Ooma: Rolls and Rolls of Flavor

After trying out Ooma for first time, I can already say that this is one of my favorite places for maki. Their combinations were all interesting and the appetizing menu photos just made the decision to choose our orders harder.

Since we were dining here for the first time and there's only two of us, we limited our orders to three items.

Scallop and Tuna Aburi Maki

Torched rolls with flavorful sauces and melt in your mouth scallops atop a wooden serving tray were consumed immediately. We wanted more.

Unagi Maki

This was an adventure to my friend who never ate eel before. l told her that it tasted just like a kind of fish but a little slippery if some skin is still stuck to the meat. She agreed. And she ate her share of the maki, and enjoyed it.


Chahan

What else to order with rice rolls but more rice? This was moderately seasoned and has a hint of coconut/butter flavor. Maybe from the oil used in frying.

Would definitely come back to try their other rolls.

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Pho Hoa: Noodles and Rolls

For our Friday lunch out, we ordered spring rolls, salad, and noodles with a Vietnamese twist. I'm not really familiar with Vietnamese food so I followed the recommendations of my colleagues. This is also a good place for vegetarians since they have a separate menu for their vegetarian offerings.


Serving size of the noodles and entrees are good for sharing so we shared meals by pair. Pair 1: Chicken noodle soup and fried spring rolls. Pair 2: Brisket Flank Pho and fresh spring rolls. Pair 3: Chicken noodle soup and Chicken salad.

I liked the spring rolls, both the fresh and fried. Vermicelli is not usually an ingredient for spring rolls in our local cuisine so this is a defining trait for the rolls. The peanut-y sweet and savory sauce of the fresh rolls is a favorite. For the fried version, a sweet and sour vinegar based dip is provided.

Thin rice noodles defined the noodle soup. The broth and toppings are simple. Beansprouts and a squeeze of lemon are served on the side as additions to the soup. You can add chili and hoisin sauce to flavor the broth. Indeed the serving size was good for sharing and we all left with full stomachs.

I was not able to taste the salad but the serving size was big as well and there was a good amount of chicken.

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Bangus: Other than seafood

The pinoy fiesta vibe from the banderitas plus pinoy food plus a discount voucher online equals a hearty and sulit Sunday lunch. From it's name, Bangus, you can already tell that milkfish will be the center of their menu. But wait, they also offer krispy pata, spring chicken, tapa, and other Filipino food featuring red meat.


Our order is composed of Kare-kareng bangus, Spring Chicken, and Fried Crispy Tadyang ng Baka.

The serving size of the kare kare is good. There are several bangus slices along with vegetables. But the nutty taste of kare kare was missing. I usually don't add bagoong but I had to add flavor. It's a good thing though for those who want to be able to adjust the saltiness of their food.

We usually order the spring chicken when we eat at Bangus. The taste is the same as always - somehow with a hint of sweetness and an unconfirmed spice.

The beef ribs (tadyang ng baka) was toasted on the outside and tender inside.


For the discounted price, everything was worth it. We already ate here several times with an online discount voucher and there's a reason for coming back.

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Bacolod Chicken Inasal

Here's a short entry on Bacolod Chicken Inasal. They serve 2 types of chicken inasal quarters, either pecho or paa. Rice is priced separately.

The flavor of this inasal is more on the salty sour side unlike Mang Inasal's version that's on the sweeter side of the spectrum, kind of similar to a barbeque. Condiments are also available to adjust the taste. For the serving size, the pecho has a good enough amount of meat. I have yet to try their other viands.




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Yanagi at Midas Hotel: Food of the Golden Man

If you haven't already noticed from my previous posts, Japanese cuisine is my favorite. A full Japanese buffet at a hotel is an exciting idea for me. Hotel buffets often go for above a thousand bucks. But thanks to an online voucher, we were able to get a Japanese buffet at Midas Hotel for Php995. Me and my officemates had this for lunch. Yes, buffet lunch on a mid-week office day.

I got around two plates of sashimi - which means that the quality is good.

The maki choices were not that varied but there was this one with rice and roe inside then topped with tempura breading resulting to a wonderful play of textures and taste. The tempura sushi, rice topped with a whole tempura with torched cheese on top, was also one of my favorites because of the crunch and flavor.

The tuna and salmon carpacio is the group's common favorite.

The tempura served upon request had a good balance of shrimp meat and breading, but nothing very special.

Freshly grilled beef with a buttery aroma and taste was served upon request and was also a group favorite. It was more tender and tastier compared to the grilled beef/steak at other buffets I tried but beef wt other steakhouses are still better.

The takoyaki was just normal takoyaki while the beef curry had tender beef chunks.

You can also have sukiyaki or soba.

There were also a number of salad options from the traditional salad greens to a heavier potato salad, and even seaweed salad and jelly fish salad.

Dessert another tale in itself. Let's start with ice cream. I loved all the flavor options which were the milky sweet red bean, deep matcha, bold black sesame, and hot wasabi. Wasabi. Yes, Wasabi ice cream. Compared to the milky creamy texture of the other three flavors, wasabi ice cream had a texture similar to ice shaving but with a mix of cream.

The usual mini pastries are present, along with Japanese inspired azuki (red bean) panna cotta. My favorites are the meringue and the chewy deep chocolate mini dome.

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