Not So Good Peri Peri Charcoal Grill Experience

Peri Peri Charcoal Chicken

Peri Peri Charcoal Chicken is a fast casual style restaurant that specializes in the world famous Peri Peri Chicken. It is uniquely delicious as we use a closely-guarded old Portuguese recipe , famous for its Peri Peri flavour.

Peri Peri is the name given to the “African bird's eye chili” which was discovered by Portuguese explorers in Africa. It is this fiery little spice which gives flavour and fire to our chicken that makes it so peri-licious.

Our chicken is cooked over charcoal wood burning grill and is trimmed of excess fat before basting in our peri marinades , so it is healthy too. You have option to heighten hotness and flavour – choose from lemon & garlic, mild, hot bastings.

Source

When J and I had our first Peri Peri, we instantly get hooked on it and wanted our family to savour the experience too. So on my pre-birthday celebration last month we go out with J's brother, A, and with no hesitations entered their SM North Edsa Annex branch. Their 49ers Promo also attracted us where you'll get to have unlimited soup and drinks for every chicken meal order. That's dirt cheap. You are free to choose at the counter and serve yourself. There's a wide variety of drink options like soda, red and lemon iced tea and coffee. But of course when it is that cheap there is a drawback. Your only choice for soup is their watery Mushroom soup and not any of their specialty.


On our table...

Everyday Platter C PhP 195
1/4 Lemon & Garlic chicken, 2 pcs. Wild Wings, Corn & Carrots, Steamed rice and Gravy

For the two boys

Everyday Platter D PhP 195
1/4 Lemon & Garlic chicken, 2 pcs. Croquettes, Corn & Carrots, Steamed rice and Gravy

My order. Their Sour & Cream dip is good! 

Mushroom soup Part of PhP 49 promo

I get all the mushroom on their pot. Hihi. This is just Knorr mushroom soup diluted in lots of water!

Drinks Part of PhP 49 promo

Their red iced tea (no picture, sorry) is a winner for the two but I find it too sweet so I ended with Sprite.

Condiments provided for every table

As you can tell their price is very affordable at least 200 per head. Ambience is good too with all the wood and Portuguese-inspired walls. There's also a flat-screen TV where Shrek and Transformers 2 were constantly played with no audio.

And here comes the bad side of what I thought to be a wonderful experience...

I love spicy dishes so it's a no-brainer for me to choose what basting I want for my chicken. I asked the server for Hot and he told me that they run out of it. Unfortunately, we can only have Lemon & Garlic. I settled for it and just asked the server if they can add anything to make it a little bit spicier. He surprised me and my companions as he answered back "Eh, wala nga po di'ba" ("We don't have it, right?"). I wanted to shout back to him right then but I don't want to break our mood that time so I just smirked at what he did. Boo ^_-

After less than five minutes, our orders came. We were happy that our food were served really fast but in the back of our minds we're thinking, are these done right? Our suspections came true when the chickens were half-cooked! I immediately returned it to their manager and they politely asked to replace our meal. Then as you could guess, they cooked it again to the point of a burnt chicken.

From that day, we swear to never go back there again!!!


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Peri Peri Grill House

Ground Floor, Annex Building
SM City North EDSA, EDSA

FOOD: President's Tea House

Do you love Chinese food? Well, the BF does! So once in a while we try to dine on different Chinese restaus to savor and discover which ones serves the authentic taste! This time, it's President's Tea House located at SM North Edsa Annex which originally started in Binondo. We wanted to try it for a long time now until yesterday the BF's really craving for Sweet and Sour Pork. 

On the table

• Complimentary Tea

Forgot to ask what kind of tea.

• Bottomless Iced Tea PhP 75

Just the normal Lipton iced tea. Bleeeh!

• Four Season Shake PhP 95

I can only taste 2 fruits in here -- pineapple and watermelon! But I like it, refreshing and perfect for summer.

• Sweet and Sour Pork PhP 250

Just the regular serving which they say is good for 2-3 persons. But for us it's not enough haha. The BF was really satisfied with it though.

• Yang Chow Fried Rice PhP 220

What's a Chinese food trip without this? :) Again, this is the regular serving. You can never go wrong, very good by itself. Has a lot of shrimps in it.

The staff are superb, very attentive to our needs and serves fast actually. No need to ask them for a refill of our iced tea. Ambiance is good too! But I tell you, their background music is so funny! Chinese songs to the max! Haha, of course you won't understand it unless you can speak their language. Service charge not yet included so you need to reserve for some tip. This is not an issue actually if you got good service, ayt?

Next time, we'll try more of their dishes like the lettuce wraps and roast duck. Nevertheless, we did satisfy our cravings! Instant date too. :)

*Taken by HTC HD Mini so please excuse the not-so-clear photos.

PRESIDENT'S TEA HOUSE

2/F SM City North Edsa Annex

Quezon City

Food: CIBO

Our table for two.

Whenever I want never-fails-everytime-oh-so-good food, one restaurant will always come to my mind. What else...but only Cibo does. Correct me if I'm wrong but everyone that I know who had tasted a dish here is always hands down to it.

Just a little background about Cibo

Cibo, owned by Margarita Fores, started 12 years ago. Literally, it means food and Cibo had defined what good food means. Coming from a well-known chef, undoubtedly, it nurtured my love for Italian cuisine. Margarita Fores is also known for Cafe Bola and Pepato restaurant. And because they love kids, they came with Cibo Bimbi.

Here comes the edible art.

FARFALLE ALLA GENOVESE PhP 263

mushroom. basil. pesto. cream

Long touted as one of the bestsellers in Cibo, I instantly fell in love the first time I tried it. Bow-tie pasta drowned in a very generous wild mushroom cream sauce, fresh basil pesto and freshly grated parmesan cheese. And on its center another dollop of the good pesto.

LOMBATINE DI MIALE PhP 320

pork chop. mango mamalleta sauce. parsley rice pilaf

A new addition to their menu. The mango sauce is a perfect combination to this roast pork chop. I wonder how they made the sauce so yummm-oh. Hubby even asked for another order of their parsley rice pilaf and extra dripping of the sauce.

FRAGOLA PhP 122

Fresh strawberry fruit shake

When they say fresh, you will got what's fresh.

POMPELMO PhP 119

Fresh pomelo fruit shake

I ordered their white grape shake but it wasn't available that time. The waiter humbly suggested their Pomelo shake for its one of their bestsellers and I obliged. It's next to perfect too but there's something on it that makes my throat itchy. I'm not sure if it's because of the pomelo pulp or it still has undissolved sugar. My first sip was so sweet.

And the best thing...

TIRAMISU CROCCANTE PHP 215

It's not the traditional tiramisu everybody is familiar of. It’s made of crusty base and cream topped with dark chocolate shavings. I was quite disappointed for the one we had came from the side and the curve edge made it smaller. But I didn't complain for its taste and texture made me forget it.  Next time, I'll remember to request for a better part. Can you notice how it was loaded with dark chocolate shavings?

The all-stainless steel structure, quirky restaurant design, excellent service and the cute paper mill adds up to their magic. I ain't wrong, I'm sure.

CIBO

Level 2, Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center Makati

729-5309 (Fax)

758-2426 (Phone)

FOOD: Mooon Cafe

We are at Cyberzone, SM North Edsa Annex again last Sunday still looking for the perfect laptop that will suit our needs and budget. We wanted a laptop that can pass the requirements of the software we're using but at the same time budget-friendly. Acer would be a good choice for us. Mac will forever be the top choice but that is something overboard right now...maybe someday. *wishes*

After scouring two floors of tech gadgets stores, we're itching to have our dinner and rest our tired feet. Do you also get annoyed with how SM Annex escalators were placed? I mean you have to turn around again just to get to the next one. Aaaargh! Good thing there are now many good food choices there. We're torn between President's Tea House and Mooon Cafe. I know the former is better but we are not feeling Chinese that time. And the latter has a very inviting ambience.

Description from their Facebook Fan Page

"Mooon Cafe is a mexican inspired eating place. The menu is typically international cuisine but with more focus on Mexican fare and the interior is reminiscent of Mexican cantina. Mooon Cafe has certainly earned a reputation for serving great food."

I got curious with big paper fans hanging on their ceiling and their mini-waterfalls too. It really has that Mexican vibe inside.

Take a peek at their kitchen..if you could!

And their cute salt and pepper.

We just want to have our dinner done so we head directly to their main entrees.

Pork Belly PhP 149

Grilled marinated Pork belly with buttered vegetables and rice. Served with native sauce.

A close-up look

Nothing extraordinary. That's it. Just grilled pork belly. Vegetables obviously are the frozen ones. Their rice isn't good. I mean our rice is way, way better than this! And may I ask if this is their native sauce, soy sauce???

Fish Mozarella Melt PhP 189

Deep fried fish fillet topped with melted mozzarella cheese, sauteed chopped tomatoes and served with garlic rice.

This is my order and the waitress said it would took 20 minutes to cook and I agreed but it took 30 minutes or more and Hubby is half-way his meal. I'm disappointed so it better be good! But again another so-so. Fish is bland for me and there's more batter than the fish itself. I hate when restaurants do that so as to make the dish look bigger! Tomatoes aren't sauteed as opposed to their description.

Watermelon Shake PhP 59

There's more ice and sugar rather than the fruit juice. Nonetheless, it's refreshing.

Coke Zero in Can PhP 35

Extra Garlic Rice PhP 25

OVERALL

Taste	☺☺
Price	☺☺☺
Interior	☺☺☺☺
Service	☺☺

As you can see, we were disappointed on how our orders taste. Not sure if we didn't order the right stuff or maybe it is just the branch in particular. Their staffs aren't attentive too knowing that the restau isn't full that time. Wanna know why? Because they're having their dinner too together with the customers and they're so noisy chitchatting with each other. Oh my! This is opposed to good raves they're getting in their Cebu branches. Maybe we should explore other items in their menu next time. If we'll decide to try it out again.. :( Anyhoo, do you have suggestions?

MOOON CAFE

2/F SM Annex, SM City North EDSA

North Ave. cor. EDSA

Quezon City, Metro Manila

(02) 332-5171