Last night I went for birthday dinner #4 at Bubba Gump in Greenbelt 3. I've always seen it around, and I've wanted to try it out sometime, and of course we've all heard it in the Forrest Gump movie, but last night was my first time there.

And it was a really really good first time!

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Maybe it had to do with the fact that I loved seafood, or maybe it had to do with the company I was with, but whatever it was, I had a great time.

We began dinner with All-American Cheesy Fries. I don't think I've ever seen so many things—yummy things, don't worry: sour cream, green onions bacon bits, and cheddar cheese sauce—on top of french fries. (Unless you count our childhood experiments.) Not that I'm complaining. Haha!

And then for drinks I had Speckled Lemonade, which is lemonade with mashed strawberries in it. It sounded interesting right off the bat, but when I tried it, it was way better than I expected! The strawberry and lemon flavors complimented each other so well and didn't over-power each other. And I loved it when strawberry pulp made its way up my straw. Haha!

Moving on to main entrees.

"I'm Stuffed!" Shrimp. The shrimp eats crab meat. Hehe. Kidding. But, really, it's a large shrimp (in Manila standards, I guess) stuffed with crab, baked in garlic butter and topped with Monterey Jack Cheese. Getting hungry already? I know I did when I saw it on the menu. And the dish itself did NOT disappoint. The crab-shrimp was tasty and melts in your mouth!

Up next was the Fajitas. We got the Chicken and Shrimp one, but you can get it with only shrimps on it. It comes with flour tortillas, salsa and sour cream and black beans. Now, I never liked black beans, but with this dish I loved it. Maybe I got a little less than most would put in their tacos, but still. I ate black beans! Congratulate me.

The fajitas is also served with guacamole, but I didn't notice it because it wasn't on the same tray. Hm. I wonder if our server made a mistake, or if it was meant to be like that. They should keep it in one tray, methinks, because some of my friends thought it was coleslaw and ate it by itself. Haha!

Oh, and we had House Salad with Oriental dressing. I LOVE IT. Period.

...No, wait, I take back the period.

I love it because the veggies were so very fresh, and the crutons were toasted just right, and the whole bowl (and contents) was cold so it was refreshing, and the dressing was yummy! I usually prefer vinaigrette over Oriental dressing, but Bubba Gump's oriental salad rocks. I dunno why, but it does.

Aside from the food, I'd like to say a little something about the place.

I LOVE THEIR DECOR! It's a mix of vintage American stuff, quotes from the movie, quotes from...I dunno where but they have that Forresty feel. It was so very cozy, the seats were comfortable, and the service crew is nice.

They have an interesting system for calling waiters. They have two car plates on each table: a blue one that says "Run Forrest Run" and another that says "Stop Forrest Stop". If you want your waiter to come and assist you in any way (get your order, water, utensils, take a photo of your group, or whatever) you just flip the car plate to display the "Stop Forrest Stop" one, and a server will come in seconds. How cool is that?

Needless to say, I had a really great time with friends at Bubba Gump. We stayed there for three or so hours, and I think that, if only it wasn't almost midnight and I still had to go back to Quezon City (which is about an hour and a half's travel from Greenbelt), we would have stayed a bit longer.

There's a Bubba Gump in Trinoma, too, though, so don't be surprised if one of my posts is about me going for Shrimp again. Haha!

Friday, May 18, 2007

scrutiny: Trattoria Acqua

Trattoria Acqua offers La Jolla Banquet Facilities for various functions and events. You can choose from the three Banquet Rooms offered depending on your preference. The Banquet Menus have a wide array of food too choose from, along with a choice between normal and gourmet.

And now, on to the scrutiny.

At first glance, the homepage looks as what the restaurant and the food it serves probably is--colorful and elegant. The colors don't clash, they all blend well.

I didn't find a lot to scrutinize on this website. In fact, I can only think of two, and nothing major.

1. Redundancy
For the Menu links (not the restaurant menus), they get redundant. Probably recycling the template, but I would rather if I'm onthe Brunch Menu, then the link to Brunch Menu be either dimmed out or disabled (plain text) or simply removed to signify that I'm on that page. But then, there are two other texts that tell me I'm on that page. One on top ("Trattoria Acqua's Brunch" in white that is pretty small) and one below the Menu links (that just says "Brunch"). One "Brunch" is enough. Either they put it on the link, or remove it.

The same goes for the Banquet Menus, though the crime only shows up twice. On a side note, I think it's better if they just keep the white text and increase the font size of that one. And not use white... a deeper orange perhaps.

2. Pictures
They have a very nice picture gallery, and they took pains in taking a pretty picture of almost every crevice in the restaurant. They even have a picture of the view from the place. Why didn't they put more pictures of the food they serve? The few pictures of the food they have on the website looks very delicious. So why not make the web visitors drool more by putting more pictures. A mouse-over thumbnail would be nice.

Okay, I will say the truth. The descriptions of the food below the names of the dishes mean nothing to me. Almost. I want to know how it looks like. I'm guilty of visual hunger. Sometimes, if something looks delicious, I'm going to have a go at it. So... More pictures please.

On to the basics
Links: All are working.
Colors: Not clashing, no blinking.
Up-to-date: Yeah. it says 2006.... I don't think it will have changed that much, price-wise.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006

eat, drink, and eat some more!

If you haven't got any plans for Saturday — or even if you do — check out Dine and Jam.

Dine and Jam is a monthly celebration of the love of music, gift of cooking and joy of friendships. Each month will feature home cooked pasta meals from the Regali Kitchen, and amazing talent courtesy of Tim 4:12 productions.

It's actually a family project of ours. Papa is basically the owner (Mama and Kuya JB are the managers). Kuya JB is the head chef of the Regali Kitchen, which provide the scrumptious dinner. Mama is the queen of desserts in the Kitchen. Kuya Ace is our graphic designer for tickets and posters and such. Kuya Tim heads 1 Tim 4:12 productions, which provide live, relaxing, cool jazz music while you eat. And moi? I handle marketing, guest relations, finances, and all that jazz.

What's so cool about D&J is that it's not just a restaurant. It's not just a gig. It's one big party where family friends share good, clean (and delicious!) fun. And it's even more fun because our friends become friends with each other. Like, my friends become friends with Kuya Tim's friends, Kuya JB's friends' parents become friends with my folks, etc. It's sort of like friendster in real, non-cyberspace life.

And it's just awesome.

Try it sometime (and I recommend this Saturday), and I'm sure you'll have so much fun, you'd wish it happened every week.

I know I do.

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for reservations and more information, please visit http://RegaliKitchen.multiply.com