Tachibana - Pasay Road

Theres a lot and we mean a lot of Japanese restaurants in Makati. Deciding where to eat can sometimes be difficult. Let us share with you guys one of our hidden Japanese restaurant secret.

Place really looks old, the wooden interiors plus the chair and tables, makes you think this restaurant has been there since the 60s. Once you enter, you will see Japanese people eating.. which is always a good sign.

Tachibana Bento

Elle: To start off, the rice was done so well. It was sticky but not stuck together.  It also had several slices of sashimi-no fishy smell!  Tempura was delicious! One piece was interesting – at first I thought it was okra but it was actually a big green chili!

Cody: At P350 this is one of the most packed and sulit bento box there is around. Everything was well prepared, from the rice to the fresh sushi to the tempura and the delicious chicken teriyaki

Chicken Teriyaki

Elle: This was sliced into bite size pieces that were fried into a perfect crisp and crunch.  The sauce wasn’t just poured over the chicken but it was most likely the marinade used.  The chicken was so tasty and not oily even though it was deep fried.

Cody: There are a lot of different preparations of chicken teriyaki ut so far from all the ones I tried this one is he winner. The skin was thin yet very crispy, the meat was is moist even if it was deep fried.

Chawan Mushi

Elle: Soft and creamy.  The dashi wasn’t too strong and was just the right amount to make the dish light yet rich.  It had a good amount of chicken, shrimp, mushroom, fish cake.  It just melts in your mouth!

Cody: This is included when you order a bento box, soft and will just disintegrate once you take a sip of it. It has huge pieces of different meats. 

Nama Sakana - Conneticut St Greenhills

We love trying out new restaurants and this one in Greenhills has been on our list for quite sometime now. Good thing we were given the chance to try it... well, the story here was, we were suppose to try Konbini, but they were too full, so we ended up eating here.

House Maki

Cody: this is one big maki, with all the fresh seafood inside the roll. I love how they wrapped it aside from nori, with thinly sliced daikon radish, The sushi rice was 

cooked right. The blendings of the seafood was good as well.

Elle: a gigantic roll of fresh fishes, kani, avocado, rice, nori and radish. It’s a bit bland to stand on its own an the radish didn’t  do anything to the dish, it was also too big. it was nice to look.

River Shrimp Tempura w 3 Sauces

Cody: I really don’t know what river shrimps look like. The dish really was just prawns chopped into chunks battered and fried tempura style. The sauces made it different. I intermix the sauces and it was good, I love the heat that the jalapeno sauce gave.

Elle: tiny shrimp pieces cooked tempura style., the green were slightly wilted, the sauces were light and tastes great., which complimented the shrimp, a light fried dish.

Seafood Ramen

Cody: This was just an okay dish, lots of seafood, except for the small prawn that was only one. The ramen was big enough to be shared by 2 persons.

Elle: delightfully tasty with not to salty broth, ramen was chewy in the perfect way, had lots of “laman”, very very filling

 

The in house chef is said to be trained by the Famed NOBU, which is one of the pioneer of Neo-japanese cuisine..  We love new ways of sushi like the ones of Omakase and Sushi California. But the bottomline here is still great ingredients which this place has. Try it. They have a promo till August 15, wherein Nama Sakana card holders will get 50 percent discount on weekdays and 25 percent discount on weekends. 

Did we mention that service here was excellent:) 

Kagura - Little Tokyo, Pasong Tamo, Makati City

Restaurants in Japan are usually  specialty restaurants. Meaning they only do one type of dish and they do it well. There would be a place that specializes in fried items  or in Nabe(hot pot dishes), a ramen house, a udon house and the list goes on and on. Here in our country its usually not the case. Except for this little restaurant inside the Little Tokyo complex in Pasong Tamo Makati.

Okonomiyaki to those who are not familiar with it, it is a Japanese Pancake or a Japanese pizza, it’s a complete meal by itself, consisting of veggies, noodles(which you may have the option of not putting it) assorted meats and seafood, cheese. Everything comes together using a flour mixture that keeps it intact.

Cody: Since I tasted it few years back, this has been one of the things I usually order in a Japanese restaurant to know if the chef is truly knowledgable of Japanese cooking. Of all the okonomiyakis I have tried. This is so far the best.  In this country. Every order is cooked fresh

Elle: Yummy! The pancake was thick and filling.  It was a combination of crunchy and soft -  I liked the balance. Overall it tasted really good. 

Squid teppanyaki

Cody: I like this because it was cooked well, the squid was fresh,  and it was also seasoned just right. A little expensive though

Elle:  Squid wasn’t gummy, cooked right but nothing great or uniquely Japanese about the dish.  It was average.  Won’t order this again. 

Spinach with peanut something

Cody: this was also good, unique, and the taste grows on you.

Elle: Not a fan of peanuts but this one was good.  It was probably the sesame seeds that made it memorable.

Okura Fusion Japanese Restaurant - Jupiter St. Makati City

Driving thru Jupiter street, there are a number of newly opened restaurants. One of interest is this restaurant which is perhaps the only Japanese restaurant in Jupiter, not counting Teriyaki boy.

Formerly known as Hae Song, they maintained almost all of the interiors.. you can still see the name sand blasted on the glass panels. Although the msenu has changed. Showed more dishes and incorporated some fusion items.

Service a little disappointing. You have to call their attention even when the place is not that full.

Funny menu typos---they serve crap!!!!!

Freebie:  Salad-

Cody: fresh, served with a miso dressing. Love the freshness of the salad, Crunchy, clean. The dressing has the right amount of tang and sweetness

Elle: I liked the miso dressing as well.  The dressing was unique but had that Japanese taste.  Would have been more interesting if they used other vegetables rather than the usual iceberg lettuce, sliced carrots and raddish.

Drinks: Mango Kiwi- P100

Cody: Never thought that this combination would be nice. It suited each other .

Elle: Great, great, great! Perfectly blended without milk/cream! Presentation was funky…a thinly sliced kiwi seen through the glass made it more than just a regular fruit shake.  

Manhattan Roll- Filled with mango, Cucumber,  Kani, wrapped in Fresh salmon Slices, drizzled with Japanese mayo, thousand island and sprinkled with crunchy tempura batter bits. P380

Cody: I just love this roll, big and satisfying. The sushi rice was excellent, the salmon outside was indeed fresh and the filling was just a wonderful medley of flavors.

Elle: A unique sushi roll.  I liked the presentation- it was inside out.  Not really a fan of salmon but this was good and fresh.  It didn’t taste too fatty and oily.  Too bad the wasabi didn’t have that much of a kick no matter the amount 

Agedashi Tofu with cheese: Stuffed tofu with cheese, battered then deep fried, served with tempura sauce. P220

Cody: Combination of silky tofu and gooey gooey cheese. Terrific. Good thing the cheese didn’t melt away while it was being fried. Would have loved it if it was served agedashi style meaning swimming in a sweet soy sauce

Elle: Disappointed with how it was served.  There was another dish called Agedashi tofu on the menu which was served in a sauce with mushrooms.  So I was expecting this dish we ordered to be served in the same sauce the only difference was the tofu.  However, this was totally different.  Redeeming factor was the soft and creamy tofu which was perfectly fried.  Dipping sauce was bland. 

Ebi Tempura P250

Cody: I was surprised the serve their tempura head on, but it was fried beautifully, the batter being light didn’t overpower or cover the ebi too much. The head you can eat as is. Tastes like crunchy shrimp cracker. One bad note here is the accompanied fried items. They were all sweet potato, it would have been nice if they used different veggies like eggplant or onions.

Elle:  Crispy ebi.  I liked the crunchiness of the shrimp head.  Overall it was just okay.  

Chicken Teriyaki Don P340

Now this is the bomb.. and I mean the bomb.. look at the pictures closely. This dish consists of thinly sliced chicken breast. Brushed with teriyaki sauce. The chicken was OVERCOOKED. And sliced again.. THINLY. It was hard and argh!!!!! A mistake to order. Worst chicken teriyaki dish I’ve ever tasted. Tokyo Tokyo Chiken teriyaki is better than this place. And for the price… Outrageous.

Elle:  DISAPPOINTING! This has got to be the worst chicken teriyaki don I have ever tried.  The chicken pieces were too thin and hard – it’s a battle to eat the chicken. For the price of the dish I would have expected a better dish.  Not only was the chicken as stiff as a board but it didn’t even taste like teriyaki.  If you want a Japanese version of chicken tocino/Chinese beef jerky try this dish.  

Freebie: Pineapple. Sweet J

Sushi California

The Fort has a  lot of restaurants opening  at the ground level of new condominiums. This was an accidental discovery was drivong around the fort area trying to find Bistro Filipino.

Boasting of serving modern Japanese cuisine. This restaurant is barely two months old. And we are glad to share with you our experience.

First and foremost, parking can be a problem, the restaurant doesn’t have a parking place for customers. We parked at the UCC/Sakae Sushi complex and just walked here

.The menu has a lot of pages and a lot of food to offer. WE only tried the sushi rolls here. Note. Every sushi roll has “etc” written in the description. “etc” is a combination of kani, cucumber and mango

Free Appetizer- Snapper in sweet glaze

Cody: one of the better Free appetizer. The fish was cooked well. The sauce was great too, Had to ask for 2nds

Elle::  THe fish meat was creamy and very soft. The sweet sauce coated the fish well and suited the taste of the fish

Corn Snow Maki P380

Cody:  The picture in the menu enticed me to order this dish. Unique in how the prepare it, being baked before serving. This roll was warm. The sauce was sweet not really my type.

Elle: I liked how the sushi was a bit chewy, since the rice was very sticky. I found the sauce too sweet. But I liked the slightly burnt sauce.

Dragon Maki P480

Cody:  This was one huge maki. Made use of one whole slice of Unagi. Presentation was cute. The mound of crunchy thingies on the side  gave a texture change form the soft chewy sushi roll.

Elle: Interesting presentation. With a dragon head. The crunchy Tempura batter bits on the side gave a good contrast to the sushi, however the sushi roll itself wasn’t any different from the other sushi rolls

Spicy Tuna Maki P310

Cody: Fresh chopped tuna, great sushi rice, wonderfully unusual chili sauce. Combine them all together and u get a wonderful dish.. Really really spicy.

Elle: The best sushi among the three. IT tasted really different compared to the others.  The tuna tasted a bit like arrabiata which was interesting.

The meal was okay. Nothing great. Service was very good

.  This place can be an alternative to other Japanese restos in the area. Would try the other dishes here, if ever they would have parking for customers next time

Hanazaku - Sucat, Paranaque City

Located in Bf homes Sucat, a small cozy neighborhood restaurant hat surprisingly serves good Japanese food. From the outside the place doesn’t look appealing. It was design more like of a mediterranean restaurant on the outside than a Japanese place.

We love the freshly brewed green tea that definitely taste so much better than the ones in bags

Appetizer: Deep Fried Tuna Pieces. freebie

Cody: Freshly cooked tuna pieces, seasoned with soy sauce, lightly floured, I love that they made this dish only when we came, It was obvious it came out from the frying pan, still hot, the meat marinated nicely

Elle: Crispy tuna pieces with very minimal flavouring.  Tastes much like very fresh tuna fried Japanese style.

Next dish: Ebi Ten Maki

Cody- very very good sushi rice, the tempura was of average size but fried excellently.

Elle: Very crispy ebi.  The crispiness compliments the softness of the sushi 

Hanazaku Yakisoba

Cody – this was a surprise, the sauce covering the whole dish, add a dash of togarashi and woah, the sauce was god enough to be wiped off with anything. The noodles gave a nice contrast of crispy and al dente

Elle:  The noodles were fried into a cake and it was covered in a thick and nicely seasoned sauce.  I liked that the noodles weren’t just simply boiled and thrown onto a plate.  It was not like your regular yakisoba.  This was a better version of the popular dish. 

This restaurant will rival the more popular restaurants in Makati like Nanohana,  restos in Little tokyo, NIhonbashitei, etc etc. WE love a great neighborhood restaurant. Too bad we dont live in the area