A Luxurious Lunch at Spiral in Sofitel Manila

Our family loves eating at buffets. It all began when our Nanay finally decided that she’s too old to throw grand parties at home. We can’t blame her though. She painstakingly handles everything from planning, shopping, cooking, and even cleaning up. Since then, buffets have become our go-to place when we’re celebrating something special. We’ve tried a number of buffet places like Yakimix, Café Jeepney, Seoul Garden, 7 Corners of Crowne Plaza, F Restaurant at F1 Hotel and our recent favorite, Viking’s. But one place we’re dying to try is Spiral at Sofitel Manila. We were supposed to celebrate our nanay’s birthday at their restaurant earlier this year, but she had something else in mind.

The new Spiral buffet restaurant

 

The New Spiral

After the devastation Typhoon Pedring had caused, Spiral had to close for 13 months as it went under an $11-million renovation. They took inspiration from the Filipinos’ resilience and viewed all that has happened as a blessing in disguise. They were given a clean slate and a chance to start all over again. And as the saying goes — “When you’re down, there’s no way to go but up.” Boy, did Spiral soar high! The old Spiral was already great, but the new one definitely blew all competition out of the water!

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OZEN Japanese Food Haven in Malabon Serves the Best Takoyaki We’ve Ever Had!

There’s this small Japanese hole-in-the-wall food stop near our house that we usually see jam-packed with customers at night. We really had no plans at all of trying the place, since we’ve had authentic Japanese fare from topnotch restaurants and hotels in Manila (Yabang naman! 😀 ) and we’re quite sure that the place will be nothing less than a disappointment. But it was until we met a fellow foodie who raved about how awesome their Takoyaki was that we finally decided to pay OZEN Japanese Food in Malabon a visit.

OZEN Japanese Food - hole-in-the-wall food haven in Malabon City

Our first try was a total disaster, service-wise. They had 3 groups of families that were dining in, so we had to wait over an hour to finally get our food. We ordered three sets of Takoyaki — two to-go and one for dining in because we wanted to take a quality photo of their Takoyaki for the blog. I didn’t get my hopes up, since my first encounter with a mall-bought Takoyaki was totally unremarkable.

You can order your Takoyaki for takeout too

I picked up a piece and took a small bite. My eyes widened in amazement, and from then I knew that it’s the best Takoyaki I’ve ever had my whole life! Well, I exaggerated a bit there. 😀 It took us a couple of balls to finally establish how delicious their Takoyaki was. It was so good that we came back the next day – in the afternoon this time – so we didn’t have to battle a crowd of patrons to get our food.

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Tokyo Tokyo Ramen : What’s Your Ramen Personality?

Dining at Tokyo Tokyo has been one of our guilty pleasures, even though we haven’t written much about it on the blog. I just can’t count the number of times my favorite Fried Chicken Karaage has comforted me during the toughest of days. And I still remember being sorely heartbroken when I found out that they no longer offer the Chicken Yakitori that I always ordered when I was still in college. Now we’ve found another reason to frequent Tokyo Tokyo for their Ramen, which comes in three flavors: Braised Pork, Spicy Chicken, and Tempura Miso.

Tokyo Tokyo Ramen comes in 3 flavors - Braised Pork, Spicy Chicken and Tempura Miso

As the saying goes, “You are what you eat.” Tokyo Tokyo took that to heart and came up with a short quiz to determine which flavor of Ramen best fits your personality. I took the personality test and the result I got was really spot on!

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WAFU Greenhills Teppanyaki Omakase Buffet

Over a week ago, Ken and I were invited to a 12-course sit-down Teppanyaki Omakase buffet at WAFU in Greenhills. They’re a Japanese restaurant nestled right in front of the Greenhills Shopping Center. Since Ken has been craving for Japanese food for quite some time now, we accepted the invite right away.

Wafu Japanese restaurant at Greenhills Shopping Center

I initially chuckled when I read the name of the restaurant. 😀 After Googling about it, I learned “Wafu” means, literally, “Japanese style“. I’ve had my fair share of Japanese food, particularly tempura, tonkatsu, sushi and sashimi, but I’m pretty sure there’s a ton more for us to know about their cuisine and their culture – which we’re hoping to continue learning through this blog. 🙂

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