Dino Buffet @ Movie Stars Cafe

Finally I was able to use my vouchers ( bought from Metrodeal ) at Movie Stars Cafe in MOA. I bought them last February, planned to use them for an eat out with my teens on V-day but already it was fully booked. Continued to be fully booked the whole month of March everytime I tried to book. No wonder, Metrodeal sold near 14k vouchers ( got the figure from voucher store site ). Omg, how on earth would they manage to accommodate those buyers ( including me ) in a period of 3 months if not fully booked    everyday.




Then I tried on a Monday last week, again replied by familiar "fully booked tonight", wt#. I insisted and wt# I was given a table, finally.

I didn't mind the location of our table at the buffet area which view to the stage show was blocked. I could careless about the show, I only wanted to use the vouchers and eat, haha.

It's a movie themed resto down to the servers who are  in characters..




.. and also the same people/characters who perform on stage.

The buffet is called Dino Buffet. The spread is predominantly meat dishes. Burgers and sausages.Wt#, ofcourse dino is carnivorous! If you want a healthy buffet, go to a cow buffet if there's one around, haha.




juicy burgers. too filling for me, I didn't finish mine.




some meat dish

some fried dishes




You'll be mad at me cos I eat like a bird on buffet. It's intentional.

And my plate is usually as boring as this ( photo ). My first serving. The burgers I didn't even finish.




My weakness thu' is dessert. I'm big on sweets and fruits. I guess that's my primary source of fats.

Brother tried to wash off his meat overloading with fruits.

My girls liked the cake. This ( photo ) one particularly with blueberry.

The buffet failed in comparison to many other buffet I had been. But come to think of the voucher price, not bad. My teens like the fun ambiance thu and had a good time.

Cafe France: Couture Tray

I frequent Cafe France ( formerly named DeliFrance ) not to dine-in but to buy1/take1 pastry products nearing closing store hours.  My girls and I love their breads. Me especially if they are 50% off, haha. While in q to pay, I would see their food display with delicious looking salad, pasta, meat dishes and desserts. I would always make a mental note to try dining in the cafe but would find myself always coming back for the buy1/take1 and always rushing, haha.

Last weekend, we were at MOA as usual with jampacked restos when it was time to eat. Exiting F21, we saw Cafe France looking minimal in terms of nos. of table occupied. Us_ as you know hate heavily crowded dining place, found Cafe France just the place to eat this time. Funny that after 158 years we had to try it first in MOA, when a nearest branch to our home is just 5 minutes drive.

Anyway, I got to try the Pierre Tray Couture. Sounds like a high fashion brand huh? Ok I'll make it easy_ it's actually a set meal. A french gourmet tray of pasta & sandwich combi with soup, dessert, and a drink. Other trays couture named as Adelle, Marguerite, and Philippe.

 Pierre Tray Couture is a seafood set meal with seafood marinara pasta and seafood deluxe clubhouse sandwich as main dishes. I hadn't paid so much attention to the soup served in a shot glass and just had a bit of it using it as a dip for the bread sticks included in the meal.

I loved the seafood marinara so much so I finished it in a bit. I liked its marinara sauce with generous amount of shrimps. I thought the pasta serving was small thu'. But the sandwich I didn't finish. I still have to find suitable crab sandwich for myself and this is not the one.

While my rice meal baby ( older daughter ) had ordered a rice meal of course. She had a plate of Chicken French in Bechamel Sauce ( ala carte ). It was breaded chicken fillet in white sauce with white rice.



She didn't like it and just shared my set meal. She had it taken home for her sister. At home, younger daughter surprisingly had  liked it or was it only because she was so damn hungry already when we arrived home?

So there_ our 1st at Cafe France. I think we're going to come back to try their other tray couture, preferably at the nearest branch. And yes I would continue to be a loyal patron of their buy1take1, haha.

Boon Tong Kee @ MOA

I stumbled upon Boon Tong Kee at Mall of Asia last Friday while looking for a place to eat after a tiring rounds at Phil. Travel Expo (SMX). It was relatively still a Valentine's Day, a Friday dinner and payday (15th)  at that_meant full houses restos around MOA. When I saw this resto with only 2-3 tables occupied, I knew we didn't have to look further.




The place used to be the one occupied by Red Mango, so it's not that spacious. Gladly, it has an open kitchen which is for me suggestive of fresh hygiene.



my v date, one of my best girlfriends

At the door, I easily had placed that Boon Tong Kee's origin is Singapore. Not that I had it already in Singapore, this was the first time I came to know about it,  but they had some menu teaser poster at the door with chicken rice. No brainer, I know right.

We didn't bother to stress ourselves with the menu. We were too hungry for that. We ordered their season (CNY & Valentine) set meal of chicken rice. Comprised of  hainanese chicken and rice, sambal kangkong and a soup. The chicken was just sufficiently tasty. Nothing to rave about. I'd say I already had  better version of  hainanese chicken in Sg & Malaysia.

Plus we ordered another set meal with the same side dishes but with pork which tasted like our local tocino.
  The sambal kangkong was allright.




The soup was actually surprisingly good. In a set meal, I never expected a soup not to be bland. But this one kindah tasty. It was like adapted to our pinoy palate cos it's nearly tasted like our local tinola soup.
For some reasons I always find Sg dishes very filling. My friend thought the same. We only had those two set meals, yet we didn't finish everything. We finished just half of everything.
Value for money was good. The set meal was heavy in the tummy but light in the wallet. I don't know about regular menu thu'.




We had dessert outside,  in a coffee shop.

Belated Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Xin Wang Hongkong Cafe . Ph

Nice, an outlet of XinWang Hongkong Cafe here in Ph. It's in MOA. I've come to know this cafe during my trips in Singapore. At Sg, there's one at Bukit Timah right outside the gate of my friend's village where I would stay everytime I visit the lion city. Hence, that branch became our default dining place when we wish to eat near.

Similar to the one I know in Sg, this one in MOA has a happy vibe interior. A mix of pop art walls, zen tables and Chinese ceiling.

Interested to check if the menu was exactly the same with the one at Sg. I saw familiar dishes and decided to try some that I haven't yet..

.. but I made sure to introduce to older daughter, this giant mango snow ice which personally has been my favorite from this cafe.



This was mine in Sg.. Compare, compare to..

..hers in Ph. No doubt o.daughter whose taste seems to be a twin of mine, likes it too. Ofcourse,  it was too big for her and didn't finish it. She immediately thought of her sole sister who was at home that time.The attentive server suggested to box the left over for take home. It arrived home melted ofcourse but a little freezing and the mango snow ice got back to its form. Not the way it has been plated thu', but definitely my younger daughter enjoyed the rest of it.

deep fried mango n' prawn roll. With green salad I always love the combination of mango and shrimp. I took a bite of the roll and realized I'd stick with the combi on salad. I needed some dip to finish the rest of the roll and ask a server for some. He said it is eaten w/o like that. I didn't like it.

black pepper chicken chop n' french fries. This was my daughter's plate. I forked a little of the chicken and it was ok. Edible but nothing to rave about. Daughter like it thu'. Oh well, she was hungry, she would like anything on the table.

I ordered a bamboo rice. wt#!!! I forgot a promise I made to myself that I won't have any bamboo rice again after the mistake I made of having one here.



Hk braised beef brisket bamboo rice. A rice topping dish with beef brisket. The rice I was thinking, I would share with my daughter since her dish had no rice and she wanted some rice. But the rice, we didn't like. It was mixed with dried small shrimp ( I think it's called "hebe" in tagalog ). I am never a rice person, I don't know what came to me to order a bamboo rice, haha. Again, wasted!



Even in Singapore, I couldn't remember enjoying the food at Xin Wang Cafe, except for the snow ice. In fairness, in MOA branch, service was the best!

Pho Hoa

I had to comb my archive if I already did a post on Pho Hoa Noodle House. I was surprised to find out that I haven't yet cos it's one of my favorites and one of the most frequented ones. Under my label of  vietnamese cuisine appeared only one _ Yummy Viet. Funny but in that post, I seemed not to like Vietnamese cuisine yet, except for the spring rolls. But that was already very archive-y.

I came to love Pho Hoa at the hype of watching husband weight. Like a year or two ago. We were working-out together quite seriously. Outside our home kitchen, Pho Hoa (@ ATC) had been our extended dining corner where we both enjoyed light vege-ful dishes. So it was more of just me and husband minus our girls.

Last weekend, I brought my girls to Pho Hoa and this was the actual face of my younger daughter. haha. It didn't help that I ordered, especially for her + first time, a huge bowl of beefy noodle soup. Both of my daughters love beef dishes.



Pho Nam, Gan - flank and tendon soup.

My thirteenier really found it bland, until..

.. I drizzled her little bowl with spiracha, which is the house chili sauce and I think the only spice they have aside from the dark sauce..

and the fresh basil they serve separately. The plate also has a handful of fresh beansprout and a quarter of lemon.

Oh well as for the older daughter, no problem. Everything I eat, she eats. She's like my twin-tummy. The younger one is the dad's twin-tummy. We're even!

The o.daughter shared my plate of fresh spring rolls. Still my favorite. I asked y.daughter to try it and try she did but no likey yet.



But she loved the fresh lemon juice.