GONG CHA: ROYAL TEA?

Previously, on my Milk Tea Battle post, I didn't like the drink that I had at Gong Cha-Megamall which is an Earl Gray house special. I felt that I should give it another try and I should try other drinks and my favorite in particular, Caramel Milk Tea.

Today, I found myself wandering around Glorietta. After, a quick fix at Jollibee, yeah that's where I end up when I can't choose where to eat, I started to wander around again. earlier this day,I told myself that I should take a break of having milk tea when I'm going out but as a crazed milk tea fan. I couldn't help it so i gave in. 3 tea shops came to my mind. Serenitea, a branch just opened at Greenbelt 3 but I was in Glorietta, I didn't feel like walking so not Serenitea this time. Second, Chatime, I walked towards Landmark and behold, a mega queue. Ok,not Chatime. So leaving Gong Cha as my only option. In thought that it's Gong Cha's time to redeem itself to me.

Gong Cha-glorietta branch is located at the Food Choices at Glorietta 4. The line is not too long. My turn came, I ordered for a large Caramel Milk Tea, Full sugar, no toppings for 90 pesos. Not bad. In a couple of minutes, my drink is served. Fast service, I'm impressed.

First sip.... (no reaction)

No reaction. Unlike on other tea shops, on the first sip, i'm already smiling widely but this time I had to have the second,third,fourth sip just to feel the drink. Honestly, i didn't enjoy it. The taste is so lacking. The milk overpowered the tea and there is something wrong with the sweetness. It's just milk and caramel. I feel cheated, Sai Bachi's 59 peso Caramel Milk Tea is way better than this. I can't taste any hint of the tea at all. Where's the royalty in this? I asked myself.

Good for them, that I am waiting for someone, that I have to endure and keep the drink so I can stay at the Food Choices. Eventually, I didn't finish it and I just carried it around Glorietta with no pride at all. I should have endured the line in Chatime instead and have a trusted milk tea there.

But for now, I don't know if I'll have a Gong Cha milk tea. Even my excitement for the opening of the Alabang Town Center branch is gone. I haven't tried their Ice Cream Tea though. It sounds interesting. I hope it's good. Maybe, just maybe, I'll give it a try some time.

Gong Cha: tea fit for the royalty? Maybe there isn't even a drop of royal blood in my system that's why I can't appreciate it but for those people with royal blood out there I think you can give it a shot. Maybe you'll like it. :)

SAIBACHI: new found favorite milk tea

Milk Tea!

I really can't get over it.

Tea shops are already sprouting out everywhere in the Metro. Like here in the South, almost all bigtime tea shop are already putting shop here. Serenitea has been here for a while, Chatime recently opened its ATC branch and soon enough Gong Cha will be opening too. Still hoping that my favorite,Moonleaf would find its way here.

Currently, the price of a precious milk tea is more or less a 100 pesos. For the elites and well-off, this is heaven compared to sky-high prices of those fancy coffee drinks which is around 150 but for thriving people like me, its quite something. For a 100 pesos, you could actually have 2 orders of Chicken fillet meal at McDo at this price. So, I was on this quest to find an affordable yet quality milk tea.

Sai Bachi 3rd floor Kiosk

Fortunately, I don't need to look far because I found one in my very own city. My little piece of heaven. Located at the 3rd floor of Festival Supermall near X-site is a kiosk named SAI BACHI. Sai Bachi started as a casual Japanese restaurant at the ground floor of the same mall serving good tempura, sukiyaki and sushi. Eventually, they opened a take-out counter which sold tempura, prawn balls and their best selling Takoyaki. Yes, Takoyaki, as far as I remember they started the Takoyaki craze at Festivall Mall. Because of the increasing public demand for their yummy Takoyaki they opened a kiosk that exclusively sell Takoyaki. Now, due to the unquestionable popularity for Milk Tea, I think they decided to join the band wagon but the question is can they compete with those big shot tea shop?

yummy takoyaki

The SAI BACHI kiosk is very unassuming like what you expect to see on a stall selling mall-quality streetfood. Actually, I laughed when I saw that SAI BACHI is already selling cheap Milk Teas. A rundown copycat of Serenitea and Moonleaf, I thought. So I kept on ignoring it until one day, I was extremely and desperately craving for a Caramel Milk Tea. I was at Festival Mall that time, when I first tried it. It's the same day I ate at My Thai Kitchen, where I also had a glass of Thai Milk Tea.

drink sizes (M,L,XL)

Yeah, I was desperately craving for a milk tea, so I decided to give it a try. Note that at this time Sai Bachi is the ONLY store selling Milk tea at Festival Mall so I have no choice. The menu for their Milk Tea is very simple,straightforward,readable from a distance (not microscopic, ehem). The best flavors that I want is present on their list. All you have to do is choose your flavor and size (M,L,XL). No sugar level, no ice level, no sinkers/toppings (they only have pearls) or whatsoever to choose from which I personally like. I ordered a large Toffee Caramel with no pearls. I had low expectations for this drink, may be it would be just be milk with a hint of sweetness so you can say it's Toffee Caramel or maybe they have powdered milk tea flavors already but seeing the staff who was making my drink, who made it from scratch. That was actually my first time to see how a milk tea is made. My drink was done in a jiffy which is so unusual. I am used on waiting for 5-10 minutes on other tea shops.

The cup is bare, no labels,stickers,handwritings and designs. They wouldn't even get your name. Ok, enough with the rants. Of course what would you expect for a 45 peso drink which is half the price of those big shot tea shops.

First sip, WOAH! O_O

It's unbelievable. That taste is awesome. Is it really only 45 pesos? It's very awesome. The perfect combination of Black Tea and Milk plus the rich sweetness of the Toffee Caramel. Truly a flavor burst. It exceeded my expectations for its price. Its taste is comparable to Serenitea or even better. It is so good I finished it in 2 long sips.

Few days after, I realized that maybe I'm just craving for a milk tea desperately that day that's why I truly liked it. I have to confirm so I tried it again, the same flavor but now on XL. It's still pure awesomeness. I promised myself that day that I will try all their flavors so I kept coming back. So far my favorite is Wintermelon and Black Sugar. They also have fruit teas. I already tried the Passionfruit Green Tea and it has the same awesomeness of their milk teas.

By the way, as of the moment, they already have a competition around the corner. I forgot the name but it's price is way higher than Sai Bachi. So for identity sake, Sai Bachi added their name on their cups which I proudly display while walking on the mall. I'm their free walking endorser without their knowledge. I'm even putting it here in my teeny-weeny blog.

I just hope that they can maintain the quality (awesomeness) and low price of their drinks. This is their edge among their competitors. say what ROYAL TEAS?

*DISCLAIMER: I'M NOT PAID OR AFFILIATED TO SAI BACHI AND IT'S MANAGEMENT I'M JUST AN EXTREMELY SATISFIED CUSTOMER :)

My Thai Kitchen - Festival Mall

I was running errands for our balikbayans earlier this afternoon at Festival Mall when my dear tummy started to protest. So I started to roam around and find a dining place. First, I checked Stavros, a Medi resto, maybe to have a Chicken gyros but no one is eating so I skipped. I still have to try Stavros' though. Next stop, Wendy's, for a Baconator, but I don't feel eating a burger that time. So I went back to Chef's Avenue and saw this newly opened restaurant that replaced Tia Maria's. It is now Pho Hoa and My Thai Kitchen. Interesting.. Thai + Vietnamese cuisine in one place.

MY THAI KITCHEN/PHO HOA

I went in and sat in a booth. Two menus were given by the ordertaker, one for My Thai Kitchen and one for Pho Hoa. I browsed the menu of Pho Hoa, nothing caught my interest and I don't feel like eating noodle soup that moment so I skipped to the Thai Menu. I liked the choices on the Thai menu, all my favorites are in there. I was torn between ordering Pad Thai and Bagoong Fried Rice. I chose chicken Pad thai and Thai milk tea.

While waiting for my order to come, I can't help but to notice the restaurant's interior and finishings.

pink and green chairs.

girly accents.

file drawers anyone?

The restaurant doesn't have that feel of an Asian or Oriental restaurant. It's more of a design you would expect in a store that sell cupcakes.

Pad Thai (P210) and Thai Milk Tea (P90)

My Thai Milk tea arrived first. It was really good and refreshing. I would have this again. Blame it on my milk tea addiction. The flavors of tea and milk is balanced. There's this fragrant aftertaste but it's not overwhelming and actually add to the good drink experience. After playing 2 games with 500,000 score on Temple Run, my Pad Thai arrived. It is served with lemon and chili on the side. It looks promising enough. For the taste, it's OK but it's a bit oily for my taste. I believe that a perfect pad thai should have a perfect balance between the sweet,salty,sour and spicy and mine is a bit too salty and for P210, I already had cheaper but yummy Pad Thai so I expected more on serving size and quality for this one. I am so disappointed that I wasn't able to finish my order so I just decided to have dessert. I ordered Thai Sticky Rice with Mangoes.

Khao Neeo Mamuang /Thai Sticky Rice with Mangoes and Ice Cream (P110)

This was the bomb! This compensated for my Pad Thai. I love the sweet and salty taste of the sticky rice which was complimented by the coconut cream and the vanilla ice cream. The mango is not really sweet but it adds to the flavor explosion on my mouth. The waiter even noticed asked if I liked it and I answered "Opo! soooooobra!" and he was all smiles after that.

Generally, I like the restaurant. Foods are a bit pricey but would definitely come back to try their Bagoong Rice, Tom Yum, their Vietnamese food and of course more sticky rice. Great start!

Chewy Junior

While I was chatting with a relative on Facebook and debating about Happy Lemon.

Suddenly..

relative: aww...wait lng, natikman mo na chewy juniors?

Jay: ndi pa. nu yun?
relative: ntikman ko un sa sg. sobrang naadik ako
Jay: nu ba yun?
relative: tpos meron pla sa trinoma at glorietta/greenbelt ata, pinagdadala ako lagi nung friend ko. ang sarap tlgaaa. haha. famous un sa sg
Jay: ano nga kasi yun? hehe. brownie ba yan? toffee ba yan?
relative: dko maexplain, hahaha. basta me filling tpos chewy sya
Jay: ahhh parang cream puff
relative: yup. ang sarap talaga. haha
Jay: though chewy. pasuspense ka naman kasi. tininingnan ko na website nila.
relative: try mo minsan tpos msg mo sakin kung ngustuhan mo


This conversation sparked my curiosity about this Chewy Junior since i loooooove cream puffs. I just love munching those pastry.


The other day, our balikbayans asked us to accompany them in Mall of Asia. Just a random thought, a balikbayan's balikbayan trip wouldn't be complete without visiting MOA.We strolled around the mall to find knick knacks and typical balikbayan finds. We then ate luglug, sisig and Halo-Halo at Razon's. Truly the best halo-halo in my opinion.

We continued our shopping, I came across with this store with oh-so-attractive looking pastries displayed on the window. It's Chewy Junior! I hurriedly went inside and can't help but adore those pastries. I almost literally drooled. Bought a box of 3. 2 chocolates and 1 cream cheese. We just checked the Department Store for finds then went to visit my cousin's place. When we arrived home, I went straight to the dining table so my cousin and I can try those precious puffs. Funny, it has eating instructions on the box.

ooh! eating instructions!*open box.marvel.stare.grab a piece.marvel.bite*

"Uhmmmmmmmm..."

That is the sound I made while I had my first bite of my chocolate chewy junior. It's like your biting a rubber. I'm wondering if this the reason why they call this "Chewy" It is really messy and hard to eat.

The taste? It is not that sweet. the dough is OK. The filling is just right. Too bad for those with sweet tooth like me. Except that it is rubbery, i mean chewy, there's really nothing special about the cream puff. I think it's not really the one you'll crave for every now and then but I like the novelty of it.

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