Tikim10: Eat Fresh Hong Kong Famous Street Food (Banawe, Quezon City)

Hong Kong, as known by many is a shopping mecca but for me its also a food haven. Various cuisines from big restaurants to fast food stalls tastes great; food tripping is actually just around the corner! Whenever I go to Hong Kong, I always make sure that I eat their street food ~ siumai, hotdogs, takoyaki, egg waffles, fresh fruit shakes, and what not! Fret no more, Eat Fresh offers authentic Hong Kong street food in Manila!

Outside the Eat Fresh restaurant

As their specialty is Street Food, one might have the impression that you will be eating your stick snacks out in the heat/rains. This is not the case in their Banawe branch because you will be eating you're well missed Hong Kong street food at the comfort of an airconditioned restaurant. ^.^ Their kitchen is placed in front of the restaurant, where a passerby can take out food with no hassle and a customer who will dine in will have the comforts of not eating while standing.

Ordering in Eat Fresh is very tempting because the price is very affordable (student friendly prices)! Seeing those familiar street food names will make you feel you want to try them all! Evan and I, ordered the following for starters: Fried Stuffed Tofu, Fish Balls dipped in curry, and Fish Tofu dipped in curry.

You will have the choice of having your street food fried, dipped in curry (to add spice), or both. I like spicy food so I dipped mine in curry sauce. If you are not that adventurous, you can still opt for the traditional soy sauce with chili garlic or none!

Radish Cake

Fried Stuffed Tofu

Fish balls and fish tofu dipped in curry

For those who want to try Hong Kong dimsum, Eat Fresh also serves 5 varieties of dimsum all at P48.00 only--- Pork Siomai, Taosi Spareribs, Chicken Feet, Raddish Cake, and Kuchay Dumplings.

Pork Siomai

For our main course, we definitely wanted to try the claypot rice meal. I like this very much because food is served warm. The claypot rice comes with a special sweet sauce that makes the meal feel like its a big fried rice. The serving is quite generous for one person, it will surely make you feel full!

Chinese Sausage Claypot Rice

Lastly for our drinks and dessert, we went for the pancake balls (called kai-tan-zai or egg waflfles in Hong Kong), almond shake, and milk tea (nai-cha in Hong Kong). The pancake balls took a while to cook but it is all good --- it was a favorite!  

Pancake balls

Almond Shake

Milk Tea

Taste 4/5
Price 5/5
Ambiance 3/5


Eat Fresh Hong Kong Famous Street Food
100-A Maria Clara Street,
Brgy. Sto. Domingo, Quezon City
Telephone: 5168022, 4750789
Email: eatfreshph@gmail.com

Tikim9: Thaipan's white ambiance (Tomas Morato, Quezon City)

Thaipan is a perfect date place if you guys are looking for some Thai cuisine (As the name suggests). It's a bit hidden from the main road of Tomas Morato Street but it is not that hard to find. You'll notice the restaurant with it's white themed ambiance. It is very refreshing when you step into the restaurant --- design is modern, fresh, and romantic! You can have a choice of dining in their veranda or inside where there are rooms for functions with air conditioning. I strongly suggest eating alfresco because during the day their food and cold drinks are a perfect combo while at night you can have a peep at the stars while eating (so romantic ^.^)

Alfresco style lounge

Eat at the veranda for better ambiance

 in-house dining for those hot summery days

In ordering, you can see their menu is very simple ans straight to the point --- just the Thai name and the description. The menu lacks pictures of their best dishes which can help their customers choose what to order. However simple their menu is,the taste of food is what matters! :)

Simple menu

Me and evan ordered the following for dinner...

See Khrong Moo Yang: Cinnamon & lemon marinated pork ribs

Paw Pia Thawt: Deep fried spring rolls

Gai Sateh: Chicken Sateh

His favorite is the pork ribs which are indeed barbecued to perfection [must try!] while i thought that the  deep fried spring rolls are a bit too oily for me but i really liked the chicken satay especially with their sweet vinegar dipping, a mixture of spicy and sweetness! As you noticed, their dishes are served in simple white plates with minimal garnishes, indirectly suggesting that taste is what they are after. You'll not regret..Thai is really in the air!


Thaipan
120 Scout Dr. Lazcano,
Tomas Morato, Quezon City

Contact:  352-4926, 0917-808-0718 Email: Thaipanresto@yahoo.com

Verdict 4/5

Tikim8: Kanzhu, Hand Pulled Noodles, Little Baguio, San Juan

A new restaurant has recently open in the San Juan area, right along Abad Santos street near Wilson called Kanzhu. It's right in front of the famous tea craze shop Serenitea along the side of Ristras and Tofu store. It's a chinese cuisine operated by Master Chef Kevin Yu. It's noodle house with striking similarities to the old Pot & Noodle chain in Manila  in which noodles are hand pulled and cook at the time of your order. The interiors of the establishment is pretty basic, a typical Chinese fast food cuisine. One side of the cuisine shows a brief history on how the family recipe dating back to medieval China came about. 

Then right in front you get a full glimpse of the kitchen and the kitchen staff on how they prepare your meal. Showing you that these guys are authentic. The noodles themselves are hand pulled and cooked by the head chef himself.

Ordering food was a breeze, a variety of noodles is on the menu, dry and wet (both comes with soup). Obviously, we had to order the house special which we found out as it was written on the walls of the restaurant that it was the dish that made them famous. The Braised Beef Noodles.

Obviously as a noodle lover I am [Evan only =p] quite picky on my noodles, and boy their noodles are really delicious, the beef is so tender that you may think that they've been in the pressure cooker forever. The noodles themselves even without the beef are a delight to eat, but the key ingredient here is not the beef nor the noodles but the special sauce that comes with it. Three of them together creates one fine fine dish.

Since we will not be contented with just a single order, a second noodle order we got was a stir fry one with chicken. Initial glance will tell that this is one of your typical pancit canton dish but looks can be deceiving. Noodle lovers will love this but too bad it doesn't have the same effect that we had with the braised beef noodles.

Both orders comes with complimentary soups and for a complimentary soup, boy were they tasty, we had to get second rounds for it, glad the staff serve them to us without hesitation.

Judging from the review, we are definitely coming back to this Kanzhu hand pulled noodles cuisine. But this time, the order will be two of those house special braised beef noodles. Definitely a winner here.

Kanzhu
Unit 4 Citiplace Building,
8001 Jose Abad Santos Street;
Little Baguio, San Juan
Metro Manila

Verdict: 4/5

Tikim7:Tea fit for royalty, Gong Cha now open

First branch in MOA

Winter Melon Milk Tea

Gong cha tea, which originated in Hong Kong is now open today in Manila. The first branch in MOA, near the bowling center, is like a takeout kiosk with aircon.
A bit hard to buy when there's a lo of people because there's not much space to form line.

Despite the space issue that I observed, the bright lights and the noticeable menu that can be seen from outside the glassed kiosk, people seem to be curious about this new tea place.

Me and evan tried out the Gong Cha Milk Winter Melon Tea, and it tastes great! You can really taste the tea in the drink...not just syrups! The server even suggests the sugar level for the drink that we ordered - good thing because it shows the staff know their tea well! Price wise, tgey are about P10 cheaper than serenitea.

If MOA is too far from your house, a second branch will soon open next month in SM Northedsa

Verdict: 4.5/5

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Tikim6: Burgers at Murray's and D'Vine

I never noticed this restaurant for the times I went to Fort Bonifacio High street and Serendra.

Evan and I came to know about Murray and D’Vine last weekend, when a surprise birthday dinner was planned for a close friend  ^.^

 Burgers, sliders, and Wine

 At the 2nd floor with great company

The restaurant has a small space both inside and alfresco dining. They actually have a second floor which is a good place for dates and mini get togethers. From the moment you see saw their sign, you will not think about burgers. The only sign that it’s a burger place is  its banner that says “We have the best burger..Yabang noh”

Upon checking out their menu, you will get a feel that the restaurant is actually American cuisine, with salads, ribs, potato wedges, and burgers. Me and Evan just ordered a trio of mini burgers, one beef burger, one chicken burger, and one shrimp burger. The mini trio’s include a bit of veggies, a cone of french fries, and small bottles of cute Heinz ketchup and mustard. The burgers that they offer are just the patty and meat, no cheese, no veggies, no anything. The server will ask if you just want to add cheese on your burger, which of course costs a bit more.   

 Left-Right: Beef burger, Chicken burger, and Shrimp burger

 A cone of crispy fries

The cute bottles of ketchup and mustard

The taste of the burgers are a bit bland, I guess my buds were looking for something juicy and something

special. For the price the mini burgers (about P100+ each) with no garnishes, it’s a bit expensive. L The only complement that I can give them is their good service.

Verdict: 2/5

Murray and D’Vine

c114, G/F Retail Area, Serendra, 
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig 1634

Telephone: (632) 856 3723 (632) 9013029

Website: http://murrayanddvine.com