Spending Time with Chatime

About the food:

Tea-based specialty drinks are really popular and nowadays and in almost every mall, you can find one. In Robinsons Galleria, we found a small stall of Chatime and decided to give it a try.

We both ordered the Pearl Red Bean Milk Tea (PHP80 for large). It seemed then that our drinks had too much ice on it, and we even requested for zero sugar to be added, which made the drink less flavorful. We were not very pleased with our orders.


Where to buy and how much:

The branch of Chatime we found was at Robinsons Galleria, near the supermarket area and National Book Store. It's price is on the lower-middle end of specialty tea drinks.


Rating: 6.5/10

To really enjoy tea-based drinks, I'd recommend Saint's Alp Teahouse in Katipunan Ave. instead. They have the best tea-based drinks I've tried so far.

Hyperific at Hyphy's

About the food:

We've been hearing good reviews about Hyphy's in Robinsons Galleria. Furthermore, I myself have tasted real clam chowder in San Francisco, of which Hyphy's takes its inspiration from. So, we decided to give this store a visit.

clam chowder in sourdough bread (PHP170 excl SC)

First off, we went for soup and tried the clam chowder in sourdough bread (which is good for two). The sourdough bread is fresh and good, as well as generous in size. We weren't able to finish the bread because we would end up being too full to eat anything else. As for the chowder, it was thick and had good taste. It had a mix of vegetables aside from clam. Personally, I would prefer 80% clams for clam chowder instead of mostly vegetables, but that would make the price of soup too high.

Next, we had the Dolores Park Burrito.

Dolores Park Burger (PHP300 excl SC)

It had beef, vegetables, rice, and surprisingly red beans, that reminded me of hopia. This too, was a heavy meal that is worth trying. It's not the usual burrito you find in fastfood mexican outlets that are mostly ground beef and tomato sauce. 

  To complete our lunch, the best dish we tried that day was the fish burger.

fish burger (PHP190 excl SC)

 The fries on this burger were freshly cut and were not salty. I took home an additional order of this fish burger and even when cold, the fries tasted great.

 What makes this fish burger stand out from the fastfood fish fillet burgers is the quality of the fish used, which is snapper (according to the menu).

Where to buy:

Hyphy's is located at the Ground Floor Veranda of Robinsons Galleria, along other restaurants such as La Creperie, Eat Well!, and Papa Johns.

Rating: 9/10

I almost forgot about the trivia. Hyphy's should not be pronounced as (hee-fis). Instead, it should be pronounced as (high-fees). Take note that they do not charge high-fees. I find their prices quite reasonable. They're more expensive than fastfood and foodcourts (they should be) but not as expensive as hotels and upscale fine dining restaurants.