Waffles and Yogurt at Red Mango

I'm sure the first thing that came to your mind is "Why did this guy order a waffle when Red Mango is known for its yogurt?" And the answer is simple- my friend got the yogurt and variety always makes life exciting. And then you wonder "Why feature the waffle first?" Simple, it's what I ordered, so on to the waffle! What I had was a banana and almond waffle. Each order is actually two quarter-pieces with each piece looking like a heart due to the design of the waffle iron. They gave just the right amount of banana and almond with a good amount of syrup and a generous serving of cream. The waffle they served was more on the soft side while I prefer mine firm. If memory serves me right, I paid P84 (around $1.70) for the dish and it's a good price for a tasty and substantial dessert in Greenbelt 3, Makati City.

My friend Tonette got an order of yogurt with kiwi. One thing that you've noticed that all these yogurt shops have the same similar toppings and basically the main difference is the yogurt itself. Just to let you know, the yogurt used in Red Mango was sweeter than the one I tried in another shop before. Some people will say that the more sour the frozen yogurt is, the more "pure" it is. Personally, I like my dessert sweet so bonus points to Red Mango. Remember, these yogurt dishes will always vary depending on the topping(s) you choose and if your combination isn't good, you only have yourself to blame.

All-in-all, I was impressed with the food. Red Mango fell behind in the presentation with some messy plating- my waffles had some loose cream on the side of the plate and my friend's yogurt had kiwi bits up one side of the bowl and dribbling down the same side. A cleaner plating would have helped, but the food was good so I'm going back to see what else they have to offer.

Chirashi and Sukiyaki at Seryna

Taking advantage of the long weekend on August 31, I brought my friend Tonette to Seryna located in a secret part of the city right outside Makati Cinema Square. The place is unassuming and it's acutally a bit separated from most of the restaurants in the Little Tokyo area fronting Chino Roces Ave. (Pasong Tamo), but I've been told it's one of the most authentic Japanese restaurants in that area. Plus, the price is quite reasonable (but more on that later). One other thing to note is that looks can be deceiving. It doesn't look like much on the outside (don't mind the security guard), but when you go inside, it has a real Japanese restaurant feel to it- wooden furniture, small aquarium, sake on the wall and, of course, the head Japanese chef behind the sushi bar preparing everything for the rest of the day.

The wallet-friendly time to go is during lunch for the set menu. There are several main dishes to choose from (sushi, sashimi, tonkatsu, fish, soba, etc.) and they all come as a complete meal with appetizer, soup, salad, main course and dessert. I've noticed that the side dishes sometimes change depending on the availability of ingredients and what time you order. My meal had clear soup, some seaweed (the black stuff), a not-so simple salad (it has a bit of mayonaise, potato salad and egg salad in it aside from the usual greens) and grapes. Like I mentioned earlier, I've had several other side dishes with my meal before- brown seaweed instead of black, sautéed tuna, tuna fried in batter, and apples for dessert. Good, clean, healthy food- something you'd expect from the Japanese.

My personal preference is the Chirashi meal (Kaisen Gozen in the menu). If you love sushi, this is the cheapest way to have it since it's the build-your-own-sushi dish. The chef just places the sushi toppings on sushi rice and you're free to eat it as you see fit. In a nutshell, it's cheaper because there's less labor involved. Seryna's Chirashi is a bit different than the traditional Chirashi in that the toppings are in a separate dish from the rice. So in this case, the first half of my meal has 3 slices of tuna, 1 salmon, 1 shrimp, 1 fish cake (the white one that's pink on the edge), 1 squid, a bit of sea urchin, some fish roe, a small heaping of minced tuna with green onions, and a few other fish that I never bothered to identify (but they still taste good and that's what matters). And no, that's not vermicelli under all that... it's just finely chopped radish.

If you think that's a lot, here's the other half of the Chirashi meal- the rice. And yes, there's still more topping on the rice- sweetened dried fish (the pink powder), pickled daikon radish (the yellow strips), brown seaweed, some egg, lotus root (the pink disc), a pinch of pickled ginger, strips of dried seaweed, and a light sprinkle of sesame seeds (barely seen in the picture but it's there). One thing to note- the rice used isn't the sushi rice I'm used to. It's closer to seasoned rice than sushi rice since it's lighter in taste, but otherwise, it goes well with the Chirashi.

Tonette had the Sukiyaki meal. Her side dishes are a slight variation of what I had. She has an additional side dish of pickled daikon, rice and egg (to either place in your soup or dip the beef in, depending on your preference). Her meal also comes with Miso soup. I'm a little foggy as to why her Sukiyaki (already a soup in itself) comes with soup but I don't see any problem with that since I like Miso anyways. Her Sukiyaki comes with the usual beef slices, tofu, vegetables and vermicelli noodles. Since this is a single serving, you have to eat it quickly before it gets cold, but Sukiyaki lovers shouldn't see this as a problem.

Of course, it's not Japanese food without the tea. What I like about Seryna is that you have your choice of free complementary tea- hot green tea and cold barley tea. The waitresses have no problem giving you a pot of both types of tea so that you can enjoy as much as you want without having to look for a waitress to serve you tea. The secret of the barley tea (thanks mom for discovering it) is that you should ask for some syrup and you find yourself with iced tea. I find mixing half a shot glass of syrup gives you the best taste without becoming too sweet. Honestly, you can't beat complementary (and bottomless) iced tea.

I like going back there every so often for Japanese food. The atmosphere is good, the place is clean, the service is quick, the food is fantastic, the presentation is something you'd expect from the Japanese and the price is good. And speaking of price (yes, I'm finally getting to that) each lunch meal is Php350 (around $7), tax inclusive. The Chirashi alone is worth around Php700 outside of lunch time, and that's without the side dishes. This is even a better price compared to other local Japanese fast food places.

Here's the recount of what P700 got us for lunch- 2 set meals, 2 complementary cups of hot tea, and 2 orders of bottomless iced tea. I've brought my family and friends here and they've all loved it. Actually, I lied. The price isn't reasonable, it's great! Now you know why I like going there.