usual, I will only say my piece about the food I have ordered so here we go:

Roast Beef : It was thinly and nicely cut into easy-to-eat bits and topped with appetizing mushroom sauce with thinly-sliced mushrooms too. The beef was tender and fairly chewable and it was a perfect match for an-inch-sized width of a square buttered bread. My mum got to taste it too and we both agreed it deserves our four and a half  (4.5) stars!  Whoa! When I come back, I will order this again.

Mashed Potato:  A little mashed potato as a side dish makes it an ooh so perfect dinner that filled my starving tummy with gratitude. The texture and taste of this mashed potato is close to perfect, I would also give it my four and a half star-rating.

Corn and Carrots: There was a very small portion of corn and carrots that I liked with my hot pot roast beef. The corn was good while the carrots had an over-powering after taste. This one is 2 stars.

Fresh Lettuce: As a side dish, it adds nice color to the meal, the lettuce was not bad. It was still green, fresh and crispy, yet I observed the brownish part at the end of the stems, so there is a point-deduction for that hasty preparation. The vinaigrette dressing was also nothing to rave about. It lacked the ooomph of a nice vinaigrette so I preferred to consume the lettuce salad as is.

Lemon Iced Tea: Since this is just a freebie that goes with the order of my mum's spaghetti club special, I was already expecting that it will just be an ordinary iced tea to quench your thirst. And it was. Pancake House' Iced Tea, 2.5 stars.

I was already almost satisfied with our Pancake House dinner but the last touch point of paying the bills and waiting for my change has been a very long waiting game. Would you believe it took them almost 45 minutes just to give me the change? Aha! So all the good things that were built during the first interaction points suddenly crumbled. The result? I am giving our visit to Pancake House SM Southmall,  two points lesser from the overall 3 stars, it had gone down to a lonely, crying 1 star now to end this. Hopefully Pancake House Southmall branch gets to improve on their billing time next time (if there would ever be.....)

It's Greenwich Time

Our Greenwich Experience: So This is Greenwich Time?

     

          Last night I went to see the movie "Beauty and the Beast" with my two boys at SM cinema. We went to dine in first before we hit the last full showing of the beautiful film.

          

          We went to Shakey's Pizza first but we were told we'd be third on the wait list so we decided to opt for Greenwich as there were still vacant tables. We were greeted by the crew and proceeded to order our dinner at the counter. My son Richard decided to use his "Happy Plus Card" but unfortunately when topping it up with cash, we were told by the cashier that their system was offline.

Then we ordered what we were going to have for our meal.

       I ordered their "overload super meal" composed of a personal Hawaiian pizza, two pieces of chicken wings and lasagna, in addition I had strawberry slush for my drinks. Note that I will only rate the food that I have ordered and tasted so let us continue the story.

          We were not told by anyone at Greenwich that the usual waiting time to receive our orders would be that long, and yes we waited half-an-hour before our meals were served. So starving and disappointed, we hurriedly ate our food to catch our 8 PM "Beauty and the Beast Movie" schedule. Here is my feedback:

Hawaiian Pizza: It was still served fresh from the oven and in fairness it was good. I was able to taste the old-time tested Hawaiian pizza flavor and the mozzarella cheese that was put was just the right amount, The ham and pineapple chinks were also okay and the pizza as a whole was the real taste of Greenwich pizza I expected. Rating? 3 stars out of 5. It was good but was not the best.

Chicken wings: I was given very tiny portions of chicken wings, there were 2 pieces and the other piece was the cut of what was really one wing. For a small person like me though I can forgive that, but definitely for bigger guys, serving them these 2 pieces of small wings would be a joke. The taste was not that bad though, it was freshly-cooked (yet not that crunchy) and the spiciness was just very mild. Score? Three stars for the wacky wings!

Lasagna: Mine was served cold already and it was not the taste of Greenwich lasagna that I have tasted twenty years ago (that I liked so much and I was craving for, the reason that I chose to dine at Greenwich). The pasta was soggy and the sauce was bland and it was not cheesy. I ended up asking the waiter to re-heat and give it a second try, but still it did not pass my taste so I asked the crew to take it away for my dog, Terka. Rating? A sad and lonely 1 star for the lasagna. I will not order it again, I promise.

Strawberry Slush: It was a concentrated strawberry flavored drink blended with crushed ice and I must admit the flavoring was good enough to make me a little bit happy with my drink. It tasted a little sweet but that's how I like my strawberry drink after all. Score? 3 stars

          A lot of room for improvement Greenwich SM Southmall! You knew that there would be a grand sale that day, you should have prepared your branch for the outpouring of customers. My last words? Thirty minutes is a loooonngg wait for our meals to be served and all we got were mediocre servings, service and taste.

          

My Pinay Craving Led Me to Max's

Mediocre Max Soothed My Hunger Pangs

          My feet took me to Max's Restaurant at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) for lunch today. My hunger pangs were asking for something to really satisfy my almost shaking body cells as the clock was striking near 12 noon and I got to grab a meal to nourish my drained energy. Today I wanted a balanced meal ( combination of meat and veggies) at a reasonable price. 

          I was greeted by Haya, the waitress who's going to serve me. She was friendly but a little slow. I chose the fried chicken and fresh lumpiang ubod meal promo of Max's Restaurant and ordered a refillable sago't gulaman for my drinks. My verdict as follows:

Fried Chicken: They gave me a small portion of chicken thigh and a cup of steamed rice. The chicken tasted okay, it was just marinated right and I was able to catch that Max's fried chicken taste in that small portion of the chicken. The house ketchup this time was not as nice as it was when they still had Jufran ketchup. Now it is sweeter and thicker. I will rate my Max fried chicken 3 stars and 3.5 stars with the house ketchup.

Fresh Lumpiang Ubod: This is their fresh spring roll served with a thick, sweet sauce with ground peanut on top. The lumpia wrapper that they used was very good, it was soft and  fresh, just blending nicely with the vegetables  and you get the nice, old taste of lumpiang ubod in sauce that you would be expecting. I will give their lumpiang ubod 4 stars for this ( if it were not for the very sticky sauce, this could have been five stars!)

Sago't Gulaman: A really refreshing sweet gulaman drink to satisfy my shaky body. It quenched my thirst and the coldness was just right. Nothing really fancy as the taste is very simple and traditionally the sago't gulaman I have known since young. Rating? 3.5 stars!

Wait! Did Haya ask me to order their "bottomless" sago't gulaman? I think so, yet when I asked one of the waiters to refill he did not do it and I felt that he was elusive. Hmmmm... well, I asked the other waitress (Hello Haya, where are you? I thought you said you will be my server for the day?), she refilled my glass fast.

All for the price of Php 380+ it was not bad, but given a choice, I would choose to spend my Php385 somewhere that would make me more satisfied and happier.  Where could it be? I am still looking for the candidate restaurants/ food establishments to win the spot.

'Till next eating time!

Still Yummy Through The Years!

Don Henrico's Pizza:  Returning to One of My Favorite Pizza Restaurants

          Last weekend I excitedly revisited Don Henrico's located on the second level of Filinvest, Alabang. It has been one of my favorite pizza restaurants dating back some twenty years ago. This time I was with my son Richard Edward to experience the taste of their buffalo chicken I have so missed for a very long time. Lo and behold, after so many years, getting back at the doorstep of one of the pizza restaurants I so admired, here is my new take on my old-time favorite recipe at Don Henrico's:

Pizza: We had the Italian Pizza  with pepperoni, sausages, peppers, onions and it was a mouth-watering feast of the pizza I have always thought of and loved. The crust was chewy, the pizza sauce was tomato based and the toppings were all superb. I'll still give Don Henrico's pizza a two-thumbs up until now. Score: 5 stars!

Buffalo Wings: After a looong time of not tasting the buffalo wings that I was setting as a standard for all the subsequent buffalo wings I would be tasting, I was surprised that this time, Don Henrico's buffalo wings were no longer jaw-dropping for me. Maybe I have already outgrown the what was so oh oh so yummy buffalo wings I used to like before or maybe it was the taste itself (or recipe) that have changed. It was too sweet for my taste today and I was looking to sense that little tangy spice in the sweet blend. However, the creamy dip is still the same dip to die for. It was not not that great 'though it was an eye-opener of the truth that most of the times things change after a long time. Anyway, for all its worth, I still would give 4 stars to my all-time favorite, Don Henrico's buffalo wings.

Iced Lemon Tea: Some things never change and it goes true with the one of the best iced lemon tea blend in town, that's the signature taste of Don Henrico's iced tea. It was oh-so refreshing with the right blend of sweetness, lemony and a little bittery taste of fresh tea. This is definetely one of the best refreshing drink to bet with our pizza. Rating? 5 stars.

I came in and got out of Don Henrico's restaurant with a big smile on my face, thinking that I will come back again very soon!

Mahal si Kuya!

March to Kuya J's (SM Southmall)

     

          My first experience of Kuya J  Restaurant at SM Southmall was disappointing:-( The waiters looked lost, slow and kept me waiting a long time before they served me the menu, that looks like an entertainment magazine with Philippine actor, Jericho Rosales on its cover). 

          The menu list seems interesting, it gives an impression of how Kuya J (Jericho R's) Filipino taste is like in what looks like a mix of simple all-time favorite Pinoy dish with (maybe) how Kuya J eats each version.

          I went alone after a long trip from Makati at around past 1 PM so you can  imagine how hungry I was and I wanted my food served fast and of course delicious. I ordered chicken BBQ rice and "mangga tuna salad" and ripe mango shake. Below is my feedback:

1. Chicken BBQ: The taste is mediocre, there's nothing really special with the way the marinated chicken turned out to be. It was dry and the portion was small. In fact, it tasted like chicken tocino to me! I'm giving it 2 stars.

         

However, what I liked more was the orange-colored atchara. It really tastes good and I'd love to ask for more, yet the small chicken BBQ was already consumed. I'm giving their atchara 4 stars (the soo-oh-orange color is the reason for not giving it a perfect 5)

2. Mangga Tuna Salad: Horrible! It was bathed in oil and the mango strips on top were very ripe. The minced tuna mixed with the lettuce was in no way complementing the strong curry-ish taste of the salad itself. Result, I just ate two or three small servings and I did not even want to have the rest taken away ( no point ). Rating? I'm giving it one thin-lone star!

3. Ripe Mango Shake: I was also not so happy with my ripe mango shake. It does not have the taste of the usual Philippine mangoes I am so proud of. I suspect that they used the same over-riped mangoes they used for preparing my mangga tuna salad. Score? 2 stars.

     Unfortunately, Kuya J Retaurant did not impress me as much as I am impressed with the multi-awarded handsome Filipino actor.