He arrived from Canada a few weeks earlier, so the plan is to spend his 60th birthday together along with the Dumantay clans at Dad's megamall.
The Meryendad's promo starts at 3pm, so Chea, Tita Fe, Thirdy and myself headed out around 1pm to head to Mandaluyong.
Along the way, we went to Hi Top Market to get some milk formula for the baby. I asked that we drop by Daiso along Mother Ignacia in Quezon City as well, to see if they had any available items we could use for Thirdy's party. We got a couple of glass jars for 88php each out of that side trip.
When we arrived at Ortigas, we saw that The Podium was having a sale, so we decided we'll drop by later to see what we could find for Thirdy's party.
We arrived at Megamall a little past 2pm. We checked with the receptionist already while waiting for the rest of the Dumantay clan to arrive to make sure that we will have seats. It was fortunate that we arrived early since they didn't take reservations, only a priority list.
After a few minutes, Chea's mom arrived along with her sister Chie, brother Cyrus and nephew Justine. Just before 3pm, we were seated already by the main entrance. By 3pm, Chea's dad arrived with Tito Obet and Tita. And soon after, the buffet station was opened and we started with queueing for food. Chea, Tita Fe and myself had passed on lunch, so we were a bit anxious to get started even when Tito Obet hadn't arrived yet.
So while Chea looked after the little tyke, I went ahead and raided the closest buffet station. I came back with 3 plates full of bounties.
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| Mini burgers and corn dogs. |
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| Chicken mami and fried dumplings. |
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| French fries for thirdy. Of course he isnt finishing all of that. Just a few little bites. |
The first plate had mini burgers and corn dogs. Second plate was filled with fries. And the third plate had chicken mami and some fried dumplings.
I started wolfing down most of the food while Chea ate some of the fries and fed Thirdy a few bites. I then went back and filled a fourth plate with dinuguan, puto and pansit.
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| The perfect pinoy merienda combination for me. Mmm mmm mm. |
By this time, Chea's mom took Thirdy and Chea was able to hit the stations for herself, and filled her first plate with a few things.
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| Let's see. Bibingka, taco, turon, kamote que (without the stick actually), puto bumbong. And i cant recall the white one. Im bad with names. |
I then went back for palabok and a couple of kakanin's.
Chea then went bank for the desserts, which I never got around to taste, as I got full with a second round of pansit.
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| Looks good. But i passed. |
Overall, the food was great. It's flavorful, so for 229php with bottomless drinks (199php for weekdays), it was money well spent.
I mean, if you're going for a buffet, you really won't go for rice, so full filipino meals isn't the best menu for a buffet as they're really strong on the flavors which is tempered down with generous servings of rice. So for buffets with a Filipino flavor, it's really best to go with meryenda menus like pansit, palabok, kakanin, etc. It allows you to eat more as they're usually lighter.
As i said, the food is flavorful, as compared to what Tramway offers. Based on my experience, Tramway's selection, although it's larger, is somewhat bland. But for 245 (without drinks), if you want to really pig out, that's pretty cheap. But if you want your palates to experience something better, you can't do better than Dad's especially at this price.
I personally loved Dad's pansit since this is one of my favorite foods. Their pansit's flavor is a bit different when you compare them to your normal pansit. It isn't mind blowing, but it's pleasant, and it makes you want to eat more, which I did. The dinuguan was ok. I wish it had more meat.
I love mami, so I wish they had bigger bowls. There's always a line around that station because they were serving the pork siomai and fried dumplings at the same area, so I just got lazy to go back and get more.
The kakanins are ok, i wish they had more variants. I didn't notice if there was maja blanca as that is my favorite kakanin. I may have just overlooked it as i skipped a few trays.
I didn't like the burger. It was too dry. And really just didn't taste that good. The corn dog was great especially at that mini size. The ratio of the batter to the hotdog was just perfect. The problem I have with big corn dogs, is that they have too much batter so you're just basically eating batter, and then get to a small hotdog inside. But these mini corn dogs are just perfect.
There were other items like pasta, shawarma, etc, which I didn't bother to taste since I was already full.
A few minutes before 5pm, everyone was done so we were just chatting. And when 5pm struck, we had already paid the bill and were on our separate ways home.
Thirdy and Tita Fe will be spending the following week with Chea's family in Antipolo. He usually spends a week at a time in Antipolo so his Lola Tess and Lolo Rico will get some quality time with him.
After saying goodbyes, Chea and I first checked out the baby section in SM Megamall Department store to see if they had clothes for the baptism. We couldn't find any so we went to the Home Section to check out their dinnerware, to see how much the plates we will be using for the buffet costs.
Chea and I then went to The Podium to check out the sale. We were mostly looking for items we could use for the party, or something for Thirdy. We didn't get anything except for a jar decoration from Living Well, which I think we won't be able to use anyway.
Chea did bump into a college classmate of hers who had a display selling cakes. After a brief chat between the two, Chea and I then proceeded to Landmark in Trinoma Mall for one last dinnerware hunting.
We took note of the prices of their ceramic ware. And also checked some items that could be used for decorations.
After that, we went home and got some rest. This coming weekend is going to be busy as well since we'll be having a studio photoshoot with Thirdy.
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