Tag: restaurant

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Zuma – My Best Japanese Meal & Steak In Hong Kong (so far)

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

I hope you guys enjoyed my first travel post – 10 Things We Wished We Knew Before Going To Korea. It’s personal so it may not be the most comprehensive guide but for budget travelers like me, you’d certainly like it.

Now going back to food and travel! Hong Kong is my guilty pleasure. It’s the destination I’ve been going to since childhood. It’s such a teeny tiny city that my overseas friends wonder why I love it so much. There’s not much to do in Hong Kong they say but au contraire mon frere! There are tons to do in this harbour city and it’s a shopper’s paradise. Not only that, restaurants reign this city of many different flavors. You will always find a good place to eat no matter when and where unlike some cities that have restaurants opening really late. It’s the perfect city for a city gal like me.

Let me introduce you to one of my recent finds. I love love Japanese cuisine and if you’re a sushi fanatic like me, you know that the sushi selection that we have in Manila is subpar. My issue is always the freshness. If you’ve been to Japan, you know about a fresh sushi/sashimi’s umami and frankly aside from my find in Singapore (which I’ll blog about as well), I’ve never tasted a really fresh sushi in Manila. Little Tokyo’s Izakaya Kikufuji isn’t fresh at all though it’s probably a 6/10 rating and probably the best in Manila but you can’t beat the quality in other countries.

So in Hong Kong, the port hub of Asia, you know you’re gonna get fresh fish delivered DAILY. So I was very lucky to have eaten at Zuma.

Zuma as mentioned on their website is a Japanese restaurant with a sophisticated twist on the traditional Japanese Izakaya style of informal eating and drinking. Well known by expats, entering Zuma is like entering a totally different Hong Kong because 90% of the guests are foreigners. I usually like restaurants that is local at its heart but my expat uncle told me to get a reservation or else I should regret it and I’m glad I did. Going to Zuma can be quite daunting for middle class folks like me because everything was so posh.

Located at Central in Landmark where it houses most of Hong Kong’s Michelin starred restaurants (I think they have 12 now?), Zuma’s price is at the upper level tier but still attainable unlike those in Tokyo. Zuma may not have a michelin star but it is up there in their class. Let me show you what Zuma looks like

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It’s beautiful and you have legit Japanese chefs working their hearts out for us hungry customers. Let me tell you a secret – they offer weekend brunch buffets. I was quite sad that no one told me this beforehand because it was such a bargain with the amount of food that they offered. But on hindsight, I’m glad as well because I was able to try dinner ala carte AND the weekend brunch buffet. My family shares my love for food.

What I had for the Brunch Buffet (I honestly don’t know how I fit everything inside my stomach)

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GORGEOUS <3

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Ilocano Dining at Victorino’s

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

Since writing this review, Victorino’s has expanded its dining quarters due to incessant demand.

One could say that I’m not an avid Filipino foodie fan. I’ve always been puzzled at the lack of vegetables present during Filipino meals and the abundance of so much oil used in cooking or how they are sometimes all too salty that we even add a salted egg in some fish meals to make it more flavorful. It’s an odd conundrum for me and doesn’t shout healthy at all. But come on, who am I kidding. Filipino food is DELICIOUS (just not my top preference for health reasons). It may give you a heart attack someday but at least life is good. (not promoting eating lechon everyday anyway!)

So when we decided to surprise our friend with a cake on her despedida, one of my barkada suggested Victorino’s, which was tucked away in the little Scout community or Tomas Morato area in Quezon City. Victorino’s is partly engineered by no other than the famous pastry chef/baker Heny Sison who was also the teacher of my (same) friend’s grandmother! Imagine that, Heny Sison has been inspiring decades. I became extremely curious. So with the help of Waze, we found it!
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It’s actually just a modernized ancestral home and my dad likened it to his childhood home with the classic Filipino-Spanish interiors and nostlagic windows. It definitely had a cozy vibe and we were able to get settled in comfortably even when the restaurant was jampacked. It felt like visiting a friendly grandmother’s house. tumblr_inline_n2795u2jUt1qzu0uu

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Ramen Nagi Confessions at SM Aura

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍👍👍

Disclaimer: This review is only applicable to SM Aura branch circa 2014. I have tried Ramen Nagi at Robinsons Ermita Mall and it was one of the worst Ramen experiences I’ve had in my life. Maybe the worst. So this review is only reflective of SM Aura branch.

Everyone’s been riding on a Ramen roller coaster craze here in Manila. It’s akin to the milk tea craze back in the 2009 (exact year escapes me) and now there are ramen places mushrooming everywhere. Unlike milk tea which one can only mix so much, the local and ordinary ramen was thrown into a melting pot of culinary creativity and err experimentation! I liked my good old fashioned Ramen with – no fuzz, no swirls, just me, soup, pork and noodles. What more could a ramen purist ask for, right?

Well that all changed when I tried Butao Ramen in Hong Kong last September 2013 (which will be on a follow up post soon!). I have also tried Ukkokei Ramen’s Tantanmen (which was my current fave that time and deserved a separate post) so I was eager to try this famous ramen place. Ramen again is something which I don’t particularly crave unlike say, cake or something (oh you Desser-loving Tiff!).

So to the advise of my fellow foodie adventurers, we lined up 30 minutes before at Butao and were the first customers in line. Glad to say, the wait was worth it as I tasted the most delicious fusion Ramen I have ever tasted in my life. So when I heard that they decided to invade the Philippine Ramen scene, I was all “YES PLEASE BOMBARD US WITH RAMEN GOODNESS OH LORD ALMIGHTY!” But my inner pessimist and skeptic said “You know, it might not taste as good as the one in Hong Kong, just saying.”

Throwing all worries away, my optimistic self dashed into the doors of Ramen Nagi. To be more precise, I debated and convinced my mom to go to SM Aura since we were in the vicinity and I knew she loved new things and we’ve never been to SM Aura before. Then I sneakily suggested to climb up all the way to the rooftop (why is Ramen Nagi located so far away O_O) and try Ramen Nagi. At first we were a little lost but thankfully despite it being located at the edge of the mall, we found it, thank goodness to those signs!

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Small group or big group, small dude or big dude, Ramen Nagi is a place for everyone! Not sure if they accept reservations as there usually is a long line. But go there before peak hours and I guarantee that you’ll get a seat. My mom and I went there at 5:30pm and surprisingly, they weren’t full!

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