YAKU at the Podium

sometime last month, i visited the podium & met with two of my  teacher friends. i rarely go there but it was the venue for the painting exhibit of my 2 tutees, Joaquin & Miguel, who are 7 & 5 years old respectively. so there goes my excuse for my little expedition. 

i find it interesting to view paintings made by kids. they are almost always pleasant to the eyes, mostly with innocent inspirations...

6 paintings by Joaquin & Miguel

after viewing the exhibits, we went to YAKU japanese grill. it's our first time to try this restaurant and it was pretty ok. when we first entered the restaurant, we got the expensive vibe because of the dark, cozy ambiance and the wood-y interior. but when we saw their menu, prices were very reasonable. our total bill did not even reach Php1000! the specialty YAKU is the yakitori... but since i got an upset stomach that afternoon, i did not bother to eat anything oily.

the place was pretty packed on a thursday night. 

caramelized dilis for appetizer...

we also had japanese veggie salad... it was not cam worthy so we skipped photographing it. the portion was too little and it had a very plain look. i did not like it.

anyway, a japanese dinner will never be complete without having california maki. i thought it was good. the tobiko were very crunchy. i love it when they use mango instead of avocado... very philipinized...veryy refreshing!

we only had 2 main entree: 

tofu steak- we all agreed that i was a little too buttery

yakiniku beef-it was actually good! the meat was tender, not much litid 

happy customers

the best tonkatsu

ever heard of Saboten? it's a tokyo based restaurant that specializes in serving the best tonkatsu ever... crispy on the outside, tender & juicy inside. 

i had the chance to dine in here with my in laws when we visited ahya in south korea. 

after odering, we were given these:

a cup of tea and sesame seeds that came with an interesting stick

not knowing what to do, we discreetly looked at the other tables & see what they were doing with their tools. everybody seemed to be mushing the seeds with their stick. and so we joined the rest of the koreans with the grinding business...

here's ahya seriously doing his little chore... but not knowing what for... 

later we found out, the seeds were to be put with the tonkatsu sauce. the ground sesame gave a kick to the aroma of the sauce. 

my dish came out with salad, miso soup & rice. i thought it was quite heavy and we weren't that hungry from our late lunch so i shared with my mom in law...  

here's what we had: 

fried shrimps & the famous pork cutlet

Saboten Restaurant is in Shinsegae Department Store, Gangnam

ajisen ramen

one of my favorite places to eat in hk is ajisen... nothing fancy just good curry based noodle! yum!!! each time i go to hk, i just have to visit a branch... i remember hanging out at their airport branch while waiting for my connecting flight back to manila... 

yummy gyoza

beef teppanyaki

enoki mushroom wrapped with sukiyaki beef 

my ultimate fave, curry based sukiyaki beef noodle

happy customers 

just last week, dave & i decided to try going to alabang town center since we live near na... before our scheduled movie date, we had time walk around and check out possible places where we can have our dinner... guess what i saw!

i spotted ajisen!!! ... in manila!! we just had to eat there! ...  i'll save my review for next time...