Certified Foodies - A food blog by siblings Mhel and Ken

Japanese Food / Cuisine

F Restaurant : A Flavorful Feast at BGC

It was the first day of December last year (sounded like a really long time ago eh?), we were headed to Bonifacio Global City in Taguig. It was a very familiar place to me since I used to work there at ePLDT Ventus so now, I always look forward to any opportunity that brings me to this same place where I spent two years working. This time though, the whole BGC is populated with more establishments everywhere you look and it’ll take some time before we can try all the restaurants here.

Best Western Premier F1 Hotel at The Fort, Taguig

The reason why we were at BGC : we were invited to dine at F Restaurant on the fifth floor of Best Western Premier F1 Hotel, the first hotel in the area and is located (strategically perhaps) in front of St. Luke’s Medical Center. Just by the sound of the name of the hotel where the resto is located, you’d know our expectations were set high. :)

As soon as we entered, we were welcomed with a very festive scene – beside two tall Christmas trees is this house made of candies, marshmallows, and other goodies. I began to understand Hansel and Gretel. ;)

House made up of candies, marshmallows and other goodies



Yurakuen Teppanyaki Eat All You Can Promo in Manila Diamond Hotel

Yurakuen Teppanyaki Dinner in Manila Diamond Hotel

Manila Diamond Hotel’s award-winning Japanese restaurant Yurakuen is proudly offering a totally unique Teppanyaki Eat-All-You-Can experience for all us buffet lovers out there. Instead of getting food from buffet spreads and cooking them on your table’s hot pot and griddles, Yurakuen lets you sit back and relax as you watch your personal chefs prepare food at your very own tables.

Yurakuen Japanese Restaurant in Manila Diamond Hotel - Teppanyaki Eat All You Can Buffet Promo

Available during lunch and dinner, enjoy the Teppanyaki Eat-All-You-Can with unlimited flow of local drinks, local beer, and Japanese Kirin beer, all for the price of Php 1,970++ per person. My sister, Mhel, and I got to experience it ourselves when they invited us to experience a Teppanyaki dinner. It may be a little pricey, but we can seriously say that it’s worth every penny! Not convinced? Let me walk you through it.

Yurakuen's Teppanyaki menu

First, above are photos of the long lists of food you can order with the Teppanyaki Eat-All-You-Can promo (click to zoom), which include appetizers, soups, noodles, meat dishes, and even desserts!



Yakimix Eat All You Can Smokeless Grill Restaurant, Trinoma

4.5stars

We love eat-all-you-can or buffet style restaurants. I mean, who doesn’t?! You get to pick the food you want on your plate and you get to try different dishes all on a fixed price. This is why we are scouring the Metro for all these restaurants so we can try them and post a feature or review here. First up is Yakimix in Trinoma.

YakiMix Sushi Smokeless Grill Restaurant in Trinoma - CertifiedFoodies.com

We’ve heard of Yakimix from friends and they were 99% raves. I wasn’t really convinced before ‘cause of the price tag. But, I’ll try anything once.

We’ve actually been to Yakimix twice for the past 3 months. For our first visit, we had to wait for over an hour to get a table. That’s why we strongly suggest you call them for reservations or be there really early.

They only have 2 buffet schedules you can choose from. Lunch is served at 11am to 2:30pm everyday, while dinner starts at 5:30pm to 10:30pm Mondays to Fridays and starts 15 minutes earlier on the weekends. Lunch and dinner schedules at the Trioma branch of YakiMix - CertifiedFoodies.com

The lunch buffet on weekdays costs Php 499 per head; Php 580 on weekends, which is also the same price for dinner every night of the week. A little expensive, but considering the amount of food choices you get compared with other eat-all-you-can restaurants we’ve tried so far, I say it’s worth it. :)

For children below feet, they offer a special rate of Php 380. Their bottomless drinks cost Php 65. And in case you have leftovers (a no-no when you’re at eat-all-you-can restaurants), they charge Php 699 per head.

Though we had to wait for a long time on our first time there, I observed that their crew are organized and quick in taking care of customers, cleaning up tables, and are generally accommodating.

By the way, the second time we went there with our parents, we actually had a table reserved a few days before. But, my mom said they can’t find my name so they just had their names listed at the reservations desk. Since they were early, they got a table right away and were already stuffing their mouths full when we arrived 30 minutes after. :D

The pretty lady at the reservations desk of YakiMix in Trinoma with Ken and Jhay - CertifiedFoodies.comThis pretty lady, Dimple, was the one at the reservations desk.
She’s very organized and friendly, too, obviously, as she willingly posed for us. :D

Note: Make sure you get your name listed at the reservations table / booth located right outside the restaurant’s door. We saw a couple of customers lining up thinking there was really a queue without having their names listed first and were disappointed to know they were waiting in vain.

Oh, by the way, you can also come by and reserve a table for a future date. Or you can just call them. Their branches and contact numbers can be found at the bottom of this post.

I love the color scheme inside Yakimix Trinoma. They used brown and black on their furniture and walls. The tables are also very spacious so you can place multiple plates on it. Just look at ours. :D

Our second time at YakiMix in Trinoma - CertifiedFoodies.com

On each table at YakiMix is a smokeless grill. As soon as you settle in, a crew member will fire up the grill for you. And, yes, the grill is smokeless, so no worries about smelling like everything you had for lunch or dinner when you leave the restaurant.



Raku Hokkaido Ramen House at NAIA Terminal 3

When Kenneth flew to Singapore for a “vacation” in January, our family decided to have like a goodbye lunch at NAIA Terminal 3. I suggested we do that instead of going to a restaurant we’d pass by on our way to the airport since there are food places in NAIA Terminal 3 that I wanted to check out.

The most decent photo of us 4 when we were at NAIA 3 - CertifiedFoodies.comIt’s been awhile since we had our photo taken together, us 4. We had a lot of outtakes before we got this decent photo. The camera was placed on top of a ladder. The NAIA crew who was using it had to wait til the end of our programmed continuous shooting. :D

So, there. As soon as Ken checked in his baggage, we went up and saw Raku Hokkaido Ramen House by Ministop.

Raku Hokkaido Ramen House at NAIA 3 - CertifiedFoodies.comPhoto credit: Kat’s Musings

First off, we ordered drinks. I wanted to try their Apple Nectar, but Php 145 is just too expensive for me. So, I decided to order Raku’s Japanese Ocha for all us, at Php 29 each. At that price, I expected it to be bland. Well, it met my expectations. :D

Japanese Ocha from Raku in NAIA 3 - CertifiedFoodies.com

Though we wanted to try their Ramen, we opted to order their Bento meals since we haven’t had anything yet for breakfast or lunch.

Before I tell you about what we ordered, I wanted to mention that I was completely disappointed with their service. By the time our orders arrived, we were all very hungry. And they weren’t served like a few minutes after each other or at the same time. We had to wait like 5-10 minutes for each of our orders to arrive. My dad’s order came last while we were already in the middle of finishing off ours. We had to follow up 4 times on our orders. It was that bad. It wasn’t that hectic when we were there. People only started coming in while we were already eating so I don’t understand why it took them that long to serve our food.

First off, my bro ordered their Chicken Teriyaki Bento, Php 145. As you can see, there’s a generous serving of rice topped with sesame seeds and veggie side dishes on all their bento meals. But, I would’ve wanted more pieces of chicken. I got to taste it and the chicken meat were tender. My bro enjoyed it.

Raku's Chicken Teriyaki Bento, Php 145 - CertifiedFoodies.com