Tony Roma's: Back-to-back Ribs

Thanks to a discount voucher, we were able to score buy 1 take 1 full rack ribs with a side of coleslaw, and a choice of corn, rice, or fries.

Ribs were tender in general and easy to separate from the bone. Most of the flavor was on the bbq sauce.

The fries were salted just right. Some even had some sort of flavor perhaps from the juices of the ribs.

To refresh the pallette, take a bite from the coleslaw.

For the ambiance, the store's entrance downstairs had a more bar-like feel with all the dim lights and the actual bar being downatairs. It's also a bit cramped up down there. But upstairs is where groups can dine together with a more sunny ambience a a little view of the shopping complex.

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Year 2015 Western/European Food Compilation Special

Moving on to the other side of the globe, we explore Western and European fare. Here are our picks from 2015. Click on the labels to see the complete write-up.

House of Wagyu Stone Grill

I must say, this is one of the best steaks I have tasted! This photo does not capture how tasty the meat was. [...read me]


8 Cuts burger Blends

One of the first food trips we had last 2015. The bacon and burger combo got me. [...read me]


Green Pastures

Healthy can also mean tasty. [...read me]



Ble

Off to meat and spices of a more uncommon cuisine. [...read me]



California Pizza Kitchen

Dined here during their National Pizza Day and got a free pizza and shirt. Loved their Farmer's Pizza! [...read me]




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California Pizza Kitchen: National Pizza Day 2015

Celebrating 18 years and National Pizza Day, California Pizza Kitchen offered buy 1 take 1 pizzas this August 14-15.

Just order any of their regular pizzas and you get to choose one free pizza from these flavors: Caprese, Hawaiian Pepperoni, Salami + Bacon, Italian Sausage and Pepper, and Traditional Cheese. Plus, if you are one of the first 10 customers, you get a free shirt!


Farmer's Choice

Their Pizzawars winning pizza, the Farmer's Choice pizza, makes their debut. It has a roasted pumpkin base instead of tomato sauce.

A generous amount of mozzarella cheese serves as the next layer . And for toppings, it has zucchini, eggplant, and cherry tomatoes instead of meat. Desiccated coconut is sprinkled on the pizza too.

Fresh from the oven, the aroma of pumpkin filled the air. The pumpkin was sweet and creamy and it matches the gooey cheese well. Really, it was a tasty vegetable pizza. This pizza can be characterized by its natural sweetness from the pumpkin and coconut. It is different take on pizza that's usually on the savory side.

Free Pizza

For our free pizza, we ordered Salami + Bacon pizza to go. Two meats embody the savory pizza we are all familiar with.


Shirt!

Here's photo right before we finished the Farmer's Pizza.

Branch visited located at Entertainment Mall, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City



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The Burger Lab: From Double Patties to Smoky Servings

New restaurant time! Another restaurant recently opened in Two E-Com, just beside Up Rice - also a recently opened food place, that we tried a few weeks ago. And just like Up Rice, online discount vouchers were available too. So we tried out The Burger Lab.

There were some flasks and beakers on display to add to the lab theme. The highlight of the store is that you get to build your own burger and experiment with combinations of toppings and patties. But unfortunately, the discount vouchers we had were not valid for the build your own burger. Instead, we ordered two burgers with the chef's recommendation icon on the menu plus one order of fries.

The Cardiac Burger

Double decker patty of chuck, rib, and fats, plus cheese in between. Plus an onion ring and bacon on top. Plus potato chips on the side.

The patty had a beefy taste and some beefy oils but it had some tough parts. I prefer my burger to be well-ground and more tender. It was very filling. I wonder how full I would have gotten if I ordered a milkshake.

The Smoked Gun Burger

Described as a burger with smoking BBQ flavors, this burger was served smoking - literally. The burger and the potato chips was housed in a transparent dome clouded with smoke when it was served on our table. For a while I wondered what the dome was for since the other burger was served normally. Then, our server slowly removed the dome to release the smoke and reveal the burger and chips.

The texture of the patty itself was quite similar to the cardiac's patty with some chewy parts here and there. The difference is that everything tasted smoky - the burger, the bread, the coleslaw, and even the potato chips.

We wanted to try out their mushroom burger but it was not available...Hope to try it when we use our remaining discount voucher.

Branch visited located at: Two E-com, MOA Complex, Pasay City

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T.G.I. Friday's: Bistro Lunch

We still had two free appetizer coupons from our discount card that was purchased last year. The expiry date was getting nearer and so we decided to have lunch and dinner at Bistro group restaurants. This is the first part of the series. For lunch, we ate at Fridays.

Beef Queso Dip

Our appetizer was characterized by strong tasting cheese with ground beef. The dip serving was more than enough for the nachos. We needed more nachos! Crunch and cheese combination is perfect for an appetizer.

Miami Cubano Chicken

Next up, we ordered Miami Cubano Chicken. Two fried chicken fillets sandwiching ham, mozzarella, and mushroom composed the main dish. This reminded me of cordon bleu. It also came with flavored rice.

Our next story at Italianni’s, coming up next!

Branch visited located at: 2nd floor, Entertainment Mall, Mall of Asia, Pasay City

Village Tavern: Celebrate with Burger, Pizza and Ribs

Have you tried a Black Pizza? And have some burger and ribs too.

Off to celebrate something special, we went to Village Tavern at Bonifacio High Street. This was a perfect time to use our 40% off coupon for any Bistro group restaurant (Italiannis, Fridays, etc) which includes Village Tavern.

We arrived before noon for an early lunch. One side of the wall, the one beside the couches, features a mural. The other side features wine display and the bar.

Cowboy burger and Black Pizza arrived first.

I’m intrigued at how the Black Pizza would taste like. It is a thin crust pizza with chewy edges and with squid ink infused in its dough. I did not taste the squid ink in the crust though. Or maybe I am just not familiar with it. The more dominant flavor is the cheese which I liked. Other toppings include onions, bell peppers, mushroom, pork, and pepperoni.

The Cowboy Burger has a thick patty with pure beef goodness. It is the cheese and sauce gives the cowboy burger a Mexican taste. The bacon added saltiness to the mix. This is what I liked best among the dishes we ordered.
We ordered this with sweet potato fries instead of ordinary potato fries. The sour taste of the dip went well with the natural sweetness of the fries.

The Pan Seared Lapu-lapu and Texas Ribs arrived next. It is seldom that I see a lapu-lapu dish in a restaurant’s seafood menu nowadays since the fish commonly used in fillet or other dishes is cream dory. A slice of lapu-lapu sat on a bed of potato wedges. Potato wedges serves as the carbohydrates of this dish. The saltiness of the sauce complements the fish and potatoes but is quite salty for me to eat on its own.

The Texas Ribs had a good amount of meat and a little fat on it. It has just the right amount of sweet BBQ flavor.



A Previous visit:

We visited this place some time last year and we had this dish with wonderful slices of tender pork and mushroom gravy.

While this one is the lime flavored dessert we had that time.

Branch visited located at: Bonifacio High Street, Taguig

California Pizza Kitchen

Decided to eat lunch with another gastronomer at California Pizza Kitchen since we had a voucher from an online deals site. We only paid Php 500 for the voucher but we get to order food worth Php 1,000. It was as if we got a 50% discount.

We previously visited CPK and had pizza and pasta. Too bad I wasn’t documenting food expeditions yet at that time. But I do remember the taste of their pizza dough. It had a gentle crunch. It was a little chewy but not too thick. I loved that the dough was not too oily. It also had a tiny tinge of sweetness too (or was I imagining it?). So for our visit today, we wanted to explore the menu beyond the pizza and pasta.

I wanted to try something with the BBQ chicken since the menu items with the BBQ chicken is a specialty dish. I decided to go with the The Original BBQ Chicken Chopped Salad instead of the pizza to explore the menu. We ordered the full sized salad so we can share. Fresh tomatoes, crisp lettuce, corn, beans, nacho strips and chicken fillet cubes with BBQ sauce in one bowl/plate is already a filling meal. The chicken itself was tender and lightly seasoned while the BBQ sauce definitely has that smoked flavor and was not too salty. This dish had a crunch in the lettuce and nachos, and a bite in the tender chicken.

Say Cheese :-) Yep the milkshake’s name comes with the smiley. And yep, it is a milkshake with cheese. Not only topped with cheese but infused with it. The shake itself has more of a cream or vanilla taste. It is actually sweet unlike some popular ice cream brand’s Quezo Real flavor that has a salty kick in the ice cream itself. With every sip of this shake, you get bits of cheese, I think it is mozarella or some other kind of stretchy cheese. Topping off the cheese shake are sharper tasting cheeses. I just hope there was more bacon toppings (haha).

More cheese! For additional order, we had Fried Mozarella. What makes this different from the other mozzarella sticks that I have tasted so far is that it is wrapped in wonton wrapper. Other mozarella sticks I have tasted have the cheese covered in a bread-like ingredient which is thick and has a flavor of its own. Thinner yet crunchier, the wonton wrapper really lets you taste the cheese inside and not just some breading. It is also powdered with Parmesan cheese outside. This comes with a marinara sauce to dip the sticks in.

Open faced Quesadilla topped with nacho strips – two of my favorite Mexican inspired dishes in one. The flavor is not too strong. The quesadilla itself is more on the crunchy side rather than the chewy side but I liked it nonetheless. I kind of felt like eating a thin crust pizza at one point. The chicken meat and beans added a soft contrast to the crunch.

Branch visited located at: Mall of Asia, Pasay City