My trip to Ayala Triangle Gardens was still fresh in my mind. And I was so glad that we had lunch with colleagues at one of the restaurants there which I haven’t tried, Kanin Club. Actually, the original plan was to have lunch at Wee Nam Kee but due to the long queue, we decided otherwise.
I was excited to try out Kanin Club. I wanted to know what would separate Kanin Club from other Filipino restaurants in the metro. Why was it called Kanin Club? Are there anything special with their rice? I was too enthusiastic to find out. I wouldn’t have any problem if we ordered too much 😛
I was a bit disappointed when we walked up to the entrance. We were waiting for someone to assist us so we could have a table. We were calling the waiter but he told us he can’t help us and we should just wait for the receptionist. We don’t even know who the receptionist is, we tried entering and was trying to catch the attention of their waiters, hayyy. Fortunately, the receptionist finally showed up and walked us to our table. The disappointment didn’t stop there. It was just so hard to catch the attention of the waiters. It seemed like they were avoiding being called upon. That time, it was already past 2pm and the restaurant wasn’t full. They were courteous though when we finally caught them. I hope they improve on this.
I let my colleagues do the ordering as 2 of them already tried Kanin Club. Both said they loved the food. I was looking forward to tasting them. So the ff. were our orders:
- Ripe Mango Shake (Php 97)
Their green mango shake was a bit more expensive. I do not understand why. I ended up with the ripe mango shake.
- Crispy Liempo (Php 142)
We all love crunchy food especially for appetizer. We had crispy liempo which is pork belly strips made as a snack. It came with 3 different sauces for us to dip the liempo into. The sauces were chili sauce, soy sauce and vinegar. The best sauce for it definitely was the vinegar in my opinion. It felt like chicharon but not so devilish 😛
- Tinapa Rice (Php 149)
As soon as I had a spoonful of tinapa rice, I understood why the restaurant is called Kanin Club. The whole dish tasted like tinapa. Every spoonful of it. Flavors were spread evenly, we could really taste the smoked fish all over the dish. I couldn’t get enough of it.
On my next visit, I will definitely try out the other rice dishes. If I don’t get the chance to dine in there next time, I would order for take out! I can practically just eat this rice without any main dish (‘ulam’ in tagalog).
- Crispy Dinuguan (Php 261)
If you aren’t fond of liver, fret not! As Kanin Club’s crispy dinuguan is made for us non-dinuguan lovers! Such a unique creation! I couldn’t believe that they could think of having the pork deep fried first then have the pork blood stew over it. No liver, so we can indulge on this beautiful dish.
- Lemon Chicken (Php 224)
I always see lemon chicken in Chinese restaurants. It was interesting to eat Kanin club’s take of the dish. The chicken was definitely thinner and the sauce was not thick. Their lemon sauce was sweet. I enjoyed this dish.
- Turon KC a la Mode (Php 135)
Definitely the most unique turon I have ever eaten in my life. This was a genius creation! Think halo halo in a fried roll! Gee! I was in total awe looking at the dish and was even more impressed when I was already eating it.
This unique turon creation of Kanin Club has bananas, purple yam jam, sweet coconut strips and mongo beans. You can order just the turon KC but we went a step further by getting the ala mode which has a scoop of ice cream. This was such a treat! A must order!
I loved the food! To be honest, I didn’t expect the food to be so good! I noticed one thing though, they took advantage of frying their food to the maximum level. They know that we Filipinos, love crunchy/crispy food. Kanin Club took note of that, incorporated it to their dishes and is very successful in executing it.
Just one look at the restaurant and you’d know it’s Filipino. They probably got inspiration from the old Filipino times. It works. It was like modern Filipino food in an old Filipino inspired place. Suited for all ages and their food definitely satisfies our tastebuds.
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Kanin Club
Restaurants at the Ayala Triangle Gardens
Ayala Triangle Gardens, Makati City
I was a big fan of Kanin Club (Technohub) where I make sure I go to everytime I’m on vacation here in the Philippines. Love their food until my last visit there yesterday I will NEVER EVER GO BACK there anymore. Their food was MICROWAVED and their staff basically admitted to it when I complained about my food being cold! I was there for lunch and they served me cold food. You just know when the food was just re-heated. They serve it to you half-warm & it’s cold in not even 5 minutes! I noticed that when I ordered the Seafood Kare-Kare where one can’t help but see how the mussels shrunk into its shell all dried up! For Dessert we ordered Turon & Turon KC and was served cold again. Thats when it really got me so i called the server. She took the plate of Turon & said she’s just gonna re-heat it since she said they cook their food in batches! Which means, its not freshly cooked! I asked how she’s gonna re-heat it — she told me straight to my face — “ma’am MICROWAVE”! I SAID i’m sorry but I don’t eat microwaved food. She still took it & gave it to one of the guys from the counter window to the kitchen. I was observing what they are going to do. They whispered to each other & saw 3-4 staff looked at me. One of the servers probably didn’t notice that I was staring at them said — “iinit mo nalang!”. I then decided to cancel the order.
Its a SAD SAD STORY! When customers pay to go to a decent restaurant hoping to get freshly cooked food for their money they will be served nothing but re-heated microwaved food! THAT’S KANIN CLUB for us! I’m a balikbayan & I will NEVER EVER go back nor recommend any of our Balikbayans to dine there. There’s plenty of Authentic Filipino Restaurants out there — try Fely J’s at Greenbelt 5 and you’ll get your money’s worth.