Le Cuisine Francaise: French buffet, bon appétit

When the "Le Vie En Rose" was played on the background, it makes me think that I am in Paris. Le Cuisine Francaise, a French restaurant located at Sedeno corner San Agustin Makati surely knows how to complete the romanticism brand of Paris by fusing French delicieux and the ambiance only a Le Brasserie can provide. Not only do they serve impeccably tasteful cuisines but as well as nightly entertainment by Filipino and French plus other ex-pat musicians playing different musical genre from jazz to blues to broadway.

Behind the kitchen, whipping up to aggrandize your appetite is the d'Orival couple, French Jean and Filipina Michele. Their combination naturally brings a resilient element that can only be measured by the way at how they work on their menu, and seen at how remarkable their receptions are from the dining populace.

Le Cuisine Francaise serves lunch buffet during weekdays, for only Php499. Luckily I got it for only Php299.

Kick it off with Creamy Corn Soup.

Bread to start off your meal.

They have home-made pates and terrines.

Derivative of Southern France, they have the provencal type of chicken too.

Grits and Grillades - typical of a French dining table.

Vegetarian corner. A green is a must when eating meats as it helps in the digestion process of fats and tough meats, aside from thorough chewing.

Oil-based pasta. I'm wishing that they have a separate pasta section where diners can have the option of what pasta they like to have prepped at.

Garden fresh salad mesclun. I just came form the gym so this is just astutely fitting for my appetite.

Fruits - something that contained active laxative ingredients.

Desserts, butterscotch with butter on top.

The table is adorned with a Sauvignon wine and a beautiful lighting fixture.

Since they only have a few entrees for buffet, here are what I have been frequenting at.

And the garden fresh salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

And the garden fresh salad with balsamic vinaigrette.

Reservation says 11AM but their shop already opened at 11:55AM. I was wishing time is something they have to be wary of since it's a week day and it's at the heart of Makati's business district where businessmen's time is of an essence.

Bon appétit.

Archipelago 7107: Regional culinary treasure

Archipelago 7107 is a restaurant affiliate of the Barrio Fiesta group, a dining chain known to offer buffet style homegrown cuisines. The Archipelago 7107's concept lies on the encompassing 7107's islands best culinary treasure, hitting two birds at one stone by promoting the tourism flow and the delicacies that each island took a brimming pride with.

Located at Il Terrazo along Tomas Morato, Archipelago 7107 has a cozy ambiance for a restaurant, with vibrant lighting, minimalist and austere dining interior and stylish tables and chairs, some of which are a wicker-made to represent one of the most viable Philippine export industries.

Yet, despite the upscale atmosphere of a restaurant lies the reasonable price ranges of their entrees. I was lucky enough to have gotten a deal from a group buying site. For only Php465, you can get a KBL Pork with a pot of Kare Kare, 4 cups of rice, and 1.5L of Pepsi soda.

Kare-Kare(retailed at Php350), Tender Oxtail and tripe stewed in a creamy peanut sauce, a true Pinoy fiesta that is completed with a Shrimp Paste.

KBL(retaked at Ph275) - stands for Kadios, Baboy, and Langka. Kadios beans are a popular ingredient in Ilonggo cuisine of Iloilo. Throw in grilled pork belly with langka, and you have an unforgettable treat.

Given 4 cups of rice, this is advertised to be good for 4 persons, however, if only these advertisers know that ravenous species like me exist in this world, they may change their statements of estimations. Besides, the KBL only consists of one strip of pork.

Zark's Burger: Home of the Herculean burgers

The place is probably Taft's best kept secret, having served mammoth burgers while most are stuck with the commercialized overly priced variants. We(me and MobilityReel) once again hit the road at the Archer's Nook to try Zark's Burgers' enormously huge and engagingly delicious burgers, a delirious vice we both share-- to hunt for a culinary discovery that isn't detrimental to the pocket.

Zark's Burgers is not new particularly to the La Salle community as this is seated right in front of La Salle Taft. Obviously enough, when we dined there, the place is teeming with La Salle students that we think we were the only unresembling variables among the dining populace.

It has been a home to the metropolitan's tempting yet towering Tombstone burger, a two pound, four patty-layered cheeseburger covered with cheese sauce and served with 200grams of fries. Either they are truthfully brutal to what they advertise, or they are just exaggeratingly whimsical by their disclaimer saying: "This might kill you on the spot".

The place is a true blue(ahemmm, true green?) Archer's haven as the walls are slapped with the framed pictures of La Salle's Green Archer basketball team all over.

We started it off with Nachos(Php65) - tortilla chips topped with cheese sauce and home-made tomato salsa on the side.

Wings 'N Chips(Php120) - buffalo wings(choice of classic buffalo or barbecue buffalo) in chips served with fries.

His order, Zark's Ultimate Burger(Php130) - 1/4 pound burger with cheese sauce in a bed of fresh veggies and topped with sautéed mushroom and bacon

I was thinking if I go for the Jawbreaker, but I really want to have bacon on my burger so I ended up ordering Stone Cold Stunner(Php185) - double bacon cheeseburger in a bed of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, mushroom and caramelized onion.

Speaking go Jawbreaker(Php250), they have a promo that if you can finish it within 5min, it's your for free. But hold your horses yet, Jawbreaker is literally a jawbreaker as it is a triple layer cheeseburger with span, bacon and overflowing cheese.

It doesn't end there, you can also try their Tombstone(Php500), devour it in 10min and you'll get a free Zark's T-shirt and your picture gets posted in the garrison of gluttons, este Wall of Fame. :)

Don-Day Restaurant: All-day Korean buffet

There is a hidden goldmine of good restaurants along the Malingap and Maginhawa Street, an arcane treasure trove esoterically hidden from the glimmer of the metro, and a spot just right at my backyard. My friends from the publication industry have been raving about it, raging the place, and ravenously eating like predators. Some of them even put up a restaurant in the area, and while I am forcibly invited in numerous occasions, I just don't have the time yet.

The place is new to me as I am not frequenting the area the way I am with the Timog and Morato stretch. But this day is different as I tried to scour to look for a sumptuous culinary goodness that I can devour, quite literally.

And I found Don-Day Korean Restaurant, an open air Korean buffet nestled at the heart of Malingap Street, just in front of Pino Restaurant. And while Korean entertainment culture has becoming mainstream as influenced by the Koreanovelas, Korean pop sensation and Korean films, the only Korean word that I know of is Jjamppong, so spare me if I am posting some entrees without a name.

Their buffet is classified into two variants: Samgyeopsal(Php299) which I think has the similarity of Yakiniku, and the Don-Day Buffet(Php199) which is the same as your average buffet where everything is served on a spread table and you just have to pick up the food of your preference.

Fresh meats in thin slices are served and the lady server will show you how to cook it, then put some Ssamjang(chili paste, soybean paste, and sesame oil) or Gireumjang(salt, pepper, and sesame oil), then roll it up with lettuce as how Koreans did it.

True to what my MobilityReel told me that Koreans have one of the healthiest diets around, vegetables are served fresh and crunchy. And you can tell if it's an authentic Korean restaurant if there are a lot of Korean dining in.

I don't know how they call it, but this is a tofu-based entree.

Another no name entree, I think this is similar as to how Zucchini Fritters are cooked.

The Korean dry noodles, Chap Chae.

And their version of Lechon Macau? Roasted pork dish.

This is not your typical meat balls as this is not fried, but steamed, which I think is healthier.

Tangsuyuk, a sweet and sour pork.

I really wish they put names on what they serve on the buffet table so I can identify them.

Beef Bolgogi, which obviously look like Japanese Beef Teriyaki.

Pineapple and Papaya to conclude your meal.

Add Php50 and you'll get bottomless iced tea.

You might think that they serve too chintzy for a buffet but trust me, they're enough to make you swell. I only was able to consume three rounds of the grillables, perhaps it's because rolling them up with lettuce which is a water-based vegetable is a factor for the full house.

Sicilian Express: No frill pizza

What I like about pizza is that it serves a vivid illustration to the properties of the fabric of space and time, something that I am, in numerous occasion, picking as an animated example by bending the pizza pan, descriptive to the folding of the visible universe, or curving it up to account the curvature of space as perturbed by gravity, or turning it monodirectionally to indicate an accretion process as to how celestial objects are formed, for example the stages from planetesimal to planetoid to planets.

Just recently, the opportunistic black hole that I am went to meet up my college room mate to use the voucher I got from eBay. It's two 14inch pizza and a 2liter Pepsi Max from Sicilian Express worth Php555. Note that each pizza costs Php515 if you're going to buy it without the voucher, making this deal a one in a gazillion.

Sicilian Pizza(14inches) is a cheese-based pizza loaded with meaty slices of Sicilian sausages, chunky beef sausage, crunchy green bell pepper strips, and onions.

Pizza Bianca(14inches) seemed to be my favorite of the two, a healthy combo of prawns, garlic cloves, mozzarella, parmesan cheese with home made pesto.

That explains it, you know that I am a rabid fan for pesto or vegetable-based pizza.

I wish it would have been better if they also have a thin crust variant. It's such a gastric heavy weight wrestle mania to consume them, a kind of dining annihilation reminiscent to a man vs pizza arena.

Sicilian Express has lots of branches but the one we conquered is the one located at Soho Central, Shaw Boulevard, almost in front of St. Francis of Assissi Church.

Tempura Japanese Grill: Casual Japanese dining

Rainy days and Saturdays always get me down… What was supposed to be a bedroom weather ended up to be an outdoor culinary adventure. And our(me and my college room mate's) plan was initially at H&E Glorietta to try out their steak-all-you-can but their seemingly cramped space happened to be a deal-breaker. You know how I hate crowded and un-roomy places that whenever I go to restaurants, ambiance is as formidable as the food.

So we went to the United Nations branch to try Tempura Japanese Grill's order-all-you-can, which is not new to me since I have eaten at both Red Kimono and Matsuri already. Tempura Japanese Grill is a casual dining restaurant that infuses traditional Japanese flare with post-modern fusion cuisine.

You can't order everything found on their a la carte menu, instead, they will hand you over an order slip that contains limited entrees that you can check and just give to the waiter after choosing your preference.

We started it off with Kani Salad, shredded crabstick with garden fresh vegetables in Japanese salad dressing.

Then we got mixed Sashimi - maguro, ika, ebi, tamago and kana.

Gyu Asupara Maki - asparagus in thinly sliced beef tenderloin grilled with special sauce.

Tofu Teppanyaki - deep fried Japanese bean curd with shitake mushroom and diced chicken in Teppanyaki sauce.

Sukiyaki - sliced beef tenderloin with mushroom, tofu, vetegables and vermicelli in Sukiyaki soup.

Gyuniku Teriyaki - thinly sliced beef tenderloin with teriyaki sauce

Gyuniku Teppanyaki - diced beef tenderloin with vetegables in teppanyaki sauce

Mixed maki - Japanese maki in different variants

Tonkatsu - deep fried breaded pork cutlet

Hotate Asparagus Teppenyaki - scallops with asparagus in teppanyaki sauce

Spareribs Sansho Yaki - grilled spareribs cooked in house specialty sauce served with vetegables and sprinkled with Japanese pepper

And who would want to go to a Tempura Japanese Grill without the Ebi Tempura - deep fried tiger prawns in crispy yumminess.

There are some Teppenyaki that we ordered that are not in the pic. As usual, the suckers that we are, we ordered 90% of what we can see in the order slip.

Eating in a buffet takes a week of practice and because of the absence of that, my stomach went into a gastric somersault that I ended up throwing up what I have eaten.

The price tag of Php499 is already an all-in price point. They don't charge you with service charge.