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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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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