Going to Ristras on December 28 is one of those things that can't be helped. I got the voucher from Deal Grocer and it was supposed to be redeemed well until the end of February 2014. But due to some unknown reason, the restaurant has to close down and the last day to claim the voucher is on December 31st. And since the last Saturday of the year is December 28, that's when we went there.

Ristras was in Fairway Tower along 5th Avenue. It's actually something I used to pass by everytime we go to BGC because it's on the corner left side when the BGC bus officially enters the BGC area.

We got there on a nice and windy afternoon and we just walked from the "closest" bus stop. So we were a bit tired and hungry. The place looks nice, but empty. No customers in sight. No wonder it's closing down.

Since only the staff is around we took some more photos before we ordered.

We ordered a Wet Chilli con Carne Quesadilla and Soft Tacos. :)

The aircon inside was also faulty, so it was quite warm. We chose to sit outside where it's cool and windy.

The food was delicious. The soft taco was filled tons of lettuce, onions, tomatoes, and cheese. The meat inside was juicy. I think we ordered the soft taco with pork. haha I'm not sure what else was inside the taco, but I know I felt very satisfied after finishing off the meal. We ate everything and we were really full afterwards.

 Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan

Makes me sad that Ristras is closed now.
Ristras closed on December 31, 2013.

For this Weekend Adventure, the Food Explorers visit Marmalade Kitchen in The Forum @ BGC.

This is probably the 3rd time we went to The Forum to eat at a resto. Which is awesome. Just shows how many restaurants there are in the place. I've counted at least 8 restos, well including Mcdonald's. :)

Marmalade Kitchen is on the second floor of Forum. It's cutesy cafe/resto that has a lot of quirky deco..

 There are also a lot of food items for sale on display.

While waiting for our order, we took some more selfies.

Their menu had soups, pasta, sandwiches, and best of all cakes! For drinks you can go for their healthy smoothies or you can choose from their coffees.

Grilled Eggplant and Mozzarella with Pesto Spread on Focaccia Bread

Southern Spicy Wings and rice

Freshly pressed juice

 Green Apple, Celery and Spinach Juice. (I just wanted to try their fresh pressed juice, and the waitress said it was one of their best sellers but when I tasted it...)Eeewwllllcghhgggg 

Fallen chocolate cake and vanilla ice cream topping

The spicy chicken wings were not that spicy nor were they any good. The fresh juice was just awful I absolutely hated it. But thankfully the Eggplant Parmesan sandwich and the Fallen cake was awesome. So overall in the four items we ordered, only half taste good. The other half were not that good. Well for me and my sister at least. You'll have to try the food yourself, but you reaaally have to try the eggplant parmesan sandwich! :D

I guess, the place is an okay spot to grab a nice snack. I also noticed some groups just buying coffee and pastries. So it's a pretty cool place to hangout in. The service is quick, the crew was friendly and accommodating. It's just that the food is hit or miss. Will come back for the Eggplant Parm and the Fallen cake. :)

Marmalade Kitchen
The Forum,
7th Avenue Corner Federacion Drive,  
Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
02 6229196


Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan
Visited: February 23, 2014

For this Weekend Adventure, the explorers visit Pablo's Pub at The Forum in BGC. :)

Pablo's Pub & Restaurant is right smack dab in the middle of BGC and is near the other touristy areas of the lot. It's a block away from either Bonifacio High Street and SM Aura. It's just walking distance for us but for some people, walking isn't really their forte, so I suggest you get a cab or just drive to the place. :P

We visited Forum before when we ate at Koko Buri, just next to Pablo's Pub. Here's the post of our visit: http://carurachan.blogspot.com/2014/01/koko-buri-asian-chicken-goodness.html

Thanks to +Deal Grocer we got to eat here at a discount.

The menu had everything from salads, soups, pastas, to steaks and ribs. We didn't really know what to get.

The place looks really cool too. Reminds me of a Mafia movie or somethin.

We clearly need food at this point. Trying to smile with a grumbling tummy is a very hard task. lol

We got four items from the menu:

Caesar Salad P235

Vegetarian Lasagna P330

Gourmet Chicken Burger P235

We had them split chicken burger. :P

The Big Heist P200

Among the four items we tried, the best ones for me were the vegetarian lasagna and the big heist! :)

The ceasar salad here is like the usual caesar salad you get from restaurants, small amount of semi wilted lettuce with a little bit of parmesan, croutons and stuff inside and then they sell it for over 200 pesos.

The lasagna was really good, the sauce was creamy, and tasty, the filling of eggplant was cooked and seasoned well. It was so so so good.

Didn't appreciate the sorta dry chicken burger. But a burger is still a burger so it was okay.

The best part of the night for me was seeing the Big Heist. We had to wait another 20 minutes for it to be brought out. But boy was it worth the wait. I think the caramelized sugar garnish was the reason why it took so long but it looks and tastes fantastic! It had a chewy chocolate chip cookie at the bottom and the vanilla ice cream was creamy and not too sweet, just delicious! :D

Cons:
Long wait time. When I say long wait time, it wasn't the wait time for us to get a seat or wait to get the food. It's the wait to bill out. We were stuck there for another 30 minutes, just waiting for someone to process our bill. 'Twas the most disappointing part of the day.
Location is in an area sorta hard to get to

Pros:
Great ambiance
Pretty good food

Overall: Okay. But I'm not going back.
Between the long wait time and the location, I think I'll just pass. I'm never fond of a restaurant with very slow service. If my time gets wasted so much in that resto, I don't want to waste more time going back.

2/F The Forum, 7th Ave cor Federacion Dr
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig

Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan
Visited March 29, 2014

For this Weekend Adventure, the explorers visit Zong at The Fort in BGC. :)

This was after we bought my mom a secondhand Samsung Galaxy S4. We just came from SM Sta. Mesa. And right after getting the phone from the seller, we went all the way to BGC in order to claim the coupon for Zong. I think it was the last day we could claim it. It's worth P2000 but I only paid P1000 for the coupon and it came from +Groupon :)

Once there we got a few items from the menu.

Roast Combination Platter P468

Yang Chow Rice P288

Chinese Style Chicken Salad P348

Singapore Style Prawns P588

The food costs a total of P2164. Just paid P1164. :D

Mango Shake P118 each

Overall: Awful

From the look of things, the food doesn't look too appetizing. From the taste of things, I knew they didn't taste that good. For reals. You know what? I'm actually disappointed. The food didn't live up to the feedback. I was informed that the food here is awesome. But I have to disagree, the food was not awesome. It was okay but not amazing or awesome. Maybe we didn't order the "awesome" food?

Just not worth the time or the money. Definitely not going to bother coming back to this restaurant even when there's a discount. :/

Okay, maybe one thing was pretty good. The Mango Shake!

Zong
The Fort Strip
Fort Bonifacio, Taguig
(02) 889-0472 or 79

Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan +Carmelita Pagulayan +Renz Pagulayan
Visited: April 13, 2014

This is supposed to be another Wonderful Weekend Adventure post. But I'm afraid it wasn't as wonderful as I'd planned. Sad face.

Vyne is a modern bar and resto found on the 8th floor of W Global Building in BGC. If you've partied at Hyve before, Vyne is just right across it. This is the resto that people can grab a classy and expensive dinner before blowing the rest of their cash at Hyve afterwards.

Before going to the resto, we went to SM Aura first for the Blogapalooza event. I think, I'll write a blog post about that in the distant future.

This is me and my sister just posing in front of the fountain at Serendra. 

So first things first, why are we even at the resto? Well it's all thanks to Deal Grocer. I got a voucher from them worth P1000 for around P600. I bought two vouchers and got P2000 worth for just P1200. So it's a 40% discount, not bad right?  But the food was really pricey, so we only got to try four food items plus drinks.

Me and sis have to take a selfie of course. :D

We're not hipsters but yes, we like taking photos before we eat. Problem? ;D

Oh, just wanted to point out that all the Tapas (Appetizers) were served on a piece of slate instead of on a plate. It's so cool!  

First Tapas: Sisig Empanada P250

When we were done taking our photos and selfies, that's when we started eating. We ate the Sisig Empanada first. That was glorious. It was hot savory, the crust was flaky and soft. And I loved the filling so so much. That was the best thing I've eaten ever. well of course at that time, I was also quite hungry then. You can dip it in the vinegar or in you can put some of the sauce on the slate. But wether you dip it or not it's awesome all the same. Just one small complaint is that there is only 5 pcs on the plate.

Second Tapas: Beef Wellington Burger Sliders P495

The next one we ate was the Beef Wellington Burger Sliders. Those were okay. It's just three small pieces of mini burgers. I wasn't too happy with that fact. But they tasted okay. Juicy and flavorful all the same, but the bread layer is a little hard. Might be because they made it in Wellington style. So yeah, needs some improvement.

Third Tapas: Korean Fried Chicken P380

The next thing we tried was the Korean Fried Chicken. These were pretty good. On the plate were 6 pieces of wings (or 3 whole wings) that were deep fried and coated with a sweet glaze and  sprinkled with sesame seeds. They tasted okay and the dip was pretty good too, but gawd the serving size is small.

Our drinks: Lychee Martini P280 and Maitai P220

The drinks were delish too. I loved my Maitai. It was sweet and fruity and oh so alcoholic! XD My sister chose the Lychee Martini, but she wasn't too happy with her choice. haha. I'm glad the waiter knew the drinks menu well enough to recommend a decent drink to me.

Now on to the last part of our meal. the main dish. This was supposed to be the best thing from the items we ordered because it's a friggin MAIN DISH! Like a Main Event in a boxing match, every other fight is not even worth watching, you're there to see the Main Event.

But this Main dish was a serious disappointment. *Sigh*

Main Dish: Chicken Roulade P420

At first look, the chicken roulade looked pretty good. It was served on a large white plate this time and had swipes of sauces on it and mashed potatoes as base. You gotta admit it looked like a pretty darn good dish. I'd like to think that the Chef of this resto is quite proud of their presentation of each dish. And I totally agree. The presentation is amazing. But you have to have decent ingredients. And this one didn't.

Here's the thing, I know what old chicken smells like. I've stocked chicken as well and forgot to cook it until weeks later. When I actually cooked it (Well not me, my sister did) it smelled bad and this dish smelled way worse. Chicken Roulade is basically chicken breast that is rolled with cheese and then baked, not fried. And baking doesn't hide the smell of old chicken at all. I'm also thinking that the old stock of chicken used in the Korean Fried Chicken is the same stock of chicken used for the roulade. But since the KFC was DEEP FRIED, the old chicken smell and taste was totally masked. Therefore it was delicious.

Another thing to note is that the chicken looked raw. It looked raw and gross and disgusting and I didn't want to eat it at all.

Gross looking Chicken Roulade

I told the waiter that the chicken was gross and looks raw. And they said it was fine and that it's cooked properly. So I just thought "I guess, they don't accept returns?"

Raw looking Chicken Roulade

What started as a pretty good night out ended a bit awkwardly. I wasn't hoping for a refund or anything but I was hoping they'd use fresh chicken or otherwise warn people not to get Chicken Roulade. Oh well. *Shaking head*

I left them the feedback that the chicken wasn't fresh, and they were like "Thanks." That's it. :(
Aren't you going to do anything about it? You're just gonna keep using old chicken aren't you?

Overall, I think Vyne is Okay. The place looks fantastic and it can be a cool hangout for friends. The service is quick. I quite liked the drinks we ordered and the food is okay too, but if the ingredient isn't fresh, I'd rather not order it. Another complaint is that this place has a very small serving size of the food. And this is common throughout all the items we ordered. I guess you're paying for the presentation. But yeah, if you ask me if I'm going back to this place, Hell No. The food is too pricey and I'd rather just cook my own chicken roulade at home than pay almost 500 for old stock chicken roulade.

Vyne
Eight Floor, W Global Center,
9th Avenue Corner 30th Street,
Bonifacio Global City,
Taguig City

Food Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan

Visited: October 2014