Wild Ginger is one of the quieter restaurants in Power Plant Mall's basement food area. It's never…read morefull when I go there, even when it's dinnertime on a payday - I say this in a good way though! This means you have the staff's attention and you don't need to wait as long for your meals. And the couches they have on the side are really comfy. I could sleep there. Wild Ginger serves affordable Asian food with great quality. Their Roti Prada with Curry Dipping Sauce makes for a great and tasty appetizer, along with their Vietnamese Spring Rolls. I recently tried their Tofu Salad with Peanut Sauce - another quick favorite! Great for those looking for a healthy option. I know a lot of places scrimp on the salad dressing but Wild Ginger smothers their peanut sauce all over this one. Mmm! Since they're on Vietnamese and Thai cuisine, their Pad Thai is a must try. It's good enough for sharing or at least one very hungry person. Most of their main courses also have the peanut sauce theme, including their Kare-kare and Chicken Satay. Their Lemongrass Tea is also really good - I wish they had a bottomless option, because I nearly finished mine in a few sips!

I was a little bit surprised by this restaurant's striking contemporary take on traditional Asian…read morefood. The starters are crowd-pleasers and only give a slight hint to the elegance of the main dishes that they serve. We started off with a very tasty rotti served with a nice creamy curry dip. My main was the pad Thai which was miraculously cooked to perfection. It's a dream lunch, filling without being too heavy, and pretty enough to make my other friends who dined at another place envy.

Ba Noi's Ca Phe is the more casual (and cheaper) younger brother of the Ba Noi's with which you're…read moreprobably familiar. I'm not sure when the rebrand of this branch happened - some time within the last 6 months - but it certainly is a better fit for the stretch of casual-fare restaurants along East Kapitolyo. The menu is a bit smaller with servings and prices to match. They keep the essentials when one is craving Vietnamese food: Pho, Fried and Fresh Springs Rolls, Vermicelli Noodle toppers. What is notably missing are some of the seafood options that standard Ba Noi's offers. The worthy replacement is their list of Bahn Mi's - vietnamese sandwiches served on a French-influenced brioche with your choice of filling. Head to Ba Noi's for a casual dinner before drinks at Capitol Commons. But, you'll probably want to go for an early dinner, as the parking on Kapitolyo tends to fill up quickly - check to see if there are spots available right in front, across the street the guard at the empty house lets you park if you're nice and let him know you're just going to be eating across the street.

My appointment with a client was cancelled, and so I took the opportunity to have a date with my…read morewife instead. We picked a restaurant wherein there is a high chance that both our families will not eat...and that's Vietnamese food. Ba Nois is a casual dining restaurant with black and white tables and chairs. Its walls hang pictures of Vietnamese lifestyle and culture. To try as much as we can, we ordered the spring roll and pork strips on dry noodles, large size (Php320) and the crepe with bean sprouts and side salad (Php250). Just for the sake of reminiscing our honeymoon in Vietnam, she ordered an iced truong coffee (Php110) while I tried the blended ice mocha (Php150). The crepe came out first and we were happy to see that it looked like the one we had in Vietnam. The crispy crust, eaten together with the bean sprouts, basil leaves, lettuce, and the special sauce has a nice, clean, and balanced taste. It is crunchy, sweet, and healthy, too. The noodles came out next. The combination of each ingredient makes it a wonderful dish: the bland rice noodles is complemented by the salty spring roll, sweet tocino-like pork strips, sourness of the vinegar-chili sauce, and the freshness of the vegetables. My disappointment would fall into the drinks. My wife's coffee was too light for a Vietnamese coffee, but we were glad that it was served authentically into a Vietnamese brewer. My mocha, on the other hand, was too sweet and too creamy. It was like a milkshake, and destroyed the otherwise good taste of the food. I was also disappointed to find that they do not serve banh mi. Service is ok. Ambiance is also warm, except for a certain fly that won't get off our table.

Pia y Damaso honestly intrigued me with their tagline of "Subversive Filipino Cuisine", and when…read morelooking at the menu, the dishes all sounded like interesting takes on modern Filipino food, with some fancy international choices like foie gras thrown in. My family was pretty excited to try this restaurant, and the hype increased when our food was served and it looked hella classy. Unfortunately, the taste didn't match up to the looks. The chicken pastel, the only dish I can remember from our passable orders, was rather dry. Maybe we just ordered the wrong things? Or it was a bad day for the cooks. I'm hoping it's one or both, and I'm willing to give this restaurant a second chance, because the concept just really won me over.

If you are looking for contemporary, modern Filipino food in the metro, you should try and check…read moreout Restaurante Pia y Damaso at Greenbelt. It's unique, Spanish, Chinese and Filipino all at the same time and it offers Filipino favourites with a twist. If you're ever familiar with Noli Me Tangere (of course you are! :) ), the names of the dishes and cuisines being served here are lifted from the book. I kind of like how the chef mixes all Filipino influences in the dishes. Their slogan, "Subversive Filipino Food" stays true to that. It describes how it gives the Filipino dishes its own different attitude, therefore being subversive. I specially like Spanish Style Sardines with Toasted Pandesal. It's so aristocratic and for the commoners at the same time, pandesal and expensive sardines together is so yummy! If you are looking for something more exotic, they have crocodile meat in one of their salads and tapang usa! Also dont forget to taste their awesome desserts. The chocolate lover in me was delighted when I got to taste theirs Sisa's Dementia, which can only be described as melts in your mouth chocolate cake. Sigh. So Delicious.

This vacation trip would not be complete without having some Pho and it was next to where we were…read morestaying (Novotel). It is a smaller restaurant connected to a MyThai restaurant. We had a larger party and there was available seating outside. Portion size of a small vs large would be comparing a bowl for cereal to a serving bowl for soup. In America, a standard Pho is a large here in the PI. If you look at the menu pictures of the Pho, you get less meat than what is shown. I received two tiny pieces of tendon. There is no option for extra tendon either, I would have gladly paid. The spring rolls are also half the size than stateside. The broth was your typical pho broth, a little on the light side. Your side dish of veggies did not have hot peppers. It was nice that our kids can get rice noodles and broth. For a pho chain in this country, they did it right. More than enough choices in the soup, noodle and rice department. The food was good and the price was right.

Was feeling bloated from a recent food crawl, so I told my boyfriend that we had to eat something…read morelighter but still filling, and Vietnamese food fits the bill. For starters, we had the beautiful and delicious pomelo and shrimp salad! Man, I could definitely eat this by myself! The shrimps were juice and the pomelo has just the right sweetness. The other veggies were kind of dry, but the dryness was remedied by the accompanying delicately sweet-sour dressing. My main dish was the grilled chicken vermicelli bowl, which is like the Vietnamese version of spaghetti sans the sauce and with more veggies. I don't usually like sweet food that's meant to be savory, but this one just hits the spot! The sweetness of the grilled chicken wasn't overwhelming, and the veggies, fresh. However, the stars of this dish are the spring rolls! Solid, ang sarap! They actually taste like lumpiang shanghai. So good! My boyfriend tried the hot and sour pho with pineapples and prawns, and it did taste good, but I still prefer the original pho. Service was a bit slow, though, but I'm willing to wait for such yummy food. :)

The best way to eat seafood is with your hands! That's why I love Bag O' Shrimp :) No plates, No…read moreutensils - just you, your hands & a big bag full of goodies! You have 4 flavors to choose from (with spicy levels too!) : Lemon Pepper, Cajun, Garlic Butter, & the Bag O' Momma. I always go for the Bag O' Momma (hot) with shrimps & mussels additional corn + sausages! MUST TRY: Sweet Potato Fries - Php115, very addictive! Don't forget to pair the meal with a Stella or Blue Moon :D

You eat with your hands. And that's part of the equation that makes dining at Bag O' Shrimps so…read moreenjoyable! I couldn't count anymore how many times we've eaten here. Dampa places are a bit far from where we live so this is definitely a good alternative for us. No reason to go to the wet market and select your seafood, you just order and in a matter of minutes, you dig in to the tastiness of Bag O' Momma! Our usual orders are Bag O' Momma Shrimps (P565 per 453g), Mussels in Garlic Butter (P295 per 500g). Sometimes we mix it up with Lemon Pepper and Cajun. Even when they say it's mild spiciness, it is still too much for some. Lucky for us, we're in touch with our Ilocano tongue. Their level of spiciness is something we truly appreciate whenever we're here. My dad is such a huge fan of their recipe that he has been trying to recreate their flavours based on what he could taste. So far, his attempts were A+. But that wouldn't stop us from coming back to Bag O' Shrimps. The very California interiors were also something that I love about this place. It beams with so much love for the sea and reminds me so much about other restaurants along side Venice Beach. Also, their beer selection are mostly international. They've got the basics covered with Beck's, Amstel, Paulaner, Dos XX, Blue Moon and Stella Artois. Still holding out for IPA selections. Fingers crossed!

The family decided to swing by Chinatown (first time in the area) and specifically eat here after…read moreraving reviews from a Youtuber. I do have to mention how difficult it was to find parking in this area. Be prepared for circling around during lunch time if you're not familiar with the area. Apparently this is another historical spot having been around for a while. Walking in, the place had a small amount of seating on the ground level (all were occupied.) We fortunately had a reservation for 11 people. I don't think we would've fit on the ground level but fortunately they had 4 tables located on the 2nd floor. We did order a bit of dishes as shared on the attached photos - overall it was okay. Although I'm sure they're known for serving certain types of food (apparently lumpia is popular at this location), we didn't order it. They did however bring out the food extremely quickly. If I were to return back in this area, maybe I'll grab some lumpia.

We tried out the Lumpiang sariwa and dined in at this hole-in-the wall restaurant. Delicious!read more

Good Filipino comfort food restaurant that has a wide selection of appetizers, soups, and entrees…read moreclose to the Metro Manila area. We tried many dishes and enjoyed the ambiance in this Manila restaurant. A good menu selection if you like to test out your taste buds.

Not crowded and no wait when we came in around 4:00pm on a Wednesday. Not high end but comfortable…read moreinside with a/c. We ordered: Grilled Panga and Tanigiue, Kinilaw na fish, Chopsuey (I love the sweet taste) Baked Mussels, Adobong Kangkong, Crispy Pata (not much tabâ). Very good Filipino food option around this area. We're all happy with all the food we ordered. We'll go back again.

Went looking for Mang Inasal in Glorietta mall only to find this chicken place that also…read morecharcoals/grills their chicken. Since I was doing an inasal taste test with my one week trip in Manila, my review and score is done after I've tried a few others. Sadly, this was in last place in my inasal taste test with CHE Bacolod chicken house being #1 and Mang Inasal #2 Besides the chicken, I also added a chickeneer which was fried chicken skin as an appetizer. They serve it with vinegar on the side and it was pretty tasty but because when they served it, some of the vinegar had spilled into the chicken skin, thus a few was wet and no longer crispy which made It inedible for me. Turn off. The chicken was dry and also uncooked near the bone where I encountered some part that was still bloody. Based on my one experience, I doubt I will go back to this franchise chicken place since I was not impressed

Service was slow...sat for a while before approached by server...got the breast inasal, probably…read morethe best chicken I've had, juicy full of flavor...good times!!!!5