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Affilliation
JT’s Manukan Grille
A friend has been telling about this sidewalk place called “JT’s Manukan Grille” for some time now, and as usual, I’m always intriqued by the possibility of good cheap food. We got a chance to go there for lunch last Tuesday, and I was pleasantly surprised.
The main branch (where we ate) is along the Ortigas Avenue Extension (corner Valencia), and I think there are branches in Sgt. Esguerra and Eastwood. 
It’s owner is a famous Filipino actor, which explains the various pinoy movie related posters adorning the walls and doors (”JT” appears to be his initials, as is made pretty obvious by the said posters). It’s basically a sidewalk eatery, so don’t expect anything fancy. However, it’s one of the better sidewalk eateries I’ve seen, and they play chillout music (which was another pleasant surprise). I have been told that the place really gets packed at night: lines of people form, tables are added, and the place extends to the roads (which makes it very difficult to reach the street parking nearby).
The food focuses on chicken inasal, with other typical pinoy grill foods to add a little variety. I was not disappointed, this was the best chicken inasal I’ve ever had! Their formula has a hint of pinoy barbeque sauce like taste, which I’m not a fan of, but not so much to deter from the inasal taste. Service is typical of places like this, but they are polite. If not for time constraints, I would’ve loved to try their batchoy, but I wasn’t able to. Given the sidewalk status, the price does not disappoint either. It’s cheaper than the named chicken inasal places you may find in malls, and still they manage to make it taste better than those (to me at least).
Great price versus performance, this is a rare find. The actor owner is one of the more decent actors in Philippine cinema, and the food reflects focus on a proper chicken inasal experience. Given the sidewalk experience, this is a good reflection of typical working man local cuisine. If we had more places like this, maybe we’d have something good enough to rival the cheap sidewalk food available in other countries that foreigners go for. If you don’t mind the setting, I recommend you check this out.
branches:
- #4 Granada Street, Ortigas Avenue Extension, Quezon City
- #26 Sgt. Esguerra Street, South Triangle, Quezon City
- Citywalk I, Cybermall Eastwood, Quezon City
Big City
While looking for a simple meal in SM Mall of Asia, my friends and I ran into Big City. It’s basically a hot-dog place, which is just the simple type of food we were looking for, so we gave it a try.
They have 3 basic types of hot-dogs, locally made dogs, Nathan’s (imported beef hot-dogs), and Johnsonville (imported pork hot-dogs). They have some rice meals, a pizza, and burgers, but of course we were there to check the dogs.
The the hot-dogs can come in the typical set meals which consists of the hot-dog of choice, fries/onion-rings, and an iced-tea. I tried the beef hot-dog, my SO and our friend tried the local hot-dogs. We all agreed that the hot-dogs were pretty good. The fries were better than usual (though it needed a bit more salt), and the onion rings are fair. What sold us to the place was the price, a set meal costs around P80, which ain’t bad considering that the hot-dogs were pretty good (the beef hot-dog tasted similar to Sabrett), and that it included better than average fries/onion-rings. The only downside we found was that the condiments were sub-par (the ketchup wasn’t all that good).
The place has a good price-versus-performance ratio, pretty good taste for a relatively cheap price. If you drop by MOA and feel like having a hot-dog, do give it a shot.
No tags for this post.Rockefeller at Greenbelt 3, Makati
I had dinner with my folks tonight and I decided we try out Rockefeller in Greenbelt 3, Makati. So we did. It’s same owners of Oyster Boy, but I guess they changed the menu up to get higher class clientèle.
Service may seem a bit busy hectic, but I’m not sure if they’re still in dry run mode (they had a sign saying so before, I didn’t notice it). Regardless, service ain’t bad. The owner/manager/guy-in-charge keeps tabs on everyone (customers and staff) and was very helpful.
We had an Oytser Combo (which allowed us to choose 3 different types of oyster for a 12 piece order), my mom had Oyster Bisque Soup, my dad had Pork Barbecue with Java Rice, and I had the New Zealand Rib Eye.
The oysters are basically the same ass what you can find in Oyster Boy, which is pretty good. The oysters come from Iloilo, which my mom says where you can find the best local oysters in the country. They’re fresh and good. Their version of the Rockefeller isn’t the best I’ve had, but their other types are OK. The priority is freshness, and it is.
My mom thought the soup was OK, my dad wasn’t all that sold with the pork barbecue. As for the steak, well, the menu says it’s New Zealand Beef (some other steaks on the menu use US beef), and it does tastes like New Zealand Beef. They grilled it pretty good, but the cut was too think for my tastes, and it seemed that I got a medium rare instead of medium. The steak comes with corn in cream and pork and beans, which is kinda odd for me. The pork and beans (I don’t remember running into the pork, but then again, who does?) were ordinary, but I’m not sure that it went well with the steak. The creamed corn seemed odd, aside from being creamy, there was a faint coffee taste to it. Ain’t my cup of tea.
Price-wise, it’s not too expensive, but I can’t say for sure it was value for my money. The food was reasonable, and seemed reasonably priced when you look at the menu, but I can’t tell if I got exactly what I paid for. Portions were OS, it’s not that. The oysters themselves were OK too (ergo, may possibly be considered as acceptable given the price). For the pork barbecue and steak, well, it’s quite questionable. Then again, our bill wasn’t exorbitantly expensive, service was OK (though they were still hectic), and the meat products are probably not their forte.
Overall, based on tonight, I can’t give a wholehearted “go eat there” recommendation. Perhaps I’ll check it out again someday, maybe by then some of the quips will change for the better.
No tags for this post.Sweet Afternoon Dreams
Nothin’ much happened today for me, woke up quite early ‘coz of the headache. Couldn’t get back to sleep. Lost a lot in Full Tilt. Watched GI Joe: Sigma 6 while eating lunch (in the episode I watched, the voice actors changed, for the worse IMHO). Slept almost all of the afternoon. Ate dinner, managed to recover my big loss, and now wind down. I wanted to do a bit more, but I was just a bit beat from the weather. Well, the sleep did me good.
The strange thing was that I dreamt of pastries. I was at a resto with my SO and we ordered pastries. We had this sort of fruity creamy thing with a lot of clear stuff on top, which I particularly liked. People who know me know that I’m not a pastry/sweets guy, so this was kinda weird. Anyway, maybe it’s a sign, so I might go looking for some sweets or dessert tomorrow.
No tags for this post.The Bauger Haüte Dog
I went to Power Plant Mall around lunch time to get a little different air, as well as to check out if there’s anything interesting in Fully Booked. I thought I might as well eat lunch there.
As I was walking around the basement level to decide what to eat, I ran into “The Bauger Haüte Dog”. I’ts a hot dog/sausage place, and they served chili dogs. It’s something new, and it’s been a while since I had a chili dog, so I gave it a go.
The set meals costs P145.00 and includes a hot-dog, a drink, fries, and a glass of iced tea. Portion wise, it ain’t bad. The fries are ordinary, nothing special. So was the iced tea (Nestea). The chili-dog itself was OK. The size was big enough, and the hot dog/sausage used is the type where the skin is somewhat tough. I personally don’t like sausages like that, but I’ve been to high class places that serve sausages like that too (ergo, I dunno if it’s supposed to be like that). Chili was basically spicy ground meat with some jalapeño thrown in, and cheese.
Overall, it was nothing special, but it ain’t bad. Check it out if you like.
No tags for this post.Circles Event Café at Makati Shangri-La
Given that it was a special day for me and my SO, I decided that we have dinner at Circles Event Café in Makati Shangri-La. In my past research on the various resto’s in town, Circles has always cropped up as having the best buffet, so I wanted to see what all the hoopla was all about.
Now I understand why. The selection isn’t very large, but it’s good enough for most your needs. The great thing is the taste, the service, and the desserts. The food, though it may not seem like a lot of choice, is good, the best buffet food I’ve had. The service we received was very good too (my SO requested for mangoes for her salad, and even if there wasn’t any on the selection, they got her one anyway). And the desserts, well, you know I’m not a dessert guy, but having a lot of options (the choices for dessert seemed a lot to me!), some in small portions, had me wanting to try all of them! If I wasn’t so full from the food, I’d probably gorge myself in dessert.
And the great thing is, the whole buffet was very reasonably priced. My SO and I get higher total bills with less food/choices in other fine restos. It’s not cheap, mind you, but it’s not expensive either. Given the quality of food, ambiance, and service, I think we got our money’s worth.
You want buffet? I definitely recommend you try Circles Event Café in Makati Shangri-La.
No tags for this post.Sweet Beer Aftertaste!
My GAWD!!! I can’t believe it’s 23:00 and I can STILL taste the delicate sweetness of this afternoon’s beer! It’s so dang good!!! I am definitely going back to Grappa’s for more pitchers/pints!
No tags for this post.Afternoon With Beer
I decided to have lunch with my buddy today. After having pizza at D’ Mark’s, we went to Grappa’s for a pitcher of dark beer. I tend to avoid Grappa’s because of the cost, but for a quick beer, perhaps it was ok.
The beer was great! I haven’t had beer that good in a long time! Now, that’s the life, good beer, good buddy, good conversation… a relaxing afternoon.
My buddy tells me there’s a place in Makati where they specialize in beers from around the world. Thanks to Grappa’s, I’m looking forward to trying what other surprises beer has to offer!
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