Sarpaghetti or Spardines

I do this really cheap spaghetti when I have extra pasta lying around and I'm too lazy to make spaghetti sauce. The recipe's in the picture I posted on Instagram (this is starting to be a pattern).

The Hot Sauce is optional. I was just lucky enough to have some lying around, like the pasta. 

It's pretty good. Give it a try. If you already have the ingredients. Don't go out and buy some.

Wings on the Go ... to Fairview

It's quite a long time since I've made one of these. That's probably because I've never tried out new or old restaurants, fast foods, food kiosks, or even a food cart for the longest time. But that has changed.

Presenting, Wings on the Go, Fairview branch. I've tried a few from their menu via to-go. So let's go through them one by one.

First up is the Quarter Pounder Cheese Deluxe. This has a quarter pound patty, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce. It reminds me of a burger from MIB (I'm not sure if that place is still open. Click here for my entry on that). 

I think this is their basic burger. Their Regular Yum if they were Jollibee. So for a basic burger, this is a lot.

Next up is Macho Burger. As it says on the photo caption, it's pretty much the quarter pounder with a few upgrades, bacon and ham.

This is Maui. The Macho Burger with a slice of pineapple. Another upgrade to the previous burger.

Rock and Roll. This is almost the Macho Burger, this time it has egg and peanut butter.

This is from their pasta section. Creamy pesto. It's like carbonara, but it's not.

This is one of the better ones on the menu. It's beef burger steak with, mini sausages that taste like spicy franks but, they're extras so you have to order them. The rice is topped with an egg and it comes with a side of buttered vegetables; peas, diced carrots, and corn. I'm not very fond of corn.

This is their top of the line. The ribs are so tender that the meat falls off the bone. It comes with fries and barbeque sauce. So if you're the kind that likes to have this with rice, you'd have to order that separately.

If you want ribs but can't reach it, you'll want the next best thing. That would be the Pork Belly. One serving is a lot of pork belly, it's like three slices. You can also add the extra sausages.

They call this Soft Taco Chicken Spicy. I'm not sure on the technicality of it; is this pita or taco. Like the caption says, it's like the old twister from KFC. I say old because the new twister isn't that good. The difference between them is that for this one the veggies and the sauce are separate.

They also have others like chicken wings which happens to be their specialty but I have never tried those. They also have fries that have a whole lot of toppings that you don't actually see the fries underneath the toppings. They also have chicken leg meals that is either fried or grilled; choose the grilled. The fried one is just like Max's. 

For the prices, I'm not going to say that they're affordable. If you want affordable, go to Jollibee or your usual go-to carinderia. The correct term is reasonable. Their prices are reasonable. You get what you paid for.

Caba... Yan!!!

I've only been to Cabalen, about four times in my entire life. The first two times I ate there, it was awesome. There were a lot of foods to choose from. Every Filipino dish and desert you could think of, it was all on the buffet table. This was almost 20 years ago. 

Fast forward a decade or so, and here comes Vikings, Sambokojin, Four Seasons, City Buffet and all other buffet restaurants. Not to mention the influx of Asian-themed restaurants that offer unlimited items.

So my next two visits to Cabalen was after the arrival of the new buffet and unlimited item restaurants. Cabalen was not like it was before. Mind you, these two visits were to two different branches. Both visits were sad. The buffet table was down to 15 dishes at the most; and this includes the deserts. Not to mention the dishes are the ones you usually cook at home like Adobo, Dinuguan, Menudo, and Sinigang to name a few. It least there was Lechon.

My third visit was already a sign, as far as I was concerned. That said to me that Cabalen isn't what it used to be. I need not go on my fourth visit. But one day, I had the craving to eat at a buffet restaurant. Unfortunately, the newer ones were full. Only Cabalen had unoccupied tables. So I gave it the benefit of the doubt. Unfortunately, it was the same as my visit before.

Perhaps it's time to not visit Cabalen anymore. I could buy whatever they have at a Carideria with a much cheaper price. If I want to level it up a bit, I'll just go to Max's.

So, is it still worth it to go to Cabalen? In my opinion, no. Like I said, there are other options if what you want is what they serve.

A Members-Only Resto

This restaurant's review is quite different. The probability of one eating at this place if one is not a member is slim to none. One has to be a member of Valle Verde or know someone who's a member and get invited in order to eat here. And since my boss' boss is a member, well, I got invited.

If I'm right, the restaurant's name is Lanai Ala Carte. Looking at the menu, the prices are similar to that of a mid-range priced restaurant like Max's. It's not very expensive but it's up there. We ordered Pancit Canton, Pancit Palabok, Calamares, Lumpiang Togue, and Lumpiang Shanghai. 

I couldn't eat the Lumpiang Togue for the fear of having my ankles ache. With it was vinegar with what seemed to be garlic and pepper for a dip. The Calamares was ok at best. It had with it, white sauce for dipping. Sweet chili sauce was the dip for the generic Lumpiang Shanghai. I'm guessing the sauce's brand is Jufran. The Pancit Canton was alright. From what I can tell, it had slices of pork, squid, and shrimp. The Pancit Palabok was a bit bland. I lacked saltiness that would have enhanced the Palabok flavor.

In spite the fact that the restaurant is exclusive to Valle Verde members, the food could have been better. To be honest, Hap Chan's food tastes better. It's a good thing I was just invited so I didn't spend on anything.

I guess what you're paying for is more of the privacy of the place. Since it's members only, you may have a table all to yourself and you can take your time just using the Wi-Fi. You can say it's free but since you're a paying member, you've probably paid for that.

It's a good experience. But that's it.

Tapa King's Tapa Queen

So it's not my first time eating at Tapa King. But then again, I have never blogged about it; or even complained. 

I don't remember the first time I had my first Tapa King nor do I remember which branch. All I remember is that I had tapa. That's it. Today, there's like four different tapa sets; King, Queen, and the other two. I forgot what they're called. But back then it was just Beef Tapa. They also have other dishes that weren't on the menu, God knows how long ago.

Just to be consistent with my Tapa King dining experiences thus far, I ordered a Tapa Queen. It's beef tapa but it's sweet and spicy.

How did it taste? Well, it was sweet and spicy. It wasn't the original beef tapa I had long ago. But I guess I wouldn't remember as much. 

I didn't really took the price into consideration since I didn't pay for the meal. I'm sure it was around Php 100+, probably around 150. Value for money? It was okay. Although I would rather have a two-piece Chicken Joy with that price range. And you can have tapa and eggs at Jollibee as well for around Php 20 cheaper. But you can only buy that during breakfast. At 10AM, no more breakfast. 

For me, dishes like these, tapa, daing na bangus, danggit, longanisa are the types of food that I eat once I get the craving for them. Not really a daily thing. Not even weekly. Probably biweekly. So it follows that I would probably eat at Tapa King once I get a craving for whatever's in their menu.

Kalye Uno

So today I decided to eat at Kalye Uno. It's not my first time to eat at Kalye Uno but I have never blogged about it. So what's Kalye Uno?

Kalye Uno is a fast food restaurant. It's not as big as Jolllibee, or KFC, or any of those franchises. I don't even know if there are other branches besides the one near my office. Like most fast food restaurants, it's self-service. 

By the way, my office is located at Bridgetowne. It's at the edge of Quezon City. Almost at Pasig City. 

For the main menu, first you choose whether you want your meal with rice or on a taco. Then you choose what your meal is. I'm sorry but I usually just order Garlic Longanisa and nothing else. But I'm sure there's Daing na Bangus since I just saw it on the menu board because it's new. I think there's Tapa as well.

They also have Sisig, and Nachos with some awesome dressing. I think Garlic Longanisa bits are one of the toppings. I'm pretty sure I tasted some.

Price range, it right around double the price of a regular meal at Jollibee. A two-piece chicken is not a regular meal, by the way. Just by how often I eat there is proof that it's not cheap, but not expensive either. How many times have I eaten there since it opened? Around five times, I guess. I just eat there when I have the craving for Garlic Longanisa.

This branch is located right in between Zeta and Exxa Towers at Bridgetowne. Just beside Subway, but Subway's in the outside of the main entrance. Kalye Uno is inside. Just across Mini Stop. 

Mesa Philippines

After a company event, one of our bosses gave us a tread at a restaurant called, Mesa. This branch we ate at is located at the third level of Robinson's Galleria just beside Kenny Roger's Roasters. I remember seeing one at SM City Lipa and SM Fairview if I'm not mistaken. As for other branches, you better do a Google check. They are better known as Mesa Philippines. Although a search for 'mesa' would still point to them for now. You'll never know in the future, it might bring you to a search result for tables.

This restaurant serves food that is covered by BFAR (Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources). For those who know me, I am not very fond of crustaceans and mollusks because I have an allergic reaction to those kinds of foods. So as they were serving the feast, I could not help but just look since I could not eat most of them; shrimp on century egg, steamed shrimp, fried squid on oyster sauce, some sort of sisig that I definitely do not know what's in it, lumpia that I wasn't also sure what's wrapped inside it.

It was a feast that I couldn't really partake wholeheartedly. Then came the tilapia. At last, fish. I'm fine with fish. Why don't they have tuna or mackerel or sardines. They took out at least three platters of fried tilapia. The flesh was already fried and the bones (with a little flesh left over was fried and shaped into what seemed to be a heart. It came with four condiments; alamang (I think that's fish paste), vinegar, sweet and spicy sauce, and one that I did not bother trying. And yes, I took one whole platter and claimed it my own.

It is rather unfair to judge the restaurant by a single dish; that would be a very common fried tilapia. The only thing uncommon about it was the heart-shaped ornament made from its bones. But nevertheless, it was good. And basing form how the rest of us ate, I guess the other dishes were great as well.

If you're like me who cannot eat most of BFAR-covered foods, then this is not for you. But if you're good on seafood, then this might be the place for you. I cannot give you if it is worth the budget because I didn't pay for anything.