Hanaichi

One of our daily 'challenges' is deciding where to eat lunch. There are actually a lot of choices - the Fort Strip, Burgos Circle, Serendra, High Street...there are also a couple of fast food joints a few blocks away if we're in the mood to walk a bit farther than usual. It just really depends on what we're craving for or if we have the luxury of time to extend our lunch break for a bit (meaning we don't have a 1pm con call!)

For today's lunch, we planned to eat at Max's but as soon as we stepped out, it started to rain. Walking a couple of blocks is obviously out of the question. Then we remembered that there's a new japanese resto, Hanaichi, which just opened at the ground floor of our building. We just had our fix of jap food yesterday but what the heck, as long as we don't order tempura!

The place looks very unassuming from the outside...the windows were tinted so can't see thru but we thought there won't be much people anyway. But to our surprise, the place was full and we just managed to grab the last table! There was a sushi bar at the far end and our first thought was, this seems to be an authentic (not the 'americanized' fusion type) japanese resto. And it was confirmed when we realized that we were the only Filipinos (well, except for the staff). All the other patrons were either Koreans or Japanese!

The menu was very impressive! I had a hard time choosing which one to get - everything just looked so good! Each of us finally ended up getting one of the 'sets'. We all passed on the tempura because of yesterday's lunch but since Joel wasn't with us then, he got the Tempura set for himself.

I had the Sashimi Set for P490 - quite pricey but seeing what's included, definitely worth it! There's miso soup, tamago, fruits, salad, string beans with pork thingy, fried lapu-lapu fillet, rice and of course the sashimi - the freshest cuts of salmon, tuna and snapper(?). Yummy!

Ochie, Lyn and Ros had the Ramen Set for P380 which included the same salad, fruits and veggies plus a dessert of sweet sticky rice.

We now have a new favorite and we'll definitely go back to try the other stuff on their menu - but not this week... as much as I love japanese food, quota na kami! :)