Posted on: 3rd of October 2008 | Under: Palate Pleaser

Oh yes, this is going to be another food post. I did mention that flying back to Manila meant a lot of food tripping, didn’t I? Get ready to take out your exercise mats (or maybe an alli diet pill?), because following are several photos of our last proper meal in Manila.

Monday, September 29, 2008 (4:00pm): It was JR’s mom’s Birthday, and since our flight back to SIngapore was scheduled later in the evening, we decided to celebrate it over an early dinner at Greenbelt.

We had several restaurants in mind: Bubba Gump, Fish & Co., just to name a few, but we had to rule those out, because Mark, JR’s younger brother, is allergic to seafood. Italian food was also not an option, because they just had pasta over lunch at their house. After checking out the other restaurants in Greenbelt 3 and not finding anything we fancied, Japanese food was finally agreed on. We walked to Greenbelt 5 for a belly-bursting meal at John and Yoko.

We started our meal with an order of Tuna Sashimi:

Followed by the Hollywood Tuna: ripe mangoes, wrapped in tuna slices and served with lettuce and sweet sauce. This was a nice salad!

Then we had two orders of Ebi Tempura (the picture shows only half of one order). You can never go wrong with tempura!

Our Crunchy Kani Roll was plated nicely, but sadly I didn’t get to try it, because I was overwhelmed when our next plate (BIG platter, actually) arrived.

Big in Japan: Oyster Teppan, Beef Teppan, Salmon Sashimi, California Maki, Bacon Asparagus, Chicken Yakitori, Ika Fry, Meat Fried Rice. We didn’t expect the platter to be that big! It occupied the entire center of our table of six, and overflowed with big servings of food.

I was able to try everything on the platter, except for the oysters. I was already too full to grab another bite, before I could taste it!

All-in-all, John and Yoko was neither a disappointment nor that exquisite. The food was good, but quite ordinary. It pretty much tasted like any other Japanese restaurant. However, the hip ambiance, the great food presentation, and the friendly staff scores them an extra point.

JR and I with his mom, brothers, and Daphne.