Super early breakfast at Sweet Ideas Cafe, NAIA Terminal 3

I just downloaded the blogger app on my phone and this is the first time for me to use it. I'm hoping that the app will help me update my blog more regularly. I've hundreds of photos I haven't uploaded, so I hope this will help with the backlog.

I'm at the airport now, waiting to board my flight to Bangkok. I'm killing time at Sweet Ideas Cafe. It's my second time here, and I had spanish sardines with garlic rice and egg. The sardines were straight out of a bottle, so were nothing great. I liked the garlic rice though.

Oops gotta run, my flight's boarding already.

A new find: Relish, Hello Happiness! Restaurant

I'd seen the construction of this new restaurant "Relish" going on, because it's right beside Cerchio, where Chi and I so often have lunch. This week, we decided to finally try this new place. The facade amuses me, because it's so positive about how your experience will go. In fact, the complete name of the restaurant appears to be "Relish, Hello Happiness!" (Yes, it comes complete with exclamation point.)

When Chi and I entered, our first impression of the place was that it was a restaurant for "ladies who lunch", probably because a lot of the clientele at that time were, well, ladies. It was perfect for our purposes, as we wanted a place to chat and catch up on gossip since we hadn't seen each other for a few weeks.

I ordered the pumpkin soup to start, since I am still in search of the best pumpkin soup in the city, and Chi and I both ordered the Cream Dory with Lemon Pepper Sauce.

The pumpkin soup tasted a lot like those of other restaurants, except that it was a little too sweet, even for me, and I often like sugar in my food. It would have been better if it were not too sweet. I liked how the croutons were so crunchy, though. I might order this again if it were less sweet the next time around.

Roasted Pumpkin Soup

Next up, the cream dory. This was a hit with both Chi and me. We both liked the creamy sauce, and the garlic mashed potatoes that we chose as our sides. This one's a keeper; I will definitely have it again in the future.

Cream Dory with Lemon Pepper Sauce

For dessert, we had a hard time deciding which one to have, since they have a rather long list to choose from, and the waiter had several recommendations. We went with one of them and ordered the Peanut Banoffee Pie. We enjoyed this dessert as well. I particularly liked that the cream was frozen.

Peanut Banoffee Pie

As we were about to leave the restaurant, a sweet lady (presumably the owner) approached us and thanked us for coming, gave us the restaurant's business card, and then asked us to come back.

We definitely will.


Relish Hello Happiness! Restaurant
74 Scout Limbaga St. cor. Tomas Morato
Quezon City, Philippines
Tel. No. +63 2 352.5492/352.0774
Mobile +63 926.695.9885
Email relishqc@yahoo.com

Pre-movie dinner at Italianni's

I had some time to kill before I watched Taken 2, so I decided to have dinner at Italianni's. I wanted to eat some greens so I ordered their arugula and walnuts salad. Like many other restaurants, they skimped on the arugula. I usually order this salad particularly to have this type of leaf, so I was disappointed that there were probably just two pieces of it that I saw in this dish.

Arugula and walnuts salad

After this I had the shrimp and asparagus alfredo. It comes with bacon but I asked them to remove it from the pasta. It tasted good but I expected a bigger serving. (To be fair the lunch portion of the salad was bigger than I expected.)

Shrimp and asparagus alfredo

I enjoyed my dinner but noted that according to the softdrink index, Italianni's has increased their prices. A can of coke cost P90, which is one of the highest prices I've seen for this type of restaurant. This was not even the bottomless version, just a can (which costs P25 at 7-11 or Mini-stop).

This restaurant is relatively pricey, as similar franchises are (I suspect they try to match the prices in the US), but I do think P90 for a can of soda in a casual dining restaurant is a bit too much. I probably won't go back anytime soon. I would rather go to Amici. (And yes, the price of soda is a major consideration.)

Sun, Sand, and Surf- Lunch at The Big Kahuna, San Juan, La Union

I was excited to try surfing in San Juan, La Union, but I was just as excited to see what kind of restaurants they had there. I’d been told that The Big Kahuna was a good place to try, so I had my first meal there (lunch). I was also warned that the restaurant had Manila prices, and I found that assessment to be spot on.

The place sits right by the beach, so you can watch surfers catching waves in the noonday sun. Perhaps this view is what justifies the relatively steep prices. The place itself was very cozy; definitely a good place to hang out to have a few beers and relax. The menu was similar to a lot of resto-grills in Manila. We ordered tuna belly and grilled squid with garlic rice. The squid was delicious, but the tuna was a bit overcooked and didn’t taste very fresh.

Grilled tuna belly

Grilled squid

To round out the meal, I ordered brownie a la mode, which in my opinion was grossly overpriced, even compared to the main courses. Thank goodness the brownie was warm and chewy. I wouldn’t say the price was worth it, but given limited choices as to desserts, at least the brownie itself was good.

Brownie ala mode

We ended up hanging out at the restaurant for a few hours. Staring at the beach, watching the surfers, and listening to the waves crashing made the time fly by very quickly. We stayed there so long I found that I had no time left for surfing lessons. Maybe tomorrow I’ll try not to be so mesmerized by the scenery.

The Big Kahuna Bar and Restaurant
Urbiztondo
San Juan, La Union
Philippines

A "light meal" at Cafe Breton

When I picked up Chi for lunch, she said she wanted to have a light meal. And when she says she wants to eat something light, that usually means she wants to eat at Cafe Breton. I, on the other hand, was famished and wanted to eat A LOT. I was thinking "carbs, carbs, carbs" (like rice or pasta), but I'm flexible. So I just decided to order more than I usually do.

I had a salad to start. I liked their "Salade Bretonne", which had a lot of mangoes, aside from some shrimp and crab. One thing I didn't like though was that it didn't have any arugula, as the menu said it would. The salad tasted fine. It's just that if you say there's going to be arugula in it, there should be some.

Salade Bretonne 

After that I had my usual Galette Bretonne, which also had shrimp and crab. I really like this crepe, but it seems too sinful to have two of it in one sitting.

Galette Bretonne

For dessert, I tried their "Funtastyc" for the first time. It had some banana, chocohazelnut spread, vanilla ice cream, and Grand Marnier flambee. If you don't like alcohol, this one's not for you. I don't fall in this category, though. The Grand Marnier added a kick to the dessert.

Funtastyc

I really like this place. Chi and I have been eating here for years, and it brings a lot of memories from the time we worked together. Some of our other fellow crepe-eaters from my former office no longer work in the area, but eating at Cafe Breton never fails to bring pleasant memories of meals with them.


Cafe Breton
Tomas Morato cor. Sct. De Guia
Laging Handa, Quezon City
Philippines
Tel. 63(2) 374.6334

New favorite at Starbucks- "It's Just Cheese" sandwich

In my search for stable Internet, I decided to try Wi-tribe postpaid. I've tried their prepaid dongles, and they worked pretty well. So I went to their office along Commonwealth. I signed up for their service, thinking it was a "terminate anytime" arrangement. This was because I went to a Wi-tribe office a few months ago and the sales person advised me to get a postpaid account because it was a no-commitment, terminate-anytime arrangement.

Unfortunately, I was desperate for working Internet so I grudgingly accepted their one year contract which their salesperson said was their new policy for new subscribers, thinking that the speed of the Internet would be worth it. Sad to say, the connection is slower than I experienced with their prepaid service. BUT this blog entry is not supposed to be a rant, so...

 After I was done at the Wi-tribe office, I went to the Starbucks right beside it. I was happy to see they had the "It's Just Cheese" sandwich, which, as the name implies was simply a cheese sandwich. This was in contrast to what they call their "Ultimate Grilled Cheese" sandwich which had pepperoni. (Why would a grilled cheese sandwich have pepperoni, for heaven's sake? Actually, I already complained about this in a past post but can't resist complaining again since I'm already in that mood.)

Anyway, I was very happy with this newer sandwich, so cheesy and buttery and sinful. It didn't lack in cheese at all, as some similar sandwiches do. I'm glad that Starbucks has more pescetarian-friendly sandwiches now. There are several others I want to try, but I suspect I will be tempted to order the cheese sandwich whenever it's available.

It's Just Cheese

For dessert, I had their mocha silvana with cappuccino. The two went well, but the silvana was far from being as satisfying as their fudgy butterscotch bar, which is so hard to find nowadays.

Mocha Silvana

At any rate, the meal put me in a better mood after my encounter with Wi-tribe. It appears I have no choice but to stick with them for a whole year. I hope the service doesn't continue to deteriorate as it seems to have done over the past few months. If that turns out to be the case I would have to eat even more sandwiches and pastries to cope with Internet stress.


Starbucks
Diliman Commercial Comples
Commonwealth
Quezon City

Half-off buffet at Radisson Blu Cebu

One thing on Yvette’s to-do list while in Cebu was to avail of Radisson Blu’s half off buffet at their restaurant Feria on Tuesdays. I’d been warned that Radisson’s buffet is not “all that great”, but then again what better time to try such a meal than when it is fifty percent off?

When eating at hotel buffets, I have learned to devise a strategy. This is because my inner glutton is always eager to break out, so to keep it in check, I have to have a buffet plan. It’s pretty simple: I go around and scope out all the kinds of food that the buffet has to offer, then I decide on a theme (Chinese, Italian, Japanese, all-protein, all-carbs, etc.) and stick to that.

After I went around to check out what I could and wanted to eat at the buffet, I found that I had few pescetarian choices. There were fewer seafood choices than I usually see in similar buffets. This made my plan simpler, but only because I had few options. I couldn’t even have a country-themed meal because there were not enough dishes from each country that pescetarians could eat.

I decided to fall back on old reliables and have some sushi and sashimi to start.

Then I had some farfalle with broccoli from the pasta station.

Aside from that, I just had some cheese and dried fruit. Oh, and some gelato to end the meal. I think I enjoyed that part the most. The dishes themselves were not really anything out of the ordinary, but maybe what was more disappointing was the lack of choices, particularly for a seafood eater like me. After all, Cebu is right by the sea. Oh well, at least we didn't have to pay full price.


Feria
Ground floor, Radisson Blu Hotel
Serging Osmena Boulevard cor. Juan Luna Ave.
Cebu City 6000
Philippines
Tel. +63 (32) 402.9900
       +63 (32) 505.1700