KFC: Raising the Bun

KFC went bunless last year with the protein and saturated fat-rich Double Down burger. Now, it has raised the bar for chicken sandwiches with The Tower Burger: placing a chicken fillet, cheese, lettuce and hash brown between its buns. Can this fit in YOUR mouth? Try it out. I know where I'm having lunch today.:)


My feedback on the bun can be summed up in one sentence: it's big, salty and it'll make you wanna drop by McDonald's for their breakfast menu. The Tower Burger was fun to it but that's it. It tastes really salty and I blame that on the mayonnaise! The lettuce, as usual, was not really green green but pail green, which automatically let me know that its nutritional value when from high to super low. On a more positive note, it's always nice to bite into something crispy when sinking your teeth into a soft bun and tender chicken fillet and that's what the hash brown provided. It also made me yearn for a McDonald's b-fast though, a Sausage McMuffin with Egg with a crispy, golden hash brown to specific. So while this burger is fun and on the safe side of filling, it's a one-timer. I'd trade it in for a McDonald's breakfast any day.

Fish & Co. Unlimited Fish

Epic! It's also available in Trinoma mall. I can't wait try this!

NOTE! Just came from the Trinoma branch and the price on the image above is from last year. FISH UNLIMITED now costs P395. Pretty pricey but still worth it. I ate six (6)pieces of Just For Me fish. It was so filling and so good. Tip: ask for more lemon butter to add more taste to your fish. DA BEST!

Take the Tribu challenge!

Here in the Philippines, we just loooove food. And the one Pinoy staple that never fails to hit the spot is chicken inasal with all-you-can-eat rice. Though many inasal restaurants offer such a feast, my favorite has to be Tribu.

Why do I love Tribu so much? I have three reasons: great chicken, great service, great ambiance. Yes, this place doesn't just provide affordable and delicious chicken, it does so with friendly, fast service while giving you the feeling that you're eating in Filipino hut. The chicken they serve is crispy unlike in other inasal joints. Their rice is bottomless and soft-- just the way i like it. They also serve liempo, bagoong rice and other Filipino favorites. Meals with bottomless rice and a chicken quarter cost less than 100 pesos and bottomless iced tea cost only 35 pesos. A meal like this is sure to get you stuffed and satisfied. What I also like about this place is the quality service. The waiters that I've encountered in the Commonwealth branch are fast, friendly and efficient, the way quality restaurant service should be. Lastly, i love the theme of the restaurant. While other inasal places make you feel like you're in a fastfood chain, Tribu gives you that provincial feel with heavy-duty wooden tables and chairs.

Tribu is a great place to eat, but what makes it even more interesting is its ka-Tribu challenge. Before I even try to explain it, here's the poster:

Damn. Need we say more?

If you're one of those food mongers who loves beating ever food-challenge out there, this is one that YOU HAVE TO CONQUER!

Tribu is great, with numerous branches around the metro and even one in the States. This is one inasal restaurant that is definitely cooler than the rest.

Boot up and man up, we're going to Food Camp

The rain has been pouring down non-stop for the past 48 hours or so. And while these rains have demobilized many Filipinos, they haven't stopped me from hitting a new burger joint along Katipunan extension. The joint's name is Food Camp, and it turned into my family's HQ amid the crazy weather.

Quite frankly, Food Camp was great. First of all, it was a small and simple restaurant, big enough to fit maybe 14-16 people. At first I had pegged it as a barkada/ hangout type of place, but it proved to be very family friendly. There's a flat screen TV on the wall for entertainment and even coloring materials for kids to use to keep them busy (perfect since I was there with my entire family including two young kids). And what the restaurant lacked in venue size, it made up in burger size. This brings us to our next and most important concern: the menu.

I was very impressed with the menu. Not only did Food Camp serve beef burgers with different toppings, but they also had Wagyu Australian beef burgers, sandwiches, sides, shakes and bottomless drinks.

Burgers. The menu was very creative with the burger names, like the Alpha burger (classic w/ cheese, P99) or the Bravo Burger (w/ cheese, bacon, mushrooms and potato wedges, P155), staying true to its boot camp/ military theme. And their burgers packed a lot of beef. The default beef patty was 1/3 of a pound. All burgers could come with a single patty or double patties (roughly P50 more for the double patty) and were served in home-made burger buns. I ordered the Wagyu Australian beef burger (P199) and the meat was top-notch. The quality and flavor of the Wagyu beef was much better than that of the Alpha, Bravo, or Charlie burgers. Best part: quality for your money. Bad part: too messy. Too much mustard and ketchup made the burger sloppy and difficult to eat.

Sandwiches. The menu also provided some interesting choices that may suit the more health conscious. There were very affordable choices like the Tuna sandwich (P55) and the Chunky Chicken (P70), both served in a bread roll. My wife ordered the Philly Cheese Steak, which is one of the best-sellers. The size (around 6"-7" long) and flavor were good, a tad bit sweet. It was meaty and oozing with cheese whiz but it lacked one major ingredient: caramelized onions. Best part: really affordable and hefty sandwiches. Bad part: the Philly Cheese Steak bun had a mold on it, but the waiters replaced the sandwich at once.

Sides. The sides were another thing I loved. Their Mozzarella Bombs (P99) were thick and tasty. The Onion rings (regular-P75, large P155) and Jalapeno sticks (50) are also must-tries. Best part: variety. Bad part: Only the Bravo burger comes with potato wedges, the other burgers don't come with sides.

Drinks: Like most burger joints, Food Camp's drinks were slightly overpriced. One up side though is that they didn't just sell soft drinks but also Zola Iced Tea and they also had bottomless iced tea (P60). Warning though, you might find the bottomless iced tea to taste kind of funky at first, it's because it's mango-flavored. It's a good twist but if you're not into the fruity flavored, don't get the bottomless iced tea.

In general, I'm very satisfied with my food camp experience. The service was great and the place was clean. They also don't wrap their dine-in burgers in foil, showing their environmental zeal. The only downside is that the kitchen isn't entirely closed off from the dining area, allowing smoke from the grill to seep into the dining area. But aside from that, no major complaints. On the whole, Food Camp outdoes other burger joints in it's menu variety and overall dining experience. So whether you're with your friends or your family, on a sunny day or a monsoon day, be sure to boot up and man up for the burgers at Food Camp.

Bite Club Burgers

Bite Club Burgers is one of the first burger joints I had ever been to. Bite Club offers three patty sizes- 1/3 pound, 1/2 pound and one pound patties. All the burgers come with one free topping and there are plenty to choose from. The variety of toppings makes creating your very on burger a lot of fun. My personal favorites are caramelized unions and mozzarella.

XXX, their one-pound burger, is their claim to fame. The XXX (P260) comes with mozzarella cheese and one free topping. It’s about 10 inches in diameter (like a small pizza) and is good enough for two people to share. If the XXX is too big for you, then try The Club (P110), their basic 1/3 pound burger, which is filling enough or The Bomb (P165), their ½ pound burger.

Bite Club Burgers is not abundant with pre-set burgers, like the Chicano or Kamikaze burgers of Hot Shots Flame-Grilled Burgers. I noticed only one pre-set burger in Bite Club called the Kevin’s Bacon. I tried this burger before but was very disappointed with it. The actual burger looked nothing like the one in the menu, oozing with cheese and with strips of bacon sticking out of the bun. When I got the actual burger, the cheese didn’t have much flavor and instead of finding bacon strips in the Kevin’s Bacon, I only found bacon shreds. That was a bit of a let down.

my order: XXX one-pound burger w/ tomatoes, onions and lettuce, a chocolate shake and potato wedges

With all the burger joints popping up all over the Metro, the only reason I’d return to Bite Club Burgers is for the XXX burger. It’s just overwhelmingly huge and fun to eat. I once ordered the XXX with potato wedges (P65) and a chocolate shake. The gigantic burger was great but both the wedges and shake were disappointing. The potato wedges, for P65, were not plenty and the shake didn’t have much flavor. It was more of ice actually; don’t get the shakes.

Bite Club Burgers does have quality and meaty patties, but they lack in that extra kick of flavor that I find in ArmyNavy Burgers and in Wham Burger. Nevertheless, whether in the Katipunan branch or the Boracay branch, Bite Club burgers is still a good burger joint that can get any weary warrior full. The XXX burger is definitely something you gotta try. Despite their downsides, Bite Club Burgers still lives up to its slogan “we fight hunger.”

Inasal At Iba Pa

Last week, my wife and I ended up in a new chicken inasal restaurant along Timog corner Tomas Morato. We were originally planning on eating at a Mang Inasal branch but were too lazy and hungry to look for one. Then we stumbled upon a less popular chicken inasal restaurant called Inasal at Iba Pa and it wasn't half bad.

Located next to David’s Tea House along the Timog (Tomas Morato rotonda), Inasal at Iba Pa is a cozy little restaurant where people can both eat and drink (beer) at. They serve pale and light beer (P35) and cigarettes. But what they serve the most of is chicken inasal (duh?). My wife and I each ordered a basic meal- paa (P85), plain rice (bottomless at P12.50) and bottomless iced tea (P30), which comes with a bowl of hot broth/ soup. So for less than P130 you get hella full!

The menu provided cheap combo meals (P50 each) but they looked pretty lame, for example: a cup of rice, one BBQ stick and an iced tea. Not bad, but nothing special. The chicken, on the other hand, was OK. It was crispy but not as juicy/ meaty as the chicken from Mang Inasal. But if crispy and crunchy is your type of chicken, then there’s no problemo here.

my order: paa w/ bottomless rice, bottomless iced tea & soup

My wife and I were also delighted to find out that the very next day, November 1st, the restaurant would be offering a new promo of UNLIMITED PAA at just P150 until the end of the month! Daym. You can also add bottomless rice (P12.50) and bottomless iced tea (P30) to your meal. So for less than P195, you get bottomless everything- chicken, rice and iced tea. This promo was very hard to ignore, so after finishing our meal, we returned just four days later to enjoy the promo.

Here’s the clincher though, folks. They didn’t have any Paa! WTF? How can you have UNLIMITED PAA but not have paa? It turned out the delivery that day hadn’t arrived yet. What a let down. The management was apologetic and, like the last time we were there, very polite.

A week later, I returned and doubted they’d make the same mistake again, but they did! It was a good restaurant but to be so unreliable is a real let down. I honestly don't plan on returning there again. Their foul up kind of speaks of their quality, organization, and reliability.

Don't get me wrong, the place was good- affordable, filling, and customer-friendly. Aside from the fuck-ups with the promos, it was pretty okay.