r/CebuRestaurantReviews

📍Address: in front of CDU Mandaue.

Ever since my post last December, Meshiya has become my go-to spot whenever I crave for Japanese BBQ because they have been consistent ever since. I also want to thank fellow Redditors here who saw my post and went there because Shuya (the owner) told me there were some that found them through Reddit (with picture of the review included lol!).

Anyways…

Food - 5/5 it’s still as authentic as can be. The menu has also increased which have my new favorites in it like the Shiitake Mushroom and Bacon Mushroom (you can choose if you want Shimeji or Eryngii). My go to orders will still be the Love Sandwich (chicken thigh x negi), Suki Suki Skin (chicken skin), Chicken Tail, White Onion, and Young Corn.

Price - 5/5 skewers still range from ₱15-₱45 and they have affordable meals if you want to dine and dash. They have affordable drinks too but I often get their high balls which only cost ₱120.. yakitori x alcohol = great combination.

Staff/Service - 5/5 Shuya and his staff are very attentive to orders (and dishing out and all), friendly, and courteous. They’ve been trained well. You have to be patient with your orders though, especially when there are multiple people dining in, as they make it fresh off the grill. (luckily I just kill time by drinking while waiting for my orders lol)

Place - 2.5/5 my verdict before still stays the same as the place is not for the arte or prefer air-conditioned places, pero still dineable and clean naman, the surroundings lang jud he he.

By the way, they’ll be transferring to a new place in Orlacsan St, Alan Alan, Mandaue City, Cebu on May 25 so try them out if you can since naa naju’y tarong place para maka dine in (or out if mu-smoke ka). They’ll also be having 50% off on all drinks from May 20-23.

Crab Meat Omelette (forgot the price) - negative 10/5 stars super salty and tasted like kidney stones 😭

Kra Pao P295 - 3/5 stars too oily!! Good thing rice is freshly cooked

Pomelo Salad P285 - 1/5 stars why the f is this cooked?? And all soggy.

Crab meat fried fried rice P210 - 4/5 stars nothing special

Milk tea - 4/5 stars acceptable nothing special

Food - 2/5 stars

Price - 2/5 stars

Service - 2/5 stars staff are not friendly. Cooks are using their phones and seems like not interested whenever a customer walks in.

Ambiance - 4/5 stars

PROS - I like the outdoor seating and the brand color is my fave color hehe But will never visit them in the afternoon especially they are located beside a busy vulcanizing shop and no trees for shade.

CONS - Staff are lousy and lacks customer service magic. Place may be instagrammable but food is meh.

Never liked my experience. Will never come back again and hard to recommend.

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Tried this when they newly opened. Thought of tryibg again if they offer something new coz I've been seeing them on Tiktok fyp. Wondering what happened to this restaurant. Is the owner Thai? Or is this franchised?

If you had visited Carnatic Cafe earlier or tried food at their 31st Milestone branch, you will be very disappointed here. Apart from the slow service, the dosas were not crisp during dinner time. The server asked us at least 10 times whether we were ready to pay ₹25 extra for the masala, despite us telling him in advance to simply add it to the bill and not spoil our mood by repeatedly asking. The same food looked and tasted completely different at the 31st Milestone branch.

Tian Fu Sichuan Cuisine Restaurant
📍Astra Lifestyle Center, 2/F, AS Fortuna St., Mandaue City
🕐 11am-9pm
MOP: cash, card, Gcash
Parking: naa sa Astra mismo
Cuisine: Chinese (Sichuan)

Disclaimer: This is my first foray into Sichuan cuisine since I don't have much exposure to it. Pag adto nako sa Singapore and Malaysia kay mostly Hainanese man ang cuisine, and even here kay Hainanese ata ang Fung's. When I also went to Hong Kong, it's Cantonese cuisine, and that's the cuisine of Wu Yang and Tim Ho Wan. So apologies if I don't understand Sichuan cuisine much (but I'm trying hard to!).

Per Google translate, Tian Fu (天府) means "Heavenly Treasury" or "Heaven's Mansion". Sichuan cuisine, which is one of the Four Great Traditions of Chinese cuisine, is known for its málà (numbing and hot) flavors. Going through the menu of Tian Fu, you'd find that the items are really more on the spicy side.

What we ordered:

🍛 Kung Pao Chicken (₱380): (tagged as mild + ginger) to the unaccustomed palate, this may be too spicy and numbing, but lami siya nga pagka spicy. The ingredients in the dish (peanuts, chilis and chicken) are enveloped in this sticky glaze that is both sweet and savory. Chicken was tender. The spice does punch, so it may not be for everybody, but you can definitely see the essence of Sichuan cuisine with this. My gripe was that daghan kayo ang chili and peanuts that the plate still looked full even when we already finished the chicken. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Sweet and Sour Pork Tenderloin (₱480): standard Chinese sweet and sour pork. Not bad, but not a standout either. You order this for your sister who's scared of spice. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Sichuan-Style Braised Pork Belly (₱380): This is pork belly infused with its braising sauce that is placed on a bed of... seasoning mix (?). The pork belly itself is so tender, it basically melts in your mouth. I don't usually eat pork skin unless crunchy, but the skin here is basically as tender as the belly. It's so savory yet sweet, and quite aromatic. Not sure what the bed mixture was at the bottom of the plate, but it was kinda salty with umami, very reminiscent of dried fish. My mom loved it so much we had it for take out even though we already demolished the pork belly. Kung kinsa toh kahibaw unsa toh, please let me know kay we’d like to recreate it 🥹 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Silken Wontons in Signature Bone Broth (₱180): generic silken wontons done right. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Red Chili Broth Wontons Soup (₱180) (tagged as mildly spicy): I think same lang ang wontons niya sa silken wontons but the broth is spicy. You can literally see the chili flakes and oil on the broth. It's not the punchy kind of spice, though (unlike sa Kung Pao chicken), so it was more palatable if you're not accustomed to spices yet. (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ kay biased ko sa spicy hahahaha)

🍛 Sichuan Fried Rice (₱320): decent, it's standard Chinese fried rice done well but not a stand out. The waitress said that this was good for 2-3 persons, but gamay siya pag-abot. (⭐️⭐️⭐️ because of the size)

🍛 Chongqing Dan Dan Noodles (₱240): The menu says that this is "wheat noodles tossed with a rich, savory sesame paste sauce, topped with minced pork, scallions and a hint of numbing-spicy Sichuan peppercorns." Very fragrant, a bit herbal and gahian ko gamay sa noodles (slightly more gahi than al dente). The menu says that there is a hint of numbing spicy Sichuan peppercorns (a hallmark of Sichuan cuisine) pero mura'g gipatangtang siguro sa akong mom as she could not handle spices. Would love to eat this again when there's spices ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Steamed Fish with soy sauce (Pompano)/(₱580): did not get to eat this as I ordered this for my dad, but he did say lami siya. Fair warning though, the first time daw ning-anhi akong mom and she ordered the steamed pompano, it was not cooked (!) and they had to request to have it re-done. That might be something you want to check. This time though, cooked na daw ang fish pag-abot. Was not able to taste this so di ko ka-rate.

Other things to note:

🖊️Service: Staff were attentive, they appoint a staff for x number of tables ata, and their head waiter handles the floor. They let us know the cooking time and food was delivered on time for the most part, except for the pompano. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️** Pricin**g: It's more affordable than I thought. General pricing can be compared to that of Eat Fresh, though some items are even cheaper (and a couple of items more expensive!). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️Aesthetic: Modern Chinese-ish, but not a stand out. ⭐️⭐️
🖊️ there is a 7% service charge pa
🖊️ menu is on their FB page

Verdict: Definitely piqued my interest in Sichuan cuisine. Would come back to try the Sichuan Cold Pot Skewers and braised beef with tendon. If you're a fan of spices, you can definitely try this one out, but if not... just order the Sichuan-Style Braised Pork Belly.

Edit: formatting

Kaayoo the Filipino Kitchen - Streetscape
📍2nd floor, Streetscape mall,  Paseo Saturnino, Banilad,  Cebu City
🕐 7am-12mn
MOP: cash, Gcash, card
Parking: naa sa Streetscape mismo

Reservations: Best to make a reservation here since they have a lot of reservations daan. We walked in and got lucky that there was still one table available, though they did warn us that we had to bill out at around 7:45PM since there was already a reservation at that time (we got in at around 6PM).

What we ordered:
🍛 Crispy Pork Kare-Kare (₱395): served with peanut sauce, veggies and greens. Sayon rame-chew ang pork, ok ang taste when you mix both the pork and sauce, but di kayo crispy ang skin. My only gripe was gamay ra ang pork as compared sa veggies ⭐️⭐️⭐️
 
🍛 Bakareta (baka caldereta) (₱410): Meat was not very tender. A bit more on the sharp side. Nag-overpower ang tomato sauce over everything else, and while there was cheese to temper that acidity, di gihapon kayo balanced ang dish. ⭐️⭐️

🍛 Fresh lumpia (₱355): Puno kayo ang sulod, lots of veggies stuffed gyud and dako ang serving. Lami sad ang sauce. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Native chicken tinola (₱499): They pour the soup in front of you. Daghang ingredients, tender ang chicken, flavorful ang broth. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍛 Bam-i (Guisado) (₱495): very generous serving and lami ang timpla. Even if lami siya, we were not able to finish it (6 mi kabuok) kay dako ang serving. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🍹Fruit juices (₱250 for apple, orange, orange and ginger, ₱100 for calamansi): they are literally unsweetened fruit juices. I really appreciate that since some restos would use the powdered versions. Here, though, you just get the natural sweetness of the fruit and not much else. Interestingly, it was the orange ginger juice that came with a free syrup. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🖊️Wa ko kakaon sa the following so I really can't rate it:
- Pampano (steamed) (₱599): this was for my dad, so I gave it entirely to him; he said lami ra daw
- Fried Lumpia (₱385): layo man sa ako so wa ko katilaw. In fairness, daghan siya. Nahurot man so I think lami ra.

Others to take note of:

🖊️Rice is priced in cups (₱50/cup). It was only the bakareta that had rice in it, the rest you'll have to order for rice pa.
🖊️ Naa'y corkage of ₱500 ang cake and wine (since they also sell both)
🖊️** Service: Service was quick and the staff were attentive. They told us the food would be served after 40 minutes, but the first tranche of food started coming in after ~20 minutes man. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️ Pricin**g: More expensive than Bayanihan or Chikaan, but not as expensive as Manam or Fina. ⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️Aesthetic: very instagrammable. vintage decor + industrial finishes + warm lighting make for a good backdrop sa imong IG post.⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️ I read that Kaayoo sources ingredients from local farmers and fishermen to ensure Filipino livelihood, so kudos to them.

Verdict: Mostly hit ang food, though naa'y occasional misses. Service and ambience is really good. This is a place you go to for special occasions.

Bascon Cakes

📍Beside Paradise Village, Banilad

Given that it was my first time ordering from Bascon, I'm quite disappointed :(

We ordered their Whole Red Velvet Cake (8 inches). Unfortunately, the cake itself was so dry. The icing tasted overwhelmingly sweet that we had to remove most of it. Also we could feel the sugar grains in the icing which means it didn’t fully melt. ⭐️

Service - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Price (₱875) - ⭐️⭐️

Location - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Willingness to comeback - ⭐️

I won’t consider buying from this cake shop for now…