Hap Chan – Great Flavors, Good Eatin’

We were in Market! Market! and we decided to eat at a Chinese restaurant since it was almost Chinese New Year the time we were there.  We chose from the restaurant directory right at the entrance of the mall, near the car park, and we spotted Hap Chan!  I’ve never been disappointed eating at a Chinese Restaurant anywhere so I knew it was going to be a good lunch, and I was right!

About the Restaurant

Hap Chan in Market! Market! is located right outside the mall.  I’m not familiar with Market! Market! mall so I can’t describe accurately where it was but it’s in the ground floor, near one of the exits of the mall with the cool rock water fixture.

Somehow, the outside of the restaurant looked so inviting.  I don’t know if it’s because it looked so festive with all the lanterns and lights, or if it’s because of the 2 huge round tables outside the restaurant that were just waiting for people to occupy them.

And here's how the outside of the restaurant looked. By the way, if you haven't figured it out yet, my favorite color is red. So their color scheme is perfect for me. That's why I love Chinese and Japanese restaurants! :)

We were welcomed at the door (everybody was so polite) and we were seated immediately (that was around 2PM).  We chose to be seated on the couch type seats, instead of the huge round tables which were for big families.  It was just me and Mario that time.  Although the seats were comfortable, there wasn’t a lot of space between the seats and the table.  Mario’s big tummy chest had little wiggle room but we didn’t switch places.  He was too lazy and too hungry to do that.

I don't know if you could tell in the photo that the table was too close to his chest but it really was. The technique is not to take deep breaths. ^_^; Maybe were just too big for the table... Yeah, maybe that's it...

Other than distance to the table issue, everything else was perfect.  I love the solid furniture (tables and chairs).  They’re just like the ones I see on TV at Chinese Restaurants in New York!  The chairs, especially, are the same things I’ve seen a couple of nights before we visited in one of the food shows at TLC.  Because of the bulky-looking furniture, it made the place look small and cramped, but it wasn’t like that at all.  There was enough room to stand, go to other tables, socialize, or share some stories with folks at the other end of the table.  It’s almost old-style looking that gave me a feeling that Jackie Chan was going to jump into one of the tables and do his moves, just like in his movies that involve restaurants.

Cool red and yellow lanterns!

Looks packed and small but it's actually fairly spacious. It felt like I was eating in a really busy restaurant in China (although I really don't know what that's like).

One wall was adorned with figurines, statues of saints and angels. Our first Filipino saint, St. Lorenzo Ruiz, was a Filipino-Chinese, and so is Venerable Ignacia del Espíritu Santo who we are praying to be our first Filipina saint.

This was the chair I was telling you about earlier. Nice! The same one I saw on TV being used in Chinese Restaurant in New York.

What We Ordered

You can also get an idea of their serving size through this photo. Yang Chow Fried Rice was plenty enough for both of us without really stuffing is full. Just enough. Mario ordered an additional plain rice but that's just because we really eat a lot of rice. And the viand, good enough for 2-3 people.

I’m glad that although they had an extensive choice of food on their menu, the way they presented it wasn’t overwhelming.  I wanted to order sea cucumber but I’m sure Mario would be scared to try and it might just be wasted, so we stuck to safer choices – Minced Pork w/ Eggplant (I almost always order this in a Chinese Restaurant if they serve this), Braised Taufu w/ Asado, Yang Chow Fried Rice, and Hong Kong Iced Lemon Tea.

The Braised Beef Taufu w/ Asado and Minced Pork w/ Eggplant came from this page of the menu.

One thing I can comment about the menu, well, the photos don't really give an accurate representation of the actual dishes.

And the menu for drinks. I'd say the prices are average for most dishes, and a little over the average for some, compared with restaurants offering the same level of service and almost the same selection of dishes.

Minced Pork w/ Eggplant (230php)

You can never go wrong with ordering Minced Pork w/ Eggplant!  Hap Chan’s version is skinless eggplant!  The eggplant was perfectly cooked and it’s still a mystery to me how they were able to peel off the skin without subjecting the eggplant meat to a lot of stress and end up mushy, because their eggplant had the perfect texture and firmness.  They probably used a blowtorch and ice cold water to peel of the torched skins…. ^_^  Or maybe not blowtorch…  I wanted it to be little more spicy but the mild heat was good enough for Mario.  It was a tad salty for Mario, but it was perfect for me.  ^_^;  Serving size wasn’t bad either (good for 2-3 people).

It was served with a really hot pot (the dish was hot the whole time we were eating), so they had a pot stand where they can place the pot. I bet the little circle at the bottom was made to hold tea light candles to keep the pot hot if you would want so.

Look! No skins!

Braised Taufu w/ Asado (210php)

Ah, yet another hit!  Although we both agreed we liked the Minced Meat w/ Eggplant more, this dish wasn’t trailing far behind.  I love how the Chinese put so much flavor into everything!  The winning ingredient for me in this dish was the Taufu!  It was still moist and soft at the center, by which you can tell that they used quality tofu, and the outside was firm and properly browned.  Oh I love when a restaurant pays attention to these little details.  I hope they read this so they know that people appreciate the good value they put out on the table, but being in the business for a long time, they probably already know.  As for the rest of the dish, the sauce was mildly sweet (which is ok), the Asado was a little tough (which is a minus), and the mushrooms are juicy (a definite plus)!

Yang Chow Fried Rice (195php)

This one was just ok.  I don’t remember anything special about it, but what I do remember is how it looked so plain compared to the photo on the menu.  In hindsight, it would have probably been better if we had ordered plain rice for P30 each.

I posted the rice menu above and on the right side of the menu is a photo of the Yang Chow Fried Rice which looked colorful and yummy. The actual Yang Chow Fried Rice wasn't exciting at all. Yeah, I would order plain rice next time.

Hong Kong Iced Lemon Tea (70php)

I don’t usually include “normal” drink selections and Iced Tea is quite normal in a restaurant but I really liked this one.  Mario ordered it, but I, of course, get a sip (or 2) before he takes a sip.  ^_^  He lets me take a sip first so that we can discuss the taste…  Ah, yes, we are a match made in heaven.  Anyway, this is more tea than sugar, plus hints of lemon.  I can still taste the bitterness of the tea and it wasn’t drowned out in sugar which I liked very much.  Next time I’ll order that for myself.  I just wished they had bottomless options.

Orange? Nope! Iced Lemon Tea! The color of the tea almost blended into his shirt!

FREE HOT TEA!

It tasted like brown rice tea, mild and smooth. We finished the pot!

Overall

We love the whole experience.  We enjoyed the hustle and bustle ambiance (every once in a while it’s a welcomed environment), we loved the old China town feel with some modern fixture, we love how quick our orders arrived and how polite the crew were, we love a couple of our orders and even the humdrum Yang Chow Fried Rice couldn’t dampen our mood.  The serving size was also good!  We’d love to go back and try the rest of the dishes on the menu!  Especially the sea cucumber dish!

More pictures!

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Hong Kong Emperor Seafood Restaurant – Dine like an Emperor

A huge bright restaurant fit for an Emperor (well, maybe not but almost) inside a mall!  We’ve seen this restaurant several times already, it was hard not to notice it, so we went ahead and tried it for the first time last Friday (March 5, 2010).  It was still on it’s soft opening as they’ve only started last Feb. 13 (day before Valentine) and if you’re lucky (go now!) you can still catch them on their soft opening promo 20% discount on a weekday and 10% discount on a weekend!  That’s 10 or 20 percent off of your tab and not only on selected dishes!

All of these pictures were taken using my Nokia E72 phone camera.  We didn’t have our cam with us that day.

Location

The restaurant is located at the 2nd floor Entertainment Mall of Mall of Asia, near the South Parking area.  Since it’s fairly new, the Mall of Asia store map hasn’t been updated to include this restaurant yet.  But I’m pretty sure finding it would be easy.  It’s a huge and bright place.  ^_^

Yep! It's easy to spot! A zen garden on one side, all other sides are all glass, chandeliers, a big bright restaurant!

About the Store

I love love love the overall look and feel of the store.  If you’ve been reading some of my past articles, you would know how much I love really big spaces in a restaurant, enough for the crew to move around without bumping into each other, or even the customers, without elbowing people who are sitting down, enjoying their meal.

This is the view from where I was sitting. There were 2 entrance doors, both with waiting areas. The 1st door, you can see it in the background. That's where the zen-like decor is. The 2nd door is located at Mario's right (based on this picture). Look how huge the place is! And the chandeliers that really brightened up the whole restaurant!

Pan the camera slightly to the right and you'll see that there are aquariums in the restaurant (typical of a seafood resto) and you'll see a glimpse of the counter.

You wondered what's swimming in those aquariums? Well, here's one! Say hi to freshwater lobster! He's too big he got the 1 whole acquarium to himself. There were 3 or 4 more lobsters next door... ^_^ And some fish in the top aquariums.

The chandeliers deserve one frame all to themselves... ^_^

Here's the view from my right... The small door that's slight open leads to one of their function rooms. If you have a private affair, you can rent those out. I'm not sure if it's just one big private room or 2 private rooms because there's another door (next photo).

There's the other door. Well, it probably leads to one big function room that has dividers if you only need to rent out a small space.

There's a big tarp on the background and I think that's going to be the view from the back facing function rooms once they're finished. That's the bridge going to San Miguel by the Bay and the sunset. Nice. Also, you can see that some of the tables have Lazy Susan (those round turning things on the table to make food easier to access for everyone on the table). There are 3 types of table sets, 1 is the couch (I don't have a pictre of that), 2 is a smaller round table with cushioned chairs (where Mario and I were) that seats probably 4 persons, and 3 - the big round tables that can accommodate 8 people.

About the Food

Well, if you’ve eaten at North Park or other Chinese restaurants, you’ll be familiar with most of the dishes on their menu.  But this seafood restaurant serves more than the usual sweet and sour pork, etc…  They serve some pretty unusual creatures… ^_^  I think I read a sea mantis dish and the price depends on the weight.  We opted to go for the usual dishes first then maybe next time we’ll try those.  By the way, the rare dishes are seasonal so if that’s what you’re looking for, you better call in to ask if they’re available before you go.

We got Sweet and Sour Pork for 260php (we expected it to not be cheap considering how the whole place looks), Baked Chicken Cheese Ball for 280php and Yang Chow Fried Rice (forgot the price).  Each order serves 2-3 people depending on your appetite.

The Sweet and Sour Pork was exactly how we expected it to be.  Sweet, sour, porky and a lot of bell peppers.  Nothing really new.  Although it didn’t look a lot like Mandarin Wok’s Sweet and Sour Pork, it tasted the same.  And Mandarin Wok’s S&S Pork costs only 125php if I’m not mistaken.

The Baked Chicken Cheese Ball caught my eye because I love cheese and the name sounded like the Baked Chicken Rice of Mandarin Wok.  I imagined it to be really creamy and cheesy like how it looked on the menu, but it wasn’t like that at all.  It has the consistency of soup and you can taste it has butter in it.  We described it as tasting like carbonara sauce but I wished it had a more cheesy taste.  On the other hand, I loved the broccoli!  They were big, fresh looking and fresh tasting!

Here's the Sweet and Sour Pork on the menu. A bit pricy? Yes, we thought so too.

And here's how it looked on the menu...

Here's the real deal! Sweet and Sour Pork!

Baked Chicken Cheese Ball for 280php

Here's how it looked on the menu...

It was served in a hot pot enclosed in a wooden box. It stayed hot the whole time... ^_^ And see how soupy it was? I guess my expectations are to be blamed. It was probably meant to be soupy since it was served in a pot.

Here's our Yang Chow Fried Rice. It looked dry, like it was one of the earlier batches of rice cooked for the evening but it served its purpose. We thought we would need one more but it was enough to fill us up. I think it costs more than 100php and their steamed rice (the plain one) costs 40php. That's tea at the bottom. You can request for tea while waiting for your food. You'll get your own pot.

The service is quick and we didn’t have to wait too long for our food.  I even didn’t have the time to take a sip of tea before the food was served.

Overall, it might be a little pricey (with the place given the name “Emperor”, it’s to be expected), but I guess what you’re paying for is the whole experience.  The spacious place, courteous crew, fast service and good food.  But if you’re on a budget and you just really want the same dishes and maybe even better tasting ones, you can go to Mandarin Wok or North Park.

Mario says it's ok...

...and I agree!