Marina Seafoods

Restaurant: Marina Seafood
Branch: SM City Cebu FoodCourt
Food: Seafood and Grill
Mode of payment: Cash

Grilled Squid and crispy Crablets are both faves of mine Marina Seafoods had served both entrees!

Spicy Squid with fried garlic sprinkles was really good. It was semi sweet, mildly spiced with a hint of garlic which was delectable.

Island Grill Express

Restaurant: Island Grill Express
Address: Sm Foodcourt
Food: Grill and Filipno Food
Mode of Payment: Cash


Island Grill Express specializes in Ilonggo and Cebuano dishes with Sinugba as their best sellers. Growing in a Tagalog household, Iam fond of Batchoy and Island Grill Express definitely served one of the best tasting Batchoys in Cebu! With 15 years of food experience, Island Grill Express had been embraced by Cebuanos with arms wide open.

Ric's Barbeque

Restaurant: Ric's Barbeque
Branch: Sm Foodcourt
Food: Grill
Mode of Payment: Cash

Ric's Barbeque has now reached it's 15 years in the food business and owner Jingle Benitez- Polotan knows the ingredients of how to operate a successful food restaurant.

My high school friends and I used to eat our lunches here everytime we go out on Saturdays playing at Bibo and riding bumpcars at Gamezone. With affordable meals and fairly good dishes it sure is a hit for those who loved sweet and mildly spiced barbeque sticks!

Golden Bowl Dimsum Express

Restaurant: Golden Bowl Dimsum
Address: Sm Foodcourt
Food: Dimsum
Mode of Payment: Cash

Started 1997, Golden Bowl Dimsum Express was invited by SM Foodcourt tenant. Golden Bowl is a sister restaurant of Golden City Dimsum, "Bowl" for the smaller store and "City" for the big one.

Served were Steamed Rice, Fried Wanton and Pork Siomai. Golden Bowl Steamed Rice was created by Hong Kong Chef Chi Keung Leung.

Golden Bowl Express Dimsum claims to have the best tasting Steam Rice in Cebu. Decide for yourself by visiting them at SM City CEbu Foodcourt.

Sm FOodcourt's Asia in a Basket Food Event

November 30, 2009, Cebu Bloggers Society had been invited to taste what SM City Cebu Foodcourt has to offer!

Here's the list of food products that we will be tasting! Yum!

Golden Bowl Dimsum - Fried Wanton and Siomai
Fish Port - Bicol Express and Grilled Tuna Belly
Kamay Kainan - Calamares and Lechon Kawali
Island Grill Express - Camaron Rebosado and La Paz Batchoy
Mama Gie - Pancit Palabok and Boneless Bangus
New Mongolian Express - Fish Fillet Sweet and Sour
Rics' BBQ - BBQ on Stick (Pork and/or Chorizo
Fiesta Cebuana - Grilled Squid and Kinilaw na Nangka
Venetian Coffee - Coffee Capuccino and Apple Pie
Dunkin' Donuts - Donuts
Fountainhead - Cakes
Marina Seafoods - Crablets and Squid Chilly Sauce
Smokey's - Hotdog on Sticks
Goto King - Squid Balls and Shrimp Balls
Marina Lechon House - Lechon and Sisig
King Wah Chinese Cuisine - Chicken Pandan and Patatim
Thirsty? - Fruit Salad

Brasco Pizza and Pasta

Restaurant: Brasco Pizza and Pasta
Address: The Gallery San Jose dela Montana Mabolo Cebu City
Restaurant Type: Casual Dining
Food: American, Italian
Mode of Payment: Cash
Telephone Number: 5057924/5114018

Brian Espina's fondness for pizza made him decide to open up his own pizzeria place . Liking the pizza he had on a trip to Italy inspired him to create his own pizza recipes infused with American flavors. 5 years of planning and finally Brian had launched his own pizza place he named "Brasco" meaning Brian's aspirations and dreams. Coming from a family who had been successful in the food business (Espinas own MyJoy and Butterbean), Brian had all the advice and admonitions he can get to make it big in the food business. An invitation to foretaste Brasco's food was sent for me and Regina of CDN inline with their grand launching.



Brasco Pizza and Pasta wants their customers to feel at home and warm when dining. Freedom Frames are even situated on the wall where customers can write what they think about the resto.

Pasta with tomatoes and Aligue(Price: 138php) was served first. Al dente Pasta in Tomato Sauce and crab roe. This reminded me of my Lola's cooking who loves putting "taba ng talangka" on her garlic rice. That explains my high triglyceride level! LOL. Dish was fairly priced for a crab roe dish. Next on the tasting spree was Meaty Spaghetti with Pepperoni (Price: 147php). Al dente pasta in tomato sauce and Italian sausage.

Pizza! We had 10inch of Marinara and Brasco Pizza. Brasco Pizza(10inch Price: 230php) is made of freshly tossed thin crust topped with tomatoes, mozarella cheese, bacon, ham, pepperoni, sausage and Brasco meatballs. Marinara Pizza (10inch Price: 259php), is made of freshly tossed thin crust, tomato sauce, mozarella cheese, squid, shrimp and crab roe. Best enjoyed when hot.

And finally, La Marea's brownie cup has been dethroned as my fave warm brownie cup! hehe. "Brasco Crazy Bliss" is made of Butterbean "Crazy Brownie" topped with Brasco's "Chewier Vanilla Ice Cream!" A must try! Priced at 90php!

Brasco Pizza and Pasta accepts deliveries within Cebu City with a minimum purchase of 14" pizza. Three available pizza sizes 10"(Price range 119php-259php), 14"(Price range 230php-431php) and 20"(Price range 440php-812php).

Dessert Factory!

Restaurant: Dessert Factory
Branch: The Terraces Ayala Center Cebu
Food: American, Filipino
Restaurant Type: Casual Dining
Mode of Payment: Cash/Card

After a very bad experience at Dessert Factory last July, Edd, Shake and I had made peace with Dessert Factory. Dessert Factory did offer us Gift Certificates after the story was printed on Sunstar Newspaper through Kara's Column but we hadn't had a chance to get it because we plainly forgot to claim them. LOL.

Yeah, obvoiusly we dined again at Dessert Factory. Undoubtly the best mashed potato (Price: 30php)I ever had in my entire life! Smooth, Fine, Creamy and oozing with hot gravy is just heavenly! (Good thing there was no sticker on the mashed potato this time)

My family, specially my bro Reymond and his wife Karla, loves Dessert Factory's Buffalo Wings, Pork Belly, Boneless Crispy Pata, Kinamatisang Kawali and almost everything on the Menu! hahaha. That dinner, I was about to order the Pork Belly, which is another personal fave of mine, but I saw a "new" marking on red ink on the menu and the first entree on the grilled section and thought it's time I try a new dish! So I ordered Chicken Tandoori (Price: 175php). Chicken Fillet marinated in Dessert Factory's home made yogurt mixed with toasted whole spices and grilled Indian Style. I love the taste of yogurt and spice on the Chicken. It's semi sweet and mildly spiced at the same time. Another addition to my Dessert Factory Fave List!

Dessert Dessert! For some reason Dessert Factory supposedly should excel in the dessert area because their "DESSERT FACTORY" but their food is way way much better than their desserts! And another thing about the dessert places here(talking about most of the Dessert Places in Cebu) is that dessert servings are small and lacks the fancy smanchy stuff like drizzles of choco syrup or choco/sugar powder sprinkled on the plate. An "E" for presentation! Epic Fail! hehehehe.

Enough with the rants for the meantime. For dessert we had the "Achocolypse Now!" (Price: 80php). It's a combination of 4 chocolate cakes in 1! Choco Cheesecake, Choco Walnut Ganache, Choco Extreme and Choco Pudding & frosting! It was too sweet for me that I had enough after 3 small fork cut servings. Enjoyed the Choco Walnut Ganache part though!

Japengo

Restaurant: Japengo
Address: Parkmall
Food: Japanese, Filipino
Restaurant Type: Buffet/Casual Dining
Mode of Payment: Cash

Japengo is Japanese infused with Filipino Flavor as per Dan, Japengo's Manager. Regina and I were invited to Japengo's maiden buffet and it was an event shared with media people and friends & family of the owners.

The buffet consists of Japanese dishes like makis, sushis gyozas and many more. There were also salad and blueberry cheese "finger desserts"!

My brothers and I share the same love for Gyoza! and I had a whole serving of Gyoza all for myself! weeee!

And California Maki! Just can't get enough of these yummy Japanese Maki with sweet mango, crabstick and cucumber!

Me sneaking at the sushi table. hehehe

Wasn't able to stay long and taste all the food though because of another shoot scheduled that night. But I will on my next visit! : ). I had fun and enjoyed the Gyoza, Maki and Blueberry cheesecake I had during the opening buffet! Opening Promo of Japengo's Eat All You Can Buffet Price is set at 275php per head.

Sunburst

Restaurant: Sunburst Chicken
Branch: The Terraces Ayala Center Cebu
Mode of Payment: Cash/Card
Food: Filipino
Restaurant Type: Casual Dining

Long before Jollibee and Mcdonalds, Sunburst had been loved by Cebuanos for as long as I can remember. Fried til golden sun crisp, Sunburst Chicken would definitely make you crave for more. I love BIIIG and HUUUGE Chicken Boobs and Sunburst's chicken definitely makes me happy! 2 huge pieces of ribkeel served with rice and coleslaw side dished with 2 slices of french potatoes is priced at 153php.

I also love their Honey-ish Calamansi Juice!

Mga Kapigouts!

Macbay

Shop: Macbay
Address: One Acacia Place, Acacia Road & Arch Bishop Reyes Road Cebu City
Type: Coffee and Internet Lounge
Food: Coffee, Juices and Snakcs
Tel. No. (63)(32) 417-1445
Mode of Payment: Cash

Macbay had been creating a buzz to students and professionals which had earned itself one of Cebuanos' favorite meet/study/chill out places. With free Wifi Access, students can enjoy a cup of coffee while doing research and people chilling out can check their Farms at FB's Farmtown/Farmville!

With comfy chairs and warm interiors, Macbay is trully inviting. On the contrary, the food and drinks at Macbay is not as delightful as the place, basing from what we had during our Macbay experience. Macbay's "Big Thinker's Mocha Mint" (Price: 88php) and the "Macbay Orange Frap (Price: 128php)" was kinda humdrum. The Big Thinkers Mocha Mint looks fantastic though but the taste was a little too light on the Mint hint and the Macbay Orange Frap, tastes like coffee and orange soda. hehe

And the sandwhich we ordered was cold. So much like our everyday home sandwich! ; )

The place is very conducive for studying though. Laid back, quiet and relaxing. I hope they already have printed more of their MENU because there was only one that time. We even waited for the other table to finish ordering before we had our hands on the MENU. Or maybe customers have to go to the counter to order. hmmmm. which is which?

Golden Brown Banana Barrel Ala Mode

It was a special day for Kara, Edd, Pao, Greg, Tonton and I as Chef Nilo Sayman of Ambassador's Cafe showed us how to make one of the Cafe's Signature Desserts, Golden Brown Banana Barrel Ala Mode! And this is a special blog post for my Piggin Out Sessions page for this is my Golden blog Entry! weeeee.

Ingredients:
3 Large Bananas
1 Cup Evaporated Milk
1 Cup Bread Crumbs
1 Scoop Vanilla Ice Cream
Choco Syrup


Start by cutting diagonally the large bananas into half and roll unto evaporated milk. Let it sit for a minute or two. Then roll the bananas in bread crumbs.

Then pour oil into pan and directly put the bananas into the pan not waiting the oil to heat up to prevent the bananas from getting too soft. Then wait til golden brown. Then set into a plate forming a star design.

Put a scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream and drizzle it with chocolate syrup! Serves 2-3 persons!

Ambassador's Cafe is located at 168 Corner Rosal and Tojong Street Camputhaw Cebu City. Tel. No. 2335711.

Starbucks Planner 2010

Christmas is just around the corner! And it had been a barkada tradition that we avail of the Starbucks planner. Our Planners slash scrapbooks had been very auspicious in systemizing our disorganized schedules. hehe. Same as last year, the planner is hardbound and has three designs. The Bean Design has a velvety texture, The Coffee Grinder design has a rough shiny cover and The Espresso Shot Design has a clothlike feel cover.

To get the free Starbucks planner, one needs 9 Starbucks Holiday Featured Beverage Stickers by ordering hot, iced or Frappuccino DARK CHERRY MOCHA, TOFFEE NUT LATTE AND PEPPERMINT MOCHA and 8 Starbucks Beverage Sticker. Ordering bottled water, fruit juices and bottled beverage will not get you a sticker. That's a total of 17 stickers!

Saturdays and Sundays are busiest days for me and my friends and Starbucks had cut the space for these days into half. WHYYYY! hehehe. Good thing there's Post its!

Mga Kapigouts!

Coral Seaside Restaurant

Restaurant: Coral Seaside Restaurant
Address: Imperial Palace, M.L. Quezon Maribago Lapu-lapu City
Restaurant Type: Buffet
Mode of payment: Cash/Card
Food: American, European
Tel. No. 63-32-4945934

Imperial Palace's invitation to the Alter Ego Halloween Party was hard to resist, specially if it's sent by the very charming Kiss Palacio. hehehe. And not to mention my invitation was to a FREE dinner buffet for 950php and drink all you can local beers and cocktails for 450php. Thanks Kiss , Kyra and Imperial Palace!

Eating is really one of my many talents! hehehe. And Chef Mathias Olsson (Executive Western Chef) definitely was rocking the party with his very delicious buffet! I particularly loved their chili crabs! Fat and huge crabs in sweet and chili sauce! raaaawr! and the juicy medium rare steak was awesome which was served with his own sauce recipe!

I also loved these!

Wasn't really gaga over the dessert selection though.

I tried their specialty cocktails! I must say that they're preeeeetty good!

Kapigouts!