Hap Chan

Hap Chan
(Ali Mall, Cubao)

Beloved and I ate at Hap Chan a couple of times the past few weeks. Yep, you heard that right; this one took a while in the making. Why do it like this? Well, it’s sort of an experiment. Basically all of our reviews have been mostly first impressions. While important, I think the most important part is consistency, and visiting again would affirm that. Also, this gives a chance to those places I didn’t enjoy the first time around because of wrong order choices or irresponsible servers or unfortunate mishaps et cetera. So, unless we spent more than reasonable, or the place is very special, expect two visits from future reviews.

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao

Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao
(Greenhills)

A few nights ago, Beloved and I had dinner at Crystal Jade La Mian Xiao Long Bao. Since it’s a pretty lengthy name, I’ll just reduce it to Crystal Jade. This Singaporean-Chinese restaurant is located at Greenhills, just outside VirraMall. Since it has “Xiao Long Bao” in its name, I assumed it was their specialty, and their posters outside support my claim. I have no idea what “La Mian” was, though. Anyway, since we happened to be in the area and this place is amongst the only ones unique here from elsewhere, we decided to give it a shot.

Dragon Chef

Dragon Chef
(Trinoma)

Beloved and I had dinner at Dragon Chef last night. This, I assume, newly-opened Chinese restaurant is located at the fourth floor alfresco area of Trinoma, right beside Cyma and Chophouse. It didn’t replace any restaurant there, it just took a part of the newly-renovated Greek resto. I was doing some Christmas shopping at the said mall and Beloved accompanied me. When we got hungry, we somehow found ourselves on the fourth floor, and found this new place. After seeing that it’s a Chinese restaurant and knowing that Chinese restaurants are usually a good deal, we decided to try it out.

Lugang Cafe

Lugang Cafe
(SM North EDSA)

Beloved and I had dinner at Lugang Cafe last night. This internationally-famous Taiwanese restaurant-slash-cafe is among our more pricier ventures, but Beloved mostly heard positive feedback here from her friends. I personally haven’t heard of it until recently, when they opened doors to a new branch at an accessible (to us) SM North EDSA, probably because of it being pricy. Of course, we’ve had other pricy ventures before, and it mostly turned out well, so we gave this a shot.

North Park

North Park
(Scout Dr. Lazcano, near Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I had “breakfast” at North Park near Tomas Morato yesterday. I say “breakfast” with quotes because it was our first meal of the day. However, it was already nearing night time. This Chinese restaurant is actually pretty common in that most malls have one of these. We never tried the place, however, for since we don’t usually crave for Chinese, and when we do, it’s usually just the dimsum. Anyway, being one of the few restaurants at Tomas Morato area we’ve yet to try, we went there for the heck of it, and also because I felt the need for something hot and soupy due to a mild cold.

Sentosa

Sentosa
(Tomas Morato)

Beloved and I had dinner at Sentosa last night. This Singaporean-Chinese restaurant is among the newer ones in Tomas Morato, albeit this one has been here awhile. Still, I think it’s not yet been a year since its opening. Anyway, what kept us from eating here are a couple of things: first, we don’t know what to expect from a Singaporean restaurant, this being the first one we’ve to try; and, second, their windows consist of different fish tanks where they keep their fresh seafood, and we have no idea how many people are eating inside without taking a peek at the door to find out if people actually eat here. For some unknown reason, we did finally eat here last night, and what follows is the experience.

Kanzhu Hand-Pulled Noodles

Kanzhu Hand-Pulled Noodles
(Timog)

Beloved and I had a late dinner at Kanzhu Hand-Pulled Noodles. Beloved inadvertently became a regular to this place since her office usually orders lunch here. It also wasn’t my first time trying out this place as she brought me a couple of dishes to-go before. I thought it wasn’t fair to write about a take-home meal, as it might affect quality, but I thought it was pretty good and plentiful for a packaged meal.

President Tea House

President Tea House
(SM North EDSA)

Beloved and I had an early dinner at the President Tea House in SM North EDSA Annex. I’m not particularly certain why, but I do know I wasn’t craving for anything other than french fries. While this place obviously does not serve said delicious deep-fried potato snack, this seemed a safe place for those not craving for anything in particular. Oh, and Beloved sort of wanted dimsum, so….

Mr. Chow

Mr. Chow
(SM North EDSA)

Beloved and I ate at Mr. Chow last night. This Chinese Chowking clone can be found at a somewhat hidden corner where Sbarro and Red Ribbon is located, at the first floor of the City Center of SM North EDSA just across the Hypermarket. This place used to be where Mann Hann was, if I’m not mistaken, and I find it a bit funny that it’s replaced by another Chinese resto.

San Seh Noodle House

San Seh Noodle House
(Timog/Tomas Morato Rotonda)

Last mornight, Beloved and I ate breakfast at San Seh Noodle House. This cozy little place is located at the rotonda of Timog Avenue and Tomas Morato. We were there at around 4am in the morning because we broke our body clocks and became nocturnal for the past week. Hungry, we were deciding between the more popular fastfood usuals, Chowking or McDonald’s; or 24 hour pizza places open in the area, Yellow Cab or Shakey’s. We noticed that this place was open as well, so we risked trying it out.