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Cervejaria Ramiro: Lisbon’s Best Seafood Restaurant

Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

Did I just say Lisbon’s best seafood restaurant? Nay, it’s THE BEST SEAFOOD RESTAURANT IN THE WORLD, so far. After traveling to more than 25 cities, I can bravely call it my best seafood meal ever in a restaurant. Not including my meals by the beach side or on a boat with freshly caught fish. That’s a different discussion altogether.

I’m so glad my brother studied in Lisbon for his student exchange or else I wouldn’t have dreamed of going to Portugal. Even though Magellan was technically Portuguese when he discovered my homeland, The Philippines, we Filipinos have such low exposure to Portuguese everything. Ask a random person walking down the road and I’ll bet ya he’ll probably ask if that’s Portugal is in Spain. I dare ye! haha

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Ariel at Torre Belem

It’s such an underrated city. If you want to go to Europe on a budget, go to Lisbon. I guarantee you that you will get Asian prices but for European service and quality. It’s a beautiful and vibrant city that is often skipped by tourists which actually makes it more endearing to me. Everyone probably knows the “bad” economy they’re in but you can help them by boosting their tourism! The Portuguese are a friendly bunch.

Okay going back to food now! Did you know the sea-faring nation of Portugal consumes more fish than anywhere else in the world? They do know their seafood well so it’s no surprise that for me, the best seafood experience I’ve had was in Lisbon.

Cervejaria Ramiro or more commonly known as just Ramiro (Beerhouse), is Lisbon’s premier seafood restaurant. Lines can be seen forming along the street starting at 6PM. People with no reservations would patiently wait for their name to be called because they know that they’re in for a food-gasm that evening. It’s visited by both locals and tourists alike but only the well-versed tourists know about this.

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Eager foodies waiting to be seated outside

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Tempura Ishikawa – Malate’s Hole In The Wall Restaurant

Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

***UPDATE***

May 19, 2016 – As of this day, the head chef of Tempura Ishikawa resigned and is moving to a different restaurant. 🙁 Waiting to hear where he’s going! This is such sad news as we’ve become regulars to this place already

***END***

Only 6 more days until my Tokyo trip and I still haven’t packed! OH DEAR ME. I should start this weekend haha! Anybody seen this photo from The Oatmeal? It’s totally me.

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Haha okay so going back to food, it’s like the universe is throwing hints of Japanese stuff in my way before my trip. I found some great articles on what I could do in Tokyo and also neat places on where to eat. Unfortunately my master plan to eat at Kurogi seems like a bust (I listed my top food places to try here) but it’s my first trip anyway. I can always go back and plan months in advance next time. Yes, that is exactly what I’m going to do!

And now my dad found this little hole in the wall restaurant in Malate near Korean Village. I was having dinner with a friend there and my dad ventured off to the side street of Bocobo and he literally saw this tiny neon sign with a tiny door. It’s like the restaurant is only known by some VIP or exclusive patrons. If you’re driving in a car, you’ll surely miss it but good thing my dad just walked pass by it.

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Outside with tiny neon sign

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Inside!

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Finally, Authentic Vietnamese Food in Manila Tra Vinh – Banawe

Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

When you go to the Philippines, you probably won’t see a lot of restaurants from our Southeast Asian neighbors well maybe except for Thai. As for Vietnamese food? It’s the least represented and there isn’t even a category for it in Manila’s Best Kept Restaurant Secret Awards. There hasn’t been a good authentic Vietnamese restaurant (Didn’t like Pho Hoa or Zao because of their ingredients and frankly, it was Filipinized) in the whole of Metro Manila, except for now.

Introducing Tra Vinh Restaurant, an Australian franchise that finally came to the Philippines. I am wary about franchises so I was a bit hesitant to try this. It was only due to the clamor of my brother did I go eat here and I wanna say, thanks bro!

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Photo taken from their Facebook Page

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