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

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen

August 10, 2013. Saturday.

Aside from the recent influx of Katsu places in the country, Ramen restaurants have also been popping up left and right. Kim and I have always made plans to try one but has never gotten to doing it (until this entry). It's ironic that it took us this long since we're practically around Eastwood all the time and there's a Ramen Bar there.

We only recently explored SM Aura, and we love how uncrowded it is! We've been there 2 weekends straight. The first time we ate at Yabu and the next time.. yup, you guessed it right, we ate at a Ramen place (the title is kinda a dead giveaway)! Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen to be exact.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen is a mouthful to say and a lot to type, so we'll just refer to it as IFR from this point on. IFR in SM Aura is the Japanese import's 2nd branch in the country; the first is in Shangri- la. We saw how long the lines were during dinner time the previous time we passed by it, so we made it a point to get early dinner. Well, we were early but no tables were vacant  and we ended up sitting at the bar instead. Not a big deal though, it adds to the experience I guess. We could say we ate ramen at a bar, but not at Ramen Bar. Haha.

We first ordered Gyoza.

Gyoza. 150php.

Gyoza is basically a dumpling. The fillings usually vary from restaurant to restaurant but its usually a combination of some ground meat and vegetables. We liked this one because it was lightly toasted and crisp on the outside. It came with some sort of soy- vinegar sauce which was slightly sweet.

Kim ordered the Ajitama Tonkotsu.

Ajitama Tonkotsu. 330php.

The Ajitama Tonkotsu is IFR's best selling ramen. It comes with chashu (pork), ajitama (slow boiled egg), green onion, bamboo shoots, wood ear, and dried seaweed. Tonkotsu is made from boiling pork over a long period of time. It is usually fatty and creamy. IFR's Ajitama Tonkotsu was creamy but not as creamy as we expected it to be. But aside from that, it was great and really filling!

I went for their Black Garlic Tonkotsu.

Black Garlic Tonkotsu. 380php.

This had a really strong garlic aroma and flavor.. which I really loved! It's almost the same as Kim's order except without the egg and it had that special garlic oil in it.

Most Filipinos would still prefer their rice meals for their dinner (Kim and I included). But if you're feeling a bit adventurous, a bowl of ramen is just as filling and just as good. It's not that cheap especially when you think that you're just getting a slice of pork, noodles and broth, but once you've considered the way it's been cooked (slow boiling, hand pulled noodles) then it's all worth it. We definitely enjoyed eating at Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen, and would consider trying out their other ramens as well.

On a sidenote, you get to choose how to get your noodles done. We had both our orders hard for that al dente firmness.

Ikkoryu Fukuoka Ramen
Level 2, SM Aura Premier
McKinley Parkway, Taguig

Flavours of China

September 23, 2012

After a long day of shopping in SM North Edsa, we just wanted a quick dinner since we were already tired and wanted to just relax at home. We decided we would go for Chinese because for some reason Chinese food always seems like comfort food to us. Since we were already in The Block, we settled for Flavours of China.

For starters, we ordered Sharksfin Dumpling.

Sharksfin Dumpling. 90php.

We were both surprised at how yellow it was when served. We joked that it might have Hepa. It tasted okay, but for 90php I can name more than a handful of restaurants that serve better dimsum. 

I got Siomai Noodle Soup.

Siomai Noodle Soup. 130php.

Just like the sharksfin, this one tasted okay but not exceptional. But since I was hungry and wanted hot soup to warm my tummy, I had to make do with this. There was something weird as to how the dumpling in the soup tasted. It had this sort of after taste that I really can't pinpoint.

We also got Lechon Macau to share.

Lechon Macau. 240php.

We thought that maybe the Lechon Macau would be their saving grace. But no, it was just like the first two dishes served, mediocre. It was crispy and cooked well, but most of the cuts were too fatty. After just a few pieces of this, Kim put down here utensils and stopped eating. Umay agad. For me it was okay that it was fatty since I love fatty foods but it was how oily it was that ruined it for me.

Aside from the food, the place also gets a thumbs down from us. Tables and chairs were really cramped against each other. And service was very slow. I understand that there are a lot of customers during Sunday dinner time, but they should really be prepared to cover all tables. It wasn't the wait staff's fault though since they seemed courteous enough.

To sum it all up, this was a pretty substandard Chinese dining experience for us. The prevalent theme for the night was we could have gotten better value for our money at some other place for each of the dish we ordered.

Flavours of China

2/F SM Cityh North EDSA, The Block

North Ave., Quezon City

(02) 442-0030

https://www.facebook.com/flavoursofchinaph