Dinner at Friday's, Boracay

Rating:
Can you eat a sundae on Monday?

Or more importantly, can you have a Friday's buffet on a Sunday?

This is the question we sought to answer as we took a leisurely half kilometer stroll on the fine, low-tide sandy beach of Boracay towards the legendary Friday's buffet.

Unfortunately, they only have the Friday's buffet on Fridays (oo nga naman) and tonight was Tempura Kaiseki night. What the hell, we were there anyway so we decided to stay and try some Japanese.

This is the closest thing you could get to a fancy dinner-- al fresco dining with white tablecloths, attentive waiters and the calm sound of splashing waves. Relaxing because of the setting but a great ambience doesn't excuse a poor meal!

It was a set meal-- Sashimi, Yakimono and either almond & lychee or fresh fruits for dessert. The portions were incredibly small, the taste was so-so and the almond & lychee dessert was out of stock so I had to settle for the pathetic "fresh fruits" dessert which was half a banana (cut lengthwise), a small triangular slice of watermelon and a couple of cubed cantaloupe.

This dinner for two set me back a little more than php1000! For this price, I could have eaten for two days at D'mall! Definitely poor value for money.

Two pawikan points for this disappointing Japanese set meal at Friday's. Maybe their buffet would've be better.

Balcony Bar, Singapore

Rating:
I was surfing the net looking for some nice clubs in Singapore and I came across Balcony Bar's stylish website. They should've also created an HTML version of the site instead of having it done fully in flash so minus points for that... Anyway this looked like my kind of place and so I went over to 260 Orchard road right beside the Heeren and decided to see if the club was good as its website.

I was there at about 9ish in the evening and I entered through the Orchard road entrance (pictured in the photo.) Just one look and I could tell that this would be one laidback place-- the seats up front were styled like swings but looked a bit uncomfortable and i'm sure the girls in miniskirts (as well as the guys walking by) had to constantly watch where they placed their legs!

The furniture of this place is interesting-- you sit on rocking chairs and there are pillows on swings that line one side of the place. Flat screen televisions are suspended on either end and at the night I was there, they were showing a soccer match.

There was a relatively young crowd the night I was there. The table to my right looked like yuppies from work and they were just chit-chatting over glasses of wine. To my left was a double date of some highschool kids. It was actually kinda cute because they weren't really talking to each other; the girls were engrossed with their mobile phones and the guys were watching the game on the telly. What surprised me was that they were smoking at such young ages! I'm not a stranger to highschool kids smoking (we've got a lot of those in the Philippines) but I was surprised that Singapore wouldn't be too strict about it.

The music in the place started out very well-- a mix of chill out, ambient and beach house music however as my dinner progressed, suddenly turned into 70's retro! When they started playing Michael Jackson, I started to get a bit worried. Hehehe.

Anyway, I ordered the Mediterranean fish and wedges and a glass of their house white wine. Both were very ordinary and I guess that's all I have to say about that! For dessert, I had a frozen watermelon Margarita with a sugar rimmed glass-- that was my favorite part of my meal as it was sweet and refreshing on this humid night. Oh yeah, the groundfloor isn't airconditioned. I spent a little over S$40 for everything-- pretty reasonable for Singapore's standards.

The service was pretty quick but nothing exceptional. The servers weren't particularly friendly but they were courteous and did their job of bringing the food/drinks/bill in a timely fashion. Nothing more, nothing less.

Three pawikan points for this ordinary dinner. Maybe next time I should go a bit later (say 12ish?) and head over to the chill-out balcony upstairs.

Tiendesitas, The Skyline, Gaudi and Serna

Rating: n/a
Since I haven't eaten in Makati for a long time, I have to eat vicariously and review restos through other people.

A friend of mine, Tanya, has reviewed Tiendesitas in Pasig, The Skyline at Vivere Suites in Alabang, Gaudi in Greenbelt and Serna at the Mile Long compound.

I know she has good taste so hop on over to her site and have a look!

The Milkyway, downtown Boise

Rating:
I spent my last Dinner-with-the-consultants at the fantastic Milkyway (the Empire building along 10th street) at downtown Boise. They were Boiseweekly's Best of Boise in 2004 and 2005 and I found the reason why.

This place has it all-- great food, great ambience and great service. Their website describes its best features such as "Baltic birch cabinets", zinc wrapped tabletops and stained concrete floors." I didn't notice these individual elements but I guess they all came together into a cozy restaurant where you could get on your knees and propose! They even have an artsy chandelier made of different pieces of paper with the words i love you written in different languages. I thought it looked a bit out of place but it added to the overall charm.

We each had their "pre-fix" set menu (entree and choice of two courses for $27) so we got to try a lot of their food. This lets me confidently declare that Milkyway has the best appetizers in Boise: I specially liked the seared salmon, onion rings and jalapeno and the two-way duck.

Since I was feeling particularly carniverous that night, I had their meat trifecta which was a steak, salmon and sausage served on a salad bed. This really hit the spot and went well with my Grey Goose vodka martini. My only qualm with the martini was that the olive wasn't pitted!

For dessert, I tried the traditional creme brulee (which I preferred over the uber sweet creme brulee of the Flipside Cafe) and a lemon curd tartlet which was pretty ordinary. We should've tried the Chocolate infused Bread Puddin', judged by Boise Weekly as "food we would propose to" but we were pretty stuffed and we already had Bread pudding last Monday at Cottonwood Grille! I ended the night and my last fine dining experience in Boise with a sweet lemon drop martini.

Five pawikan points for the Milkyway. We spent about $150 dollars, a bit on the pricey side but every penny was worth it.

Shige Japanese Cuisine, Downtown Boise

Rating:
Don't let Shige Japanese Cuisine's shabby appearance fool you-- this is great Japanese food. Period.

Located on the 2nd floor of a building at the corner of 8th and Main St., the place had a rundown and worn-out feel to it. I wouldn't come here for a first date (unless my date's a foodie) because the atmosphere is not the least bit romantic. The ambience was more of "eat! eat!".

I was surprised that the place was packed for a slow Tuesday night. We even had to wait about 20 minutes to be seated. I should've asked for the menu while we waited outside because there were definitely a lot of choices and it took our party of six some time to decide.

If you're into spicy food, try the Firecracker and the Volcano sushi-- an interesting twist to the traditional roll. My main course was the Scallops and Chicken which I washed down with chilled sake. (It was my first time to drink sake and they served it in a short, square shaped wooden cup lined with salt-- it felt very authentic. hehehe)

Three of my colleagues ordered and shared (but didn't finish) the Boat which was (surprise surprise) a wooden boat with assorted food! Different kinds of sushi, sashimi, tempura and skewered meat.

Four pawikan points for this excellent Japanese resto-- plus points for the presentation of the dishes and the awesome boat!