A Review: Din Tai Fung Rockwell

Bob picked me up at the office for dinner last Friday. It had been raining heavily for a few days and we were both craving soup, but then we saw a Xiao Long Bao bar and our plans changed!

Because it was Friday and dinnertime, the tables were quickly filling up. Despite the fact that the line was long, it was efficiently managed. We were able to get our seats a few minutes after receiving our numbers. Because we pre-ordered, our food was served in less than 10 minutes after we took our seats.

Food ☆☆☆☆ The food pleased my palate especially the Golden Lava Salted Egg Yolk Bun, Shrimp and Pork Wontons with House Special Spicy Sauce and the Din Tai Fung House Special. Of course I also love the  Xiao Long Bao (Crab Roe and Pork) but it is too small and can be compared to another Xiao long bao from another restaurant.

Price vs. Serving size ☆☆ kinda expensive for me. 

Location and ambiance ☆☆☆☆☆ well-lit and spacious. Chic and modern. 

Staff and Service  ☆☆☆☆☆ Service was prompt and food were served hot.

Din Tai Fung House Special

Shrimp and Pork Wontons with House Special Spicy Sauce

Crab Roe and Pork XiaoLongBao

Dan Dan Noodles with Spicy Sesame and Peanut Sauce

Golden Lava Salted Egg Yolk Bun - super yummy!

Mango Sago with Pomelo

This isn’t a sponsored post. All things written here are based on my 100% experience and personal views. 

Ash ❤❤❤

Corner Tree Café - review

We had a quick dinner at the corner Tree café. This hidden gem offers top notch healthy food made with love at prices fit for your ‘budgetarian’ wallet.

I absolutely love the café's atmosphere: it's intimate, cozy, calming, and sweet. The dimly lit interiors create the ideal dreamy romantic mood. A great place to go on a date or if you just want to relax and get away from the busy streets of Makati while eating healthy, organic, gluten-free meals.

It's also a great place for friends to hang out and work on their laptops. Food that is healthy, chemical-free, and delicious is a huge plus. They serve vegetarian versions of popular meat dishes, and the food is delicious enough that you won't miss the meat!

What we ate

Guilt Free

Vegetable Thai Curry

My review is based on a 100% transparent hands-on/tasting experience and personal views.  We may not always be on the same page, but thanks for dropping by!

Ash B. ❤❤❤

  

New Bombay

I'd never tried Indian food before and had never dared to until Bob asked me to dine out after a long and exhausting day at work. He wants to make sure that this is a memorable dining experience for me because he knows it will be my first.

I asked him to place my order because I had no idea what to choose. We ordered:


Cottage Cheese Pakora
Tandoori Chicken
Plain & Salty Lassi
Plain Naan.



The cottage cheese pakora is an absolute must-try! The cheese is gooey and really appetizing - I love the spice and kick of the dips. 

The Tandoori Chicken did not wow me, but it did go well with the plain Naan. It's fun to tear off the bread and dip it. The bread smells delicious and is surprising filling!

I chose the plain Lassi while he chose the salty Lassi. Both are delicious, but I think the salty lassi is better. The chilled lassi was rich, creamy, and foamy.

Though it's my 1st time, I’d say that I enjoyed the food. Will definitely try another Indian Cuisine. 

Oh btw, when I asked for a glass of water, the lady served it right away, but the glass itself smells bad (like a dead cockroach), so i asked for another/new glass and thankfully it smell clean and safe. 

Over all experience: 8/10

My review is based on a 100% transparent hands-on/tasting experience and personal views.  We may not always be on the same page, but thanks for dropping by!

Ash B. ❤❤❤

The Morning After: Nuvali

I had a quick meeting on a rainy Saturday morning with our lawyer and we chanced upon this resto. The name (The Morning After) intrigued me and as expected they serve all day breakfast meals. This may sound boring for some, but upon checking their menu, you'll find out that they serve all day breakfast meals of different countries! There's a lot to choose from.

We've ordered steak and eggs (425Php) and Luzviminda breakfast meal (425Php) + 2 cups of brewed coffee (90php/each)

Luzviminda Almusal (425Php)

Steak and Eggs (425Php)

The steak and eggs meal have a 250g Tbone steak (mine's medium rare), 2scrambled eggs (my preference), lettuce and thin slices of tomatoes. Luzviminda Almusal isa Filipino breakfast platter with 2 longganisa, marinated bangus, smoked beef tapa, home-made pork tocino, served with garlic or steamed rice and two eggs of your choice.

We had a nice chat and was able to discuss some important matter without being disturbed by some loud diners.  I'd say, that this is a good place for meetings.

The staff who manned our table is really attentive.

Over all experience is great. But it’s a little pricey.

Disclaimer: My review is based on a 100% transparent hands-on/tasting experience and personal views. Resto information and facts may be subject to change without prior notice.

Kampai Sushibar : A Review

We had our late lunch here yesterday prior to watching Fantastic Beast. I've been wanting to eat some Japanese food again so we decided to dine here at Kampai.

We've order bento meals - Beef Yakiniku and Ebi Bento and a platter of sashimi. The staff is nice and very attentive, i forgot his name, but he is really good :) Our bento meal's fine - beef is good although it's a little salty for me. The ebi tempura is ok, but the ebi itself is too small for a tempura. I'm somewhat disappointed with the sashimi - it was thinly sliced and the platter's not even good for sharing-- it's a little pricey. 

The miso soup isn't as tasty as it should be. The fish isn't fresh too, but yeah, i love sashimi. By the way, i asked the waiter to change my glass of water as there's a lipstick stain left on the glass. I don't know if they washed it before pouring the water or of they just wiped it off. Anyway, he gave me a new glass but i didn't bother drinking it. If you know what i mean. 

Btw, if you're looking for uni, this isn't the place. They don't have it. But yeah, you may wanna give it a try. This is my 1st hand experience anyway. 



Staff - 8/10
Cleanliness - 4/10 (because of the glass)
Price - 7/10 
Place - 7/10


Disclaimer: All things written here are 100% based on my on-hand experience and personal views.

Watermelon Jelly

My cute and super sweet nieces made lambing and asked me to make "watermelon jelly" they saw in facebook. So, my sister, Hazel, bought a small size watermelon and i invaded the kitchen. Let me share my simple watermelon recipe.

What you need:
- 1 pack of red gelatin ( i used mr gulaman, strawberry flavor)
- Sugar
- cups of water
- Watermelon
- Raisins (ugh, i forgot this one!)

Instructions :
1. Cut the watermelon into half. Scrape/ remove the meat and set aside.
2. In a pan, disolve the jelly powder and add the sugar in warm water . Stir until the jelly powder and sugar are completely mixed and disolved. Once disolved, turn your stove on and start cooking. Stir constantly and let it boil.
3. Transfer the jelly into the watermelon cups and let it cool.
4. Add the raisins before it completely cool down.
5. Serve cold and enjoy!



They loved and enjoyed eating thier watermelon jelly, and requested to make "orange jelly" next week. That's challenging, kids. Really! Let's see if i can do that :)

Btw my niece isnt feeling really well, but still tried to look better in this picture.  Love you Eli 💕


Cheers xx
Ash

posted from Bloggeroid

Kanin Club - Ayala Triangle

Today is my sister's birthday, so we decided to have another buffet. We had to cancel the plan  however, due to the constant rain.  We decided to check restos in Ayala Triangle and since my sister is huge fan of Pinoy dishes we opted to try Kanin Club. 

Upon entering, the staff grabbed our dripping wet umbrella and led us to our table, all of them are beaming ear to ear. You'll feel at home despite the bad weather.  Before we were seated, something happened (insert embarrassing moment here); it wasn't really their fault, but the waiter who was assigned to us apologized nonetheless. Wow. 

Food - a traditional Filipino dish with a modern twist. We ordered sinigang na hipon (perfect for a cold Friday night), tinapa rice, crispy liempo, the ever-popular crispy dinuguan, ripe mango shake, and pineapple juice. The sinigang, in my opinion, is a must-try. I like how the soup is sour but not overpowering, just like our mother's recipe. The dinuguan will astound you, especially if you are not a fan of dinuguan but are brave enough to try it. Crispy liempo is also a good option, with three different dips. You'll enjoy the food.

Location - Makati CBD. A good place to relax your mind coz it's in Ayala Triangle.

Staff - very accommodating and attentive. We don't need to call them twice. Served our food in no time with a smile on their faces.

I highly recommend Kanin club especially if you're craving for your mom's cooking.

Photos: Mine

Disclaimer: My review is based on a hundred percent transparent hands on / tasting experience and personal views.

posted from Bloggeroid

Apple Bee's Grill and Bar - BGC

On a rainy Wednesday late afternoon, we headed to Apple Bee’s in BGC for a little catch up. We normally joke about  this -  “ what’s your favorite restaurant” when we’re still in CVG, and we will answer in chorus “APPLE BEES”. Folks from Uverse would know why. Lol 

The place is a little jam-packed when we arrived – couples dating, family celebrating birthdays, yuppies having good times, and us, quiet yet giggling while checking the menu.

Of course, I ordered my favorite frozen margarita. We have had :

#brewkettle, bro! 🍻 #AppleBees #BGC #Beer

A photo posted by Orange (@_adashofash) on Jun 24, 2016 at 4:41am PDT

Triple bacon burger. #AppleBees #Bacon #Burger

A photo posted by Orange (@_adashofash) on Jun 4, 2016 at 10:20am PDT

We left the place around 9pm when the rain has finally stopped. It was a great dining experience on our “favorite restaurant” hahaha J

Note: This post is not sponsored and is based on my hands on / tasting experience and personal views. 

Dinner Buffet - Vikings Sm Jazz

Kingsley had just returned from Perth, so we decided to have our dinner buffet at Vikings SM Jazz. It was raining cats and dogs today, so we considered canceling the reservation. Actually, I was two hours late for work due to the Makati flood, heavy rain, and gusty wind. Thank goodness it stopped by midday. Yey!

By the way, we're having this dinner to honor Iara's outstanding work as a travel consultant. She was nominated by our Perth counterpart and received a #GemAward for People and Culture!  

Wow. Just wow. She's one of the best travel consultants in CWT and we're just lucky to have her in the team.

PHOTO 📷 Iara's Facebook 

6:00pm came. We all logged out with that smile in our cute faces. Hahaha 😁

Work hard then eat like a Viking! Come on, let's see how many plates/round can we handle.

My Plate :)

My Plate

Us, answering the survey :)

We left Vikings around 2100 or so. It was an awesome dining experience, I'd say. Thanks Iara and team for this tummy-filling dinner, burp!! Till our next food trip 🍴 

📷: Mine 

Xx

Ash