Inggo Noms...

My Betrothed and I celebrated lunch of our eleven years together at Food Exchange Manila. This is Novotel Manila’s in-house restaurant that, as per most hotels, offers breakfast, lunch, and dinner buffet. We decided to staycation at the hotel to celebrate the occasion which came with a free breakfast for two at said restaurant. As the event neared, we found out that my Banco De Oro credit card offered a 40% discount for the place. Seeing as there’s few places in Cubao to have a fancy meal, we decided to take on the offer and have lunch at the same place the day of our stay.

The day after we went to Tendon Kohaku, my Betrothed and I went to The Cooking Room. This semi-new place is located on top of the same building as newly-opened Shopwise Express in Maginhawa, near V. Luna Extension. This is an all-you-can-eat place, where you cook your stuff on top of your table, hence the name, similar to other Korean grills. However, they offer much more than that.

My betrothed and I had an early dinner at Sumo Niku near the end of 2018. This place was in soft opening at a new portion of already gargantuan SM North EDSA called the North Towers (except it’s not really a tower; the mall is more elongated than tall and perhaps more fitting to be called North Wall). We happened upon the place while exploring the new mall section and we learn that they offer unlimited barbecue similar to most other Korean all-you-can-eat places popping up all over the place. Since the price seemed fair, we decided to try it out.

My Betrothed and I had dinner at Unlimited Grill & Sushi by Korean J a few days before Christmas; and, yes, this is their actual store name. This was an unplanned trip and the primary reason was that I was craving for kimchi. We met at a 7-11 opposite this place and found that they had a table open for us despite the small queue, as what most Korean all-you-can-eat places have especially on a weekend. We decided to take the opportunity upon learning the price.

The soon-to-be-reviewed Korean place Beloved and I went to that I talked about in my Sebastian’s review was Samgyupsalamat. This is one of the many Korean Barbecue places that has opened up essentially everywhere in the Metro. Its name is a play-on-words with “samgyupsal”, the Korean pork barbecue that’s wrapped in lettuce, often with rice and other toppings, and “salamat”, Filipino word for “thanks”.

Beloved and I celebrated my birthday at The Alley about a month ago. It has been tradition for us to eat at a buffet restaurant each year that offers a free seat on one’s birthday with one paying adult, just like we did at Four Seasons on Beloved’s birthday this year. The Alley is from the same Vikings group of restaurants that basically allows you to “eat like a viking”. The twist on this place after the cut.

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 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.

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.