My son’s favorite that night, the honey wheat bread. They serve it still warm, freshly baked – I hope so, from the oven. I will definitely go back there for that wheat bread. You can ask for more serving while waiting for your order.

I asked the waitress to cook my tenderloin well-done. When it was served, I tried the veggies first. But when I cut the meat, it was still not cooked inside, it was just medium-done. So I asked the waitress to cook it again for me. When it was served, I noticed that they actually gave me a new plate with a new tenderloin filet and side dishes. Because of that, I’m giving Outback two thumbs up.

The Toowomba Topped Beef Tenderloin Filet is so yum! It has a generous amount of tomato cream sauce with sautéed shrimps and button mushrooms. My taste buds love the mashed potatoes and the fresh steamed veggies are cooked just right.

Outback Steakhouse
G/F Glorietta 4, Ayala Center
Makati City, Metro Manila
Philippines
(02) 729-8458

I recently bought 3 vouchers from Metrodeal. It’s an Eat-All-You-Can promo at Apricot Diner in Caloocan. This is my second time to buy from Metrodeal, I was happy with my first purchase.

There were a lot of confusion regarding the validity of the buffet. In Metrodeal’s website, it was stated that voucher validity starts on August 1. Voucher is valid on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.

Apricot Diner’s response to inquiries on their facebook page

No buffet on Sundays, Apricot was very firm about that.

“The validity starts on 1st August, but the buffet will start on 19th August.” What? At the expense of people who already bought and only have the week before the 19th to use their vouchers?

What request from your customers? Have you not read the “fine print” that you yourself made?

This is a question for Metrodeal. Is Apricot Diner, and all your other clients, allowed to omit or change whatever is included in a “deal” right after the deal goes live online? If yes, then it’s very unfair for us -the buyers.

Making a table reservation, that’s supposed to take less than 10 minutes, took 3 days of email and FB exchanges. They do have one landline phone but not a single one of my calls were answered. I was able to secure a table for an August 6 buffet lunch via email.

With my unwilling lunch companions, understandable since Caloocan is very far from Mandaluyong, we braved the heavy Saturday traffic yesterday after my son’s soccer practice. I called the restaurant first, someone answered this time, to ask for directions and to confirm that we were on our way.

The place. I’m not a frequent visitor of that side of Manila so I was shocked that a restaurant offering "International" buffet, which supposedly has a regular price of Php600, just a few pesos shy of Saisaki, can only accommodate a car, and maybe half of another car, parked on the sidewalk parallel to the street. There was already a car parked in front of the restaurant, maybe the owner’s car?, so we had to park our car on the next street. Metrodeal should have included this important information on the restaurant’s deal page.

The service. I approached a waiter and told him that I have a table reservation for 3. I gave him the vouchers, he checked the list and then he went inside the kitchen without guiding me to our table. I had to call his attention again and he said, "Maki-share na lang po kayo sa kanila" (Please just share with them), pointing to a table for four with three vacant seats. I made a reservation, they confirmed that we’ll have a table, so I was expecting that we have our own table. "Late na po kasi kayong dumating" (You were late in coming in.) Was I at fault to expect that they’ll hold a table for us until we arrive? I did call and confirm that we’re on our way. I also gave them my mobile number when I made the reservation.

 Buffet Menu List posted on their facebook page. Manloloko much?

The food. Cold pasta, cold ribs, everything on the buffet table were already cold. Yes, everything including the soup. I still had to point it out to the waiter. The waited had to reheat everything in the kitchen because the food warmers were apparently broken at that time. Yes, all the food warmers.

My son already got some pasta, kids at 10 can eat pasta even if it’s straight from the ref, while I was talking to the waiter. I told him to stop eating first and just wait for the reheated food.

I went back to the buffet table when I saw that everything were already reheated. But there were no plates so I had to ask the waitress for a plate. Look what she gave me, a dusty plate.

At this point I was beyond pis–err–angry. I usually lose my patience when I’m sleepy and/or hungry. To say that I was already VERY hungry at that time, at 130PM?, was an understatement. I  just want to get out of the place so I asked for a refund. I wasn’t expecting to get a full refund since my son ate some pasta and drank some of the iced tea. 

I was pleased that the Chef/Owner gave a full refund. But I wasn’t that thankful anymore when I saw his tweets. I searched for Apricot Diner’s twitter page and there were two results that came out, the twitter page of Apricot Diner and that of Mr. Chris Go. He was the person who confirmed my email reservation.

"Think before you click" is GMA News’ campaign for the responsible use of social media. Most probably he wasn’t thinking when he tweeted those things. I guess for him I look like a person who doesn’t know how to tweet, or Google, so he feels safe to tweet that there were demanding customers that day.

Was I demanding? Maybe he likes cold-as-ice soup, pasta and ribs. But most people don’t, so I don’t think I’m a demanding customer.

Put rat poison on the food?! Que Horror, I will never step on Apricot Diner again!

Top 3 dishes that I highly recommend:

Savory Chicken. Do I still need to elaborate why you should order this? A meal at theOriginal Savory won’t be complete without a whole serving, or two to three for a big group, of this yummylicious fried chicken. A bit of crispiness on the outside, chicken skin is love!, and tenderness on the inside -yum! There are days though when it’s a bit salty.

You already have the healthy meat, compliment it with a healthy serving of mixed vegetables – the Chopseuy. Their chopseuy is the best, except for the liver and squid balls, which I don’t really like eating. Bell pepper, young corn, cabbage, celery, onion, carrots, and, most often than not, three kinds of mushroom.

Chiu Chow Rice completes the deal!

Happy eating!

Escolta Branch
201 Escolta St.,
Sta. Cruz, Manila
(632) 244-1443

Mandaluyong Branch
Unit 6, BSA Commercial Bldg.,
Shaw Boulevard,
Mandaluyong, Metro Manila
(632) 533-1288

List of other branches can be found at their facebook page

Strip loin is also called strip steak, club steak and in Australia – porterhouse steak. It is a type of beef steak that is cut from the short loin so it is particularly tender. That’s what Wikipedia said but this striploin that they served me was a different story.

The meat was so tough, maybe it wasn’t even strip loin or maybe they just didn’t cook it right. I had a hard time cutting it with the knife. And even had a harder time chewing it – it feels rubbery.

There’s nothing much to say about the mixed veggies since it’s obviously not fresh veggies – came from the frozen pack that can be bought in the supermarket. It’s not even a handful. I can count the number of sliced carrots, corn kernel and that other veggie (name is at the tip of my tongue, will edit this later).

The sauce – I like! Next time I try their other steaks though, I’ll ask them to just drizzle a few on the steak. I can’t taste the flavor of the rice anymore because the sauce was flooding the whole plate.

For a price of 158 Philippine pesos, that steak was not worth my time and money. Will try out their other steaks next time to check if it was just pure unluck that particular steak was given to me that day.

Sizzling Plate
Lower Ground Level, Foodcourt,
SM Megamall, EDSA corner J. Vargas Ave.,
Brgy. Wack-Wack, Mandaluyong City

I recently tried Barbara’s Restaurant’s dinner buffet and cultural dance show. I bought vouchers from Metrodeal two months ago. Would you not buy if you see this deal?

If you also bought this deal, you better make a reservation already because they are always fully booked, especially during weekends. I made a reservation for a friday dinner buffet and had to cancel it an hour before my reservation. Barbara’s was very accommodating. I didn’t hear any sarcasm or any hint of anger when I asked if I can transfer my reservation to another date.

The place. There’s no parking in front of the restaurant itself. Right across the street is San Agustin Church and they charge Php30 for a fixed parking fee. The dining area was on the second floor and it was very homey. The interior looks like our old house, before we had it renovated, in the province. Wooden floors, sliding wooden doors, lovely chandeliers. As soon as you enter the place, a staff will greet you and they’ll show you to a reserved table right after they check your voucher code.

The food. They don’t have a fixed buffet menu, the staff said that they change it everyday. There was a table for the main dishes, a salad bar and a table for the sweets. I didn’t like the soup. I don’t remember the name anymore, the oil must have zapped it out of my brain. It was brown colored, with a few mushrooms and very, very oily. I love the grilled blue marlin with tomato and mango salsa. The roast beef, I was planning to eat on my second serving. When I was about to get some, they already ran out of mashed potatoes but it doesn’t matter since the roast beef was enough to satisfy my taste buds. There was also eggplant lasagna and peppered chicken.

There were 3 available dressing for the salad greens and I love ‘em all. The sweets table was a good selection delectable cakes and other dessert to satisfy your sweet tooth.

The cultural dance show starts at around 7PM and lasts for an hour. The first part was a rondalla medley of Filipino music. The second part showcase the country’s famous folk dances.

Overall, I was happy that I bought the discounted deal. The food was good enough but not that great. If I have friends and relatives visiting from another country, I will surely bring them there to experience the cultural dance show at Barbara’s Restaurant.

Barbara’s Restaurant
Plaza San Luis Complex,
Gen. Luna St., Intramuros
(632)788-3356
(632)527-4083 527-3893
(632)527-4086
www.barbarasfood.com

Tahô is a Philippine snack food made of fresh soft/silken tofu, arnibal (brown sugar and vanilla syrup), and pearl sago (similar to pearl tapioca). ~Wikipedia

Eating taho, with tapioca and sweet syrup, every morning is a healthy way to start the day. A decade ago, taho is usually sold by a roaming taho vendor early in the morning. A few years back, taho was made available all throughout the day by the same Mamang magtataho. Thanks to the bright mind of some people, cold taho is now available in select stores.

I grew up eating warm taho but I like the cold version more. Ever since we discovered cold taho in a vegetarian restaurant/store, sold cheaper there than in my son’s school, we buy a week’s supply whenever we pass by the place. It doesn’t have tapioca but the healthy, yummy goodness is still the same.

Country Vegefoods, Inc.
161 Luna Mencias St.
San Juan, Metro Manila,
Philippines
(632) 7238614
(632) 7244379