Terrace at the 5th

Terrace is one of the newer restaurants in Greenbelt 5 (in the extension, really Greenbelt 1). Terrace purports to serve treasured recipes from well-known home kitchens.

The restaurant has a nice look to it; upscale but homey. However, as with almost all Greenbelt 3 and 5 restaurants, it does get quite noisy, especially if the restaurant is fullish.

The menu was not extensive but I take this as a good thing. I had the short ribs (which was recommended), my other lunchmates had pork belly and the dory fillet. I liked the short rib but it was a tad sweet. However, it was obviously slow-cooked as the beef was quite tender; the drippings were also quite nice. The dish came with the option of white or brown rice; I ordered brown but was served red (one point taken away). Unfortunately, the rice was dry and obviously microwaved (another point deducted). I asked that the rice be changed for white; but this too was dry and nuked (more points na ang minus). It was disappointing that such an upscale restaurant can't cook rice! Another sore point was that the server (perhaps in a bid to be ingratiating) claimed that there would be no charge for the white rice. IMHO, there really should not be a need for this given that the original contract was not fulfilled.

We were there during the restaurant's soft opening; and it showed. The kitchen was quite slow (more than an hour before we got our orders). One of my lunchmates was served her order but it came with white rice. The server whisked it away, supposedly to change the rice. However, the order never reappeared until we all got our orders. Quite obviously, the order was for another table; but I feel the server should have come back to apologize or explain. Replacing red rice for white should not have taken 30 minutes.

We also stayed for coffee and dessert (no, we weren't masochists, one of us wasn't feeling to well and didn't want to move). We ordered the Crepe Gateau, which was stacks of thin crepes, buttered and syruped. I liked it (although one of my lunchmates claim that a better version existed in the Metro Manila dessert universe). However, i did feel it lacked that oomph factor befitting the location and price tag; some fruit compote or dark chocolate shavings would have been welcome.

All in all, a relatively nice place to eat; but I would come back a few months from now, when hopefully the kitchen and staff has worked out all the kinks.

Yummy Yummy Nambantei

Went back to Nambantei (Greenbelt 3) for lunch. Really like this restaurant, a lot; from the free starters (raw vegetables you dip in soybean paste) to the grilled skewers to the rice. One good thing about eating with new people were the new things one gets to discover. One of my lunchmates ordered edamame (cooked baby soybeans), which I tried for the first time. They were really good, like soft, semi-crunchy green beans, but better for you!

We ordered the platter of mixed meat skewers with additional two skewers of everything (except the corn). My favorites were the bacon-wrapped potato fries, the garlic pork, and the pork-wrapped asparagus. But the big revalation was the chicken wings. In the past, I usually skipped these as I wasn't a big fan of chicken wings elsewhere. I snagged a piece from my lunchmate (who was on his third skewer) for a bite see, out of curiousity. My gods, it was the best thing I've eaten (ok, maybe one of the best) in years. To my dismay, there were none left. Justeats Lesson #11, try everything once!

BTW, a tip I got from that selfish, greedy, chicken-wing glutton was to ask for teriyaki sauce for dipping. The sauce does add a nice sweet, salty dimension to the grilled meats.

CPR at CPK

Not literally, but after eating California Pizza Kitchen's really, really bad food and seeing what you have to pay for that really, really bad food, anyone would need CPR.

After walking around Greenbelt for ages looking for a restaurant we would agree on, we settled on CPK. This is the newest branch at the Greenbelt 5 extension (I am providing directions so that everyone can steer clear).

We ordered the pepperoni pizza and shanghai noodles. It could be partly our fault for ordering such an off item (chinese at an american pizza joint; we got what we deserved!).

The pizza was nothing great but not too bad; just nothing one would go back for. The lunch killer was the noodles; not only was the sauce to cornstarchy, oily and salty, the noodles were half-cooked. What got my goat was that after inquiring nicely, the waiter came back with a weak explanation that the noodles were cooked correctly according to CPK's exacting standards! HOOEY!

For your mental and physical health, best to avoid this tourist trap of a pizza parlor.