Right across Makati Cinema Square lies a small cluster of Japanese Restaurants collectively known as "Little Tokyo". It's here you'll find Yamazaki, a Japanese teishoku-serving-restaurant-slash-grocery. What is most appealing to diners here are the variety of authentic Japanese dishes. "Teishoku" by the way, means "meal set", which is Yamazaki's specialty. There is also "Bento" which roughly translated is "lunch box", and meals with the suffix "-don" which means rice toppings in a bowl. I've tried almost all the Teishokus, and I can honestly say that the best ones are the Sukiyaki, Karaage (Japanese fried chicken), Chicken Katsu (fried cutlet), Shake (pronounced "Sha-ke" not "shake" as in "milkshake"; this is grilled salmon), and Sanma (grilled Mackerel). The Tendon, or fried shrimp tempura over rice, and the Sukiyaki Don, or pan-fried beef slices over rice, are also bestsellers. Oh and before anything else, a great thing about dining here is that the waitresses give you cold Barley tea for free, and as much as you can drink. The easiest way to describe this is that it tastes like "liquid burnt rice", which may sound strange, but it's actually pretty refreshing on a hot day. More on the Teishokus. Whatever Teishoku you order, it will always be precluded by a few small appetizers. There's a block of silky white Tofu topped with Bonito flakes and thinly sliced scallions, a small bowl of hot Miso soup with seaweed, and a small platter of sweet steamed radish with carrot, Shiitake mushroom, and a small piece of chicken, and small portion of sliced Chinese cabbage that tastes like butter. Mind you it's not a choice between these appetizers, you get all four! Except for the Shake, your plate will be generously filled with the viand you ordered, along with a bit of white spaghetti salad, and a side bowl of sticky white Japanese rice. All in all, these teishokus will set you back between P196 to P218 pesos, and that's since their price increase from about a year ago (I should know, I've been dining there often, pretty much since I stumbled upon this place in 2003!). My favorite way of enjoying their dishes is by skipping over first to the grocery section of the establishment. I get a PET bottle of Suntory Lemon, a sweet lemonade that boasts of containing the "Vitamin C of 70 lemons!" It only costs P80, so it's worth getting to wash down a Teishoku when you've had your fill of the Barley tea. There are a lot of other beverages and curiosities from Japan here; there's Pocari Sweat powder packs so you can make your own batches at home, Green Tea and Matcha flavored KitKat chocolates, a variety of chocolates, candies, assorted Japanese rice crackers, assorted Tempura sauces, instant noodles, soba noodles, soba sauce, and items like "TV dinners" of microwaveable "Paeria" (I kid you not, that's how they spell "Paella"), Curry dishes, fresh eggs, milk (imported from Japan!), and of course, Sake. They also have a frozen food section that has slices of Shake and Mackerel for you to cook at home. Ok, back to the resto dishes. They also serve excellent Yasai Itame, a veggie dish of stir-fry that's pretty much the Japanese version of Chop Suey. Also, their Ramen bowls are large, hot, delicious, and filling. They also have their own Gyoza set, one that includes 4 dumplings, a bowl of hot broth (it's not Miso), and a hefty cup of fried rice. I'm sure to some of you who haven't been to Yamazaki, you'd be skeptical as to the quality of the food, considering it's Japanese fare. Just take note, the restaurant is full of Japanese customers, every day, at lunch or dinner. And Japanese people are some of the fussiest diners, which is why you rarely even see any of them eating at a fast food restaurant. If that isn't indicative of good Japanese food, I have no idea what is! So if you're looking for Japanese food (just not sushi or sashimi, they don't offer it) that's filling, delicious, and won't break the bank, you really have to visit Yamazaki. read more