Off We Go to Matgalne (June 3, 2013)

Bam and I, together with our friends, Fritz and Osche decided to get together for dinner earlier. Since I'm an avid fan of The Pickiest Eater, upon reading his recent post, I decided to take his lead and found ourselves in Makati---on the lookout for his recent hole in the wall find, Matgalne Korean Restaurant.

I'm not really familiar with Makati. I know a few places but I haven't been around much ever since I left my last company, which was along Ayala Ave. Makati Ave. was an area I'd go to only when I'm off to visit Bam (he works somewhere there). When he read that it was near St. Giles Hotel, he said he knew how to get there. So off we went! :)) Looking for Matgalne was a bit difficult since they didn't post their English name outside. What caught our attention their poster of their grilled meat buffet! We went inside, still unsure whether it was the right restaurant but Bam reassured me that it was the one and the same Matgalne we read about earlier.

We ordered the grilled meat buffet (slices of pork belly and beef brisket) for 399/head with a buffet of Korean side dishes. I was a bit surprised since the poster said that it was only 299 only to be told by our waitress that it was for their lunch promo. Still, a buffet for only 399 is relatively cheap compared to the other buffets I know so it was a good deal. My ability to retain foreign names, in this case Korean food name, was a bit slow. Heck, I even forgot about the proper Korean name of the meat buffet we had! :)) (It was Sam-something...I later googled it and the correct name is Samgyeopsal (pork belly) and Chadolbaegi (beef brisket)). 

Oh yeah! Meat all the way! Yummy!!! :) The meat was not seasoned. It was up to you to make your own dipping sauce. I was okay in eating it cooked well and crispy, unseasoned and without dipping it in any sauce. Bam, however, requested for some soy sauce. It didn't exactly change my mind about eating it the way it is but adding soy sauce did make the meat yummier. :)


Aside from the unlimited supply of meat, there was an array of Korean food. From what I read, the dishes served there were a reflection of how Korean mothers cook for their children and guests. In short, Korean homemade dishes. The restaurant was owned and run by a Korean national so the dishes were prepared the authentic way. I think the restaurant was run by the owner and her husband ( I THINK, hehe). I just got this idea 'cause when we dined there, there was a middle-aged Korean couple inside, later joined by an older Korean woman, who later thanked us warmly with their smiles for dining there. 

The food served in Matgalne was okay. The Kimchi was perfect for me. It was not too spicy but season just right. The kimbap was ok (the maki-like Korean dish). I loved their chapchae and sweet and spicy chicken. I would have eaten more of them but I wanted to try at least a bite of all of their dishes! In a buffet setting, a little goes a long way! hahaha Besides, you can always go back if you want a refill. I also make my own bibimbap! Again, a little goes a long way! :))

Here are some of the dishes we tried:

The chicken that I loved.

DIY Bibimbap

Kimbap

Tofu jeon

Since I read some writeups about this restaurant earlier I was excited to try some of the dishes that I found on other foodie blog like the mushroon jeon (a pancake-like Korean dish made mostly of eggs and flour with beoseot---mushroom), Odeng bokkeum (stir fried fish cake), jumeok bap (dried seaweed riceball), and the pancake dipped Kimbap to name a few but sadly those dishes were not available during our dinner. None the less, the dishes there at the time were all good. :)

I actually got too much food. It was the last call already before the take away the side dishes. I was expecting my friends to share a bit of the food I'll get since only Fritz and I stood up to refill our plates. I didn't really get TOO much but just enough for me and a little to share, but still I wasn't able to finish all the dishes that I got. :'( I'm really sorry for that. I would have taken them out and eaten them at home if it was allowed. The food in my plate did not deserve to be left unfinished. huhuhu

 In this battle between food and I, food won!!! :'(

 I'm sorry, food. :'( I'll stick with the "little goes a long way" next time! I swear!!!

Just before leaving, my hand was acting up again. I actually burned my hand before dining there and due to some unforeseen event my blister popped. Since it was really bothering me (open wounds are more prone to infection that closed ones), I summed up some courage to ask if they have alcohol for my burn (I know, kinda weird asking for something for my burn in a restaurant). Good thing they have some and I was really grateful for their concern. They were really friendly and accommodating.

 All in all, our experience with Matgalne was so nice that I'm looking forwards to dining there again. :) And in case the 399 price tag is still too much for you, you can avail their lunch promo price at 299/head until the end of June. :) Or you can check out group buying sites for an extension of their lunch promo. :)

Found this in Ensogo. Enjoy! :)

Been there? Tell me about your Matgalne experience. :)

Matgalne Restaurant, Main Branch
4768 Kalayaan Avenue Corner Mariano Street, Poblacion, Makati City, Metro Manila
Tel #: (02) 890 – 2949, Operating Hours: 11:00 am to 11:00pm, Monday to Saturday Ortigas Branch
2F Millenium Place BIdg., Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio, Pasig City, Metro Manila
Tel #: (02) 632 – 9714, Operating Hours: 11:00 am to 11:00pm, Monday to Saturday
- See more at: http://www.kitchencow.com/2013/06/07/matgalne-restaurant-korean-all-you-can/#sthash.2bKKgbX8.dpuf

You can visit Matgalne Korean Restaurant at: 

 Makati Branch 
Address: 4768 Kalayaan Avenue Corner Mariano Street, Poblacion Makati City,
Metro Manila
Phone: 890 – 2949 
Pasig Branch
Address: 2F Millenium Place Bldg., Meralco Avenue, Ortigas Center, San Antonio,
Pasig City, Metro Manila
Phone: 632 – 9714

Also, you can try reading other bloggers' Matgalne experience. Here are links to some of my favorite food bloggers:

 The Pickiest Eater in the World
The Purple Doll 
The Pigout Session

PS: Photo credit to my friends, Fritz and Osche. :)

Yellowcab Goes Sauceless: Mrs. Hudson's Pizza

Lately I've been reading a lot of reviews on Yellowcab's Mrs. Hudson's Pizza. They've been raving about this sauceless pizza for quite a bit already. Some of my favorite bloggers swear that they like it. Since they launched this food item as a limited edition, and would probably be gone by the end of June, me and my family decided to give this baby a try.

Yellowcab's biggest pizza would be around 18 inches. Since they changed how you refer to your pizza sizes, from merely ordering it based on it's diameter, they now refer to them as regular, family and new yorker sizes. They confused me a bit there. On the bright size, they now give you an estimate on how many people can share each size of pizza (regular-4pax, family-6pax, and new yorker-8pax). We ordered one new yorker size with a pitcher of coke to be shared among the 7 of us.

Since the pizza is relatively new, I didn't really feel too confident of my choice. It didn't help that half of the waiting time my sisters kept nudging on why I didn't choose New York's Finest (our staple dish at Yellowcab) and that given the picture, there wasn't much toppings. Also there seem to be an abundance of tomatoes which would mean that this pizza would have to be high on uric acid---one of the enemies of my aging parents.

When our pizza arrived, I was pleasantly surprised at how big it seemed. Maybe it had more to do with the color than the actually size though since they didn't really deviate from their original measurements. :P I would have liked our pizza in square cuts though (which you can ask the staff to do but I unfortunately forgot).

Upon tasting the pizza, I was again surprised. It was sweet. I knew it would have a bit of sweetness but I never actually expected the pizza to be just sweet! They claimed to have stroke a balance between sweet and salty but sadly it failed my expectations. It was just sweet. It's not bad or anything just wasn't what I expected. The cheese didn't even contribute a bit of saltiness to the dish. We ended up adding a bit of red pepper sauce to make it more palatable. It was just like eating sweet bread. Also, some parts of the pizza was caramelized making me think of toasted bread with butter and sugar on top. Since this pizza makes use of caramelized onions, I think the sweetness of the onions overpowered the dish. The pizza's saltiness it seemed mostly relied on its prosciutto. Again, it didn't do much for the dish in its entirety.

There were more ingredients in the pizza than tomatoes, prosciutto and caramelized onions. There were herbed Boursin cheese, which you can see as lumps in the pizza, that added a bit of creaminess. There were also tarragon and other premium cheeses. Since I don't really know what tarragon tastes like, I didn't really notice. And the other premium cheeses would have been good if they gave more saltiness than creaminess.

Overall, we weren't really satisfied with this pizza. It's not that it's bad, it just didn't fit what we we're looking for. As much as my mom said she liked it since it wasn't salty, she'd still go for our regular New York Finest.

On a brighter side, it was really a different pizza experience. ;)

How was your Mrs. Hudson experience? Share your thoughts. :)

Give them a hit!
Yellowcab's FB Page
Yellowcab's Official Site

Voucher Happy at Mr. Chow! And a Tous les Jours cake! :)

My friends and I have a bit of a problem hanging out. Since we finished college, it's almost too difficult to set time aside to just hang out. Mia, Ayen and Kuya Jalil were working, Kat was looking for a job and I, though not working, was going back and forth to Batangas helping out with my sister's wedding. A very good example of this is our birthday celebration. Kuya Jalil and I have the same birthday, March 3. We we wanted to celebrate it a bit later but, by later, we didn't mean APRIL! See how difficult it is? :P Since our birthday was early March and it's now late April, we decided to have a joint birthday celebration with Mia as well because her birthday's on the 23rd. I already found a cheap way to celebrate it thanks to cashcashpinoy.com where I bought a voucher for Mr. Chow's set meal. It cost me 600php, originally 1,200php, and it was already good for five people. Let's see. That's 600 divided by three...each celebrant pays 200! Pretty cheap for the fare :)

On the day of our birthday treat, I was running a bit late. We reserved our seats (prior reservation required to avail the deal) for 1pm but we rescheduled at little before one and moved it to 2pm instead. I got to SM North 2-ish and stopped by Tous les Jours first to buy one of their cute cakes. This one's the Rich Chocolat Cake which I got for 398php. And then I wandered around SM Hypermarket trying to find Mr. Chow.

Mr. Chow was a bit hard to find, specially if you're not that familiar with SM North. The landmarks other bloggers posted were that it was near SM Hypermarket, near Sbarro, Ground Floor...Well yes, it was near SM Hypermarket. Near but they didn't say that it was ACROSS the street from SM Hypermarket (Enter near Tous les Jours, go to hypermarket. Then turn left. Walk towards the exit and woolah! You'll see Mr. Chow! Cross  the street and you're there).

When I got there, the four of them were already seated outside the restaurant waiting for me. I was a bit worried about the time since I was still late for our rescheduled reservation. I asked whether we can still avail the deal and thankfully, it was a yes.

The interior of the restaurant was okay. It was not too small, not too big and gives off a cozy feeling. The staff asked us to transfer inside and we immediately fought over who seats on the couch. We ended up with everybody on the couch with no one daring to sit across the table on a non-padded chair. Haha

They served us our drinks first followed by the soup and then the sweet and sour pork. I would have preferred if they served the drinks with the kropek first though. Then our unlimited yang chow rice followed, then the runner beans and finally our chicken. :) (didn't get a picture of the chicken here though)

The iced tea was nothing special but it was a tad too sweet and not that cold. I guess it needed a bit more ice, to subdue the sweetness and cool it. The food in itself was okay, again nothing special, though I really like the added meat on top of our yang chow rice. It was good enough to eat on its own since you already have your "ulam" there. It would be nice if they added a bit of meat in their yang chow refill as well. The sweet and sour pork was tasty. The pork was not that soft but still okay. Their chicken had a hint of sweetness in the sauce and was juicy. Yet as much as I liked their meat, the star of my meal was their runner beans. Well, how should I put it, the beans were delicious. It was savory, a bit salty and sweet with a bit of a spicy kick. I can already eat it as my ulam and that's a big deal since I only eat veggies on the side. I love it. Hehe It kinda reminds me of my mom's cooking. :) It was really yummy. We cleared our food with almost nothing to spare. Our tummies were really happy with the food but we're not done yet! Now comes the dessert!

For dessert, we had our tables cleared, lighted the candles and made a wish before finally devouring the awesome looking cake. It was "Filled with Dark Belgian Chocolate Goodness, Covered in Rich Luscious Ganache". The wafer stick covered in Belgian chocolate was okay (think of chocolate dipped Stik-O). The cookie shaped heart was okay as well though I would have wished they were crunchy instead. I'm not a fan of pancake-like cookies. The cake itself was yummy however, after a few more bites, I find that this cake was too luscious for my taste to the point of being "nakakaumay". It was too rich. As they say, too much of a good thing is bad for you. Needless to say, me and my friends drank a lot of water afterwards.

Overall, we enjoyed our late lunch. We hang out. Talked a lot. Laughed a lot. Updated each other with our lives. And we ate a lot. :)) Who wouldn't love that.

Have you tried Mr. Chow or Tous les Jours? Tell me what you think.

If not, you can visit them here:

Mr. Chow: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA. (See directions above)
Tous les Jours: Ground Floor, SM North EDSA- The Block
Tous les Jours webpage

Photo courtesy of my friend Kat :)

Chowking's Fish Lauriat and Pork Chaofan

Before anything else, let me tell you about myself. I am a student. I came here in Manila to study. I'm renting my own place and have to restrict myself from going over my weekly allowance. I am therefore almost completely dependent on fastfood. It's not healthy, I know, but cooking in my place is a no-no (unless I buy one of those convection cookers). So I gotta do what I gotta do. Keep myself from getting hungry.

As a child, I remember my family eating out and enjoying their spread. They had better tasting noodles before and I think the quality of service was better then too. Last week, I bought their Fish Lauriat and I was rather appalled by their pancit canton. It looked and tasted like it was reheated more then a few times. The fish itself was ok but the "right" sauce was missing. They serve it with tartar sauce, right? I was given a packet of sweet and sour sauce instead. It was rather heartbreaking since it was the fish with the sauce that made me buy the lauriat in the first place (and that's a 130+php price tag). Also, I was expecting steamed siomai with my meal but I got lumpiang shanghai instead. The shanghai was ok but I was expecting the siomai. I even requested chili sauce and additional toyomansi. I didn't want the chili to go to waste so I used it as dipping sauce for my shanghai and fish. Not bad at all. Nothing really changed with their chili sauce and it was a good thing 'coz I really love their chili sauce.

For today, I bought pork chaofan with siomai. Eating the chaofan without the siomai would have been fine with me but since I tried that before in that branch and felt like something was missing, I opted for the add-on this time. I guess today was a good day for that branch. My rice tasted like I can eat it with out the siomai. I think they even had more of the pork bits and kangkong shreds this time too. I like the slightly salty taste. For me, that''s how fried rice should taste like. A bit salty. The kangkong shreds lends the chaofan a bit of a crunch, which I also love. The siomai was okay. Consistent with its taste. Also I loved that the siomai didn't look over steamed (Their wrappers would have been too soft and well, wet). I ate my pork chaofan with siomai with gusto. I love how the chili sauce with a little toyomansi made this meal so much better (Again, I do love their chili sauce).

I think chaofan-wise, they improved a bit. The service in this branch (Laonglaan) still needs further improvement though. I find that they seem to be undermanned. And also, I seriously would love to have better tasting noodles than last time.

I find that though the service is a bit slow, the food, sometimes, not that good , I still go back. Maybe I'm hoping that one day they'd be back to the old Chowking I knew. Good food. Good service.


PS.

The pictures are not mine. Got it from google search. :p

Welcome to my Cubbie Shell's Adventures :)

Hi! Welcome to my new blog. This is basically still a personal blog but I'll try to keep my emo side in check this time :)) I'd be reviewing new products, fads, trends, whatever floats my boat. Your comments would be greatly appreciated. So without further ado, join me on my adventures.

Sincerely,

Cubbie Shell