Delicious Restaurants

The variety of foods that can be enjoyed in San Francisco is remarkably broad: Italian, Middle Eastern, Chinese, Japanese, Malaysian, Indonesian, and Vietnamese. However, I cannot list them all. Even compared to New York City, San Francisco’s variety of food does not lose its excellence.

In addition, the cost for enjoying these fabulous foods is amazingly reasonable. I consider buffet-style restaurants to be the most cost-effective. About two years ago, we found an extremely good Asian cuisine buffet restaurant, the Beijing Buffet, close to the San Francisco Airport. I referred to several rating sites before writing this article, and the ratings varied from person to person. However, the general rating was average. My own experience at this restaurant has been good, and my wife and mother-in-law love it as well. Because my wife is a Chinese American who was born in China, her sense of taste for authentic Chinese foods is trustworthy.

My wife and I like this place because of the size of the buffet and the variety of foods offered. There are five large buffet tables that keep the food warm. Along the right wall of the square restaurant is the counter for sushi, sashimi, shrimp, crab, and fresh seafood. The other counter carries both warm and cold Asian and European deserts. At the end of the desert counter, there are ice cream self-dispensers that offer the following flavors: vanilla, chocolate, or a mixture of both.

Each buffet table has its own food categories:
1) warm vegetables and cold salads,
2) fish and seafood,
3) Chinese and American-style poultry,
4) fried rice, noodles, and rice soup, and
5) steamed, fried, or boiled pot stickers and Chinese-style meat buns.

Some restaurants offer a regular menu in addition to a buffet. Beijing Buffet does not have regular menu. However, a BBQ counter is a part of the buffet service offered by this restaurant. They have a buffet menu for both lunch and dinner. My wife is not very excited about BBQ, but I love it. It is like ordering an omelet to your taste during breakfast at a hotel. The buffet includes choices of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp, fish, vegetables, tomatoes, bean sprouts, and more. Although some buffet-style restaurants do not have lobsters or crabs at lunch, this place offers all types of foods for both lunch and dinner.

You also can ask the chef to make your dish spicier, sweeter, or saltier. Mr. Choi, who works in the BBQ section, became my friend because he thinks that I request more choices in my food than other people. If you like grilled fish or jumbo shrimp, you can ask to have it skewered. If you want to eat Chinese buns, which are called pao, Mr. Choi can grill them for you. He makes pao with only pork, pork and vegetable pao, and pao with only vegetables, or sweet pao.

Finally, you can order Chinese egg noodles grilled with your choice of meat, seafood, vegetables, or a combination of these options. You can also choose thick egg noodles, thin egg noodles, or rice noodles.

Despite the rapid upsurge of restaurants that serve grilled food in the metropolis and different provinces, Congo Grille remains to be one of the favorites of families and office yuppies since it holds the secret to premium grilled food. From a typical Filipino restaurant seven years ago, Congo Grille has gone global in terms of the food it serves which its loyal patrons would describe as first-rate, generous and affordable. “Compared to other grilling resto, we make it a point to add a premium on every serving. We serve the biggest portion of crispy pata and inihaw na pusit. You pay the same price but get a bigger portion or serving of the food that you order for,” explains Dex Frayco, kitchen operations manager of Congo Grille.

Each of the 240 items listed on Congo’s menu, most of which came from the customers, is guaranteed to satisfy three to four persons who need not worry about forking out big bucks.

“We have a ‘customer comment card’ which customers fill up whenever they dine at Congo. We consolidate their suggestions in our monthly meeting then we study whatever is predominant and improve that,” adds Frayco. Because of constant and tireless monitorship of what Congo’s customers want, Frayco and everybody else running Congo Grille discovered that people can’t get enough of their sizzling delights such as Pork Sisig which is priced at P160, Baked New Zealand Mussels cooked in cheese, garlic butter and Rockefeller Sauce (P260), and Congo Rice topped with calamares, spring onions, dried ginger and rye (P160). Other Congo favorites are Tex Mex Nachos, Crispy Pata and Grilled Pusit.

“Our Crispy Pata is good for five persons because it’s really big. We’ve got a lot of suppliers for pata because it’s hard to source out pata that weighs 60 kilos. That’s why we get our supply of pata from as far as Laguna,” reveals Frayco, adding that they go out of their way to please their customers because Congo Grille wants to live up to the special trait of a silverback gorilla.

“You’ve noticed that our restaurant is represented by a silverback gorilla and that is so because if you research on it, you’ll realize that this type of creature is the most caring and playful to its young. This is the image that our restaurant exudes because our standard of taste is always based on our customers’ preference,” he explained.

Aside from putting utmost importance on what its customers want, Congo Grille’s other secret to its continuing success is the pair of expert hands working in the kitchen. Congo’s Executive Chef Reynaldo Natividad’s passion for Spanish and Western cuisine contributed a lot to Congo’s speedy progress in the grilling industry. “Since our vision is to go global and we’ve made the first step in our kitchen, preparations are now being made for our first branch abroad. We’re planning to put up a branch in the US,” concludes Frayco. Congo Grille currently has 10 branches located in Ortigas, Quezon City, Makati City, Alabang, SM Fairview, SM San Lazaro, SM Valenzuela, SM Sta. Rosa, SM Clark and SM Mall of Asia.

Mary Antonette Valdez-Pua is a certified food critic who reviews the new offerings of food establishments in the metropolis.

Over the years, the concept of eating out has become a necessity. Gone are the days when it was a luxury and you only went to a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion. Now, you go to a restaurant because you are hungry and don’t have the time to buy the ingredients and cook a regular meal at home. The ‘grab and go’ take-away culture makes it easy for the ever-busy urban crowd to put something in their stomach while on the run.

And yet, nothing can beat eating at a good restaurant just for the sheer pleasure of tasting gourmet meals and exotic cuisines. Not all restaurants are ‘good’ restaurants; there are several restaurants that will make you regret your decision the moment you step in. This article gives you some easy tips on how to distinguish the good from the bad.

You know you are in a good restaurant when the waiters:

� are polite and courteous

� are dressed well in clean clothes

� listen carefully to your order and repeat it to you

� are able to explain what goes into each dish

� are knowledgeable about the wine

� ensure that every person at your table gets what they ordered

� do not offer unsolicited small talk

� fade into the background once the food is served but materialize at your side when you need them!

And you know you are in a good restaurant when

� it is airy with fresh air and sunlight pouring in through open windows

� it offers a good view

� the lighting is just right – not too dark that you can’t read the menu or see what you are eating and yet not so bright that you feel like you are in the spotlight

� there is soothing music playing in the background

� you find beautiful artwork on the walls that are painted in colours that are pleasing to the eye

� you are served a decent sized main course

� you are served an entr�e or dessert on the house

� you can sense the waiters and the staff in the kitchen are working in tandem

� the food is cooked to perfection and served with flair

If you walk into any restaurant, find the waiters are not dressed well and walk around with a disinterested look, it would be best to walk out immediately rather than wait around to find out that you wasted your time and money.

On rare occasions, you just might find a restaurant where the food is extremely tasty but the service is poor. In those cases, opting for take-away will at least ensure that you get a decent meal without losing your cool. Then there are those restaurants who have the best customer service but the food tastes awful, or the portions are too small, or everything on the menu is overpriced or not available, the tables and silverware are dirty, etc. There are also those restaurants where the same dish tastes different the next time you eat there. The quantity is less, the price is more, or the quality has gone down.

Sometimes, you will find everything to your liking: waiters who serve you the perfect meal with the perfect smile, and you would have had a terrific time. But, unfortunately, you may fall very ill as soon as you get back home and you would curse the food and swear you won’t eat out again! Kitchen hygiene is something that you don’t get to see for yourself. If the restaurant chooses to be spic and span in the serving area, and neglects the cooking area you are in for serious trouble.

It takes just one bad experience to put you off a restaurant for the rest of your life. So choose your restaurant with care, read reviews, and talk to friends about the restaurant before you head there. If it is for a special occasion or you are going on a first date, it is best to go where you have been before.

Almost all restaurants start off with everything picture perfect. But the ones that take a laid back approach and stop paying attention to customer feedback slowly deteriorate over time both in the quality of food and service. These restaurants are forced to close eventually because of lack of patronage. A restaurant that has knowledgeable, well-dressed, and courteous staff, and offers a tasty fare every single time is the one that can be assured of a regular and expanding clientele over the years.

It is a universal truth widely acknowledged that no Indian has even refrained from eating chaat, dahi puri, dahi bhalla, dahi vada, aloo tikki, bhel puri, samosa chaat and other street snack foods. The finger licking taste is now offered by reputed restaurant franchise so that you do not have to worry about hygiene and health. The taste of the Indian streets now has been more refined through the various restaurant franchises that have taken the Indian snack industry by storm. The vegetarian snacks business is one that will never cease to exist, come what may and so is the business of restaurant franchises. It is a guarantee of benefits for both, the franchisor who offers the license against one time royalty and some percent of the income generated on annual or monthly basis, whatever is decided by the two. A number of people have made their fortunes by stepping in this industry as success is a guarantee. The unlimited variety of food snacks has made numerous restaurant franchises bask in the glory of success.

Indian food and snacks industry has always been popular amongst not only the natives but people visiting from various other countries too. Food snacks packed attractively serve to be major gifts for friends and relatives in the festive seasons and also on various other celebrative occasions. A party is incomplete without sweets and namkeen like aloo bhujia, cornflakes mixture, chana masala, dal moth, ganthiya, kaju mixture, kashmiri mixture. Food snacks like pav bhaji, vada pav, pakoda, paneer pakoda, bread pakoda, burger, soya masala wada, samosa, cheese corn balls, kachodi, samosa roll, soya tikki, gobhi pakoda, paneer tikki, etc. are popular amongst Indian food freaks and overseas tourists alike. Leave aside occasions of celebrations, vegetarian snacks are also considered the best snacks with tea. Best munching namkeens, bhujias, matar masala are preferred in all Indian homes with or without tea as well. Brand does matter when it comes to hygienic production, carefully done packing, and the healthy ingredients. Most of the sweets and vegetarian snacks are meant to be consumed in a day or maximum a week.

The snacks industry has over the years developed as one of the most preferred industries in terms of gifting in the festive seasons. Sweets and food snacks make the best of gifts when it comes to greeting family, friends and relatives. Sweets and food snacks manufactured by reputed restaurant franchise brands are distinct not only in quality, but taste and nutritious value as well. These reputed restaurant franchise brands also offer online ordering facilities for their customers. Through this online facility, you can also send your relatives, and friends’ sweets and food snacks like cornflakes mixture, kaju mixture, kashmiri mixture, khatta meetha, khoka bhujia, matar masala, moong daal, navratan mixture, peanut masala, etc. This online ordering and gifting facility offered by restaurant franchise ensures that you do not miss on any opportunity to wish your loved ones happiness even in the hectic of days.