Zao Vietnamese Bistro

We decided to look around the new wing of Promenade Greenhills for a place to eat.  Then we saw this Vietnamese restaurant and thought of trying it out.  It's our first time to eat in Zao Vietnamese Bistro but I'm sorry to say we're disappointed with the food.  Everything we ordered are a bit too salty for our taste.

First we ordered is Zao Satay Platter, it has 6 sticks of grilled specialties, chicken, pork, and shrimp, 2 of each kind. This is not so bad but the serving is too small, and the seasoning for the chicken is a bit salty.  Next is Zao Pho, it has beef slices, meat balls, and rice noodles in soup.  Again it's not so bad but then, the soup is also salty.

For the main we ordered Saigon Fried Rice, Curried Chicken, and Shaking Beef.  The rice they used for the fried rice is too dry so it tasted undercooked.  The curried chiken is ok but has too much sauce.  The shaking beef is cooked medium rare so it's a bit chewy.  

They have very small servings for the price so I didn't find it's worth the money at all.  Over all, I don't think we'll be going back again to try their other dishes.

La Fiesta - Largest Filipino Buffet

A new buffet has opened in SM by the bay MOA, it's called La Fiesta.  The name is fitting since they serve Filipino dishes in abundance just like in a real fiesta. =)

We tried out their saturday lunch and it's quite good and value for money.  For only P550.00 (P750.00 for weekend dinners and Sunday lunch) we got to eat to our heart's content.  They have so many varieties of food that I didn't even got to try everything I wanted like their balut and isaw. ^^

Their buffet is divided into seafood (mostly grilled fish), street foods (like isaw, bituka, tenga, etc.), roasts (lechon de leche, lechon manok, spareribs, shawarma, etc.), cooked food or "ulam" (dinuguan, crispy pata, kaldereta, pochero, paella, lasagna, pizza, etc.), soup (bulalo, tinola, etc.) appetizers (all kinds of chicharon, arrozcaldo, salads, etc.), drinks (gulaman, buko, tamarind,etc.), and desserts (halo-halo, kakanin, pastillas, sorbetes, etc.).

About the food, I'll just comment on those I ate, and that's not few, lol!  The star of their buffet is the lechon de leche, I'm not a big fan of lechon so me saying it's not bad is actually saying a lot already.  You don't really need the sauce for the lechon because it gets too salty.  My personal favorite is their buttered crabs, so yummy!!!  I'm looking forward to the shrimps as well but too bad, they said they didn't have any deliveries that day.  So the pretty nice "shrimp and mushroom" dish ended up being just mushroom but still nice.

The shawarma is good and the lasagna and pizza as well.  They have 4 kinds of sisig, I ordered bangus and it's very good. =) I didn't like the any of the fish dishes, even the tuna and maya maya.  Their baked tahong is not the best, and the ginataang kuhol still tastes like sand. =( The grilled ribs is too tough, same with the crispy pata.  Since I ate so much heart attack foods already, I got some veggies to make me feel better (LOL!) so I got some very nice chopsuey.  I didn't try any of the soup anymore because I'm too full already and I still have dessert! =P

I always leave room for dessert and I'm happy with theirs.  I had halo-halo, sorbetes, and the yummy leche flan! ^^ I would love to go back again because it's really money well spent. ;-)

Mu Noodle Bar

For our sunday family lunch out today, we chose Mu Noodle Bar in San Juan.  We've been looking for this restaurant since my bestfriend recommended it but we can't find it before.  This time we finally did! =)

Only the 3 of us today and we eah ordered noodle soup.  Mine is beef noodles in soy, my dad ordered char siu pork in soy, and my mom ordered beef curry noodle.  Each noodle is served in hot stone pot which keeps the soup hot while you eat.  It's pretty good and very filling since the bowl is quite big.

We also ordered radish cake which I really like, it's similar to Wan Chai's radish cake in XO sauce from the Binondo branch since the Wan Chai in Banawe doesn't cook as good as in Binondo.  And one final dish we ordered is oyster cake.  It's not that great, Mien San and Shang Tzu makes better oyster cakes.  As for the serving, only the noodles are in big serving, the side dishes are all very small.  All in all, I'll give it a pass and would still go there to eat sometimes.

Banapple - Dark Chocolate Tiramisu Cheesecake

We had lunch today at Banapple, it's the place we go to when we don't want to have chinese dishes, but can't think of any other place we want to go. ^^

We ordered chicken breast parmigiano, herbed chicken roll with basil, baked creamy cheesy penne, and cheese and mushroom pie with potato salad.  The cheesy penne and chicken parmigiano are two of our all time favorites. =)

Before leaving, my brother wanted to bring home a cheesecake so we picked the dark chocolate tiramisu cheesecake, just because it sounded yummy lol! ^^  Well, it sure is yummy and super chocolatey!  But since it's cheesecake, having just a little is the best, having too much will spoil the yumminess.  Even if it's super chocolatey, it's not too sweet and the coffee taste of the cheesecake adds to the unique flavor.

Omurice

My Korean entertainment blog was taken down today.  After numerous warnings, I was expecting it to happen sooner or later, but it's still sad. =(.  I have more time now on my hands now, so I thought I'd invite my brother to cook so our mom can rest a bit today. =)

We tried to make our own version of omurice, the Japanese dish for omelet rice.  We used corned beef and bacon Spam as ingredients for the fried rice.  Turned out pretty good, even our parents liked it! ^^