♥♥♥ First Day of the Year Date with the Hubby: Inasal at Iba Pa Review ♥♥♥

Disclaimer: This review is based only in our opinions and experiences. Feel free to try out the resto and tell us your own experience. =)

Yay! It's the first day of 2012 and hubby asked me out! Weee!!!

It was actually unplanned. We just got bored and since it's the last day of our "vacation" (we didn't have a holiday, since Christmas and New Year landed on weekends. TT__TT), hubby asked me to go out, for us to be able to have a little hubby-wifey day out… hehehe… it turned to a night out because my sister, brother-in-law and baby niece showed up at home and we had to accommodate them. Talk about wrong timing! Haha! Anyway, not that I'm pushing her away, I told her that her barely five-month old baby can't stay out for long. We took a cab and dropped them off at Sta. Mesa. Since SM Centerpoint is near, my hubby directed the driver to drop us off there. It was only a few minutes away from where my sister got off - more or less than five minutes(? - it wasn't that traffic) and it took me that same amount of time to put on BB Cream, powder, a little blush on and a swipe of red lipstick-lipgloss combo. I was able to finish dolling up myself soon as the driver stopped in front of the mall. Haha!

  

 Very Quick FOTD! ^__^v

 Sweet image... =D

 Pa-cute lang... =D

A very happy wifey... ^__^

 Spongehubby? (Look at his hair... he doesn't want to get his hair trimmed yet... His head looks like a sponge! Hahaha!)

It's been years since I have last stepped foot on that mall. I can remember, when we were  younger mom often took us there even after school. We'd watch movies, do groceries and go shopping. I remember the Sanrio Store there. I loved that place! Now, it's gone. =(

Anyway, my hubby and I went around the mall, looking for restaurants and deciding which one to go in to. He wanted to have some soup, as much as I do. We had a lot of fun the night before and had tequila and vodka and it probably was the reason why we feel kinda bloated… =D

We came across this restaurant-fastfood  place and since hubby wanted to have bulalo (Beef Bone Marrow Soup), we decided to give it a try.

We ordered a bowl of Kansi Bulalo good for two, two orders of rice, and I got a side dish of Ensaladang Talong (Filipino Eggplant Salad). For drinks, as usual, I got bottomless iced tea and hubby got a can of soda.

♥ FOOD ♥ 

Kansi Bulalo

Ensaladang Talong

Sati Rice

My Say:

I found out that this dish is just a variant of the Nilagang Baka (Beef Shank Stew). It's called Kansi in Iloilo and Bulalo, which is famous in Batangas. Since it's an Ilonggo restaurant, they followed the recipe coming from Iloilo. Therefore, it's called Kansi Bulalo.

When we were digging in the soup, we only found small chunks of meat and a chop of jackfruit. We were like "No veggies?!? o__O" I told hubby to just give it a taste first, maybe we won't get disappointed.

I like the soup although it tasted more of a Sinigang (A dish of either beef, pork, fish or shrimp with a sour soup). My hubby explained it's because of the jackfruit in the soup. Actually, it's because this dish has an ingredient that naturally makes the soup sour, and it's called batwan fruit (which, I am not really familiar with… =D). I am not that certain whether they had that fruit in or they only substituted it with Sinigang or Tamarind Mix.

The Sati Rice is just okay. It's just like a cross between Java Rice and Yangchow Rice. I thought I couldn't finish my rice but I was surprised to  do so. =D

As for the Eggplant Salad, it was disappointing because the eggplant was hard to chew. They have served it with a lot of onions and less tomatoes. The onions were spicy! Good thing is, the bagoong (shrimp paste) they served it with was good, hubby and I think it's a "Barrio Fiesta" brand. I had more of the shrimp paste than the side dish itself.

Hubby Said:

"That place is not for me."

♥ SERVICE ♥

The service was rather off, it made us regret it a bit because the crew were slow. I had bottomless iced tea and I usually get a lot of refills from other restaurants but in this one, I think I only had… hmmm… about three refills. We even had to call the waiter to refill my glass. In most of the restaurants that we   visit, crew or waiters walk around with the pitcher and check if customers had a full glass; if none  or a little is in their glass, they'll quickly offer to refill it.  For a P30 bottomless drink, it's just okay; however, I was so thirsty that night, I didn't know why…

Aside from the slow service, their cash register is broken and the receipt looked like an order receipt from a street food stall or in Filipino term, "Carinderia".

♥ AMBIENCE ♥

The place has the Filipino feel. The chairs were made from iron but the bamboo reed gave a native touch. Large photos of the famous Masskara Festival are displayed on the wall.

♥ CLEANLINESS ♥

Hubby and I sat just in front of the cashier and just beside it was the plates and utensils - plates, bowls, spoons forks, etc… all exposed. Hubby told me, "I'm wondering why those stuff are there. They're not supposed to be there. They're supposed to be in the kitchen." My response? "We're thinking of the same thing."

As soon as the plates and spoons were placed in front of us, first thing I did was, wipe them with the tissue. I just wanna be sure that we won't get any extra stuff with our food.

RATING:

FOOD:

2 out of 5

SERVICE:

2 out of 5

AMBIENCE

3.5 out of 5

CLEANLINESS:

2.5 out of 5

OVERALL:

2.5 out of 5 

Hubby and I are not really picky eaters, that's why we decided to try this restaurant. But we'll probably not return there. Aside from the fact that SM Centerpoint is out of our way, the food in Inasal at Iba Pa is something so ordinary that even my hubby could cook... or even much better. We would rather travel to RJ's Bulalo in Mandaluyong or just take a trike ride to Bulaluhan sa Espanya.

Have you tried this resto?

Share your experiences! Comment below!

^__^