Carver's Tender Roast

Carver's Tender Roast
Location : Mall Of Asia, Pasay City
Cuisine : International/Filipino
Menu Price Range : Php 99.00 - Php 169.00
Service Charge: none
Rating : D+

Found huddled amongst the various eateries found in Mall of Asia, Carver's Tender Roast is unique in its offering: fine dining European items such as roast beef and chicken offered in affordable meals inclusive of drinks and sidings. There were three tiers of prices: Php 99.00 for a rice topping meal complete with ice tea, Php 139.00 for a main course, sidings, and an ice tea, and the Php 169.00 feast that included two main courses, sidings and an ice tea.

For their offerings, Carver's was an amazing value especially when you take into account that the establishment did not even impose a service charge. The only question would be if the quality of the food and service would stack up. Unfortunately, this is where this promising eatery began to unravel.

Their interiors were bright, but surprisingly bare. There was a big mural near the entrance, but once you went into the main dining area, the only fixtures you could find were some plants hanging on the wall. There were no paintings or even mock furnishings and the tables and chairs were equally plain, giving the impression that the establishment was more of a cafeteria than a restaurant.

The first indication of that there were problems with their operation, however, emerged when we we sat down to have wait for our meal. The seats and tables were in disarray and the washing station was physically blocked by several seats and tables. To our dismay, we also found a roach scurrying about on their wall - always a bad sign.

Service took a bit longer than expected, but the reason for this was painfully obvious: the entire establishment seemed to operate solely on one server who also doubled as a buss boy. As a result, service was drudgingly slow despite the fact that the place wasn't even close to half its capacity.

Carver's Roast Beef
Price: Php 139.00 (with siding and ice tea)
Rating: C-

Believing this to be their specialty, I had high hopes for this dish. After all, a good roast beef is succulent, tender, and mouth-wateringly delicious. Unfortunately, their roast beef was none of these. It was somewhat stringy and overcooked. The color was a bit too dark, and it was unusually dry. The gravy helped to hide these features a bit, but once you got past the taste of the gravy, there wasn't much flavor underneath.

The java rice that accompanied the meal wasn't bad, although somewhat average in taste, but the fettuccine noodles with white sauce tasted spoiled. When we approached the server about this, he tasted it and said it was just overcooked and that he would be happy to replace it with something else. As such, I've decided to take it out of this review entirely, focusing instead on the roast beef and java rice combination which garnered a grade of C-.

Spicy Garlic Liempo
Price: Php 139.00 (with siding and ice tea)
Rating: B

This dish actually surprised me. At first glance, the liempo bits seemingly drowned in garlic flakes didn't look very appetizing, but I found that the combination was actually quite tasty. The liempo wasn't very fatty and was actually quite tender and juicy (as opposed to the roast beef.) The garlic seems a bit much, but mixed with the java rice, it made for a very hearty meal. The pasta, like the one served with the roast beef, tasted spoiled and was replaced by the server as well. As such, it is not reflected in the review.

Teriyaki Roast Chicken
Price: Php 139.00 (with siding and ice tea)
Rating: D-

Having picked an item from their carver's roast menu (roast beef) and their spicy roast menu (spicy garlic liempo), we decided to go for one of their saucy roast items: the Teriyaki Roast Chicken.

First of all, I have a certain expectation when the word "Teriyaki" is attached to the name of a dish, and that is that Teriyaki marinade or at least Teriyaki sauce was applied to the it. As can plainly be seen in the photograph, there is no indication that Teriyaki marinade or sauce was applied to the chicken at all.

The taste of the dish confirmed this observation. Instead of the sweet, tangy taste of Teriyaki, an overpowering peppery taste pervaded the chicken. It is my suspicion that this dish was simply the spicy roast chicken that had been served to us by mistake. We asked the server if he had perhaps mistakenly given us the spicy roast chicken instead, but he maintained that the dish was indeed the Teriyaki Chicken.

Not surprisingly, the vegetables were somewhat soggy and tasteless as well, garnering the entire dish a very low score.

Mashed Potatoes
Price: Php 39.00 (as additional siding)
Rating: B-

The mashed potatoes were average, but the gravy did a lot to enhance the taste. It wasn't anything special, but as a free side dish or for only Php 39.00 as an additional siding, it's a pretty good value. The serving was heaping (about a large ice cream scoop and a half), so I was actually quite satisfied with this dish.

Pasta With Red Sauce
Price: Php 39.00 (as additional siding)
Rating: F

Although the portion was quite large (as can be seen in the photograph), the taste was unusual to say the least. Instead of using a red marinara sauce, they used some ground beef mixed in with what tasted like lechon sauce. For those unfamiliar with lechon sauce, it has a very sweet liver taste mixed in with peppers and spices. To compound the issue, they added in pig innards as well.

The resulting taste was a conflict of flavors that bordered on the unpalatable. Needless to say, this dish was left half-eaten when we left the establishment.

Brownies
Price: Php 39.00 (as additional siding)
Rating: D

Brownies are pretty straightforward, right? Rich, chocolate, cake slices that have a pretty ubiquitous taste. Perhaps not a gourmet food, but you can depend on its chocolatey taste and fudge-like texture, right?

Not so with Carver's. They've decided to be a bit more creative with their concoction. Unfortunately, the result is more of a chocolate krinkle rather than a brownie. True, it was soft and crumbly and had a rich, egg-like taste, but, to be honest, that's not what most people are looking for in a brownie. The result felt more like leftovers from a Christmas party rather than an after-dinner treat.

CONCLUSION

Food: Carver's is an odd mismatch of flavors. Outwardly, it appears to be European cuisine sprinkled with some popular Filipino dishes, but, upon tasting their fare, the Filipino influence often overpowers the rest of the cuisine. In some cases this was successful (like the Spicy Garlic Liempo) but in others, it failed horribly (the lechon sauce pasta was a complete failure.) All in all, it feels like Filipino food forced into a European setting and often the taste combinations do not work all that well.

There were many concerns with their food as well, many of which appeared to be simply reheated after being roasted at the beginning of the day. Although they advertised a wide range of sidings, most of them were unavailable when we ordered. We also felt that some of the dishes were substituted for others that they didn't have in stock at the time.

Ambiance: Aside from cluttered advertising, their frontage was actually quite promising. The warm, yellow light and the robust colors reminded me of hotel delis that served top-notch food. The counters were clean and very neat with food placed in heaters and behind glass.

Unfortunately, once you got into the dining area proper, this image changed dramatically. The chairs and tables were strewn haphazardly and passage to the sink was blocked by rows of tables and chairs. There were some plants hung on the walls, but otherwise, the dining area was pretty bare, resembling the layout of a school cafeteria.

Roaches were visible on the walls, and in one instance, a small roach even landed on my plate and proceeded to march around the java rice. Insects in an indoor dining area is often a result of poor maintenance and leads one to suspect the cleanliness of the food.

Value: Portions are undoubtedly heaping. The pasta, for a siding, could even be a meal on its own. This is not even including the rice (which was a good size as well) and the main course. For Php 139.00, the meal (main dish, rice, sidings, and an ice tea) is hard to beat price-wise, even by some fast food establishments. They even have a Php 99.00 meal that includes a heaping rice bowl and ice tea!

Service: Service was very slow considering the clientèle present at the time we made our order, but this was mostly because they appeared to be understaffed. They were friendly and listened to our complaints, offering dish replacements when we voiced out our concerns without any arguments.

Overall: For a casual dining establishment, the prices are remarkably low. But, at the same time, I feel this forced management to cost-cut in various areas of the operation, reducing the quality of the food and service dramatically. The food isn't exactly what you'd expect, leaning more towards Filipino food than anything else.

True, the portions are heaping and you do get a lot for your hard-earned peso, but the problems in their store maintenance and food preparation overshadow whatever savings you might accrue.

© 2008 Pablo Bairan
01-25-2008

Italiannis

Specialty: Italian
Location: greenbelt, glorietta, alabang, greenhills, libis, tomas morato, gateway, megamall, mall of asia, bonifacio high street, trinoma

Website: http://www.italiannis.com.ph
Telephone No.: 8564094/8563890 (Bonifacio High Street)
Price Range: php 220 - 1800 (whoah! average of php 550)
Rating: ★★★★

Ok. This one doesn't really need much of an introduction. It has branches all across the world and it serves one the most authentic Italian food you can find around. We recently got a 500 php off discount from roovin so we decided to visit this place.

Lets start with the drinks first. Costing php 170 each, each drink merits it's own review.

Watermelon Shake
Price: php 170
Rating: ★★★★

Not much to say about this drink. It's tall, pink and tastes like watermelon. It's also refreshing and light (just like Jenny the waitress said). I'm going to guess that this doesn't have any sugar in it since it doesn't taste that sweet. That's all good. I like my fruit shakes to be made out of actual fruits, hence, taste like blended fruits. Not blended artificial flavors of fruits in ice and tablespoonfuls of sugar.

Grape Shake
Price: php 170
Rating: ★★★★
It's pretty much the same as the watermelon shake except for the fact that this drink is made from grapes (Seedless. Don't worry). Also, it seems like the watermelon shake is more refreshing than this one. Not to say that the drink is bad. It tastes good. It's just too bad that the watermelon tasted better. :p

Lemon Pepper Shrimp Salad
Price: php 560
Rating: ★★★★

A new dish that has been recommended by Jenny (Our waitress. Or is that waitperson to be politically correct?). Romaine lettuce, red lollo rossa, and arugula tossed in a creamy honey dijon dressing, topped with cherry tomatoes, gorgonzola cheese and breaded lemon pepper shrimps. This actually costs more than our pasta and I'm wondering if it's worth it. I don't recognize any of those vegetables I mentioned so I can't say anything sure about the value. The shrimp is tasty and crunchy though. I'm confident enough to say it tastes good (I know this because I ate a lot of it).

Baked Ziti
Price: php 500
Rating: ★★★
Penne pasta tossed with Italian sausage and oozing creamy beef ragout then baked with romano and mozarella cheese. This dish is cheesy, flavorful and filling. Unfortunately, it tastes too much like a generic tomato pasta dish.

Conclusion
Good for romantic dinners for two (Try the Bonifacio High Street branch. Not the one at MoA). For those needing extra pep to those dinners, wine is also available. This place tends to be too expensive for parties unless your company is willing to get a package which would cost anywhere between php 450 - 650 per person. The place is down to earth and the food tastes, smells and looks Italian. The theme is pretty much consistent all through out and the service is excellent. All in all, a solid and well deserved four stars.

Tandoor King

Specialty: Indian Food
Location: Mall of Asia
Service Charge: None
Price Range: php 115 - ~200
Rating: ★★★

Tandoor King is a restaurant that specialized in Tandoor cooked food. There are possibly other branches for this one. Place them in the comment section so I can update this if necessary. The particular branch in the Mall of Asia is called Tandooria sa MoA.

Chicken Barbecue with Iced Tea
Price: php 115
Rating: ★★★
Huge, soft and juicy grilled chicken served with pickled papayas and sauce. The yellow rice isn't that flavorful. Seemed like normal rice to me. This one could have been good but because of the size of the chicken, the insides are quite undercooked. Looks like they need more time to grill it. Maybe a little pre-cooking would do them good.

Grilled Liempo with Iced Tea
Price: php 125 + additional 35 for bottomless iced tea
Rating: ★★★
Classic grilled liempo served with pickled papaya and sauce. As with the chicken barbecue, the rice serving was huge but not really spectacular. It's a lot though so that's something good about this. Otherwise, nothing really special about the dish.


Halu-Halo
Price: php 95
Rating: ★★★
Again, a classic Filipino dessert. Crushed ice, with colorful gulaman, rice crispies, a few fruits, leche flan and ice cream. Nothing special and downright ordinary. I could get this at a stand in the corner of some subdivision.

Conclusion
Everything about this place is ordinary. Nothing really special nor bold nor unique. Every bit ordinary. The service is great though. Great people with friendly smiles and excellent speed of service. It certainly beats Savory Chicken in that aspect. Definitely affordable. I suggest this place for lunch gatherings of small groups of 4 to 5 people with meager budgets. Not really worthwhile to dine here for special dinners. Birthdays for small children would do nicely here though. Maybe I should try their more exotic tikka dishes next time.

UCC Vienna Cafe

Specialty: Japanese

Location: Mall of Asia
Telephone No.: 556-0446

Location: 26th St. Forbes Town Center, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig
Telephone No: 845-1365, 884-2477


Location: 8757 Paseo De Roxas cor. Sedeno St. Salcedo Village, Makati
Telephone No.: 810-4388, 810-2210

Location: Central Westgate Center, Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang, Muntinglupa
Telephone No.: 771-1549, 771-1550

Location: Rockwell
Telephone No.: 895-4088, 897-3223

Service Charge: 10%
Price Range (Meals): php 199 - 499
Rating: ★★★★

Founded in 1933 in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, UCC has taken over all aspects of its coffee business. It has since expanded to several countries and it has several branches in the Philippines alone.

The menu is dominated by Japanese dishes and unlike Tokyo Cafe, this place cooks their dishes the way we expect Japanese dishes to be. They don't have ramen and sushi here though. Instead, they feature the ever so fragrant curry rice, gratin, pasta, pizza, and risotto too.

UCC Blended Coffee
Price: php 109
Rating: ★★★★
We cannot make a review of UCC without tasting its coffee. So do you want to know what it was like? Imagine a coffee with a fragrant aroma, strong flavor bitter and a full body with a smooth wine-like texture. The flavor dramatically softened when I added the cream. Maybe I shouldn't have done that.

Iced Yin Yan Cha
Price: php 139
Rating: ★★★
For those people not liking strong blends, there is the Yin Yan Cha. Light bodied coffee served with ice and tea. Somehow, the mildly sweet tea flavor overpowers the light bitter coffee taste. Good for those who dislike bitter coffee taste.

Hamburg Curry Rice
Price: php 289
Rating: ★★★★
This is Japanese curry rice done right. I have long tried to find a local Japanese restaurant with an authentic-enough curry rice. This is one of the best I've tried. It smells right. People who have dined in Japanese curry houses know: If the smell doesn't stick to your clothes, it's not smelling right. A huge hamburger patty with curry sauce mixed with cashew nuts, sliced carrots and potatoes, raisins and pickled ginger.

Chicken, Mushroom and Cheese Risotto
Price: php 319
Rating: ★★★★
Risotto rice coated with curry sauce mixed with chicken stripes and mushroom bits topped with sticky mozzarella cheese. This is a heavy dish. Take this only when you are really hungry. There is a strong mushroom and curry flavor although it's a bit oily and there's not enough chicken.

Bacon and Sausage Penne Gratin
Price: php 279
Rating: ★★
Big mistake on my part. This was not the gratin I expected. This looks more like normal noodles rather a casserole dish. Penne noodles, bacon, sausages, mushrooms and mozzarella cheese. Eat while still hot. The noodles tend to stick when the cheese cools down. Not bad but a bit too expensive for its ingredients considering the quantity.

Conclusion
Expensive but worth it for some dishes. Great service, soft chairs and excellent dishes. I do not recommend eating here on a regular basis. It is much too expensive! Once in a while would be nice... a very long while. Its nice and quiet since there aren't a lot of people dining. For its apparent lack of customers, you might think they would persuade people to stay. We were almost thrown out when we were taking too long to order and I was taking pictures of the menu. I really need to get a moleskin notebook.

Savory Chicken

Specialty: filipino, chinese
Location: Mall Of Asia
Service Charge: None
Price Range: php 135 - 210
Rating: ★★★




In 1950, two Chinese brothers had the brilliant idea to start a panciteria in Quiapo. They eventually developed a "special" recipe for fried chicken and gravy that became popular with the local Chinese community. Savory Chicken then opened its first branch in Escolta serving Filipino and Chinese dishes. After more than 50 years, the third generation of the Ting family has re-launched the Classic Savory Chicken and that is our feature for today.

Yang Chow Fried Rice
Price: php 120
Rating: ★★★
Traditional Chinese fried rice with shrimp, minced pork, eggs and green peas. Yellow rice mixed with bits of meat, carrots and peas. I reckon it goes well with anything. Not spectacular, but not bad either.

Savory Chicken
Rating: ★★★★
We got a half piece of the supposedly famed Savory Chicken. It is served with gravy and a tiny slice of banana. I really don't know how you are going to share that banana piece but in any case, it's the chicken that is the focus here. The chicken is indeed meaty and juicy. Personally, I don't really see anything special about it. The chicken is flavorful by itself, anyway, but the gravy really does add a lot of flavor to it. The taste of the chicken gets tiring and monotonous after a while. Then again, that happens to most fried chicken anywhere else.

Lo Han Chai
Price: php 120
Rating: ★★
A medley of seasonal vegetables. Perfect for vegetarians. As far as I can tell, it has cabbages, baby corn, mushrooms, peas and carrots. There were other veggies that I wasn't able to identify. Looks a lot like chopsuey but much less appetizing.

Conclusion
Their menu list is a bit sparse for something that serves two cuisines. The technique employed here is specialization. Less dishes but supposedly better than others. Casual dining is the style here. Not really for romantic dates nor for large gatherings but more suited towards casual family dinners. On a side note, a rather unfortunate incident happened when we dined here. The receipt was taking forever to make. Customers got rather upset and frustrated at waiting. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt that it will never happen again. It's a rather unpleasant wait between giving your money and getting your receipt.

Chaikofi

Specialty: Coffee, tea and sandwiches
Locations: Sunset Avenue, Mall of Asia; Robinsons Place; Robinsons Galleria; The Block Level 4, SM North EDSA
Telephone: 8912559
Rating: ★★★★

This place certainly knows how to specialize. No qualms about not trying to satisfy everyone's preferences. This cafe knows what it serves and does a good job of doing it. They are certainly all about coffee, tea, sandwiches and a bit of pasta. It calls itself a "concept cafe" according to its website. No arguments from me. It's certainly different.

The Menu
Consisting mostly of sweet, cold coffee and refreshing iced tea complimented by sandwiches and few pasta dishes. Very little on the menu but each one is definitely worth checking out. I have a feeling that this place doesn't like conformity and before I forget to mention it, they also serve wine for those special occasions. Just ask at the counter.

Jungle Bungle
Price: php 125
Rating: ★★★
Coco flakes, milk tea and vanilla ice cream with whipped cream on top. Contrary to what I expected, this drink was also light on the stomach. Chocolate is usually heavy but this drink is mostly milk tea even if it does have that chocolate flavor. The mouth of the glass is coated with coconut and was a nice surprise since I was expecting chocolate.

Raspberry Green Tea
Price: php 125
Rating: ★★★★
Cold, sweet, refreshing and light with just the right amount of whipped cream. The cream is just right and doesn't have that heavy cream flavor. The light sweet raspberry flavor was stronger than the green tea and tastes a bit artificial. The tip of each glass on the menu is coated with something different depending on the item. So don't forget to lick the mouth of the glass. Perfect for the lick and sip manuever that is advertised on their posters.






Chaikofi Melt
Price: php 145
Rating: ★★★★
This is their star sandwich. So special that it bears the name of the store. Lettuce, ham, tomatoes, onions and a nice big helping of mozzarella cheese sandwiched between buns with green bits (I have no idea what they are. Tell me if you do). It also has a nice helping of potato chips on the side. The sandwich melts in my mouth so nicely and blends the flavors of the veggies and the ham into a single unit. It definitely merits the name Chaikofi Melt. One caveat though, no matter how amazingly flavorful it is, it's still a sandwich and it's still too expensive so minus 1 star.

Conclusion
Great for groups of 2 to 4. Nice and cozy place to just hang around or to read a book or magazine (they have a few lying around). I would recommend this place to have afternoon snacks or maybe even breakfast. I wouldn't recommend it if you want dinner though. There just isn't enough in the menu to satisfy varied tastes for a group.

Mey Lin

Cuisine: Chinese
Location: Ground Floor, Sunset Avenue (North Wing), Mall Of Asia; Adriatico; Boracay Regency; Megamall
Telephone: 0917-5232000
Service Charge: None
Opening Times: 10am - 9pm (Mall Hours)
Menu Price Range:

• Noodles: php 70 - 150
• Meat/Seafood: php 160 - 300

Rating: ★★★★

Hand-pulled noodles. This is what this place boasts about. They even have a chef dedicated to making their noodles. Like most Chinese Restaurants, this place caters to more of a group of diners than two people on a date. That said, they made no fuss about giving us the seat that we wanted. Nice. Plus points for excellent service.

The Menu
Their hand-pulled noodles are on a page before everything else. This is what they are particularly proud of. Other categories are the Meat and Seafood category. Didn't try any of those. We are here for their claimed authenticity and damn, I'm going to try it.

Iced Tea
Price:
Rating: ★★
Off to a bad start. Instant iced tea variety.

House Tea
Price: Free
Rating: ★★★
Not your regular house tea. The tea bag is cloth woven and bigger than the usual paper tea bags. The pot could use more water (and thereby needs to be a bit bigger or the bag needs to be smaller) since the tea has a rather strong taste.


Fried Dumplings:
Price:
Rating: ★★★★
Steamed dumplings that were then fried. Excellent consistency and texture. Eight pieces are more than enough to exite your appetite. Great Appetizer all in all.






Ansio Beef Noodle Soup
Price: php 90 (snack) 150 (meal)
Rating: ★★★★
Noodles were definitely out of the ordinary. But, as expected, I haven't tasted hand pulled noodles before so I couldn't make any comparison. But as far as noodles are concerned, this one is definitely better than any i've known.
The snack size was definitely small for me since the noodles were scarce. Either the noodles are too expensive or they just don't have enough to go around since there was only one person doing the pulling. I didn't pick the meal size since the bowl was *huge*. There were only 2 cubes of beef on this dish but they were really soft and flavorful, so no complaints there.



Seafood Noodle Soup
Price: php 100 (snack) 140 (meal)
Rating: ★★★★
Seafood-y goodness. Clean, clear broth with a crab stick, fish fillet, squid, fish tofu and seaweeds. That's a lot of ingredients right there. very economical.

Conclusion
The place could hold around 40 people comfortably. Maybe more. It's more suited to group dining than date dining. You will occasionally get to watch the noodles being pulled (pulling is not the only activity in noodle making). It's a great place to spend the time while waiting for the rains to subside. Hot noodles while waiting out the rain is priceless.