Prices are quite affordable compared to other Japanese Fast Food chains out there. Php150 bucks will do for a decent and complete meal.

We ordered the beef gyudon, yakisoba, and chicken tepanyaki – all of which hit the mark for me. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that its the best I’ve tasted – I’m simply saying that this goes for a decent japanese fast food meal. Expectations were met and they were all really tasty. Just one comment on the Yakisoba, I’m not an expert on japanese cuisine but the noodles are a bit off because its not as thick as what I’m used to and the flavor playfully touches on the domain of our local pancit canton – which could be what they were aiming for. Who knows.

They deliver!

Makati, Waltermart: (02) 887-2455

SM, Manila: (02) 521-0224

Other locations that are in the flyer above:

SM City Fairview, SM City San Lazaro, SM City Sta Rosa, SM City Clark, SM City Marilao, Landmark Trinoma, SM City Dasmarinas

In one of my earlier posts about Sumo Sam, I got a “hate” comment from a glorified fan of that establishment. The comment probably came from a “poser” convinced that he/she lives in a world where they are the authority – Hahaha – that’s just sad. But anyway, the reason why I’m mentioning it here is because it got me thinking whether my taste was indeed engineered to appreciate low end fast food types… interestingly, I’d have to agree. I do enjoy the cheap food trips Still, that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy sophisticated flavors that come with a hefty price tag.

This post is hot.. so here’s a few more pics.  This time from their branch in Ayala… service was ok tho.. line was way too long.

Monster Recommends:

• July 18, 2008 — Tokyo Cafe at Mall of Asia (2)
• July 26, 2008 — Hooters at Mall of Asia (1)
• July 13, 2008 — Gerry’s Grill – New Chili Cheese Sticks (3)
• June 24, 2008 — Cont’s Pastry Shop and Restaurant – Serendra (3)

They are conveniently located at one of the many entry points of MOA. I don’t know how to tell you exactly where they are but I’ll try – ground floor, walkway entrance, to your right, near Ace or was it True Value. Hahaha. Just ask.

A few interesting points from this dining adventure:

• According to our waitress – one of the owners is Japanese and the partner is Chinese. Interesting ey?
• This is the tastiest looking menu that I have ever seen. You will be overwhelmed.
• They have plastic renditions of their dishes laid out behind a glass window – looks amazingly real
• Cozy and lighting – excellent

Moving on the food, we ordered the following:

• Chicken teriyaki salad
• Garlic and Shrimp Pasta
• Forgot the name of the Burger – but its the one with the meat sauce
• Pork Cutlet
• Burger Steak

The chicken teriyaki salad good. I just hoped it had more teriyaki flavor. I could taste it, but I wanted more. Haha

Garlic and Shrimp Pasta… hmm. I guess I’m used to having garlic pasta paired up with really tasty items like steak or something grilled. Normally, if its paired with shrimp, I fancy having a tomato based sauce paired with it. Reason I’m saying that is because the shrimp got easily overpowered by the garlic – this is literally garlic, pasta, and a few additional ingredients – so if you love garlic, then go for this one. But I would still recommend that you pair it with one more dish. That’s just me.

Burger with meat sauce – this is your typical Japanese burger. I like it. It tastes like the one from Sango at Milelong but I like that one more. It has that distinct pepper taste that I find common in Japanese hamburger versions. Its not that big, but it satisfies your pallet. It comes with fries – not much, but we all know it pairs great with burgers.

Burger steak – hehehe, I was still hungry so I decided to try it out. 2 burger patties will fill you up quick! Same pepper taste that I love but this time it came with a tonkatsu like sauce sprinkled with spring onions. By the way, japanese rice was excellent!

Breaded pork cutlet (ordered by Jojo) was exactly what you would expect. There’s nothing extraordinary about it. No big deal, you can order it if you want a safe order that satisfies your cravings – you can never go wrong. It comes with a simple sauce so ask for some tonkatsu sauce to make it a bit more interesting.

Biscotti (Jhanki) ordered hot choco to finish the deal – as usual, chocolate is chocolate… yumyum.

Monster Recommends:

• July 26, 2008 — Hooters at Mall of Asia (1)
• June 13, 2008 — Friday’s MOA – Carewell Fundraising Dinner (0)
• May 19, 2010 — Malcolm’s Wagyu Burger (0)
• August 14, 2008 — Japanese FastFood by Karate Kid – Wacha! (50)

Pepper Lunch is a newly opened franchise from Japan. It features a Do-It-Your-Own concept of dining and brings a new meaning to the term “fast food”. You line up the counter and choose from their various combinations, pay then wait a couple of minutes.

We ordered the cut steak and hamburger combo (P350 with rice and drink) and the pork and hamburger combo (P325).

Our meats arrived raw and heaped on to their patented sizzling plate (heated at 270 degrees celsius), which guarantees that you can cook your meat just the way you want it. We had to stir and turn the meat fast to maximize the heat of the plate as the sizzling dies down a little too quickly. If you want your meat really well done (as in tustado) I dont think you can achieve it on this plate. Add Amakuchi (honey brown sauce) or Karakuchi (Garlic Soy Sauce) to your steak or burger while cooking. You may also opt to throw in your rice on to the sizzling plate to absorb the juices.

The verdict: the food was pretty tasty! We loved the freshly cracked pepper taste and the steak sauces. If you’re just ordering the hamburger combo, you might find it quite pricey, but if you order the rib eye, for P600+ it’s quite a good deal. Note that their meats are all imported so quality is excellent.

We finished eating everything as fast as we cooked it. If you want to get take away food, they have prepared rice and steak bowls.

Btw, it’s guaranteed that you get to take home the smell of your food from Pepper Lunch! You will really smell like a sizzling steak after dining here. sarap!

Monster Recommends:

• June 14, 2009 — Kaya – Yum Korean (0)
• August 14, 2008 — Japanese FastFood by Karate Kid – Wacha! (50)
• April 23, 2008 — Wednesday night at Sumo Sam, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell (11)
• August 14, 2009 — Jollibeer serves up BEER! (0)

We were craving for Japanese food and couldn’t decide whether to venture into Greenbelt 5 to check out John and Yoko or Sumo Sam which we heard had the same owners. Anyway, we opted to go to Rockwell to try out Sumo Sam simply because of the perception that Sumo Sam would be cheaper.

I’ve heard a lot about Sumo Sam – great steaks, excellent Japanese food, and many more.

The place was cozy and nice with a wide selection of food in the menu – cool layout, a bit heavy to hold on to, but still nice. It had a lot of interesting items that we wanted to try but somehow, we were swayed away from our normal ordering habits. Usually when I eat at a Japanese restaurant I would order a rice topping like Katsudon just because I use this as a benchmark for Japanese restaurants – a good gauge because of the richness of the flavors in this dish. I would also normally go for Japanese rice and a vegetable dish. But today, we ordered differently.

First on the list, Happy Birthday Noodles! Around Php250 and the serving was relatively generous.

As you can see, its like a Japanese twist to your typical Pancit Canton. And the name says it all (Happy Birthday Noodles) – its a fun dish. Sausages with some marinated pork, mushrooms and a generous amount of vegetables. I thought to myself, sweet deal. Now, the photograph is not the most creative shot but as you can see – the bowl does not give justice to the price. I call this our safety dish for the night. Safety, because if the other dishes did not meet our expectations, at least we had fun with this one.

Next came the Crunchy Kani Roll. 6 pieces topped with some crunchy dried squidy taste strips. It was good but not great.

It took a good 10 minutes before this was served. As you can see, I was already grabbing one before a decent shot was even taken.

Finally, the Beef Yakiniku. Why did we order Beef Yakiniku? Ask the food Gods – probably because of the photo on the menu.

If you’re thinking – Lousy shot or was the dish prepared like it was just dumped into a bowl of rice? The answer is yes to both. Lousy shot because what we got was uninspiring. And in terms of taste, we got what we saw. Wasted piece of meat. (Sayang, parang inapi yun beef).

Let me start by saying this – I’ve had my share of good Japanese food from restaurants like Shokuji. As far as I know, they treat meat with respect and it always comes out good and tasty. I hate doing this, but I need to describe the taste. I hope you guys don’t jump the gun on this one, they probably have a few other items in their menu that they can be proud of. Here we go:

• Have you ever tasted a week old beef left on the freezer – not properly packed? I have – and this dish tastes exactly how I remember it.
• Do you know what lansa means? Look it up, and tell me the english word for it.
• How about seasoning to taste? it might improve – you will never know
• Last, I was telling Biscotti Monster that probably the chef was heart broken. This dish was so uninspired.

Anyway, the place was nice and cozy. We had fun with the noodles.

To the patrons of Sumo Sam, we would like to hear your thoughts and recommendations. I would love to think that it was an off night and we ordered the wrong dishes. To Sumo Sam – c’mon man! SUMO!

Monster Recommends:

• May 17, 2008 — Pepper Lunch – now open in Rockwell (2)
• June 25, 2009 — Soccer with Binoculars – Interesting (0)
• June 14, 2009 — Kaya – Yum Korean (0)
• January 18, 2009 — Santis Deli – rockwell (1)