Davao Tuna Grill

Found myself alone for lunch last week in Makati, and I chanced upon the Davao Tuna Grill at the Dela Rosa carpark.  The restaurant brings in fresh tuna from Mindanao on a regular basis, and the tuna belly meal that I got was reasonably priced at P120.  Tuna was fresh, tasty, and grilled right.  I found out that they also had other viands--chicken inasal, crispy pork belly among others--but I just had to order the specialty of the house.

Dairy Queen

The young kids that have grown accustomed to seeing Dairy Queen as a "hip" or "mod" mall-based ice cream store will be quite surprised to know that the brand has been around locally since the late sixties, as stand-alone ice cream parlors.  I remember queuing up at their store along Buendia Avenue (now Senator Gil Puyat Avenue) in Makati with Kong Kong, and it was really a treat to taste their ice cream.  Even to this day, they serve ice cream in cones upside down, which meant that the ice cream was firm, and wouldn't melt easily.  I understand that the company is now owned by the legendary stock investor Warren Buffet, and the current local franchisee is the Araneta group (developers of Cubao).  Ice cream cones are reasonably priced at P40, and other specialty mixes (e.g. banana splits, parfaits and Blizzards) go up to around P120.  One other thing about the store is that one can find ice cream cakes!  If you recall, Nestle decided to close the old Magnolia ice cream plant along Aurora Boulevard, and for a time, ice cream cakes were no longer to be found in the metro.  Take your pick--all these treats are of top quality, and now easily available in most malls around town.  Truly, this brand of ice cream is surely one of the all-time faves of both myself and Monique.

Pita Stop Shawarma

Shawarma was first introduced to me by Gwammy in the early seventies.  If I recall right, there was a stall right next to the check-out counters in Unimart that we patronized on a regular basis.  Ever since then, I've been hooked on the snack, and when I passed by the Pita Stop shawarma stall in Robinson's Ermita, I just couldn't resist buying one, which was reasonably priced at P55, complete with garlic yogurt sauce.  As with most fastfood stalls, don't expect gourmet-quality meat, but the essence was there.

Segafredo

Despite being one of the lesser known coffee shops, Segafredo has quite a loyal local following.  Known for  their Italian espresso, this shop has several outlets in San Juan, the Ortigas Center and Makati.  My colleagues  love their coffee and insisted on meeting at the Podium branch.

Because I don't usually take coffee, I had initially balked at their request, but upon seeing the menu, I changed my mind.  It turns out that they serve short Italian meals, and I must say that their thin-crust 4-cheese pizza was truly a delight!  Dough was crispy, the tomato sauce was evident, yet not overpowering, and the cheeses simply stood out.  Way to go--we also had some pasta, and inclusive of drinks, our afternoon snack bill came to around P300 per head.

Conti's

Conti's has long been a favorite of the Paranaque crowd, and its store along President's Avenue in the Sucat area has been making waves since its opening in 1997.  They have since aimed to be one of the recognized family restaurants, and when we brought cousin Ed and the Dumaguete contingent out for a round of coffee and dessert, we took a shot at the restaurant's Greenbelt branch.

We just had to try the house favorite, the Mangro Bravo, which is a tall cake with layers of wafer, mango bits and cream lavishly drizzled with chocolate.  Since we were a big group, we simply purchased a whole cake (P1,150) and had the staff cut it up into 12 slices.  I must say that even sliced at 12 pieces, one serving still takes a while to finish.  Coffee was good, and despite the long conversation, we wound up taking a long time to finish the cake.

Good Ah!

Years ago, in the early eighties, I would have classified Good Ah! as a carinderia, but today, the lugaw (rice porridge) and goto (tripe porridge) shop is already a fastfood outlet, with shops located in various malls in Metro Manila.  We used to go to their open-air shop along Annapolis St., and we'd spend the wee hours of the morning shaking off our drunken stupor with their hot and steamy arroz caldo (chicken porridge).  Those were great times, and we'd love the way their calamansi came pressed and bottled.  No nonsense, no frills food, generous serving portions, quite great for midnight snacking.  Cheap, as in really cheap.

Today, prices are still cheap, and when Monique and I went over to have a snack at their Eastwood branch, I found that the good old favorites were still on the menu, and was delighted to find out that our spending tab came to less than P100 per head.  When the orders came, I was a bit disappointed.  My verdict is that the commercialized expansion has detracted from the taste and quantity--as you can see above, the serving portions were budget size, and the our orders of tokwa't baboy and lumpiang Shanghai were pretty pathetic.  Times truly have changed, but oh well, c'est la vie....

Royce

I've passed the Royce chocolate shops many times, but haven't paid much attention to the chocolates.  This Japanese brand is well-known for creamy and flavorful blends--the special chocolate bars taste quite lovely (my favorite is the chocolate champagne).  However, these 115g bars are priced at the P500-P600 range, and I think that is a bit pricey.  Nevertheless, Monique and I couldn't resist the shelf display on this trip to the Eastwood Mall, so we settled for a regular bar, which was 125g, and priced much less at the P300 level.  Well, I guess you get what you pay for--this milk chocolate was much like an ordinary supermarket bar, and there are probably a dozen or so brands that are of similar quality and texture and which you can get for half the price.

UPDATE (16 November 2012):  A good friend came from Sapporo and she gave me a box of Pote Goma cookies.  These light, crunchy cookies are individually wrapped and top-coated with Royce chocolate.  The coating consistency at local room temperature (26 degrees centigrade thereabouts) is almost creamy, and I would put the cookies in the fridge for around twenty minutes to get a harder topping.  The box was gone in a couple of days!