Weekend Food Choices Week 20: You get what you pay for

Hubby and i were running errands for our last weekend in Manila so we ended up in Shang. The last time that we were here we saw a long queue at this restaurant and so this week we decided we’d give it a try

This place had a simple menu of Filipino fusion dishes. We were drawn to the rice meals which were very affordable. This consisted of a rice bowl with your choice of viand and came with a glass of iced tea.

Hubby ordered the beef tapa

The presentation was simple. A dish of tapa with egg (over done and edges slightly burnt!) and fresh slices of a small tomato. The flavor was alright but i found the meat a bit tough but hubby said tapa was supposed to be tough…hmmm….

I ordered the korean short ribs

Presentation again was mediocre with thin ribs, some burnt parts, paired with beans sprouts. The flavor was good despite appearances and the sauteed beans sprouts were pretty tasty, but again nothing spectacular.

As we were eating, a family of three, a mom, a dad and their son in his late 20’s sat at the table beside us. Tables were a little too close to one another in my opinion. Because we were at speaking distance, the mom asked me if the tapa that we had ordered was good (she had ordered it too). Her son said something in disbelief under his breath, how silly of his mom to ask a total stranger having dinner beside them, or something to that effect. I really didn’t mind as she looked like a friendly lady.

I told her the tapa was ok. I could have explained to her how it could be much better but that would have taken a while and by that time i was sure it was a little too late for her to cancel her order anyway so i hoped against hope they got a better serving.

Maybe because the rice meals were part of their budget menu that’s why they turned out to be plain Janes. Next time we should try their regular dishes…but if i really wanted Pinoy fusion i think i would head to C2 any day