banoi's

it's been a while and though i had a long vacation to write my blog posts i somehow wasted my time doing other things. whew! where did the three weeks go. anyway, i'm more keen to write about my manila eats and skip the backlogs so here it goes.

i love vietnamese food, there are a few choices in metro manila and banoi's is one of them. i haven't tried the makati branch which was much raved about so i was happy to find out they opened in up town center. i bought vouchers online so i basically went crazy in ordering.

fresh spring rolls, nothing special just the usual. by far zao's still tops my list for the best fresh vietnamese spring roll.

pomelo salad, oh gheez what is this? there's no flavor. vietnamese cuisine is highlighted by flavors bursting in your mouth with fresh  herbs and spices and this was really meh.

fried spring roll, i had another, what the heck is this moment. i loooooove fried vietnamese spring rolls, the lure of vietnamese spring rolls is with the wrapper. if you look closely i don't even know what kind of wrapper they used. it's not like your typical spring roll wrapper which is smooth and crisp. this one was like a thick, deformed wrapper. aaaack! and the filling was also forgetful. heck i make a better vietnamese spring roll. i was really dismayed with this one.

beef pho, i didn't try this but it look sad.

this was mine, the only thing i can commend them for is the use of fresh seafood. but their pho is also lackluster. the noodles were hard as well, not cooked right.

grilled chicken - sweet, tender and moist, similar to pho hoa's so i guess this was alright.

stir-fried veggies, nothing extraordinary but i didn't expect much 

since these are just veggies.

fried catfish, i don't typically order this in a vietnamese resto so i am not sure if this is vietnamese since i relate catfish to thai cuisine. anyway, the only thing that really matters with this dish is the nouc cham. and i think that their nouc cham lacks so much flavor.

it was a very boring meal and my mom who is the vietnamese fanatic concurred with me. we cannot help but compare it to pho hoa. yes, pho hoa  is more commercialized so to speak but their pho brings me joy and even the small portions of their spring rolls make me happy too. after this, i ate at pho hoa 3 times during my vacation. there's pho hoa here in kl too but the broth in manila still fares better and yes the pho hoa in kl is still better than banoi's. i don't really like writing about sad meals but i just had to share.

banoi's
up town center