For this Weekend Food Adventure, me, my mom Lita, and my sister Elissa visit the newest mall in Makati, Century City Mall.

I acquired a voucher from Deal Grocer for a discount at Pepper Lunch at that branch. So since we haven't tried Pepper Lunch before and we haven't visited Century City Mall yet, we got to do both at the same time.

On a side note, this is also the same day that I tried Uber for the first time and I was absolutely impressed with the experience. You can read more about my experience with Uber here:
http://carurachan.blogspot.com/2014/10/uber-rider-experience-my-experience.html

Century City Mall was pretty new when we visited it, and most of the stalls don't have shops in them yet. But it was quite fancy.

The city skyline is visible from the top floor of the mall, which also has an events hall.

There was an ongoing event when we dropped by. It was a small bazaar of local crafts.
There were free mini cupcakes too!


After walking around the mall, we went straight to Pepper Lunch at the Ground floor and ordered our lunch. :D

Pepper Lunch serves raw meat on hot plates that retain their heat and allows you to cook the meat right at your table. You have to make sure you cook the meat properly before you start eating. You're better off eating somewhere else if you're gonna eat the food immediately once served. At Pepper Lunch, a little bit of patience is needed. :D

These are all the items we ordered:

Teriyaki Beef Rice P325

Chicken Steak BBQ Beef Rice P320

Salmon Chicken Rice P335

Beef Pepper Rice P198

Choco Lava Cake P145 & Goma Ice Cream P55

Tuna Kani Salad

We got a total of 7 items from the menu for just P800 instead of P1500 thanks to the discount voucher from Deal Grocer!

We were not too hungry when we visited the restaurant so the food was cooked well within the advised time period before we started tasting everything. All the rice meals tasted great. Even better when you add the sauce from the condiments table that I totally forgot to take a picture of. But for me, the best thing from all the items we tried was the cheapest rice meal: The Beef Pepper Rice. It was just simple thinly sliced beef with corn and rice and a LOT of PEPPER. It really appealed to me more than the other dishes. So yeah, I'll be getting that one every time now.

Also something to not order ever is the Tuna Kani salad thingy. It didn't make sense. It was supposed to be a Shaked Salad and we shaked it! But it didn't taste good at all. Just avoid getting a salad here if you can.

Their desserts were pretty good tho. The lava cake was super moist and chocolatey and is a perfect match with the vanilla ice cream with Goma (aka roasted sesame) syrup. You can also order other flavors of the syrup but I really liked the goma flavor.

And that's it. We didn't get to finish everything since there were only three of us but we got to take out the rest. Definitely coming back to Pepper Lunch for the Beef Pepper Rice once I get a hankering for it.

Pepper Lunch
Lower Ground Floor,
Century City Mall,
Kalayaan Avenue,
Poblacion, Makati City
02 8901462

Explorers: +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Carmelita Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan
Visited: May 24, 2014

For this Weekend Adventure, our food trip destination is the Dulcinea Restaurant in Greenbelt 1. Joining me and my sister is our friend and adopted sibling kuno, Gus.

Dulcinea has always been my go to restaurant just to buy cute cream puffs and chocolate covered Negritos. But this is the first time we actually dined in.

Entering the restaurant

Thanks to +Ensogo Philippines, we got to eat there at a discount.

The voucher we used is for a Set Meal for 4 which includes the following:
Choice of Paella (Valenciana, Negra, Marinera)
Choice of Fish & Chips OR Chicken Fingers OR Alitas de Pollo (Chicken Wings
Soup of the Day
Churros con Chocolate
Houseblend Iced Tea Carafe

Soup of the day: Pumpkin Soup

You know what? I didn't notice this even when we were there at the resto, but the pumpkin soup still had bits of flour in it. It wasn't mixed well enough. Still doesn't change how much I liked it but the texture of the soup could be improved

Iced Tea

Chicken Fingers

Paella Valenciana

Churros con Chocolate

Mwah

Gus and Elissa

I just paid 910 Php for 1889 Php worth of food.

Best thing in this restaurant is the decorations and lighting.  haha

Their paella was okay. It was filling but it was bland. The seafood on top wasn't fresh. The shrimp was obviously frozen as it has the consistency of mush. I was expecting something that tasted better. SMH...  I tasted better paella from Skye Lounge, blog post of that trip coming up soon.

The Chicken Fingers were the bomb, crunchy on the outside and juicy on the inside.
Another menu item I liked was the Pumpkin Soup, it was buttery and rich and warm and delicious.

I'm just a bit torn on the Churros. The churros itself was too oily for me. But the saving grace was the dark chocolate dip. So what I did was cover the churros with the chocolate. That's when it went from bad to sort of okay. :)

Chocolate covered churros

Lastly, I hate how the servers seem to blatantly ignore us. I rarely go anywhere without having a voucher with me and most restaurants are okay with the service even with vouchers. But you just notice that the servers respond better to the other tables compared to our table because we have a voucher. Boooo!

Pros:
Great ambiance
Delicious starter and appetizer
Delicious Chocolate dip for the churros

Cons:
Service could be improved
Oily Churros
Seafood for Paella Valenciana wasn't fresh

Overall: Nope.
Not going back to dine in. But will still buy baked goods.

For me, I'm not really planning on coming back to this place to eat. There are usually two things that get me to come back to a restaurant, one is the taste of the food and two is the serving size. None of these two were met by Dulcinea.

Visited November 12, 2014
Adventurers: +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Gus Ramirez

Dulcinea
G/F Greenbelt 1, Greenbelt Drive
Ayala Center, Makati
(02) 817-7074

The Gulay Gang goes to Ayala Triangle Gardens and try some frozen treats from Golden Spoon. +Ana Carla Pagulayan +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan +Carmelita Pagulayan +Renz Pagulayan

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

'Twas my first time to visit Ayala Triangle Gardens and the place was so spacious and nice. It just makes you want to lay a blanket down on the grass and lie down. I just wish we stayed longer so we could see the lights turned on.

I got two 250 Php vouchers so I got two items from their menu.

Got 1 Banana Split Froyo with Strawberry, Vanilla and Chocolate yogurt and 1 Large Coffee yogurt. And that's it. Also, I noted that the plastic spoons are gold colored ergo "Golden Spoon". weeeeeeeee

Banana Split 220 + 30 for Strawberry Topping = 250Php

Coffee Froyo 250 Php

The yogurt itself was delicious. It was messy and it was brilliant. This is not something you buy to impress someone with your table manners. Because as soon as it starts melting, which is within seconds, the mess ensues and no amount of table courtesy can keep you from the mess. bwahaha

Pro:
Great tasting frozen yogurt. Not too sour, just the right sweetness and it has a smooth texture.
Awesome service.

Con(suggestion really):
They could use more selections of fruit toppings

Overall: Okay.
I'll probably be coming back for more. The location is pretty accessible but I don't want to go to a specific place just for yogurt. :P

Visited November 9, 2014

Golden Spoon
Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati City
02 87878

The Gulay gang convenes once again to go on a food adventure and this time our stop is at Baja Mexicana Cantina at Greenbelt.

I didn't check any reviews for this restaurant before buying my voucher from Groupon / Beeconomic. But even if I did, I wouldn't have expected what was about to happen anyway.

First thing to note when we got there was that there was nobody in the restaurant. It was a Sunday afternoon, a weekend! They should have customers right? But they dont so Im not sure if they even get a lot of customers at all. Although some customers did arrive after we got there. But still.

I immediately gave the coupon from Beeconomic to the waiter and we sat at our preferred table.

We chose three menu items plus some drinks:

Boneless Chicken Plato  295 Php

Half Pound Burger 285 Php

Carne Asada Cheese Nachos  285 Php

The sad and depressing Boneless Chicken Plato, unimpressive Half Pound Burger and dry measly topped Carne Asada Cheese Nachos. Added 3 Calamansi Juices and one Iced tea too.

We were incredibly annoyed and frustrated when we got the Chicken Plato.The serving was so small for an item that supposedly costs 295 pesos!

And don't be fooled by the photo of the Nachos, the toppings were just a top layer of cheese, and there is hardly any beef inside! And it costs 285? Wth Baja?

And there's a noticeable difference between the serving of normal customers who just got in after us, compared to our voucher bought meals.

Jeez, if you don't want us to eat here just say so already.

Cons:
Small servings (This is the biggest thing for me! If the servings are too small then don't expect me to come back here)
Doesn't taste that good
Not enough value for money
Expensive for the amount you get (It's the same thing over and over again, I get it)
Dark and musty smelling resto

Pros:
I find that I have nothing good to say about this place aside from the attentive waiter. But that's mainly because he has very few customers to wait on.

Overall:
nope, Nope, NOPE!
Never going back to this restaurant again.
I suggest you go to a different restaurant, like the one next to it. TGI Friday's.

Visited November 9, 2014
Gulay Gang:  +Ana Carla Pagulayan  +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan  +Carmelita Pagulayan +Renz Pagulayan

Baja Mexicana Cantina
Level 3, Greenbelt 3,
Ayala Center, Makati City

One weekend in January the Girls of the Gulay Gang, meaning me +Ana Carla Pagulayan , my mom +Carmelita Pagulayan  and my sister +Ma.Elissa Pagulayan went on a foodtrip at the Greenfield district along Shaw Boulevard and EDSA. We had dinner at the Ramen Bar Restaurant at the far end of the park.

Thanks to another +Deal Grocer voucher, we got to try the food at a discount. And this is the second time we went here, which just shows how much we liked the food. ^_^

We got three things: ramen, gyoza, and chicken.

The ramen serving here is ridiculous. One serving is good enough for three people!
We got the spicy broth as well, and it tastes amazing. We're quite fond of spicy food so we liked this ramen very much.

R.B.S. # 1  - Soy infused Tonkatsu Ramen topped with tamago, naruto, nori, negi, chasyu and kakuni. P 380

Cheese Gyoza P 180

 The gyoza was so so. The main thing I liked was the sauce of the gyoza, rather than the gyoza itself.

Chicken Karaage Rice Bowl P 185

Their Chicken has some grits that could have been removed before cooking, but that's just me being picky. But it tasted goood.

Pros:
Nice clean, all white ambiance, with large bowls as decoration on the sides
Large servings
Nice and friendly servers

Cons:
None!

Overall:
Awesome place to eat.
Will definitely come back... if there's another deal from Deal Grocer or some other site. ^_^

Ramen Bar
Greenfield District, The Hub, United St
Highway Hills, Mandaluyong
(02) 570-5377

The September BDJ Box had a ton of wonderful full sized products along with a couple of discount coupons for Blo bar. And since it's my birthday month, I decided to treat myself to a blo dry. haha

I went to the Blo bar at SM Megamall Fashion Hall Level 5.

Prior to visiting, I made a reservation just to make sure that someone can assist me. 

But when I got there, the place was pretty empty. I was the only customer. Which is sort of a good thing in my book, coz they can attend to all my needs. 

These are the coupon cards I got from the August BDJ Box. One for a free deep conditioning treatment when you get a blow out.

The second one is for 20% off the price for a blow out. This is the one I used for my hair.

There are 7 styles that you could choose from. I went for the Red Carpet style.

After selecting a hairstyle, my stylist then shampooed and conditioned my hair. This includes some head and back massage. It felt quite nice, and it made me sleepy. I really like it. ^_^

After rinsing, the stylist guided me to the chairs near the mirrors and proceeded to blow dry my hair. 

Tip: If you plan to get your hair done allot at least one hour before your event. The stylist took almost an hour or around 45 minutes to finish drying and styling my hair. But it was all worth it. 

They also offered free drinks. You can ask for water, tea, or pink lemonade. I got the pink lemonade.

The stylist was very fast. He definitely know what he's doing. 

Here is the look after the blow out. I'm very happy with the result. I'll definitely get my hair done here if there is a special event in the near future. 

I just had to pay 400 for the blowout instead of 500. Thanks to the BDJ coupon. ^_^

Blo bar Megamall

5th Floor Mega Fashion Hall

SM Megamall, Mandaluyong City

To book a blo or just chat call

+0917 625 6379 

Monday to Sunday 10am to 10pm