XO Kitchen

The other day, my colleagues & I decided to eat out for dinner.  We planned to dine at another restaurant but ended up going the wrong way.  We saw this newly opened restaurant called XO Kitchen & decided to try it out.

The place is actually just small but it was well designed.  They have this cute red dragon dressed up as a chef painted on their wall.  XO Kitchen basically serves Chinese food.  We were excited to taste their food and see if it was delicious, we might have found our new hangout place!

Here is what we ordered:

• Hakaw (Php 95)

All time favorite dimsum of the Filipino-Chinese community hehehe 😛  We never failed to order this whenever we dine out at chinese restaurants.  To explain it in simple terms, hakaw is basically a shrimp dumpling.  It’s best eaten w/ XO kitchen’s chili sauce, try to put soy sauce also. The shrimps seemed to be cooked separately before the hakaw was prepared.  Could have been better if it was cooked together or blanched slightly to ensure that the shrimp taste wouldn’t be diluted.

• Fish Fillet w/ Mango (Php 230)

This is a food item that everyone should try out.  We were like, “what?” when we saw the menu.  We immediately ordered it as we were so curious to find out how fish w/ mango tasted like.  It didn’t disappoint, it was good & delicious!  The fish was prepared really well, crispy on the outside & very tender inside.  Not sure if everyone would like this but the fishy taste in the fish was gone, you can actually confuse it with other meat.  For me, I was very satisfied w/ the dish.  Glad we ordered it!

• XO Kitchen Special Beef (Php 230)

True to their word.  This dish is truly XO Kitchen special beef, I haven’t tasted anything like it.  I didn’t notice it at first but this dish was cooked with sibut broth.  What is sibut?  It’s a Chinese herbal soup.  A very unique way of cooking beef, genius idea chef!

• Chinese Kangkong w/ Garlic (Php 120)

This might look like a normal kangkong dish but it was actually very tasty.  Garlic can definitely be cooked crispier to give some contrast to the very chew-friendly kangkong 😉  With dishes like this, it’s important to have some contrasting colors and texture to make it not only appetizing to the palette but to the eyes as well.  Like I have always said before, when it comes to cuisine or food in general, one always feasts with the eyes first.  Always good to note for restaurants owners creating their menus.

• Steamed Rice (Php 25)

• Yang Chow Fried Rice (Php 120)

My favorite among the ones we ordered.  This is like one of the best fried rice I have eaten!  According to my friend Maus, it looked like they made use of asado oil (based on the greasiness & the color).

• Iced Tea (Php 50)

Bottomless iced tea, served in a small glass.  They also have bottomless softdrinks w/ the same price.

They obviously just opened because right after we finished eating, the head waiter approached us and asked how the food was.  We said it was okay.  He offered their delivery services & gave us pamphlets.

The service I think was okay.  There was just one waiter who was so engrossed with the TV that we didn’t bother calling him anymore LOLz!  The owner was there but was busy taking care of the restaurant.  I think it would have been better if the owner approached us and tried to be friendly.  I’ve seen a lot of restaurants having loyal clients because the owner were very much accommodating.

Overall, I loved the food!  The recipes were very original & I liked the presentation.  Would have been better if they provide a greater serving amount to their ala carte dishes.  The dishes are really just good for 2.  You might want to order more if you’re hungry 🙂

——————–
XO Kitchen
134 Jupiter Street, Bel Air 2, Makati City, Philippines