Crustasia - Powerplant mall, Rockwell

Red Crab as been around since the late 90s, bringing in crab dishes cooked in a lot of ways. Later on having branches in different cities in Metro Manila. The Red crab group then decided to open new concept restaurants and the 1st one being this.. Crustasia, which specializes in seafood dishes cooked in different asian styles.  First opening here in the Powerplant mall. LOve how they are concern with hand hygiene.:)

Carrot and Singkamas Sticks

Cody: a healthy free appetizer. Love how they serve it.  Comes with three different dipping sauces.

Elle: the vegetables are fresh and crunchy

Crab Maritess

Cody:  One of my fave Red Crab/Crustasia  creation. I love how they baked the crab yet maintaining its succulent juices in. The mixture of garlic, white wine chili and olive oil adds so much flavor to the meat.  One more great thing, it is  not overcooked.

Elle:  the crab was very soft, creamy and garlicky. It was actually a plus that it was swimming in olive oil. The crab itself was small, good thing they served two pieces of it.

Very very good crab dish.. Perfect with a cup of plain rice... just topped it with the things on the above pic.... heavenly:)

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

Mastercook - DAMPA, Macapagal Ave

There are a lot, and we mean a lot of cooking establishments in Dampa, some full of people, some empty as a desert.  There are a few that we have tried and really like, like Aling Tonyas.   This place was jampacked, and when there’s a lot of people it could mean there’s good food.  Located at the back of the complex near the parking, the executive chef of this place is said to be from hongkong. Lets see how their food fares.

Clams in Taosi –

Cody: The clam dish was the first dish to arrive,  steaming hot, the taosi sauce wasn’t  salty unlike the other taosi I have tried at other restaurants. The clams were cooked beautifully, just right, it wasn’t chewy.

Elle: It tasted really good.  Not too salty as other taosi dishes. 

Sweet and sour pork-

Cody:  believe or not, I like their version ,  the sauce was more on the sweet side than sour, the consistency was very thick so each piece was coated with it. The pork pieces were lean with a minute bit of fat, however I didn’t like the way they sliced it since it was too thick.

Fried Chicken-

Cody: another surprise,  the breading was indeed flavorful,  and the chicken was fried to crispy perfection, the breast meat was still moist…

Elle: It was okay.  I was not really a fan of this version of fried chicken but it kinda resembled Chickenjoy.  It was crispy on the outside and juicy on the inside.  Chicken juice was still dripping from the meat.

Fish Head soup with tofu and vegetables- 

Cody: the soup was essentially the essence of the fish, the tofu was very firm, the vegetables were cooked just right.

Elle: Cleanses the palate after every sip.

Chili Crab-

Cody: not as red as the version of other restaurants. And the spice factor was at the low side, well, I still liked it.

Elle: I didn’t like this version of chili crab cause it wasn’t spicy enough and I kinda felt the sauce was too watery.  Although the crabs were very soft (including the exoskeleton) and the meat tasted sweet .

Prawns w sotanghon—

Cody: this dish is great, the sotanghon absorbing the flavours of the prawn plus the condiments used in cooking it. Prawns were cooked just right, plump, moist, crispy that tell the freshness of the crustacean

Elle: One of my favorite dishes.  I liked the way the sotanghon absorbed the sauce of the prawns.  It was a unique noodle dish in the sense that it wasn;t your regular birthday noodle dish.  It looked like it was cooked in soy sauce but of course it wasn’t.  It had that seafood taste I was looking for.

Crab Rice-

Cody: the dish would look like a bland brown rice, but 

to describe it truthfully,  it is more like a semi wet risotto, served steaming hot,  this is very good. Each morsel very tasty and having a hint of crab flavor.

Elle: I agree. This dish was very good.  The rice was moist but the grains weren’t sticking to each other.  Very “crab-y” .

Stir Fried Squid with Celery-

Cody: quickly cooked squid tossed with fresh celery that was cooked yet still crispy and tasted very fresh. Seasoned very well.

Elle: Squid wasn’t gummy, celery wasn’t overcooked. 

Steamed Whole Fish-

Cody:  the fish was definitely fresh, as you  can see in the position of their fins,  the flesh was flaky and was indeed cooked through. The sauce was the usual sweet soy sauce we are used to in Chinese banquets.

Elle: I noted that steamed fish tastes pretty much like the others served at other restaurants.  Nothing unique about the dish but nevertheless the fish was 

very fresh.

Great food, the bad thing here was the service, too slow, they lack waiters. Anther thing is that customer have to buy their own seafood unike in other restos where if you are lazy you can just tell them how much of a seafood you want and what kind.