XO 46 Heritage Bistro: Pinoy Food and Hospitality

Looking around the newest retail area in MOA Complex, we spotted a Filipino restaurant with great interiors and an awesome "uniform" for their servers.

It's not actually a uniform but a full Filipiniana complete with a headdress. And mind you, they speak eloquently in Tagalog, capturing the natural rhythm of the language. We felt an air of hospitality while asking one of their personnel about the menu.

After ordering, we were given some mini puto and conrnick to munch on. The puto came with two types of butter - the regular, and the one with aligue.

For the soup, we had Suam na Mais. This is a light soup with corn kernels and crab meat. The soup serving a big but I wish there were more corn and crab meat.

The Garlic Sotanghon was indeed garlicky. The noodles itself had flavor. It could use a bit more toppings though.

I liked how the lumpia was crunchy and flavorful. It is even enhanced when you dip it in the vinegar mixture.

Complementary Choc-Nut was given as a mini dessert to close the meal.

Price is a quite expensive for the serving size but service is commendable.

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Jang Ga Nae: Korean Birthday Lunch

Celebrating my cousin's birthday lunch! With her being a fan of Korean drama and variety shows, we went to Jang Ga Nae for lunch. The funny thing is we kind of got lost along the way (wrong location in tagged in Google maps and we did not take note of the house number :( ). The good thing is we found it.

It's sign says "Jang Ga Rae", but the name that lined the windows and the online sources say "Jang Ga Nae". I'll go with the latter. The place may seem a little smaller outside compared to the other Korean restaurants lined up on the street, but the interior is actually quite bigger (compared to one Korean restaurant on the same street). We arrived a little past lunch time so it was not crowded anymore.


Appetizers

They have a lot of free appetizers which are refillable. The photo above also features the bibimbap.


Bibimbap

Vegetables plus egg plus sticky rice, it's already a complete meal by itself. I like that the spicy sauce is separated so you could control the amount of heat as you want.


Gal Bi Tang - Beef Rib Soup

There are big servings of beef rib with matching ligaments and tendons. This could actually serve more than two people. We chose a soup that is not spicy. The taste is quite similar to nilaga.


Sam Kyup Sal - Grilled Pork Belly

Since we only ordered one order from the grill, we did not get to experience cooking on our table. The pork belly was served on a hot plate instead.

My cousin oriented me on how to eat (and prepare) this one. Get a piece of lettuce, get a slice of pork and dip it in the sauces, get some vegetables, wrap the lettuce up and eat the whole wrap.



We were so full that we were not able to ask for refills on the appetizer. There were many options on the menu and the menu cover was actually quite pretty.

Branch visited located at: Aguirre Ave, BF Homes, Parañaque City


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Four Seasons: Hot Pot Buffet

Celebrating my birthday, we availed the birthday promo of a Four Seasons, a hot pot buffet. The celebrant gets to eat for free when dining on the exact date of birth provided that at least one full paying adult comes along.


Stations

There are a number of stations where you can get ingredients for your hot pot. From the common fish balls, sausages, dumplings, to innards, seafood and meat. They even have a premium station if you are looking for more sophisticated ingredients (although you have to pay additional per ingredient from the premium station).

What you can find at some of the stations:

Fish, squid, shrimp, shell fish and more seafood...

Liver, gizzard, innards, and other parts...

Dimsum and dumplings..

More dumplings...

Sausages, crab cakes, dimsum...

Condiments...

They also offer salad and appetizer.

Salad station...

Sushi and maki...

A vegetable wall, beverage area, and dessert station are also available.


Hot pot time!

Step 1: choose two soups for the base. We chose seafood and pork. In the photo below, we already put some of the dimsum and dumplings in.

Step: 2: Put in your ingredients. Aside from the dimsum and dumplings, we put in a number of seafood too.

Tried out eel. It turned out okay but the skin part is slippery for me.

Also tried the sea mantis. It's kind of a cross between a shrimp and a lobster and a crab. It's quite a task to shell it though.

Hoisin sauce, oyster sauce, ginger and garlic in the four black bowls.
Some dried squid in the round white bowl, scallops in the small square bowl
Parrot fish meat and squid in the two square bowls below.

Here we have a variety of meat slices.

Ah, the empty containers of seafood.

Cooked

Seafood

Shrimp, scallops, squid, crab, eel, sea mantis

Dumplings and mini sausages

Dessert

Assorted desserts and tea

The four desserts on the left half: banoffee pie, coffee jelly, revel bar, and guava panna cotta.
The apple cinnamon and raisin tea was good too.

Yogurt

Sprinkles and mallows are staple toppings on my yogurt. Since there are no cornflakes, I settled with Koko crunch for a cereal-y touch.


Usually, we stay for around 2 hours in a buffet place since we get quite full after an hour and a half. This time, we stayed for almost 4 hours. Perhaps an hour or so was spent on cooking and shelling the food. We did not get to eat as much in an hour compared to when we just get ready to eat food from trays.

My opinion on cook your own food is still the same - it's an additional task to cook your food when you can just get ready to eat food elsewhere, but cooking it yourself is part of the whole dining experience.

And here are some of my favorite dining experiences of the night:
I got to try the sea mantis for the first time. It is kind of hard to remove the shell, but I ended up eating a few of those.
We got curious about the "home made cuttlefish noodles" which turned out to have the same taste the same as squid balls, but in noodle form.
The apple cinnamon & raisin tea is a perfect companion for dessert.
I also got to make my own yogurt concoction again.

At Four Seasons, you are able to decide what goes in your hot pot may it be dimsum, seafood, vegetables, or meat. By using the condiments, you can adjust the taste according to your liking. So if you are into hot pot and customization, this place is a buffet of ingredients and your table is your own kitchen.

Branch visited located at: SM by the Bay, SM Mall of Asia, Pasay City

Backlog Post: House of Wagyu Stone Grill

Wanting to explore the world of beef and steak, we bought a voucher from an online deals site that gave us about 50% discount for a meal at House of Wagyu Stone Grill which included a 350 gram, grade 9 Wagyu beef. It also came with soup of the day, mashed potato and vegetables.

French onion soup (soup of the day) is pleasantly served into three bowls. I liked the presentation where an herb infused oil over the soup mimicked latte art. The soup itself was thick and creamy. I am not really a fan of onions in burgers, but I like the taste when they are all caramelized and sweet. You could pair it with the house bread if you like.

Apron time! Before our main dish was served, we were assisted by the serving staff to wear aprons. Yes a full upper body apron. I wondered about the necessity of the apron for a while, but I guess it was part of the experience.

Then comes the slab of raw meat on top of a piping hot stone. The stone grill is sort of a cross between a sizzling plate and a smokeless grill (the types you see in yakimix). It cooks the raw slab of meat on the spot so you get to decide on your doneness.

…After a while we noticed some oil marks of the paper covered table. We realized that the brown apron was to cover our clothes from the occasional juice that sizzled out of the stone grill.

I remember being specifically instructed by the server to slice a few pieces of meat off the slab and cook it a few slices at a time, not chop the whole slab into pieces at once and cook it altogether. This is to keep the natural juices in the meat and enjoy the full flavor.

House of Wagyu smokeless grill is a bit pricey but the meat you get is worth it. The meat, the raw meat grilling in front you, just seeing that juice and smelling that beefy goodness, you’ll know you have something good. When I tasted my first slice, it had all that natural beef flavor . This is the natural version of all those beef flavored bouillon cubes in the market. Even without additional salt and pepper, the meat had enough flavor all by itself. It was also tender and did I already mention juicy?

Before I forget, the mashed potato with vegetables was a good pair to the meat. The mashed potato has a cheese-like flavor but not overpowering. The vegetables were fresh and crisp. I’m glad that it had broccoli and cauliflower and not just the usual corn and carrots.

My opinion is quite torn on cook it yourself food (i.e. smokeless grills, hot pot, etc) because I often do not want to wait for the food to be cooked (already hungry) and I just want to eat. But still, cooking it yourself is what makes the experience different compared to other types of food service.

Nonetheless, I loved eating at House of Wagyu Stone Grill. Their meat really tasted good. Imagine having that flavor without any sauces! I haven’t had any beef with that kind of taste all on its own. This Wagyu beef is a must try. And seeing the meat get cooked in front of you is plus factor for dining experience. You could also get a view of the Manila Bay sunset if you dine in the afternoon.

*This is a backlog post. Actual food expedition was made more than a month prior to publishing of this post.

Branch visited located at: Technically, this is located at Two Ecom Center (beside Mall of Asia) but it is still within the Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City