Food Adventures the Sequel (1.28.12)

Too tired of scanning the passport hehe :-D

Nothing exciting January brought us so we gave in to the call of Food Adventures yet again. My bf was on a month long diet and he’s hungry for cholesterol rich foods as a reward so we thought that we would give the food adventure a second try.

Last year they offered 2 sets of adventures, one was the Extreme Food Adventure that let’s you eat street food and the normal Food Adventure which I’ve covered here and here. This year they’ve eliminated the first one I’ve mentioned; organizers must have realized that Mckinley residents aren’t into nibbling chicken feet.

One of the key advantages of dining with someone is that whenever a participating restaurant offers you 2 choices, you can order both without stressing on what to get if you’re on your own. For instance, one of the best restaurant experiences last year and still a participant is Kuse, which is a sister restaurant of Old Vine Grill. both offering 2 choices each, making us enjoy 4 meals in just 2 restaurants.

Another favorite would be Sol Gelato, which the best way to end your meal. We haven’t though (we ended it with flavored teas at The Coffee Bean and The Tea Leaf) but if you have to reserve a space for your tummy, this has to be one of it. There’s another ice cream shop which is Yo Swirls but we didn’t bother since we can fondly remember how typical their offer is.

We also skipped Ramen Bar, which is, if it’s really your first time in going, you may find how ironic it is that in spite of the name, they offer Kankuni Buns instead of small bowls of ramen. Considering how huge their servings are (see it for yourself here), it would surely convince first timers back. San Francisco Coffee also participated this time and since they’re only offering coffee,  (coffee-“allergic” here) we also tapped that out.

KBop is also a newbie and I loved their pancake. It wasn’t as thick like we had in Jang Chung Dong but it was still yummy. Not sure what they filled it with but it was wonderful; japchae not that much.

We were only able to clear 11 restaurants (there were 2 distinct dishes from 6 of them), because we we’re already full. We weren’t even able to finish Little Asia’s offerings (2nd to the last visited) and it’s a shame we didn’t get them for take out just for the sake of not putting it to waste.

Last time there were so many who availed the passports that some restaurants (Pho Hoa) had a hard time dealing with so many customers. This year however, I think I only saw just a pair and a small group. It’s also 50php much more expensive than previous but without much of a difference in their offerings. And speaking of difference I hate that they’ve added a new rule that you can now only avail it in 2 consecutive weekends (sat-sun or sun and sat (of next week) and not both saturdays of different weeks) so we really pushed ourselves in eating all the food in one day. It is just so inconvenient that whoever might have suggested that idea must have forgotten that not all customers live around the area to be able to come in one weekend.

I’ve already said it before that we won’t go to a Food Adventure again, but we still did only because we found that there are new dishes on the passport. What’s disappointing is how this new schedule made the promo a cheap gimmick that can highly drive the customers away. It is 600php after all so people may get ideas and not see the value of the passport. And unlike last time that right after we finished the 2nd half of our Food Adventure we chose one of the participants and try them for real (Ramen Bar), now we don’t have any reasons of coming back since, well, Mckinley solely caters to food and there are so many places that can offer more than that. And this new rule just ain’t fair if you ask me.

Maybe the reason why there are just a few this time is because we went early this year. Who knows if some of them backed out when they learned of the new rule. Let’s just see how well the promo goes.