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