Tag: where to eat

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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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Tempura Ishikawa – Malate’s Hole In The Wall Restaurant

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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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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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