Flavorful! I'm happy with the spicy Beef Rendang, and their Grilled Beef Best Seller. Two items for…read morePhp 350.00, and the serving was decent. Watch out for the spicy, pickle condiment! I do hope this resto makes it in Manila.

AMBIENCE & LOCATION They are located along Salcedo across…read morethe Embassy of Indonesia and near the entrance of Beneficial Life. Air-con is freezing cold and their warm lights in the evening are relaxing. Seats are also available outside but parking seems to be tricky. We walked to this location to avoid possible parking inconveniences. Packets and kid meals are not included for Zomato Gold perks. FOOD Ayam Bakar Padang Boneless smelled and tasted so good! Daging Martabak (Beef Pancake) had an interesting shape and the first few bites were exciting, but halfway through the dish, we started getting a bit thirsty. It reminds me of lumpiang shanghai but it is cut into squares. Dip was a bit bland and, overall, the dish was okay. We LOVED the Soto Ayam! Glass noodle combination was a first for us. SERVICE There weren't that many customers during our visit but the servers weren't proactive with beverage refills. I couldn't ask them to smile more but they might need a little more motivation from the management because they seemed straight-faced, and I understand that feeling. CHANCE We felt adventurous during our last visit but the Chicken Sate and Beef Rendang might be promising choices for next visit. When we get the chance, we'll give those a try!

Live life with a bit of spice…read more This is their bottom written on their wall, and well, yep. We're living a lot of life. The food is . If that's your jam, you came to the right place. This is my go to spot when I'm in the area as their food is good, portions decent, and prices reasonable. These dishes are definitely not anything I'd normally cook at home. Been here three times this month and I either get the Nasi Goreng or the Mee Goreng.

I'm only giving it 3 stars because I haven't tried everything on the menu yet!…read more That being said, Me Love You Long Time is one of the more interesting food spots at the Z. I love the homage to Stanley Kubrick painted on the wall (Full Metal Jacket is one of my favorite films!), and I find myself mentally replaying the scene where The Joker and Rafterman are having afternoon beers while the Vietnamese prostitute saunters over and delivers her now immortalized spiel, to the tune of Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'." The only food I've tried on the menu is their Pad Thai (which isn't Vietnamese, BTW), which for less than 150 pesos is an excellent plate of vegetarian pad thai. I prefer my pad thai to balance the umami of patis with lots of citrus and maybe a dab of sweetness. Me Love You Long Time's pad thai has a great recipe for it, and trust that I always make a bee line for MLYLT whenever I'm at the Z Compound (if I'm not lining up for Meshwe instead!).

Won't you satay with me, 'cause you're all I need?…read more I admit I got horribly punny while eating at the al fresco dining area of Me Love You Long Time. It was our anniversary night and we decided to go adventuring along Maginhawa and because of budget constraints, we ended up sourcing food from the different establishments in Malingap's Z Compound. One of these was Me Love You Long Time, and despite my lobster nodding conspiratorially at the name and insisting that it's from Full Metal Jacket, nothing clicked. I stopped caring when the food arrived, though. I had pho ("pho you!" I chuckled, as the waitress glared at me disapprovingly) while my Bicolano lobster had the spicier Thai chicken curry and chicken satay. The food was hot in more ways than one, so I balanced it out with their delicious Thai milk tea (if it's a Thai place, should I just call it milk tea?) We capped off the meal with their highly-recommended (by another Yelp scout, no less) langka ice cream. The owners make it themselves, and it was langka-mazing.

My well traveled auntie (Tita) brought a few of us here. She says this family that owns this spot…read moreused to live in Indonesia for many years. Then when they moved back to the Philippines they transformed part of their home to serve as both restaurant and home. Cool and ideal scenario. Very stylish digs, airy space with lots of natural light and wooden accents. Lots of cool traditional decor from Indonesia as well. Bakwan Sayur (4*) These are crisp vegetable fritters. Nice and petite with a lacey crisp batter. Real similar to an Indian Pakora or a Philippine Ukoy. From what I heard this is a popular street food but here they plate it nice with an intense dark sauce with a subtle tang and sweetness. Gado Gado (5*) Super unique salad. I've had Indonesian food in the states many times but I've never seen this dish. Here they take bigger chunks of cabbage and a dark leafy green that may be water spinach and blanch both so it loses its rawness but still a bit crisp. Other shredded veggies go in and all coated in this amazing peanut dressing that was savory with a touch of sweet. Garnished with hard boiled egg wedges, this was a spectacularly unique salad. A must get imo. Bakmi Goreng (4*) Stir fried thick noodles with a uniquely Indonesian sauce that is meant to absorb into the noodles versus swimming in a sauce. Very nice springy texture on the noodle and the flavor had a pinch of curry flavor that made you just mildly ponder about it. Just enough to make you go hmmmm. Beef Rendang (5*). Very petite portioning, but 1-2 pieces was totally suffice for the lunch sampling we did. The beef in this country is much leaner than in the states. This was done tender but still has a nice chew. The sauce is where this place elevates, very complex a yet still beefy. Maybe a touch of coconut milk like a French sauce might use a pat of butter to finish, stealthy yet effective. The best version of beef rendang I've ever had. Nasi Goreng (4.5*) A fried rice prep that was super similar to the noodle dish we got except instead of fried noodles this was fried rice in Indonesian flavors embedded into the rice. Topped with a fried egg, if I lived near here I'd get this, the beef dish and that salad weekly. Real special. Es Teler (5*) This is an Indonesian version of Halo Halo or Viet Che. And the menu states avocado in their version but they were out but we still ordered one. Here they take the shaved ice and run it into a blender with the sweetened coconut milk so it becomes very smooth and creamy yet thick enough to stand on its own. So they serve this in dramatic fashion with the frozen part towering about 7 inches above the rim of the bowl. On the bottom lied jackfruit slices and thick shreds of young coconut. Friggin jaw dropper of a finish. And now I'm wondering how that avocado could have added to the amazement as I'm thinking it would have been even better with the richness avocados can lend. Place had a lunch rush even tho it is tucked away from the street. It is not in a retail strip so a true gem in the rough. Just want to help unearth it here for others.

Second time here and this time I brought my folks who were craving rice for dinner. We got the…read moregado-gado salad, chicken curry and laksa. The servings were big - good for sharing. The food were all very tasty. They only accept cash.

Paid a visit to an old friend in his office in Makati City. He recommended an Asian restaurant…read morealong San Agustin St. in Salcedo Village that serves really good curry and satay. Warung Indo is a cozy restaurant that seats maybe 20 to 30 people, so I can imagine how crowded it would get during the busy lunch hour. We ordered three of its bestsellers: Special fried rice with chicken satay, fried egg omelette, and prawn crackers Beef rendang Chicken curry The chicken satay was on the verge of turning dry, but it was served with rice, egg, and prawn crackers so this dish presented good value for money. I am not sure why there was no peanut sauce for the chicken. The beef rendang was really good! The beef was fork tender, and the level of heat in the sauce was perfect for me. The chicken curry was good though the chicken was a bit dry. The curry sauce could use a touch more heat to make the dish more interesting.

This tiny noodle house gives you the freedom to create your own noodle soup. Everything from the…read morenoodle to the topping. I got a bowl of laksa noodle soup for Php 145, with two toppings included. You can Php 35 for an additional topping. You have around thirty toppings to choose from, and anything goes. I chose smoked chicken and, for some reason, a mozzarella ball for my topping. The noodles itself are good: flavorful and just the right amount of softness. It doesn't rely on the broth as it already has a flavor of its own, which for me is a good thing. Now, I'm not sure what I had in mind when I chose the mozzarella ball to go with my laksa noodle soup and i was dreading the outcome. It wasn't so bad after all, but I think it'd taste better with the plain noodle soup. I brought my friends along on my second visit and experimented with plain noodle soup, mozzarella ball (I really don't know what's with me and cheese), a fried cheeseball and smoked chicken. They all turned out great! Better than expected, actually.

Mogu Tree is just a small establishment in Lilac Street, Marikina's counterpart for Maginhawa…read moreStreet. It is not fancy, but quite interesting. The moment I entered the place, I immediately saw the buffet table for the different types of noodles and toppings. There were five noodles to choose from: ramen, spinach noodles, Hong Kong egg noodles, thick flour noodles, and flat flour noodles. I chose the last one. From the toppings, I picked three types of mushrooms: enoki, pearl and chicken mushroom. Done picking the ingredients, I gave my plastic tray to the lady at the counter. Finally, I chose my soup: laksa (with coconut). My order - laksa noodle soup with three toppings - amounted to PhP175, she said. Then, I sat on my table and waited for them to cook my bowl of laksa. The waiting time for the food was short and my order arrived still slightly boiling. The serving size was big enough for its price. I liked how the mushrooms were not overly cooked and carried a sweet earthy taste. The noodles were not too soft and soggy and the laksa soup was a mix of sweet (because of the coconut milk) and spicy (because of the chili). Altogether, the ingredients resulted into a beautiful medley in my mouth. I finished the meal and went home satisfied. Surely, I would go back to Mogu Tree. Even now, I couldn't wait to try the other noodles and toppings!

Tasty entrees. Excellent service. The restaurant is next to the second floor entrance of the casino.read more

Having a long layover for our flight out of Manila, we decided to stop by the City of Dreams to get…read moresome food before our flight. There weren't too many options open so we decided to come to Red Ginger. We ordered the bak kuh teh (rib soup) and the char kway teow (pork rib soup). The bak kut teh was decent, but didn't taste like the ones I had in Singapore. The char kway teow lacked flavor. I wouldn't have finished it if I wasn't so hungry. I left the place feeling dissatisfied.

What it has going for it is its brand and name recognition. Mang Larry's has been an institution at…read moreUP for quite a while now. The order placement system is also very organized. The food order is properly itemized and priced in the printed order slip. It gets full very quickly nearing meal times. We had to wait a short while after placing our order at around 5:45 PM. Students, office workers, and tourists are the present diners when we ate there. What I did not like was the setting and service. It did come a long way now that it has a dedicated seating area and a covered roof compared to yesteryears when it was only a stand-up kiosk. It would have been nice if they went all the way and cemented the flooring and have chosen more presentable table and chairs. Durint the time we were present dining, we also overheard another customer having their order wrong. He ordered something around 20 sticks, but what came in the take-out bag was only around 16 sticks. It was a few sticks short. Lastly, do not expect to get good value when eating here. The small portions of food on the sticks are a little pricey and can add up quicky with just a few sticks ordered.

There is a reason why Mang Larry's is one of the most famous stalls in the UP Diliman Campus. It is…read morea small and humble cart near the Internatonal Center and the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice, yet it manages to drawn in hordes and hordes of students and faculty. It serves a variety of innards and offal, which I think shows the ingenuity and the resourcefulness of our street food eating habits -nothing goes to waste. On the menu are different kinds of isaw or pig and chicken intestines, and other adventurous stuff such as pig ears, tripe, gizzards and liver. People would actually line up and end up smelling like the smoke from the outdoor grill, which goes to show how good the isaw is. I personally don't like isaw very much, and I have already shifted to my veg diet when I came to UP, but my friends swear by the quality of the isaw sold by Mang Larry's. A friend remarked that he wouldn't even touch any other isaw, unless he is sure that utter care was taken by the vendor in cleaning the innards. They say that the stuff sold by Mang Larry's taste fresh and clean, and free from that undesirable taste of chicken poop that any amateur isaw vendor wouldn't think of cleaning out thoroughly. Anyway, I heard Mang Larry was able to send his kids to college because of his trade, to which I say, well done! Excellent job, hardworking and charismatic Mang Larry!