Food

Turning Japanese

Been craving for and consequently, eating Japanese food for three days now. I have Nihonbashi Tei’s amazing food to blame. Last Friday, after tiring ourselves by heading straight to UP from work in time for the Lantern Parade, we trooped all the way to Makati to recharge. Joel suggested we finally hit Nihonbashi Tei. It has been on our list for quite some time already.

At Nihonbashi Tei

We ordered edamame in advance because we were expecting the service to be slow. It was a busy Friday night after all and the place was brimming with diners, who were mostly Japanese. The crew, however, proved us wrong. One by one, our orders arrived: the drinks, sushi, tempura, teppan-yaki…

Check out our table:

A most delectable mess

The Toro Spicy Maki was heavenly – even if I couldn’t take it in just a single bite. The Beef Teppan-yaki was sheer perfection. The beef was so tender and the sauce was splendidly mouthwatering. Just thinking about it makes me want to go back to Nihonbashi Tei right this very instant. The night’s selection made me regret ordering ramen the first time I went there.

But it also made me very excited to go back.

Seven stories

I first learned about Pages early this year through Sir Dalisay’s column. It was always at the back of my mind until last night, when we were thinking of a good place to dine at Shangri-la Mall.

I remember getting intrigued by the premise of the restaurant the first time I heard of it. As the name suggests, Pages dabbles with word play—of literary classics. You can actually order “Animal Farm”, “Of Mice and Men” and “Journey to the Center of the Earth”. I wanted to choose Peter Pan but I was craving for pasta so I ended up with a serving of Aglio Olio (I know!  I didn’t want to order it at first because it didn’t have a “title”.) Joel opted for “The Tempest”.

The food was okay, the place was cozy—cozy enough to spend a night sharing seven months’ worth of stories. ♥