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.

My Betrothed and I went to Raggatori at Cubao Expo a couple of times this past couple of months. Cubao Expo was actually quite accessible to us, but each time we go there and try to eat, we get turned off by the amount of lingering cigarette smoke. That wouldn’t have been too bad if it were isolated outside, but most of the bars and restaurants here were open and not airconditioned. Nevertheless, we passed by again and noticed a delicious-looking takoyaki stall that seems to have been manned by a real Japanese person. Invited by the smell that overwhelmed the cigarette smoke, we decided to check it out.

A couple of days before my flight to Japan, Beloved and I passed by Ali Mall to exchange some Yen. Unfortunately, we learned that the pawnshop that used to sell Yen no longer does it (I went to Sanry’s in Trinoma the next day; they offer very good rates). Anyway, hungry, we decided to eat in one of the new places in old Ali Mall, Sisig Society.

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 and I had dinner at Tien Ma’s a couple of weeks ago. It’s our second time trying this place, with the first time being a not bad experience. Located at KIA Theater, right beside Tim Hortons, this Chinese/Taiwanese place serves dimsum, mami, and other Chinese viands that goes well with rice. It’s your typical Chinese place, really. What separates this place is the fact that most of their viands are priced at 200 Php, a bit below from your average similar place and yet manages to serve a similar amount.

Beloved celebrated her birthday with me at Four Seasons Buffet & Hotpot located at the Manhattan Parkview in Cubao a couple of weeks ago. We’ve actually been here before, a lot of times already, in fact, and among the buffet places that offer a free-on-your-birthday promo, this is Beloved’s favorite. Ever since it opened a couple of years ago, we’ve celebrated Beloved’s birthday here two years running now.

Beloved and I had a late brunch at Tim Hortons a couple of days ago. This Canadian chain is actually quite famous, and apparently, it beats McDonald’s in Canada, according to our friends there. It’s not our first time trying out the chain, actually. We’ve been to the Eastwood branch before and Beloved has been visiting this chain’s other branches quite frequently, which has been popping up all over the Metro, whenever she has the chance to. This particular branch has only recently opened at Cubao’s KIA Theatre and is actually quite close to home. In addition, it’s apparently open twenty-four hours.

2 days ago was my Inggo’s birthday. We celebrated it by taking advantage of a certain buffet’s birthday promo. The birthday celebrant can eat for free as long as they’re accompanied with one paying adult.

Beloved and I had dinner a couple of times at Gloria Maris. This Chinese seafood-specialty restaurant had a newly-opened (or maybe moved?) branch at the top floor of Gateway near where the cinemas are. Beloved usually associates Gloria Maris with expensive and classy, the former being the reason why we don’t consider going here. The first time we went, they were still on soft opening. Although it still looked classy and had an expensive feel, after surveying the menu, we found out it was surprisingly not-as-expensive as Beloved expected. Not fancying anything in particular that night, we decided to try it out.

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.