Rose Bowl Restaurant - Comfort Food in Baguio City

I was supposed to write this last year right after we returned from a trip to Baguio City. Somehow, I never got to finish this article about a sentimental trip to the Summer Capital of the Philippines. Here are a few photos from January 2025. Since it had been years since the last trip to Baguio, we just had to go back to Rose Bowl. My first time to eat there was in 1995, for my first project out of grad school. That was a traffic study for the Bokawkan Flyover.

Fast forward to 2025 and we just wanted to go to familiar places we've gone to before. One of these was Rose Bowl. We were so hungry when we arrived at the restaurant that I was not able to take many photos. But we did have a great lunch there. The food is still good! The staff were also quite familiar as many have been employed there for a long time now. The kitchen and the staff are very efficient and our food was served soon after we ordered.

I have always eaten at Rose Bowl since my first time in Baguio in 1995.

Fish fillet and tofu

Fried rice

Rose Bowl's version of chop suey

The familiar sign along the road

I am already looking forward to the next trip to Baguio. Hopefully, that will happen sooner than later. Will I be going to Rose Bowl again? Likely, if it was a family trip. If I will be traveling there for work, then probably we'll try out other restaurants, too. Baguio, after all, has so much to offer in terms of food.

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Lunch at Tim Ho Wan

This is actually from an old draft from before the pandemic. I assume there hasn't been much change in the menu. We had this lunch at Tim Ho Wan at the Uptown Mall in BGC after what was probably an event there. I took these photos of the food we ordered and ate. At the time, Tim Ho Wan had just opened their branches in Metro Manila and it was difficult to get a table (one had to line up and there were long lines during lunch time). It was similar to when Din Tai Fung also opened their initial branches. Fortunately, we were able to get a table fast as we had a late lunch.

Steamed shrimp dumplings (hakaw)

Rice with chicken, sausage and mushroom

Steamed spinach dumplings

Pork buns

Braised beef over noodles

Pork siomai

 

I cannot remember exactly how the food was but we enjoyed our lunch. Later, in Singapore last year, we also ate at a Tim Ho Wan near our hotel. We found the menu to be somewhat limited compared to the branches in Manila. Perhaps the ones in Singapore were like express ones? This was certainly not the sit-down restaurants in Manila.

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Tien Ma's, Antipolo City

We have another favorite restaurant in Antipolo. Tien Ma's Taiwanese Cuisine has a branch at Puregold along Sumulong Circle across from Shopwise Antipolo. Here's what we had one time when we decided to sample several dishes.

Gen. Tso's chicken

Tien Ma's Taiwan-style fried rice

Fish fillet in black bean sauce

Their version of sotanghon

Honey walnut chicken

Vegetables and seafood over crispy noodles

Not shown in the photos are their xiao long bao, which are excellent. Special mention goes to their truffle variant. The staff are attentive but if the restaurant is crowded, they can get somewhat overwhelmed. Parking is not a problem as aside from the spaces in front of the restaurant, you can park at the basement of Puregold. We've also ordered from them via Grab on several occasions and they are very consistent with the high quality of their food.

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King Bee Restaurant, SM Masinag

We went to Decathlon Antipolo to pick up some items for our daughter's summer camp. We ended up having an early dinner at the nearby SM Masinag as it was already evening when we finished shopping. We have not been in SM Masinag in a while so we only remember the restaurants that were there months or even more than a year ago. A pleasant surprise is that King Bee, which had a branch along Marcos Highway just outside SM Masinag, was already in the mall. They probably relocated to the mall for convenience and to harness the mall's customers.

Hakaw or steamed shrimp or prawn dumplings

Buko juice or coconut water in the shell

Their version of the classic dish Lemon Chicken is among those we like. It is not so sweet and the chicken is cooked so the meat is tender.

Yang chow fried rice

Salt and pepper squid

Almond and lychee for dessert

The restaurant delivers as a place where you satisfy your cravings for Chinese food or when you want to eat a hearty meal for lunch or dinner. They have an extensive menu and you don't have to wait too long before your food is on the table. It also helps that their prices are very reasonable considering the good quality and quantity per order of the dishes. We'll definitely be back or perhaps order from King Bee in the near future.

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Tea of Spring, Shangri-La Mactan

There are two restaurants at the Shangri-La Mactan that we had been curious about and planned to eat at but haven't. This despite several stays at the hotel in the past years (of course, except 2020 and 2021 - the height of the Covid-19 pandemic). This time around, we decided to stay put at the hotel/resort so we were able to try one of the two.

Appetizers consisting of peanuts and pickles

Wok-fried Australian beef in Merlot

Black truffle fried rice with chicken

We also had some wonton noodle soup but our daughter already started eating it before I got a nice photo of the bowl.

The following day, we decided to have lunch there so we can try their dimsum.  Here are a few photos of the what we enjoyed for lunch:

Shiitake buns - these we thought were the most delightful with the buns shaped like shiitake mushrooms

Hakaw - steamed shrimp dumplings

Siomai or shu mai - steamed pork dumplings with fish roe toppings

Despite staying at the Shang for several days, we were not able to eat at the Cowrie Grill. At the time, there seemed to be events being held there or near there and we decided to stay away from the larger crowds. There should be another opportunity for that in the near future.

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The Empress Dimsum Platter

The wife was one of 8 winners in a raffle their office held during one of their meeting a couple of weeks ago. The prizes for the winners were dimsum platters from their company's popular Chinese restaurant at Bonifacio Global City (BGC). However, they platters had to be delivered and at first, the wife was going to give away her platter as we lived out of Metro Manila and typical establishments from BGC would not deliver to our location, which was more than 15 kilometers away. Her office insisted though and said it won't be a problem. And so we got the dimsum platter late afternoon last Sunday and we're glad she didn't pass up the prize.

The Empress Dimsum platter

Hakao or shrimp dumplings are among our favorites

Vegetable dimsum and seafood siomai with fish egg toppings

Pork siomai and vegetable dimsum

Pork rolls

The dimsum was excellent and the quantity generous. We thought that if it weren't for the pandemic, we would be going to The Empress quite often or perhaps take out this and other items on their menu (they also have our favorite xiao long bao). We'll have to wait then and for now maybe find a way to have another or two platters delivered to our home. :)

Happy Sunday!

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Gyoza and chahan for lunch

Whenever we are at the office, we just ordered our lunch instead of us going out. Though we miss going out for lunch, we are aware of the risks and think we are actually also more productive if we stayed at the office. So right before lunch time, we usually ask one another (whoever's there at the office) what we'd like to eat for lunch. We had not eaten at the Gyoza and Ramen House in UP Village since February of this year so we decided to order our lunch meals via Grab Food.

Gyoza and chahan (Chinese style fried rice)

The I got my usual order of gyoza (steamed and then sear fried pork dumplings) and chahan (Chinese style fried rice). The set is comfort food for me. It brings out memories of my living in Japan. I always ordered this set whenever we (friends and I) went out to eat at the Chinatown in Yokohama. My Ninang (godmother) also like eating at the Chinese restaurants when we met up and we enjoyed the gyoza set whether its lunch or dinner.

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Paradise Dynasty - Xiao Long Bao

The wife and I met up for a Fridate at The Podium and took our time choosing where to have our dinner. Having had our good share of pasta and Filipino dishes the past days, we decided to go for some Chinese food. We actually spotted a restaurant as we went around to familiarize ourselves with the recently renovated mall and came back to try their specialty, a favorite of ours - xiao long bao.

I was not familiar with a lot of the restaurants at The Podium and it was the first time I've seen this Chinese resto. Paradise Dynasty turned out to be an international brand. I only learned about this when I was going around Singapore a couple of weeks ago and saw a couple of their branches there.

Black truffle xiao long bao (near) and garlic xiao long bao (far)

Yang Zhou (yang chow) fried rice

Preparing the dip for our xiao long bao

Stir fried beef with assorted mushrooms in Szechuan bean sauce

We had our fill of xiao long bao that night including their signature original bao. The truffle variety was excellent. And we also enjoyed the stir fried beef we ordered. It was just right in terms of spiciness. Needless to say, we will be back for more. This adds to our list of reliables when it comes to Chinese food especially the xiao long bao.

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Meals at Changi Airport

The trip to Sri Lanka had a layover in Singapore. I actually had two other choices - Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur - but opted to go to Singapore instead, which I thought offered the better services than the other two airports. I have been to Suvarnabhumi many times and though I haven't been to K.L. (we took the bus to Melaka many years ago from Singapore), it had been sometime since my last trip to Singapore and many things have happened at Changi including the addition of a Terminal 4 where the budget terminal used to be. I am also aware that there are new attractions like the Jewel and am very familiar with the shopping options there. I thought it would be helpful to familiarize myself with Changi as I will be back here with the wife in late November.

This sign attracted our interest. Its definitely Chinese food but we are still wondering if the 'Encik' was the same as our "Intsik" term for the Chinese.

I opted for the spicy noodles with fried dumplings and some milk tea.

There are many relatively inexpensive eats at Changi airport

A friend opted for the noodles with chicken fillet slices as toppings and strawberry

More on food and other attractions at Changi soon!
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The Dimsum Place, Sta. Lucia Grand Mall

A restaurant we always see but somehow always bypassed whenever we ate at the Sta. Lucia Grand Mall is The Dimsum Place. It was recommended by a good friend who patronized the place as her mother liked eating there. So one Friday we were out on a date, the wife and I decided to finally try it out.

Their menu includes many familiar items that we usually order at Chinese restaurants

Their shrimp hakao was good

Xiao long bao - their version is good and comparable to Shi Lin's but not yet par with Din Tai Fung's

Egg fried rice - they didn't have many variants

Fish fillet with tofu - this was a surprising

We were not disappointed with the food at this restaurant and the prices are very reasonable, too. The staff were also very attentive even when the restaurant was already full (we came in for an early dinner the time we ate there). We will eat here again sometime soon.

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Wee Nam Kee, Fairview Terraces

We were 'researching' for places to eat at Fairview Terraces and I mentioned to the wife that I saw this Singaporean-themed restaurant in that mall. So we searched for the restaurant online to see its menu. The mention of cereal prawns got us interested and, having been residents of Singapore for 1.5 years, we also missed the food we ate there whenever we ate out.

Wee Nam Kee is located at the ground level (that's the garden level) of Fairview Terraces. We regularly passed on the restaurant as we dined at other restaurants in the area. That turned out to be somewhat a bad idea as Wee Nam Kee served good food and is family friendly. Following are photos I took of the food we ate a couple of Sundays ago.

Wee Nam Kee fried rice

Salted egg Chinese style fried chicken

Sauteed beef with broccoli and mushrooms

A cool glass of barley juice

Cereal prawns

Salt and pepper squid

The service was good as the staff were attentive. The food was good and we thought it reminded us of the good times we had in Singapore. We will definitely be back at this restaurant and perhaps try out their other branches if we come upon them elsewhere.

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