Restaurant Review | Manos Greek Taverna

Manos Greek Taverna
Tagaytay
Type of Cuisine: Greek
Average cost per person: Php 250-380 (US$5.00-US$8.00)
Overall Rating:

Months ago, plurkers and bloggers led by Manolo and others trooped to Tagaytay City to sample flavorful food treats from different restaurants and enjoy each others' company. For most people going to Tagaytay, one of the more popular stops there would be Leslie's Restaurant. Fortunately, when we went to Tagaytay with other bloggers, it wasn't our first stop, instead, it was our last; instead, we tried Mano's Greek Taverna for lunch.

Mano's Greek Taverna struck us as a sort of hole-in-the-wall restaurant, although we were told that it is both well known and well visited by quite a following. The food's good and the place, just right. We ordered quite a lot, but here are some of their dishes that we liked.

This Greek Salad's cheese is so good, and so fresh. You have to love this home-made delight. It's very fresh looking and pleasing to the eyes. The combination's just honest, simple and perfect.

Saganaki is a dish of shrimp with feta, tomatoes, oregano and other spices. We liked the combination of the shrimp and tomatoes. It's yummy but it's nothing special for us.


Mousaka (Php 220, US$ 4.58)

Sharing the mousaka among four people was definitely a good idea. For Tiffy, eating the mousaka was kind of like eating a whole lot of mashed potatoes. But for Bong, it was really a great dish. Although you gotta admit -- the first bite was YUM!

Grilled Lamb Shoulder (Php 450, US$ 9.36)

This order was super worth it. Not only did it have a generous serving, it also came with this unusually crunchy fries. For Tiffy, lamb is always something to celebrate!

Beftekia Scaras-Grilled Patties (Php 210, US$ 4.36)

The patties had a distinct taste that differentiates it from a normal patty's. You can taste that it's not gummy or dry or has too many preservatives. It breaks easily and is definitely worth a try.

Ozy Go, Tiffy, Bong and Franywanny

Reviewed by Bong and Tiffy.
Photography by Fritz and Tiffy.

Jetsetting Foodistas | Boracay: Everything's Fine in Paradise?

Mark and Boracay
Jetsetting Foodistas: A Travelogue by Mark




Boracay - the hottest beach destination in the Philippines. Half a million tourists crowd the island every year for its beautiful beach, wild nightlife, and various water activities. But besides these, Boracay is also home to some very good eats.

The main commercial area in Boracay is called D’Mall and that is the place where you will find a large majority of Boracay’s restaurants.

Tucked away in a little corner is the original Cyma. It’s a must go I suppose since everybody here seems to love it soo much.

There’s also the seemingly interesting Fishbar. Unfortunately we didn’t eat there, but the next time we go I definitely want to see how they do their fish and chips.

One of the better restaurants there is an Italian restaurant called Aria. Be prepared to shell out a bit of money though, the cheapest pizzas and pastas start at Php 310 ($7.10) and go all the way up to Php 525 ($12). Of all the dishes we tried, the Gorgonzola pasta got the best reaction from my siblings.

They absolutely loved it. It tasted sort of like basic Alfredo pasta, but had a slightly more interesting flavor due to the Gorgonzola. Their pizzas are the very thin and crispy kind, and they tasted fine, but I hated eating the small parts of the crust, which were a bit charred. Overall this is a pretty good restaurant, albeit a bit pricey.

Another interesting place to eat there is Halowich. They serve… well it’s kind of complicated. Basically they are various things such as beef or potato with some vegetables, encased in a flying saucer shaped dough. Like a hot pocket, or a little pie. Unfortunately we didn’t try that, but what we did try is their desert item. It is basically ice cream; fruits such as banana, mango, pineapple and watermelon; crushed ice, some red beans, Cornflakes, and various flavors of sherbet. You can choose from such flavors as milk, wine, lemon, orange, strawberry, etc. I must say, on the hot beach, it is very refreshing with the ice and the fruits. Something you really must try if you go there.

Outside of D’Mall are plenty of other places worth your attention. One of the places we were quite excited to try was Zuzuni, acclaimed by the Philippine Tattler as one of the Philippines’ best restaurants in 2007. It’s a Greek restaurant, so the comparisons to Cyma are inevitable. We tried four items on their menu: their moussaka, lamb souvlakia (kebabs), pistachio prawns, and an appetizer of a spicy feta dip.

Unfortunately Zuzuni was a bit of a let down. For the spicy feta dip, they give you such a disproportionate amount of dip compared to pita bread that you have to order at least two extra orders of pita if you want to finish all the dip. But it did taste quite nice though. The rest of the food was pretty regular I would say, the moussaka tasted ordinary, the lamb tasted ordinary, the prawns were good though; but there were only 4 pieces. How can this possibly be one of the Philippines’ best restaurants when there is clearly a better Greek restaurant sitting a couple minutes walk away? Oh and I can’t believe their menu had waffles in it. Waffles. Would you really go into a Greek restaurant and eat waffles?

If you want some good dessert, you can head over to Discovery Shores, one of Boracay’s best and of course, most expensive hotels. The prices of the desserts there were actually quite reasonable, going from Php 180 ($4.12) to Php 220 ($5). My siblings had a mango cheesecake with passion fruit glaze and homemade almond ice cream, as well as Discovery’s signature cake; a cake of chocolate sponge, peanut butter icing, and a chocolate ganache. I had a coconut crème brulee infused with kaffir lime and pandan.

The crème brulee was quite nice, it had soft, sweet, coconut meat at the bottom and was quite rich. I have to say, for its prices, those were pretty good desserts.

So now that you know a few of Boracay’s restaurants, don’t you think it’s time to leave everything behind and spend a few days on the beach so you can discover it for yourself?

This has been Mark Wu.

I’m out like Greek waffles…

More photos can be found in my Flickr and my Multiply.

Restaurant Review: Cyma Estiatorio

Cyma Estiatorio
TriNoma Mall, EDSA cor. North Ave, Quezon City
Type of Cuisine: Greek
Average cost per person: Php 350 to Php 400 (US$8.75 - US$10)
Overall Rating:

Another of the many restaurants we've been meaning to try for quite some time now, on one of our days out, we decided to indulge ourselves and splurge on the Cyma experience. And, boy, we sure walked out of the restaurant very much satisfied. Unfortunately, since we were in a party with only two of us foodistas, we can only give you the dish on a number of their offerings.

Cyma was originally from Boracay, and, upon its arrival in Manila, many a food-lover rejoiced that they no longer had to wait for their next trip to Bora to get their Cyma fix. Boasting of using only the best and freshest ingredients, and with selections catering even to the most health-conscious eater, Cyma is one restaurant we strongly encourage you to try out for yourself, if you haven't yet.

With nothing but praise for this establishment, you may be wondering why we didn't just give it a full-five stars. We intended to, from the very beginning, but, after giving it some thought, we gave it four and a half stars. While everything from the food to the ambiance to the service is great, many may find that the prices are a bit steep. Also, you may want to go there as a group, order family style, and be able enjoy many of their dishes, most of which are meant for sharing.

Our ever-picky, health-conscious (& quite a bit of a food snob) Joey has now declared this as one of her top three favourite restaurants. Cyma may be quite pricey, but the quality of the food, the restaurant's ambiance, and service was, for us, well-worth the expense.

Spinach and Artichoke Fondue (Php 280, US$7.00)
If you have to try just one thing in Cyma, we would have to say this has got to be it. This was a little slice of heaven. The bread was served warm and the fondue piping hot. Everything about this dish, from the taste to the presentation to the texture, made us two very pleased foodistas. We very strongly recommend you try this.



Lamb Gyros (Php 150, US$3.75)
Although the lamb could have been more tender, the tzatziki sauce was light and wonderful, and the vegetables were very crisp and fresh. This was quite a refreshing and filling dish.



Wahoo (Tanguigue) (Php 220, US$5.50)
This dish looked and smelled divine. The fish was grilled to perfection and had that light sweetness you get from good, fresh fish. The flavours of the herbs were distinct without being overpowering.

Reviewed by Harrell and Joey.
Photography by Joey.