Tag: restaurants

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Cervejaria Ramiro: Lisbon’s Best Seafood Restaurant

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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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Pandie Survey: Where To Eat In Tokyo

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I’m so excited everyone because I’m actually going to one of the craziest countries that I know of… JAPAN!

So I’ve been fed with a good amount of Anime back when I was young. I was one of those kids who couldn’t wait to get home and watch the latest episode of Fushigi Yuugi (what was my mom thinking??), Akazukin Chacha, Rurounin Kenshin, etc. and my knowledge of Japan started here. And as I grew up and learned more about Japan through Nintendo games, Pokemon, and weird Japanese commercials, I knew that I had to go here someday.

Will only be going to Tokyo due to time constraints this April 12-19 and a side travel to Shibazakura festival, Mt. Fuji and Fuji-Q, but I really hope 8 days is enough for me (who am I kidding, course not) and my college friend to cover at least… um the basics?

Must visits include Harajuku, Akihabara, Odaiba (science museum & onsen), Shibuya, Shinjuku, Meiji Shrine, Ghibli Museum, Ginza, flea markets here and there… but I don’t know. Am I missing something?

Especially for restaurants!  Tokyo is the capital of food gastronomy and the food quality is incomparable to other countries. It hosts the most number of Michelin starred restaurants and if you’re feeling local, you can check out Tablelog’s dependable reviews to find a restaurant to your fancy. Because of this impromptu decision to go to Japan (there was a seat sale at Jetstar. How can I say no to 6,000php roundtrip Tokyo ticket), I couldn’t get in my must try restaurants because they require 2-3 months of reservation in advance. Namely..

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1. Jimbocho Den – Moden and whimsical take of the kaiseki style Japanese dining. The style hails from Kyoto and is a degustation type of setting. I will be missing these dishes though I hope to be able to visit next time (YES THERE WILL BE A NEXT TOKYO TRIP even though I haven’t even set foot in Tokyo).

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Mom’s B-day Celebration with Spanish Tapas at Las Flores

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Pandie Rating: 👍👍

Odd how as a former Spanish colony, we hardly get any good tapas restaurants around here. Casa armas has been one of the more reliable and delicious restaurants that offer tapas but when a friend recommended Las Flores to us, my mom immediately quipped that she wanted to go here for her birthday since you know, French is too mainstream already for special occasions. Spanish cuisine is one of my most favorite cuisine because of its diverse and rich flavors and its tapas seem to be a lost art in our country where everything is judged by serving size.

Las Flores is tucked away in a little corner of BGC near Burgos Circle (you may almost miss it if you go out at night!) and its exclusivity (and probably beautiful people) is what draws the “crowd”. The restaurant tries to rev up its “authenticty” by having customers served by a mix of beautiful and handsome Spanish people. The Spanish manager was also very hospitable and approachable to all the diners. We were quickly seated as we have already made a reservation 2 days before for my mom’s birthday.

By this time, I had a HUGE expectation for the food because I was famished and was drawn by the menu which boasts of exotic dishes with fancy Spanish titles. We were warned of the small servings (these are tapas after all) so my parents decided to order the following:

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1. Patatas Bravas – PHP195
– Potato wedges in spicy sauce. These were probably the best potato wedges I had in a while and the serving was generous. But i kind of regret ordering this dish because… They weren’t the Spanish tapas I imagined that I had in Barcelona. I didn’t need to spend 195php for potatoes, right?

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