Vikings, SM North Review

Last week, we celebrated father's birthday at Vikings SM North and I was able to compare how this branch fared against its older brother at SM MOA. Having been to its older brother for four times already, I have nothing but high regards for the Vikings franchise as the SM MOA branch has never failed me, even becoming better and better each year.

                   

Vikings SM North Edsa (4th Floor, The Block)

Before going to the restaurant, I lowered my expectation as my initial thoughts were, this branch being a smaller one, would cater lower quality and lesser selection of food. But I guess this wasn't the case as I wasn't able to restrain my gluttonous instincts. I took some pictures and below is the list of food I liked most or were interesting enough to deserve a mention on this post.

Turkey, Lamb and Angus Beef

This was just the first one, we had several more orders of Lamb and Angus Beef as the hours progressed. It was also my first time to eat Angus Beef and now I know what I've been missing all this time! The soft and tasty meat was just pure bliss! I also love Lamb meat and it was perfect here too!

3 kinds of Sauces for the Grilled Meat Section

Their sweet Cranberry sauce gave a good twist to the lamb and angus beef . Nomnomnom!

Cheese Station

It was also my first time to eat so many different cheeses at the same time. Though it would have been better if these had small labels on them, nevertheless I was able to identify some like the blue and mozzarella cheeses - Good job to me! Haha!

Extensive Salad Bar

Spoon dishes

These were interesting enough that I gave few of these spoons a try (mainly for the experience) and yes my hunch was right, nothing spectacular in these.

Create your Own Pizza Station

I found this station cool as it allows you to create your own pizza just the way you like it.

Pesto Pasta

Made from the Create Your Pasta station and using the meat from the Pizza station. It tasted good to me as the pesto mixed well with the all the meat I put in.

Grilled seafood

Shrimp Pomodoro Pasta

The shrimps tasted fresh and was snappy in every bite.

Shabu Shabu Meat

Shabu Shabu Noodles and Vegetables

Shabu Shabu at your table

You'll need to pick your ingredients and soup from the Shabu Shabu station first and they'll then serve this pot (with your selected soup inside of course) and heater to your table. You'll then need to cook the ingredients you initially selected using this hot pot! Cool right?! :) Vikings SM MOA offers this as well but I've never got to try it until last week.

Mango Crepe

Nothing special with Vikings' crepes and I don't know why I always go for this but how often do we eat crepes?

Happy Birthday Cake

It was good that they had customized cakes as their Birthday cakes and the chiffon was nicely baked too. Ate half of my Dad's cake - sorry Dad and belated Happy Birthday to you once again! :)

Vikings SM North Map

As you can see from this map, the food stations are located along the sides of the restaurant (the other stations in the map were covered by my utensils, sorry!) and since the space between the food stations and tables weren't that wide, it was hard to move around freely and we had to be cautious not to bump to the other customers.

To sum up this experience, I have listed the things that worked well for Vikings SM North and the things that they can improve on in the future.

Good Points

● There were station name plates on the different food stations which enabled its customer to immediately identify the type of cuisine the station is offering

● They had a cheese station where I was able to eat interesting cheeses
● They served Angus Beef even on weekdays

● Food on spoons made things interesting

● The Pizza making station offered something new
● Customized Birthday cakes made birthdays more special.

Needs Improvement

● Wasn't able to move freely. There was not much space between the stations and tables and I found it difficult to move around.

● People had to queue in the grilled meat section to order and then wait for their name to be called to get their meat. It felt forever to get your Angus Beef! LOL!

● I may be bias but I believe Vikings SM MOA has a better set-up.

I wasn't expecting much from this branch but it has lived up to the high expectations I have set for the Vikings franchise by offering something new and interesting to its customers and serving good grade food. So if you're used to going to the SM MOA branch but live in the Quezon City area, it wouldn't hurt to go here instead.

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Hand Pulled Noodles and Noodles Everday (Washington, Makati) Review

Ever since I've tasted hand-pulled noodles, it has made its mark on me as the best noodle out there. When compared to the conventional ready made noodles, it can be considered to be in a league of its own as it needs to be skillfully made. By repeatedly stretching a lump of dough and then stretching it over and over again, the long thin strands of this noodle is then produced. This noodle making method originated from China where it's called Lamien (where lā (拉) means to pull and (麵) miàn for noodle). As lamien may be similar sounding to the more popular ramen, the former is limited to hand-pulled noodles only. Yet some say "Ramen" is the Japanese adaptation of the Chinese "Lamien", the two are different and should not be confused with one another.

Since making hand-pulled noodles requires skill and experience, there aren't a lot of noodle places here in Manila that offer this one of a kind noodle. Fortunately, we have a good one near our place.

Noodles Everyday at Washington St., Makati

Everyday Noodles is a Chinese restaurant specializing in hand-pulled noodle dishes.

   

  

 

They also serve other Chinese food like congee, rice bowls, and dumplings but I frequent this store mainly because of their hand-pulled noodles. I have tried their other dishes as well, like their pan fried dumplings (which tasted like gyazo) and crispy shanghai spring rolls but these were not out of the ordinary. So I have always sticked just with their Braised Beef noodle dish.

Hand-Pulled Braised Beef Ramen

hand-pulled noodle soup with beef, chinese pechay and (a lot of) dried seaweeds

Hand-Pulled Braised Beef Tossed

hand-pulled noodles with thin slices of carrots and cabbages, soup is separated and put in a bowl

Most of their hand-pulled noodle dishes are priced at 138php which comes with a small apple ice tea too. I like their Braised Beef Ramen the most since this dish gives the most bang for your buck plus I like their beef too which is soft (but a little bit fatty!). The soup is fine too with mild sweetness and some spiciness to it.

Just like any other Chinese restaurant, they have black vinegar, pepper, soy sauce and chili oil at your disposal.

As a Chinese restaurant, I find it weird that Noodles Everyday calls their noodle soups - "Ramen", nevertheless, if you're into noodles or overpriced Japanese ramens, you should definitely check this store out, you might be surprised on how great hand-pulled noodle dishes are despite their average prices.

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Brothers Burgers 15th Anniversary Promo (50% off)

modified advertisement from the Facebook page of Brothers Burgers

Every once in a while, Brothers Burgers goes on sale on their Big Brothers Burger!!! And when this promo happens, I always take the oppurtunity to grab their tasty half pound burger for just half the price.

If you don't like waiting long queues, you can actually call them up to place your order and tell them it's for pick up. At the RCBC and Ayala Convergys branches, we just tell them the time we will be picking up our burgers and then pay and get our burgers at the said time.

And if you're not sure if there's a branch near you, here's munchpunch's listing of Brothers Burger Branches with their contact numbers listed as well.

PS: I hope in the future they would include their signature burgers to the promo too! :)

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Zabo Chicken (SM Jazz Mall, Makati) Review

Upon learning that the commercial area of Jazz Residences has been open for quite some time now, we were excited as this meant new eating places and more restaurants for us to try out. And since Jazz Residences is just located at the back of Mapua Makati, this place is well within walking distance reach from RCBC, and is even nearer than Ayala Triangle, Glorietta and Greenbelt.

Being ramen fanatics, the first restaurant we wanted to try out, was Ryu Ramen, however when we went there (last Friday), we learned that they only serve ramen from 12pm onwards. Thus, we had no choice but to look for another restaurant to dine in.

While going through the different restaurants at the ground floor of this condominium, we were enticed by the unlimited rice buffet offering by Zabo Chicken, so we decided to give this new store a try.

   

   

Judging from their menu, this restaurant caters low to medium budget range of food, from 99php rice bowls to 240php Half Chicken meals. Most of us went with their best seller which is the 165php Zabo Chicken, Quarter Roast Chicken meal, upgraded to unlimited rice (additional 29php).

 Zabo Chicken, Quarter Roast Chicken

 

Right to Left: Carrot, Garlic, Brown, Plain, Zabo Spicy Chicken, Zabo Chicken rice

Their roast chicken was soft and had a nice garlic taste to it, though the serving was a bit disappointing as we were expecting to get a fourth of a chicken and this looked like a big one piece chicken to us. As for the rice, we didn't expect much as we only paid 29php to get unlimited servings - their Zabo rices (regular and spicy) for us were the better ones since these are curry flavored rices and we just love curry.

Aside from the gravy, they also offer two different sauces you can consume for free to enhance the flavor of your food.

Beef Turna wrap

Zabo Popcorn Chicken

One of our colleagues deviated from the group and ordered something else. According to him, the Beef Turna wrap was just alright - the beef, despite being a little bit hard to chew, was tasty enough, also with a good amount of it in the wrap. As for the Zabo Popcorn chicken, we were in a agreement that most of it was just breading and even the small chicken meat inside wasn't exemplary.

In summary, not sure if we'll be going back to eat in Zabo Chicken, definitely not anytime soon nor in the next 3 months, but if you're heavy on rice and work nearby Jazz Residences, you may want to check this store out.

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Tsing Tao Garden (Dela Rosa, Makati) Review

Tsing Tao Garden is a 24 hour restaurant offering Chinese cuisine located along Dela Rosa St. near Pasong Tamo (Chino Roces Ave). Tsing Tao Garden, which is Beer Garden in english, has a good selection of Chinese food and delicacies, ranging from the usual braised beef brisket and pancit noodle dishes to the exotic eel and frog meat dishes.

Having a neat interior design and being just opened for barely a week, this restaurant restaurant piqued our curiosity and during one of our office lunch outs, we had to try this place out. And just to see if this place deserves a second try, we started with checking their value meals - the rice toppings.

 

We tried their Braised Beef Brisket and Hot & Chili Fish Fillet rice topping meals and upgraded our combo meal to a value meal (by adding 30php each), giving us the right to get unlimited rice, soup, and vegetables.

Hot & Chili Fish Fillet Rice Topping

Braised Brisket Beef Rice Topping

Their rice topping meals are priced at 128php plus 30php if you would like to go for unlimited rice, soup and side dish (vegetables). They do also have service charge where an additional 8% is added to the customer's total bill.

The restaurant did meet expectations even if the soup and vegetable were just okay, the main meals were in large servings without compromise in taste and quality. The beef was tender and had that braised beef flavor we were looking for. And although the hot & chili fish fillet tasted more like a sweet sour dish than a chili hot one, it still passed our standards. To sum things up, we were satisfied on our first round of tasting, so we're giving this store not only a second but a third try as well.

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Empanada Nation (Dela Rosa, Makati) Review

Empanada Nation, along Dela Rosa Makati, is a newly opened restaurant serving Ilocano dishes - their main offerings are Empanadas, Bagnet and Longganisas.

Empanada Nation

Located near Makati Med, along Dela Rosa St., beside My Tea House and D'Cream

Longganisa Combo Meal

A rice meal with three pieces vigan longganisa, half salted egg, tomato salad and soup. Add 20php to go for their combo meal which adds a medium red ice tea to the set. 

Bagnet Combo Meal

A rice meal with three to four pieces of bagnet, half salted egg, tomato salad and soup. Add 20php to go for their combo meal which adds a medium red ice tea to the set. 

Double Special Empanada

A fried empanada - consists of two longganisas, one egg and a mixture of vegetables wrapped in an orange sort of lumpia wrapper

Though their store name is a little bit misleading as you would think they would have one of the better empanadas out there, they only serve Ilocano empanadas and their version didn't really suit my taste (which may be just a matter of preference as I'm only used to eating the normal empanadas).

Overall, their price falls on the low to medium budget range where you can eat a decent meal for 150php or less. I believe their best dish would be the longganisa and then bagnet as second. So if you have cravings for Vigan longganisa, you should definitely give this store a try.

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