Golden Cowrie (Mactan Marina Mall)

Almost every Sunday, you'd find us at Golden Cowrie at the Mactan Marina Mall.

They have really good food, and unlimited rice to boot.  Our favorites include the fried tadyang:

The halaan soup (the imbao soup is a favorite too!)

Inihaw food:

And the drinks:

The good:  No two ways about it, if it is Filipino food you're craving for, then you should definitely try Golden Cowrie.  The good food comes with a reasonable price tag, so much so that two viands, unlimited rice and drinks would set you back for around P500.

The bad:  Being a regular at Golden Cowrie, there are times when one would wish that there was something new on the menu.  But Golden Cowrie's menu has been the same and has been relatively unchanged since the restaurant opened.  They should really introduce new fare!

The wish list: I'm just nitpicking, but Golden Cowrie food could use some presentation. :) We could use a wider selection of desserts, too (because we don't think budbod with tsokalate counts as one).

This post was written by A.

RaiRai Ken - Gaisano Grand Mall

Mactan has had a Rai-Rai Ken for the longest time, but they close after 2pm only to open at 5pm and they don't have proper airconditioning.  At least not the few times we were there.  So it was nice to see Gaisano Grand Mall open with a Rairai Ken branch.  And we just had to try it out.

Bummer.  Their airconditioning was not working too when we got there.  They said that they relied on the mall's airconditioning which conked out the day before.  And they had no fans. But that didn't stop us from ordering their Ramen.  My absolute fave.  Rairai Ken, I think, has the best ramen in Cebu, barring those expensive authentic Japanese places where you're forced to take off your shoes and squat like an Indian to eat.

This ramen is far from Japengo's version, which tastes like overcooked instant noodles.  Dining at Rairai Ken is always a pleasure and for somebody who has a picky eater as a wife Japanese food is a rare treat.

 This tofu soup came in free with the wife's order.  We forgot to take pictures of what she had out of sheer heat and hunger.  But she said it was good as well.

Rairai Ken is quite pricey, where a good meal for two people could easily run up P500 to around P700, but it's worth it.  In fact, it was so good that the wife was terribly inspired that upon arriving home, she worked on origami geishas

and raped the kokeshi dolls.

Just kidding.

Rairai Ken had cool lanterns and great interiors too.

Now if they could only work on their airconditioning!

This post was written by A.

Tsim Sha What???

Tsim Sha Tsui. There, I got it correctly. I used to just call it "Chin chan su" because they all sound the same to me.

But really... I have this rule about never eating anything or at a place whose name I cannot even pronounce. And I should have stuck to that rule.  In fact, if it were not because of a pregnant friend who got a really serious craving for dimsum, and specifically dimsum from Tsim Sha Tsui (and who was already 'wet-dreaming' about it days before our date), and a husband who was very curious about their conveyor belt all-you-can-eat buffet, I wouldn't have gone there.

The pregnant friend

Their buffet costs 390-something pesos, without the drinks, and I knew it was too expensive.  One order of steamed fried rice (normally PhP35) and one order of spring rolls or quail egg siomai (normally PhP35) are already enough and filling for me.  And that would have cost me less than PhP100.  I knew that thinking up of something else to get that's worth the remaining PhP300 was going to be very hard.

 This conveyor belt made Harbor City fare worth more than 3x as much.

If you notice, the conveyor belt had big spaces where there's no food.

Anyway, we did give it a try.  And I have to say it's better for you to actually not go for the all-you-can-eat buffet unless you have a super elastic tummy capable of expanding into five times its original size.  Go take a regular table instead of sitting around the belt.  That way you wouldn't regret paying 400 bucks or more per head for something you can get for only around 200.

Overpriced food that's not even worth the doggie bag.

The food wasn't great, sorry.  My husband says it's a glorified Harbor City, or Dimsum Break. In fact, I like Harbor City more.  The entire three hours we were there, we were actually hoping something worth the expensive bill would come out of the conveyor belt.  But it didn't come.  Sad to say, there were only around five or six different kinds of food that rolled out.  Okay, I am being mean... Five or six is way too few, but it should give you a picture of what to expect.  The worst part?  They rolled out only two kinds of dessert!  One was the usual sesame seeds-covered botchi (does anybody actually still eat that?) and the other was that gelatinous cake (supposedly in ube and in almond, but they didn't taste like what their colors said).  We saw the dessert cart pass by -- with all the yummy-looking stuff, like egg tarts and mango float -- and asked the waiter whether there's chance any of those desserts would come out of the buffet belt soon.  But he said you have to pay for those separately. OHHKAY.

At least, they tried to impress us with the interiors.

So I guess by the first paragraph of this review you can already tell we don't give it two thumbs up. No sense wasting any more space here, really. We would just like to warn you that the conveyor belt is a bait! So don't be deceived. 

Tsim Sha Tsui, by the way, is located at the second level of Ayala Terraces, along the lines of Hukad and Mooon.  

This post was written by F.

Cordova Food Park

I like it that this undiscovered gem is but a five-minute jeepney ride from where we live.  And to be honest, I kinda feel sorry that not too many have discovered this place yet.  This quaint, familial and cozy resto actually serves killer pochero at a price that is simply unbelievable!  This actually costs only P150, and it's better than Triple V! (Which we once thought served the best pochero in town, before it closed its store in Cebu a few years ago.)

Cordova Food Park's food selection is more of the lutong bahay variety.  And the thing is, you can fish from the pond that surrounds the nipa and bamboo huts.  Then you can have the fish cooked in whatever way you want. But more than this and the low prices, it is the beauty of the place.  Check out how Cordova Food Park is set up.

 

Don't mind the huge construction trucks (and the anapog all around) in the background. I know they shouldn't be there. They don't do anything to improve the restaurant's ambiance, sad to say.

 

And don't mind the mossy green, murky, muddy water. That's how fishpond waters really look like. Tilapias thrive in it.

 

  

And it gets lovelier at nights. Look...

If you have kids, they'd sure love the playground there as well.

And the minier than mini zoo.

There is also a billiard table for the adults.

Oh, and the fact that it's quite near the airport's runway and you see the planes just after taking off just adds charm to the place.

Cordova Food Park is near the boundaries of Opon and Cordova, it's really very hard to miss once you cross the bridge to Cordova.

This post was written by A.