The COVID Pandemic has made us realize how we can be consciously or subconsciously affected by everything around us.  The months of confinement made us yearn for the psychological comfort of once again being able to go out.  Fortunately, we can now (with safety measures) go out once again and chill at our favorite cafes like Cafe Mary Grace.

Well-known for its Ensaymadas and Cheese Rolls, Mary Grace has become one of the fastest growing local food brands.  Even during the pandemic, it has continued to open more kiosks and cafes. All of its kiosks and cafes have the same interior which we love.  It just charms us to coziness each time.  The yellow lighting, floral and ceramic decors and the homey furniture and fixtures harmoniously makes it one of the most beautiful and cutsie cafe in the Philippines.

Food

The cafe menu covers all types of meals from breakfast to after-dinner snacks. 

Crispy Cassava Chips with Onion Dip (205 php)

Since we wanted to take our time and enjoy our meals slowly, we first ordered the Crispy Cassava Chips with Onion Dip for starters.  This is our first time to try this and it was surprisingly good!  So good that we dare say that the Onion Dip is as addictive as the more famous Spinach Dips or Artichoke Dips.

Hearty Soups

Seafood Chowder (190 php)

The Seafood Chowder has the right blend of creaminess, richness and chunkiness to make it the appropriate warm and comforting soup that prepares the belly for a heavier meal.

Salads

Fresh Kesong Puti & Calamansi Vinaigrette (288 php)

The Fresh Kesong Puti & Calamansi Vinaigrette is a refreshing salad to try as it incorporates local ingredients.  The kesong puti is fried and breaded but not oily at all.  It was so much fun to eat.

Mary Grace Caesar Salad (360 php)

 The Mary Grace Caesar Salad is the classic Caesar Salad done right.

Tomato- Based Pasta

Pasta Amatriciana with Meatballs (320 php)

This is the first time for us to encounter a pasta with Amatriciana sauce.  Based on our research, the Amatriciana sauce is a sauce named after the town of Amatrice and is actually one of the most famous pasta sauces in Italian cuisine today.  While we couldn't verify how near it is to that one you can find in such town, we enjoyed this Pasta Amatriciana with Meatballs as the red sauce was rich in spices with a tinge of savoriness and tanginess.

Cream-Based Pastas

Classic Carbonara (315  php)

The Classic Carbonara is one of Cafe Mary Grace best sellers.  Everyone who has tried this has loved this.  We're sure you would too!  Enough said!

Pizzas

Margherita (498  php)

Cafe Mary Grace pizzas are thin and chewy dough crusted topped with fresh and premium ingredients such as its home-made tomato.  We opted for the classic Margherita which was a great compliment to our other orders.

Freshers

Homemade Iced Tea

Apple, Cinnamon Tea and Honey (95 php)

Premium Coffee & Teas

Peppermint Iced Mocha (185 php)

After our meal, we stayed for coffee.  The Peppermint Iced Mocha was a hit among us.

Cappuccino Regular (120 php)

If you're the plain-type of tito or tita, you can go for the hot Cappuccino.

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
Cafe Mary Grace is one of the best cafes in terms of ambiance and food quality in the Metro Manila.  We can see this cafe chain as one that would expand with more branches in the future. 

With the COVID pandemic still on-going, it makes us think more about what we treasure most in our lives.  Definitely, one that tops our list is togetherness with the family.  Buenas means luck and blessings in Filipino language and that is exactly what we felt having during our family dinner at Casa Buenas.   Casa Buenas is located in the new "Newport Grand Wing" which was unfamiliar for most of us.  Even if you park at the nearest parking area which was the Newport Grand Wing, you have to take elevator and escalator  to reach this very spacious wing.  

 

Kuala Lumpur Malaysia's RM460 Burger Viral Drama

Just recently, we were discussing with foreign friends on how to spend money better.  The topic was incidentally brought about by the recent Kuala Lumpur birthday dinner drama over the RM460 burger that became viral over the net.  Based on such discussion, we discovered that some would actually spend more for travel, online games, KTV and bars rather than having a fancy dinner with some close friends and family.  Well, though we admit that we do spend for some of those but we give utmost importance to celebrating birthday family dinners more.

It's kind of interesting to learn about other cultures and customs.  All these years, the question "Who pays for the birthday dinner celebration?" never crossed my mind.  For me, it was always a given whether its with family, friends or even just office mates, whoever invites pay for everything.  This applies to all occasions... birthdays, graduations, winning something or even when someone just feels generous.  So yeah, you can all take this as a disclaimer too... We openly admit that not everything we post here is paid by us okay?  It depends on who "invites".

Well, apparently in the RM460 Burger scenario, the payment arrangement for the birthday dinner was to equally split the tab.  We also do the split tab payment arrangement when we casually meet up with close friends for dinners.  But, we've never encountered that kind of scheme when invited for a birthday dinner.  

 

One of my friends whose married to an Australian that her husband was surprised when the birthday celebrant had to pay for the dinner.  Friends take you out, they pay for their own meal (in Filipino slang its "KKB" - kanya kanyang bayad) but they pool money in to treat the birthday celebrant.

Well, perhaps its because my friends and family are very busy people (with so much going on with business, work or family) that we treasure time more than anything.  In fact, we're hardly ever complete.  Some would be on a leisure or business trip, have business commitments or other affairs.  Thus, its customary for the birthday celebrant to appreciate simply just the presence of someone being able to accommodate the invitation.  After the meal, we even thank each of our guests for coming before bidding our good byes.

Now that that's all settled, let's continue on with the food. 

 Food

This was actually the last family dinner we celebrated dining in a restaurant before the lock downs (In the Philippines, we term them "ECQ, MCQ, GCQ") so we were fortunate enough to order from its full menu.  As of the time of writing, it is only offering limited menu because of the pandemic.

Complimentary Bread

While we were waiting for our orders, we were given some Complimentary Bread with a variety of flavored butters.  

 

Soup

Salmon Yazu Dashi

From the Salmon Yazu Dashi, we were already hinted that the dishes served in Casa Buenas is international fusion.  The Salmon Yazu Dashi seemed like a Japanese soup dish with its own twist.

In addition to the warming comfort it brings before the heavy meal ahead, it is quite light and refreshing. 

Sandwiches

Buenas Burger (580 php)

To be honest, we were expecting the  Buenas Burger to be more extravagant.  Yet, it came out rather plain which made its special thick and juicy pork and beef belly patty stand out.  It was actually quite good and filling.  Yes, the price is justified in for this burger!

Mains

♥ Grilled US Angus Beef Tenderloin with Lychee Sauce (2,900 php)

If there's one dish that stood out among our orders, it would be the Grilled US Angus Beef Tenderloin with Lychee Sauce.  Usually, you'd feel overwhelmed from the savoriness of eating too much meat.  But for this dish, the intricate sweet, fragrant and refreshing lychee sauce counters the savoriness and oiliness from the tender roast beef making it quite pleasurable to eat. 

Off the Grill

Grilled Squid (900 php)

The menu offered a lot of grilled dishes but most of them are quite similar.  Guess, there isn't much twist to grilled dishes other than being precisely grilled to tenderness, appropriately seasoned and dipped in a variety of sauces.  The Grilled Squid was good but it just didn't show much creativity or personality that we'd expect from a famous Chef.   

 

Paella

Paella Seafood (1,000 php/good for 2-3 persons)

Paella is always the most expected order when dining at a Spanish restaurant.  When you order Paella at Casa Buenas, you will be asked if you would prefer the traditional with burnt bottom or not.  We chose the traditional.  Our side of the table ordered the Paella Seafood good for 2-3 person but the other side of the table ordered the Paella Negra good for 4-6 persons.  When our orders came, we realized that the it could cater to around twice as much people as stated.  We ended up having to take home most of this dish since it had bountiful amount of toppings.   Comparing the two, we liked the ♥ Paella Negra more.

 

Pizza

Truffle Pizza (490php)

We loved the Truffle Pizza which involves breaking the poach egg on top before the slicing and all.  The truffle essence for flavor and the chewiness of the dough for texture was just right.

 

Beverage

Cappuccino (190 php)

The coffee cup set is so pretty.  But, the Cappuccino is just okay.

Complimentary Chocolates

All of us appreciated the Complimentary Chocolates as an extended gesture.

Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
The grand Hispanic Filipino interior of Casa Buenas defines it as one of the best places in Metro Manila to impress guests with its luxurious dining atmosphere.  The food and service service is hotel standard.  But, not all the dishes would standard out to be impressively memorable. 

San Fernando, La Union is one of the most progressive urbanized city in North Luzon.  Hence, you can find modern restaurants all over the place.


Krabous is one of the low-key restaurants.  It is even located at the second floor of a building.  Thus, no visible store front.


 
It's quite impressive that we even found this place. 

Despite being far from the beach side, the decorations made us feel it was just nearby...


The place was really designed to entice our appetites for seafood and also to offer the convenience eat them with our hands as there was a washing area.

Food 

We availed of the Unlimited Crab & Shrimp buffet for 599 php.  To our surprise, it offered more than that. 


Aside from various types of crab and shrimp dishes, there are also other seafood.  For soup there was Sinigang na Salmon.


As you can see, the dishes are bountiful even though it was not packed with customers.


Since we're not crab experts, we couldn't identify which crab specie this is. 

But, it was so thin and you could hardly get some tasty crab meat. 


Perhaps, if we didn't see these bigger Mud Crab separately sold by the weight, we'd be content with what we had. 


Tsinoy Foodies Verdict
If you're looking to filling your hunger with seafood then you can try Krabous Seafood Restaurant.  But, if you're palette is more inclined to flavorful pleasures, there are a lot choices within the same price point. 

For our large group, we were ushered towards the second floor.  On the way, we passed by these aquarium filled with live sea creatures.  This is a typical display for a Chinese seafood restaurant. 


Now, these big red linen covered round tables were the much familiar set up for a Chinese restaurant. 


While waiting, we were served some complimentary hot tea and peanuts.  This is also customary for Chinese restaurants of this type.

Food
As expected, the menu offers both ala carte and set menu.  For Chinese restaurants that we regularly visit, we usually take the set menu and the adjust a few dishes therein based on the advisement of the manager.  However, since this is our first time to try Sha Tin, we opted to go for the ala carte so we can try the dishes that interested us. 


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