Kimono Ken

We first tried Kimono Ken at their Blue Wave branch at the reclaimed area in Pasay City.  Back then, the interiors were pretty spartan and the branch didn't leave much of an impression on me.  Since Ed was in town to complete the paperwork for his Colt pistol in Camp Crame, we decided to have a family get-together at the Kimono Ken outlet along Tomas Morato.  We arrived at around 7:30pm and the place was full; the waiters hastily put up a long table for our group (we were 12 in all).  Vicky and Anita ordered a lot of fun food:

Everlasting Gyoza

The Pork Ramen came in hot 

Chicken Karaage which the kids just love...

Gwammy's favourite--kani salad!

 

Ebi Tempura, which was gone in 30 seconds...

Agedashi Tofu, staple protein dish

I came in a bit later, and failed to get pictures of the sushi, sashimi, teppanyaki, and the curry items.  The fast-moving items were gone in a jiffy!  My impression of the restaurant is that much has improved from the image it had when it first opened several years back.  The Tomas Morato branch is spacious and can accommodate more diners.  The interiors are neat and the walls are nicely decorated without being overbearing.  The food is prepared well, soup was tasty and the sauces were filled with flavor.  Serving portions are just larger than fast food outlets though, and while Japanese food is notoriously served as singles, I still thought that I could have been a bit more pleased with say a 15% increase in serving size!  We were quite contented and left with full tummies!  Prepare something around P500 to P600 per head.

Sumo Sam

It was lucky that we decided to start roaming around Robinson's Magnolia at 10:30 in the morning.  Even though the place was still on soft-opening status, the long queues at the fast food joints at 11:00 am indicated that the restaurants would soon be filled up by lunchtime--word had apparently gone around that the mall was already open.  Since Kong and Gwammy wanted to have Japanese food, we were lucky to arrive at Sumo Sam's just before all seats were taken.  Their logo is the cute caricature of the kind and lovable Sumo wrestler shown above.

The restaurant is part of the group of restaurants run by Chef Marvin Agustin (the former TV actor).  Interiors are neat and the restaurant can accommodate a lot of guests since seating was also available at the corridor area.  We learned from the staff that this particular outlet was a franchise.  Judging from the guests that came to the newly-opened outlet (you can see the inauguration floral stand on the left side of the picture above), it would be a hit!

We chose a simple menu of beef teppanyaki, beef gyudon and grilled chicken and asparagus.  Unfortunately, salmon sashimi and gyoza were both out of stock (the kitchen had not expected the heightened demand for this), and Kong was a bit disappointed.  Food came in hot, and well seasoned, and service was quite good.  The only hitch was that the bill came in with some errors, but this was quickly corrected by the cashier--understandable since the restaurant had only been open for a couple of days!  Our bill came to around P300 per head, reasonably outlay for a popular-price restaurant.

John & Yoko

Our visit to Greenbelt 5 took up more time than we expected, so Vicky and I decided to have dinner at John and Yoko, a restaurant reportedly owned by the celebrity actor Marvin Agustin.  The concept is understandably East meets West, after the fabled love story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono.  The restaurant pays homage to Japanese pop culture; I had fun watching a video of "The Samurai" which was playing in one of the side walls.  The menu card was a bit difficult to read though--smashing collection of colors and fonts, mixed in with food pics.

We had seafood ramen and tempura udon, which came in large bowls.  I asked that the tempura be served separately from the udon so as not to make it soggy.  The flavors were quite rich and the broth was aromatic.  We spent something like P350 per head with the light dinner, but if you will be taking on a full meal, allot something like P700 per head for budget purposes.

Karate Kid

The Karate Kid movie series with Pat Morita and Ralph Macchio was an inspiring trilogy about the coming of age of a young karate student (in recent years, the remake has Jacky Chan and Jaden Smith).  I guess the Karate Kid restaurant was conceived to be a direct tribute to the movies.  Monique and I chanced upon the outlet at the Robinson's Ermita and we had an afternoon snack of noodles, gyoza, crunchy maki and burger-topped-spaghetti:

We spent something like P500 for the both of us, and it was good that we were able to sit down despite the long queue at the counter.  Pricing is pretty affordable, so it was understandable why the place was full with students around the Ermita area.  I would say that the gyoza, the maki and the ramen soup were acceptable in taste, although I felt that the gyoza was a bit under-filled.  There was definitely no excitement about the burger-topped-spaghetti, and I felt like berating myself for ordering Italian in a Japanese fast food outlet.  Also, serving portions are calibrated for snacks.

Nozomi

The variety of eating places in the Ortigas area isn't a broad and extensive as that of Makati.  Take Japanese cuisine, for example--in Makati, one can find the full range of places to eat, from inexpensive fast food to the most exquisite restaurants.  I've been looking for a good mid-range Japanese place in the Ortigas Center, and until last week, wasn't to happy with the number of choices I had.  Nozomi, at the 6th floor of the One Corporate Center, was a good find.  The restaurant has a good range of available dishes, from simple fast meals like udon, ramen and donburi, to fresh sashimi and sushi, to more popular sukiyaki, teppanyaki, tempura, teriyaki.  Set meals are available too, and overall spend is something at the level of P350 per head.  The restaurant is only a few months old, and it seems that the place has already built a good following.  Function rooms are also available for small groups.

Sushi-Ya

My cousin Ginny and her Italian-American husband John were in town late last month, and we took some time to bring them out to a Japanese dinner at Gwammy's favorite, Sushi-Ya, along Tomas Morato.  My hesitation about eating in this area is usually due to the tight parking situation, but this time we were lucky to get a slot on the side street without having to wait.  We were a big group that wouldn't fit in the ground floor, so we were shown up the stairway, a good idea since we had the second floor of this popular-priced restaurant all to ourselves.  The kids quickly munched on the gyoza and tempura, while the adults took their time to savor the sashimi and the sushi (these dishes we ordered enough to share).  For our main dish however, each of us had their own order prepared.  I took the bento box with tenderloin cubes as my main course, and it was quite appetizing.  My feeling however, was that serving sizes are portioned out--when they say good for 1 person, it means exactly that--no room for abundance there.  Expect to spend something like P300 per head.

Pepper Lunch

Went to get Monique's new glasses yesterday, and we had a late lunch at the Pepper Lunch, a Japanese DIY steakhouse, at the second floor of the Greenbelt 5 Mall.  The dishes are usually served with rice and vegetable sidings, and on a specially designed hot-plate that keeps the food warm for around 20 minutes.  I understand the hot plate is electromagnetically charged to heat up to 260 degrees Centigrade in just around one minute, and the food is plated and comes to your table in under 5 minutes.

Once you receive your order, you are supposed to mix and mix!  The cooking concept is Do-It-Yourself, as the heat of the plate cooks the meats as you mix the ingredients for your dish.  The most popular dishes are the beef rice toppings, which roughly come to P300, while the better steaks go for around P700.  For variety, the restaurant also has chicken, hamburger and salmon dishes, available in various popular styles (e.g. curry, teriyaki and teppanyaki).  The restaurant is pretty popular in Tokyo, and has branches all over Southeast Asia and China.

Monique and I had lots of fun mixing our food, and had to wait for the super heated spoonfuls to cool down a bit before we could get a bite.  In the meantime, Andi enjoyed her Beef Teriyaki.  The drawback?  Well, as in all other sizzling plate diners, you end up with clothes smelling like the grilled steak!  Fine by us, anyway...

Moshi-Koshi

Had to work out some bookings with Erica in Makati last Saturday morning, and as soon as our errands were done, we had a fast lunch at Moshi-Koshi Noodle Boss along Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong.  Moshi, as most of you will know, means "Hello" in Japanese, while Koshi roughly corresponds to the Italian "Al Dente," describing the firm sensation of biting into properly cooked noodles.  The restaurant is only a few months old, but slowly gaining a following.  The interiors are bright, simple and relaxing.  I understand that both the owner and the head chef are Japanese, which probably explains why the taste of the noodles was very good.

The restaurant not only serves ramen, but also has choices for soba and udon.  Erica had miso ramen, while I had a tempura soba (prices range from P150 to P300 per order).  The soups were very flavorful, and the noodles were exactly as advertised--thoroughly cooked, yet still firm and gooey to the bite.  The chef makes noodles onsite, and the cooking process includes temperature controlled boilers that monitor cooking time--this ensure that the noodles are the right texture each time you visit the store.

Kenji Tei

Monique and I spent another Happy Friday at the Greenbelt 5, and we started off with afternoon merienda at Kenji Tei on the 3rd Floor.  Except for a mother and daughter tandem, the place was empty when we got there, so we were lucky to have our snack served in a jiffy--

Our snack turned into a meal when we added gyoza and salmon sashimi; we were simply supposed to have a bowl each of noodles!  We chose a seafood ramen bowl and a pork miso ramen bowl--

On the one hand, the gyoza and salmon dishes were average; the soup broths on the other hand were quite tasty and flavorful.  We spent some P650 per head for our merienda, and now that I think about it, we may have gone overboard eating so much just for our afternoon snack!

Ganso-Shabuway

Vicky had tried Ganso-Shabuway hotpot (steamboat) restaurant with a client a few weeks ago, and couldn't resist asking Monique & myself back for a second round.  It's a specialty place for shabu-shabu, or Japanese-style hotpot, and the piece de resistance is their Kobe beef plate (200 grams) which comes in thinly sliced and so marbled that a 5 second dunk in the boiling soup is all that's needed for one to enjoy!  Absolutely so buttery-creamy!  As a less expensive alternative (about half the price), the Angus plate is also tasty, but not as marbled.  We took one plate of each, just to taste the difference, and in addition, we also had unagi (sea snake).  Their signature sesame sauce is such a delight--I must figure out how they make this stuff at home; it is very tasty.  The dunking soup comes in two variants--seaweed and miso, which was slightly on the spicy side.  I understand that this is a US franchise, and their branch at the 2nd floor of Greenbelt 5 is their maiden foray into the Philippine market.  All in all a good experience for us, just be prepared to spend something like P1,000 per head.


Antha Grey ribbing as Mother Hen points to the moon--Waiting for space ships, ey?

Kimpura

Had a trip down memory lane over lunch last Friday with Kong and Gwammy, as we went to Greenhills to eat in Kimpura Restaurant.  This Japanese restaurant has been around since 1970, and opened alongside Unimart when Ortigas & Co. inaugurated the Greenhills Commercial Center.  Kong and his golf buddies used to eat in this restaurant every Saturday lunch for several years from the late 80s to the early 90s, and true to form, their then regular food attendant, Larry, was also around when we went there last Friday, and he recognized Kong and made us welcome.  Their group was such a regular customer that the cashier of the restaurant already kept  copies of their senior citizen ID cards, and the computations of their 20% discount would become an automatic thing.  For starters we had miso soup, while Gwammy ordered some California Maki.  We then had chicken & prawn teppanyaki, and with it, two kinds of fried rice.  Just enough to be full without being stuffed, all for an average of P350 per head (Kong has this theory that if you know how to order well in Japanese restaurants, you can eat well without paying overboard).  We were made to understand that the restaurant has other branches in both Greenbelt Makati and Tri-noma in Quezon City, and we probably will visit these locations sometime in the near future.

Izakaya Kikufuji

Kong Kong and Gwammy celebrated their 51st wedding anniversary over the weekend, we had a long discussion on where to eat for the affair.  The unanimous pick was Izakaya Kikufuji, a Japanese restaurant along Pasong Tamo in Makati, very near the Makati Cinema Square.  This restaurant is located in the district that is known as Tokyotown, and is well patronized by the expat Japanese in Manila.  The restaurant has an authentic feel to it, and the ambiance is so convincing that I half expected sword-wielding ninjas to burst into combat with samurai warriors every time the sliding door was opened!  We had lunch in the end function room in which everyone took their shoes of, and sat on the floor--well, Kong had initial difficulty in sitting, but he then managed to make the best of the situation.  We were divided into three tables, and each table ordered its own menu--we had various kinds of sashimi (the hotate or scallop sashimi was simply superb), sushi, beef teppanyaki, teriyaki gindara (codfish), grilled saba (mackerel).  The meals were served complete with soup, rice, vegetable side dishes, and a choice of banana or cold coffee for finishers.  Take note that due to the popularity of the restaurant, it is best to make reservations--the lunchtime window is only from 11 am to 1:30 pm which unfortunately isn't much time to lounge around for chit-chat.  In any case, the kids enjoyed very much!  All in all, the average spending price range is quite reasonable at around P600 per head.