Yaki Mix

We celebrated Gwammy's 81st birthday with lunch at the Yaki Mix branch at the SM North EDSA complex.  This restaurant gets quite full at any of their branches, and it's a good idea to make reservations, especially if you come in a big group.  Their buffet is pretty neat, P725 per head during weekends; on weekdays, the price goes down to P575 for lunch and P675 during dinnertime (this price already includes a wide array of beverages--sodas, teas and juice drinks).  The food is basically Japanese (they have a good selection of sashimi, sushi, tempura and sukiyaki items to choose from).  Some Cantonese and Korean dishes were also included to give some variety to the spread.  The tables come equipped with a grill, which one can use to cook the raw items on the buffet table--and they have a wide range of squid, beef, pork, chicken, shrimps, and vegetables to choose from.  The cooked dishes were quite appetizing and tasty, and I particularly liked the way the pancit was cooked.  The dessert table was also well-stocked, with fruits, pastries, halo-halo and ice cream.  We had a fun time going back and forth for the Selecta ice lollies (watermelon and green apple).  It was a good birthday celebration, and Gwammy was all smiles as the clan members stretched their belts to the max!

Tong Yang

We were first introduced to the "Hot Pot" experience by Erika & Beng in the late eighties, and if I remember right, they brought us to the Tong Yang restaurant located at the Pan Pacific Hotel along Adriatico St. in Ermita.  We've been able to visit the other branches of Tong Yang at Quezon Boulevard, but it seems that we haven't gone back in some 4-5 years.  Today was jang-jang day for Kong, Gwam, Monique & myself, and we found ourselves wandering around SM City in Fairview.  To our delight, the Tong Yang branch there offered a special promo price of only P299 per head for weekday lunch eat-all-you-can, and since all of us were famished, we went in and tried the restaurant.  We were not disappointed!  Our grilled items consisted of thinly sliced beef, chicken skewers and shrimps, all cooked with special sauces.  Monique even tried to make some scrambled eggs and fast succeeded--teflon magic!  Our chicken stock was soon boiling with various kinds of seafood, meats and vegetables--gindara, bangus, squid, lapu-lapu, sole, button mushrooms, abalone mushrooms, straw mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, sotanghon noodles, chap chae noodles, chicken liver, young corn, petchay.  Soon we were experimenting with various combinations of sauces and spices.  Their cooked food section was also enticing--pancit canton, siopao, hakaw, siomai, and various kinds of sushi made Gwammy and Monique quite contented!  To finish the meal, we had a choice of fruits, halo-halo and the famous Big Scoop ice cream!  Absolutely worth the price that we paid--we went home pretty much with a big smile on our faces, and by 3 pm, all of us were starting to get sleepy--super busog!

Cafe Uno

My recent trip to Cebu was a fast-paced, in & out, ping-pong kinda business trip.  We were lucky to be billeted at the Waterfront Cebu City Hotel, and we had a wonderful lunch at the Cafe Uno, located at the right side of the hotel's lobby area.  The buffet spread is pretty extensive, with 3 kinds of soup to start with, cheese and salad spreads, on-the-spot cooking of pastas & mami, several kinds of roasts (beef, pork & chicken), different viands and a well-rounded dessert menu.  We were there on a weekday at around 12:30 pm and the place was around 60% full; I understand that during breakfast time, the restaurant can have as much as 200% turnover!  The staff are dressed in bright green outfits that make them stand out in the heavy crowd, easy to identify and I would say, they are courteous and quite helpful.  To my delight--P650 per head!  That kind of a lunch buffet would have cost at least 50% more in Manila...