Big D's Smokehouse

Big D's Smokehouse just recently opened in Eastwood. If you pass by Katipunan regularly you might have noticed or even dined in their original location, which was in the rundown two story building made famous by Countryside. Their new location in Eastwood is in the 2nd floor of Citywalk 2, just almost in between Razon's and the 7-Eleven.

Big D's serves mostly American comfort food. And their interiors are a well thought out ode to their American theme. There's just a whole lot of Americana in here! There's a bar, old diecasts, old books, old toys, old posters and a cool smoker fashioned out of an oil drum! They even had this cool alfresco dining area that looked like a homey porch. It just looks like a cool place to hang out with friends and family to spend time over food.

It was dinner time and there were a handful of guests already dining when we got there. But the service was still fast and efficient. We ordered the following:

I had the Ribs Duo (390php).

My order was half slab of their ribs, with garlic rice and choice of 1 side. I had corn and carrots as my side dish. The ribs was really really tender and flavorful, too! Just the right mix of spiciness, smokiness and sweetness. I found the garlic rice kind of weird to pair with it though since I mostly associate it with silog meals.

Kim had the Open-Faced Roastbeef (280php).

This looked really appetizing in the menu and even when it was served. The roastbeef was served on top of a couple of pieces of bread, and was topped with mushroom sauce with sides of veggies and mashed potatoes. The beef was soft and easy to cut through, but the sauce was quite salty. You had to take a big chunk of the mashed potatoes or bread just to counterbalance it's saltiness.

We feel that the location of Big D's might not be the best in Eastwood since people rarely walk across that area. But good food coupled with good service and nice ambiance, people are bout to get word of it. And when that happens, then Big D's will surely be a hit.

Big D's Smokehouse

https://www.facebook.com/bigdsmokehouse/
Eastwood Citywalk 2,

Eastwood City, Quezon City

(0915) 487-8153

Tim Ho Wan

Tim Ho Wan, a renowned restaurant in both Hong Kong and Singapore has finally landed in Manila. I never got to try it out while in Hong Kong last May because there just wasn't enough time, but Kim had and said it's one of the best food experiences she had while on internship over there.

Even though it has been around in HK for a while now, people still line up for it constantly and you can just imagine the same thing for the Manila franchise. Yes, a queue builds up and sometimes get three rows deep but if you arrive early enough or late enough to avoid peak dining hours, it is relatively easy to get a seat. We did just that and had early lunch at 11 AM. Although there was already a sizeable crowd dining inside, we were still seated right away.

The interiors are nothing special, but they are clean and well lit. It seems that a lot of these new hip Chinese restaurants are using dimsum baskets as lighting ornament. It's not the first time we have seen that, but still a fun sight to look at.

It is worth noting that despite diners constantly arriving and multiplying as the peak lunch hour was nearing, the service was really fast and efficient. They'd give you paper to fill out your order in, just make sure you look at where you are putting a check mark on as we made a mistake in ours. LOL. Anyway, the food is always made after you order so one can imagine that serving time would take a while, but our food didn't really take more than 5 minutes to get served.

Tim Ho Wan has a pretty compact menu, so if you are in a good sized group you can probably order everything off the menu and share. And the other great thing about its menu is that nothing is prized over 200php! Pretty affordable especially for a place like this.

On to our orders. Tim Ho Wan has what it calls the Big 4 Heavenly Kings, which are sort of their best and recommended dishes. We ordered a couple of those and some other items in the menu.

Baked Bun with BBQ Pork (3 pcs). 145php.

If you've seen blog posts or even just IG posts about Tim Ho Wan then I'm sure you've seen the popular Baked Buns. These kind of remind me of asado siopao except that they are baked instead of steamed and that the pork inside is sweetly flavored. We liked it and it was great to eat while still hot. The sweetness can be toned down a bit though.

Steamed Egg Cake. 85php.

 

The Steamed Egg Cake on the other hand was nothing special. It had a spongy texture and slightly sweet taste that sort of resembled the puto that is hawked on the streets. Not the round sticky ones, but the triangular ones that are mostly dry.

Prawn Dumpling. 160php.

In most local restaurants, we know this as Hakaw. But in THW calls it the Prawn Dumpling, and it makes me wonder why they didn't take the Hong Kong name for it which is Hargaw. That aside, this has got to be most plump and shrimp filled Hakaw we've had.. ever! And we loved that the wrapper didn't break easily as is the case for most other times we've had hakaw.

Pork Dumpling with Shrimp. 150php.

Siomai, what more can I say? It tasted good and had a good sized shrimp in the middle of the pork, but it wasn't really that special. This was the deal breaker for Kim since she loved the original version in HK and described it as the best siomai she had ever had.

Spring Roll with Egg White. 120php.

I was totally surprised when I took a bite out of this. I was sort of expecting something in between Max's Fried Lumpiang Sariwa and Dimsum Break's Spring Rolls. This was so far off those two. I'm not saying it tasted bad, just that it wasn't the taste I was expecting. To be honest, it really didn't taste like anything. The egg white was too weird in texture which does not go well with the deep fried dumpling.

Chicken, Sausage and Mushroom. 170php.

So we got confused during marking our orders on the order slip they provided that we ordered the wrong thing! We wanted to order the Rice with Beef and Fried Egg, but ended up checking the box for Chicken, Sausage and Mushroom. Good thing, it tasted good or else we would have really been disappointed. It was mostly chicken though, with a couple slices of sausage and one mushroom.

Overall, it was a great dining experience. The service was great, and so was the food.. well, mostly. But I think we just needed to order something else aside from the Siomai and Spring Roll, since those were just a little too bland or normal tasting for us. We'd probably try to eat here again, as the menu is really affordable and each order is good to share for 2 or more people.

Tim Ho Wan

Ground Floor, Fashion Hall

SM Megamall, Ortigas

Mandaluyong City

Marciano's Cafe + Bakery

August 23, 2014

Kim has been home for the past 2 weeks. We've eaten out already a handful of times, but mostly at places she has missed eating at for the past 5 months she spent in Hong Kong. It was only last Saturday that we got to try a new place again, Marciano's at the Fairview Terraces by Ayala.

It was also Kim's first time at this newly opened mall by Ayala. Fairview Terraces is full of different restaurants, ranging from cheap to the more upscale. We picked Marciano's because it was something we haven't tried before and it looked really nice from the outside.

Marciano's serves Italian- American food. It has a small bakery section up front where you can buy different pastries for takeout or for dine-in. The place had a warm and inviting vibe to it with the use of wood and yellow lighting for the interiors.

We didn't get to try any of their pastries as we were hungry and opted to share two different orders from their main menu.

We ordered the:

Classic Burger.

The burger wasn't that big compared to most we've had at this price range. But the taste more than made up for it. It was juicy, well-seasoned and it was grilled really well. The side of fries was a treat as well.

Buttermilk Chicken.

This buttermilk chicken fad is the latest one in the country, with Kettle's version arguably the most popular. We haven't tried Kettle yet, but we can say that Marciano's chicken was just okay. It was a little dry and not really all that flavorful. Kim was so disappointed that she seriously just wanted some Chickenjoy at that moment! The serving was more than enough though, and came with mushroom gravy, side of stringbeans, and biscuits which were quite hard and weird in texture.

Taste wise, the food was just okay for its price. Maybe we'll try the other items on the menu in the future just to see. The service was great though, with the servers being quick to attend to you. Go here if you want to dine in a place with great ambiance that is good for conversation.

Marciano's Cafe and Bakery
U/G Fairview Terraces,
Quirino Ave, Quezon City
https://www.facebook.com/marcianosph

Bo Dao Tea House: Taiwanese Cuisine

On my fourth and last full day (flight home was noon the next day) in Hong Kong, Kim and I went to Ocean Park. We tried to get on almost all the rides, checked out all the exhibits, and walked most of the entire park. With the weather, it was a sweat-a-thon from 10AM to 5:30PM! We were really tired afterwards, and we slept almost the entire way back on the bus. As soon as we got back to Admiralty, we hopped on an MTR to Mong Kok. Even though we were tired, we wanted to get some shopping done and get some dinner of course.

We walked around while trying to shop and looking for a place to eat also. We came upon this Taiwanese eatery called Bo Dao. We were attracted by the deep fried goodies they had on their big display outside, and from the fragrant smell coming from inside. But first, I bought an 888ml pet bottle of coke from the neighboring 7-Eleven. I can't finish a whole liter of coke in one seating, but this 888ml bottle is just perfect. Haha.

The place had a similar setup to Butao King, airconditioned but open at the same time, if that makes sense. There were more than a handful of diners inside occupying the small wooden chairs and tables, so the food must be great. Let's find out!

Kim ordered the Beef strips with Bean Curd Sauce and Mushroom (49 HKD).

It tasted like Yoshinoya's Beef Bowl only sweeter and more saucey with bits of mushroom. With those said, it was an excellent dish especially for the Pinoy taste!

I ordered the Fried Pork Chop Rice (46 HKD).

Not the prettiest pork chop to look at, but it was greasy and tasty! It came with a bowl of tomato sauce which I was really apprehensive to put on it at first. But oh my, it really went well together!

We also ordered the Deep Fried Supreme to share (85 HKD).

This platter consisted of deep fried goodies! There were porkchop (again!), tofu, samosa, and spring rolls. We were hungry and really didn't care about the cholesterol on this very oily plate, we gobbled almost everything up! Again, everything went surprisingly well with the tomato sauce. Since it was a handful, we had a a piece each of porkchop, samosa and spring roll that we took back to the flat.

This meal was probably really unhealthy with the amount of oil we had, but it was really good. Plus, it seemed like one of the cleaner restaurants in the street at the end of Ladies' Market. If you're ever in the area, and would want a sure thing for dinner or lunch, Bo Dao is a decent enough place to eat at. Plus, they have a proper english menu :)

Bo Dao Tea House: Taiwanese Cuisine
50 Soy St., Mong Kok, Hong Kong

Din Tai Fung

Our attempt at eating at Tim Ho Wan was a complete fail since they already moved out of their Mong Kok location, and we only found out once we got there. Their other branch was at Sham Shui Po which was a little out of the way from our planned itinerary. Not wanting to miss out on eating at a Michelin starred restaurant while in Hong Kong, we made our way to Din Tai Fung in Tsim Sha Tsui.

 

Din Tai Fung in Tsim Sha Tsui is located inside Silvercord Mall, which is just adjacent the very upscale Harbour City (there's actually a walkway between then). We went there for dinner, but arrived early at 6PM after reading that the lines get ridiculously long at times during peak hours. As expected there was already a line, but the lady at the front asked if it was just the 2 of us and quickly ushered us in. I would assume then that it's easier to get a table if you're dining alone or just as a couple rather than being in big groups.

 

The inside of the place was nice, clean, well lit and spacious, but nothing really fancy or special. But I guess that's not why they got a Michelin star for. The service was really great! They're attentive to your questions and they're very efficient and courteous. And of course, the quality of the food. We knew coming in that it would be a great dinner from all the reviews, but it still exceeded our expectations.

We ordered the following:

Xiao Long Bao (56 HKD)

This is their specialty. People from different parts of the world come to Din Tai Fung just to sample this. For those who doesn't know, XLB is a steamed dumpling that has pork inside together with some soupy broth encased in a very delicate wrapper. They even have instruction cards on every table on how to eat it!

The steps were:

1. 1. Prepare your sauce by combining soy sauce, vinegar and ginger. The suggested ration is 1:3 soy sauce to vinegar.
2. Take the Xiao Long Bao and dip in the sauce. But it's also suggested that you try it out first without any sauce.



3. After dipping, place the XLB in a spoon and poke a hole to release the soupy broth.



4. Try to add some ginger to the spoon. Enjoy!

Now, we haven't really tried a whole lot of XLB. But compared to those others that we have had before, this was bar none the best we've had. We loved that the wrapper no matter how thin (you can even almost see the broth inside) doesn't break easily! The soup inside was heavenly and really went well with the dipping sauce.

Shrimp Dumplings (78 HKD)

We know this more popularly as Siomai, but in different parts of HK they go by shrimp dumplings, Shao Mai, etc. But yeah, this is something that we all know and love. The ones from Din Tai Fung have got to be the most plump siomai we have ever had. And you know it's freshly made and steamed when it takes more than 10 minutes for them to serve your siomai.

Pork Chop Fried Rice (75 HKD)

We don't know why but this seemingly normal and run of the mill dish was the highlight of our dinner. It's just fried porkchop on top of some yang chow. But the combination of both was really great and delicious. The porkchop really stood out, it was slightly sweet and salty, crunchy outside but tender inside.

Pork Bun (16 HKD)

I love eating siopao and I just had to try some from Din Tai Fung. I don't know what to make of this one though, since we are used to asking for asado or bola- bola and this looked neither of those 2. But at least it tasted great! They didn't have any sauce to go with it, though. Pinoy na Pinoy, naghahanap ng siopao sauce at hot sauce.

The menu at Din Tai Fung isn't exactly cheap, but it's not really that expensive either. With the quality of the food and service, it was definitely worth it. Those Michelin starred restaurants really do deserve the honor after all. So next time you're in HK, don't always cheap out and just eat at those seemingly cheaper little restaurants. You'd be surprised at how Din Tai Fung isn't that expensive :)

Din Tai Fung
Shop 130, 3/F, Silvercord, 30 Canton Road, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kog

Butao King and Ikea Food - Hong Kong

On my second day in Hong Kong, Kim and I woke up a little late since we were really tired from that whirlwind of a first day. We decided to just have brunch at Butao King which was a quick 5min walk from Kim's flat. We missed out eating there during my first night as the line was really long, but this time we were their first customers for the day.

 

Butao King is the same as Ramen Nagi in the Philippines. The food and the ordering system is the same. But in Hong Kong, Butao is just a small spot in a sidestreet (read: eskinita) flanked by a laundry shop and apartment complex and fronted by a hardware store, accessible and affordable for most. But in the Philippines, Ramen Nagi is a geared a little more for the upscale. The quality of the food and service is the same though -- great. It is also nice to note that Butao King is has been voted Best Restaurant in Causeway Bay, as proudly displayed in the storefront.

The place was really small, there were about 5 round tables which sat about 5-6 people. So if you come during peak hours and in a group, be prepared to eat separately as it is almost impossible to wait for a whole table to clear out at the same time. The place might seem like an open air restaurant from the outside because it is lacking any door, but surprisingly it had A/C inside and was really cold! Like in Ramen Nagi, they give you a piece of paper where you could select and fill out your order.

We ordered the original Butao since I didn't try that out in Ramen Nagi, and just played it safe for the selecting 'Normal' for most of the choices on the order slip. Usually, you can choose between Pork Belly or Pork Butt, but the former wasn't available that day so we had no choice but to settle for the latter.

We love how rich it was in flavor even though we only put out 'Normal.' Everything just went well together, and we were really full at the end of our meal. The serving was really big and more than enough to satisfy a hungry person's appetite. Kim as usual had a hard time finishing her bowl, so I gladly ate what she couldn't finish.

After eating at Butao King, we went around Ikea which was really tiring! So we needed a snack after shopping. Good thing, Ikea had a little snack bar/ cafe.

We ordered their famous meatballs, a hotdog sandwich and a glass of refillable Pepsi.

With a full stomach, we were ready for the next adventure for that day... more walking and eating! Wait for our next post to find out where we went to next and where we ate!

Butao King
G/F, 40 Tang Lung Street, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

IKEA
Upper Basement, Parklane Hotel, 310 Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong

Main Street Corner Cafe and Lucky Nugget Saloon - Disneyland

To celebrate Kim's birthday, we went to Hong Kong Disneyland. Once the park gates were opened, we were caught in a beeline just to have pictures with Mickey and Minnie. So after an hour of queueing,  we headed straight to the first restaurant we saw,  Main Street Corner Cafe.

The Main Street Corner Cafe is the first restaurant you will see coming into the park. There are a few food stalls and a bakery before it, but it's the only sit down restaurant in Main Street, USA which is the first section of Disneyland Hong Kong. It's presented by Coca- Cola, so while the setting was undoubtedly Victorian, they found ways to put Coca Cola design cues throughout the restaurant.

The menu is an eclectic mix to say the least. It's in Main Street, USA so of course they serve American staples like burgers, fries, and buffalo wings. But the menu also contains noodle soups and congee for the mixed Asian market that goes to Disneyland here.

Theme park food isn't cheap, and even then, this was probably one of the most expensive in the whole park as it is a full service restaurant. But we were really hungry, and the menu looked good so we didn't care if we had to shell out an extra hundred dollars (HKD) for lunch.

We ordered the following to share:

Cheeseburger (168HKD)

Maybe we were just hungry, but this was a really great tasting burger! The patty was moist and juicy, and full of flavor. It had the cheese melted on top with some lettuce and tomatoes with it. The burger came with a side of fries and some greens too.

Main Street Signature Platter (166HKD)

The platter had chicken wings, deep fried potato shrimp, onion rings, fries and served with chili sauce, sour cream and ketchup. The wings were plump and had a little zing to them. The shrimp was wrapped with a sort of shoestring potato and was really juicy inside. The onion rings and fries were just okay.

Coke Float (48HKD)

Since this is a Coca Cola sponsored restaurant, we just had to order a couple of Coke Floats!

We probably won't tell everyone to eat here when going to Disneyland Hong Kong as it's really expensive for park food. But if you want a nice meal without falling in line with a lot of kids running around, and are willing to spend a little more than necessary, then this place is for you. The place had a really nice ambiance that made you feel like you were in the 1800's complete. Plus, the food was great too!

We got hungry again in the afternoon and decided we'd just grab a snack. We were already at the Grizzly Gulch portion of the park and it had the Lucky Nugget Saloon. We got some chicken nuggets and fries, together with a weird fruity drink! (75HKD)

Main Street Corner Cafe and Lucky Nugget Saloon
Hong Kong Disneyland