Yoji and the Foodies

Steaks Unlimited is the newest food establishment to open in SM Center Las Pinas. Naturally, the curious bunch would flock to the place like a moth to a flame.  Fortunately, we did not get burnt.  This means the food is not bad. It’s just very uninspired.

The Bulalo Steak (pictured above) tastes pretty much the same as the T-Bone steak pictured below.

For 98 pesos (the Bulalo at 108), they seem to think that shoddy presentation would suffice. The food is good for its price and we’d probably come back to try other dishes. I’m looking forward to eating the grilled squid. It’s the next best thing to eating Paul the Octopus.

I had expressed my disappointment with Razon’s food in my previous entry, but I raved about the exquisite taste of the halo-halo. It is the only reason we keep coming back to the place despite the ridiculously high price. For the 2nd appearance at the SM Center Las Pinas branch, the only intent was to eat halo-halo. Of course, that’s even more ridiculous than the exorbitant pricing. No one can resist the “foodie call”, not in my circle, at least.

The table was lonely with only the halo-halos acting as the centerpiece, so we decided to act according to the foodie code (imagine there’s one!) and ordered:

Pork and Chicken Asado

Tapsilog

Tocilog

Despite the shoddy presentation, the Asado was the clear winner — tender pork & chicken meat, nice texture, and generous portion (this is good for 2, if you’re not very hungry).

The Tocilog was forgettable (what Tocino?). You’re better off buying Pampanga’s Best tocino.

There was nothing spectacular with the Tapsilog. I guess if you’re into adobo-ish flavor, you might enjoy it.

Divas Kaffe is a little coffee shop inside SM Center Las Pinas. I keep postponing my review of the place for the simple reason that there’s really nothing extraordinary about the pricey coffee they serve. In fact, the experience is so disappointing that I have nothing good to say. And we all know that if you don’t have anything good to say, then shut up. So I’ll try to be as brief as possible.

I wanted this:

However, the barista said that their machine is not powerful enough to crush ice. (Pls. file this one under WTF). So, I was forced to order the “bestseller” – iced mocha Irish creme. This is what I got:

This is 93 pesos. I could have bought a 3-in-1 coffee and shove it in the freezer for a few hours and I would have the same effect, or even better.

(If a beverage meant to be consumed while window shopping reaches home almost untouched, it’s an indication of how bad it tastes).

We were thrilled to see more restaurants opening in SM Center Las Pinas. As I have mentioned in previous entries, Las Pinas foodies have to travel further south to go on food binging exercise.

The newest kid in the SM Center food block is Razon’s from Guagua.  The restaurant’s history is painted on the wall, if you care to read. Razon’s specialty is the pancit luglog and the 3-ingredient halu-halo. I am no fan of pancit but their version is really tasty; and the halu-halo is creamy and just has the right sweetness (no sugar added). Some would say that it’s a poor man’s halu halo since it lacks at least 5 other ingredients that would normally make up an honest to goodness halu halo. On the contrary, it is perhaps one of the most expensive (if not the most) halu halos around at 85 pesos.

The friendly neighborhood halu halo is 25 pesos and has 10 “sahogs”. They use the cheapest evaporated milk and the tindera has to to shave the ice manually using this contraption. Razon’s halu halo is different. It has an exquisite taste and it’s all because of the shaved ice. It’s so fine that it gives a really wonderful texture when mixed with the 3 sahogs (leche flan, macapuno, banana) and the creamy carabao’s milk. Smooth!

The Destroyer ordered Arrozcaldo which has what looks like chunks of roasted chicken and hardboiled egg.  One bowl of this comfort food is 75 pesos. It tastes good, but it’s hardly comforting because of the small serving. Tubong lugaw nga.

I know I vowed to eat only fish until Black Saturday, but that’s a fail from the get go (haha!). I will keep trying, but before that, I had to sample this:

This is the sizzling sisig. When this was served to me, it was not sizzling. It was just hot. They should know the difference. Here’s the thing with me and my sisig meter – the standard to which all sisigs are measured against is Gerry’s sisig.  Razon’s sisig registered an “Ok” in taste only because I like the adobo-ish flavor. It is nowhere near Gerry’s sisig’s awesomeness. There are pork parts that were sinewy, hence, “unchewable”. I was thinking maybe they ran out of pork cheek and ear parts so they went to use tough pork scraps lying on the counter. That’s just my luck. For 140 pesos, this is a rip-off.

I feel conflicted.