Mother's Day 2014 at Ha Yuan

As every year, we're part of the masses that join the capitalist celebration of Mother's day. This year, my mother was at Samar at the time, so it's me celebrating Mother's day with my wife, and her side of the family.

Placemat

It's usually them who prepares for the date, so this year they decided to have the celebration at Ha Yuan. And since we're from QC, we opted to go to their Mother Ignacia branch, just behind St. Paul Church.

Chea and I came from our house in QC, while her parents, her two male siblings, her sister, and her nephew, along with Tita Fe and Thirdy came down from Antipolo. We called in for a reservation at noon, but we were told that it's already fully booked. They told us to try and come earlier at around 11am as that time had still some available tables.

Chea and I arrived by 11:30 am, while her family arrived a bit earlier. The parking area and the surrounding streets were full of cars, so we had to park a little way off.

When we got in, the place was packed and there were already people standing inside waiting for tables to free up.

Menu. Relatively inexpensive

The place was a bit small and packed with tables and chairs, that you could barely move between tables. Airconditioning is also non-existent, especially with the summer weather. Most of the patrons were sweating even with just seating in their chairs.

If you looked around, you'd probably see the window type air conditioners which looked decades old. So it's no wonder that it gets sweltering hot.

There was a station that had prepared dishes already so you can start eating if you wanted. But we opted to order some of the non-readily available dishes.

We ordered fresh lumpia, sweet and sour pork, and cha mi or one of the noodle dishes good for 3-4 persons. With the place packed to the rafters (there are actually no rafters), the wait was terribly long. And while we waited, people kept arriving. Some diligently waited inside, standing in the spaces between tables, and outside, where it was windy, but hot and very humid.

There was even a customer who was arguing with one of the older waitresses since she made a reservation, only to arrive with no table waiting for her party.

Also, with the number of customers they had that day, they didn't have enough staff to serve everybody. Often, the staff were not able to notice customers calling them out. It was a messy situation.

Half of the fresh lumpia. I think it's worth the 75 peso price tag

Later, the fresh lumpia arrived. It was pretty good. Normally, I never liked fresh lumpia, especially with the texture of vegetables all around your mouth. But this was different. The ingredients inside the lumpia were chopped, almost minced, to small pieces that everything felt good in your mouth. You wouldn't need to worry about biting into the fresh lumpia, pulling it apart with your teeth and having pieces still inside the main lumpia.

The sauce was sweet and pretty good, a bit like siopao sauce, but you could eat the lumpia even without it. And unlike most fresh lumpia that had nuts, I didn't notice if this had any.

Noodles. Didn't catch the name.

Later, the rice, the noodles and the sweet and sour pork arrived. Nothing special with the sweet and sour pork, except that it's not that sour when I compare it to the way my mom cooks it. The noodles? I don't know. It tasted plain, almost bland.

Sweet and barely sour pork

After finishing, I went outside with Thirdy so we could get a whiff of fresh air. While waiting, I overheard some of the male patrons hanging around the entrance, talking about the restaurant. It seems that their wives dragged them to Ha Yuan after seeing it featured on Kris TV. So that's where Chea and her siblings got the idea.

The guys even joked about letting the wives have their day, and they could start ignoring them tomorrow, when it's no longer Mother's day. Lol.

Any other day, I think Ha Yuan's a good option. It probably wouldn't be packed, so therefore the airconditioning might be tolerable. Plus, the staff would be able to handle the right amount of people, and the wait wouldn't be too long. But on days like this? Best to avoid it.

You'd probably be better off just ordering their fresh lumpia to go (which is probably their best dish anyway), and go to the more modern, very spacious, well ventilated chinese restos with a lot more food options.