Inggo Noms...

Beloved and I had dinner with Const at Saram Korean BBQ Grill Buffet a couple of weeks ago. This newly-opened Korean barbecue buffet is located at V. Luna Extension, in the same building as Snack Shack. Meant to compete against the ever-growing number of sub-500 Php all-you-can-eat Korean barbecues, this isn’t actually the first in the area. However, it’s now officially the closest from our place. Since we pass this by frequently, with the advantage of no longer needing to take a tricycle, we found little reason not to try it out.

Beloved and I had dinner at Cafe Sweet Inspirations a few weeks ago. Despite being a cafe, this is actually more famous for their all-you-can-eat Mongolian rice bowls. I’ve been a patron of this place for a good couple of decades already, as this was a go-to place while I was still residing and studying near the Diliman university belt. Since knowing about this place and since affoding to go here on my own, there’s almost never a year that passed that I haven’t been here.

Beloved and I had dinner at The Dimsum Place a few weeks back. We’re semi-regulars of this place, mainly because Fishermall doesn’t have a lot of places to eat in that we particularly fancy. The Dimsum Place stands out in that it’s in the more affordable side and they have both Beloved’s and my favorite dimsum.

Beloved and I had dinner at Jin Joo a month ago. This was during our 10th anniversary, and right after we went bowling and had lunch at our beloved Ippudo (linked is the Megamall branch, but we ate at Eastwood). This Korean place was having an ongoing promo where they offered 499 Php unlimited samgyupsal, or grilled pork. Honestly, we weren’t too hungry, but I reckoned that we won’t be going back to Eastwood for a while and the limited offer might no longer be available when we do get back, so we tried it out anyway.

Beloved and I had a late lunch at UNANI Yakitori + Sushi a couple of weeks ago. I’m expediting this review despite having a couple of new places in the backlog for reasons I’ll explain in the last paragraph. Anyway, we’ve always passed by this place, located at what I’d like to call the “dead zone” of popular foodie street Maginhawa of UP Teacher’s village. I call it such because it seems aside from Papa Diddi’s, all other restaurants and even food parks seem to struggle in this place and close down within their first couple of years of service.

Me and Const partook of Pancake House’s Taco All You Can Wednesdays promotion last Wednesday. I’m actually skipping some reviews in the backlog because this promo is only for the month of June, 2018. Pancake House, for the uninformed, specializes in pancakes. Now that I mention it, we haven’t done a good review of the place. Beloved and myself, and sometimes with her family, go here to eat not their pancakes, but their other food like their pan-fried chicken, salisbury steak, and pastas. Their pancakes, ironically, is pretty low on our choice here, and we often go for their waffles instead. Oh, and their tacos are pretty good too, which is why Const and I went ahead and tried out this promotion.

Beloved and I revisited Gloria Maris at Gateway almost a month ago. We celebrated the eve of our anniversary here. It’s been almost five years since our first visit, and I am partly curious how inflation comes into play. Anyway, we went here since we were somewhat craving for seafood and this was one of the few decent places in Cubao that we know of.

Beloved, myself, and a couple of friends ate at Botejyu a few weeks ago. This Japanese place is one of the few places open at Vertis Ginza, the Japanese “section” of Vertis North. The restaurant features Osaka specialties, which I honestly don’t know much about. The place seemed intimidating which is why we haven’t tried this place before, but after a recommendation from another common friend, we decided to try it out.

Beloved and I had dinner at Zubuchon a couple of weeks ago. This happened because I was annoyed with the queue for the bus and we were supposed to go home, towards Cubao area. This was also after when we already had dinner at nearby Shangri-La Plaza mall (part of which was chicharon). This lechon-specialty store is deemed inferior by Cebu friends, but based on other reviews we’ve watched, tourists seemed to like it better. For the uninformed, lechon is essentially whole pit-roasted pig—a specialty of the country. Seeing as it’s a rare time for both of us to be in Mandaluyong, where the closest Zubuchon is, we took the opportunity to try it out.

Beloved, myself, and Const had a late lunch or early dinner at Zaan Japanese Tea House. This was a month ago, when we went to Papa Diddi’s, and, yes, this is the “new place” I talked about in that review. We found this place in one of the popular review aggregators and noticed that it had favorable reviews. Since we wanted to try something new, especially around the Tomas Morato area, we decided to try it out, inviting Const along the way.