New Annex Building - SM City Fairview
Quirino Highway cor. Belfast Avenue, Quezon City
22 May 2010
Brother just came home from Cagayan de Oro, so mom and I asked him if he wanted to eat out with us because mom and I planned to do grocery shopping that day. As we continued with our "quest" to try all the food places in SM City Fairview, we decided to eat at Go! Fan Roasts & Dimsum because their prices seemed reasonable. Actually, we planned to eat at Tong Yang (an eat-all-you-can restaurant) that day, but because it was a weekend, the restaurant was charging about p499 per person. Mom and I found it a little ridiculous, so might as well eat at something much affordable.
It was still a few minutes before lunch time, so the place was still a little bare. Well, given that time, food places at this part of the mall was new, and this was a new name - maybe people were still hesitant in trying it out.
The waitress left right after she gave us the menu. It was quite funny... we were about to call her to give our orders when we realized there was an order card to fill up. Hehehehe.
They had some promos that time, but we decided to go with their solo order, so we can choose what dish we wanted to eat, then we would just add a few little extras to complete the whole meal. We went for:
Roast Minced Duck (p175). Brother initially wanted the braised beef, but for whatever reason, he went with this. I was actually pushing him to go with this because it would be my first time to taste duck meat. However, as you can see, it had more potatoes than duck meat, so I still wouldn't classify this as my first. It was also a little salty for my taste, and the fried vermicelli noodles under the dish didn't really give it a good texture.
Roast Lechon Macau (p125). Mom's choice. I was at first disappointed seeing that much fat in the dish. but it wasn't really that oily. I find it really delicious - way much better than the lechon kawali I have tasted before. It was roasted, yes, but the meat was tender. The crunch in the skin felt as if I was eating chicharon... only this was obviously more delicious.
Braised Pork Belly (p125). It looked like adobo, but it wasn't, it looked like asado, but it wasn't. It was very tender and so good! It being pork belly, I was expecting pork fat here and there, but it had a lot of meat.
The rice bowls were of medium size - the rice was definitely enough to make one full.
As for the add ons, we had:
Broccoli and Beef (p140). I wasn't able to picture this one nicely, but I assure you the dish tasted a gazillion times better than it looked. The broccoli florets were crunchy and the beef was rightly seasoned. All of us were impressed by it.
Shrimp Dumplings (p70). I asked mom if we could also try their dumplings. My mom loves shrimps, so brother suggested we go for this. I could say this was the best dumpling I ever had - the dough was chewy soft, and there were more than one shrimp per dumpling, so it was okay for the price given.
Steamed Masachi (p45). Our dessert. They had about four desserts you can typically see at a Chinese restaurant, and among those four, this was something I haven't heard and tasted yet. It was somewhat similar to palitao, only these were balls. All had toasted sesame seeds, but two were brown, the other black. I liked the black ones more.
I liked that they labeled the sauces. For someone who is not used in eating at Chinese restaurants, knowing where to use each sauce was really helpful. I really liked mixing plum and hoisin sauces while eating a piece of mom's roasted lechon macau. :)
Despite the little disappointment over brother's salty dish, we all had a great dining experience. We quickly put this one on our "to visit again" place, but of course, we still have to visit all the restaurants in the mall before we can revisit any of it.
One last problem I can point out was that customers had to pay at the cashier positioned by the exit lane. This food place has its designated entrance and exit, which I think was okay, however, the time we were about to pay, there was no cashier at post. That was a very bad thing to happen, because heartless people can easily leave the area without paying. Of course, we are good people, so we waited for the cashier to show up so we could pay. I am not sure how the cashier will know which table was used by the guest, but I remember mom pointing our table - maybe to indicate where we were seating. Such scheme was a bit confusing, but if its how the owners wanted it to be done, so be it.
Go! Fan Roasts & Dimsum is located at the new annex building, next to Sbarro.
*** Jenn ***
I come from a family who loves cooking and eating. I never had any formal training in cooking and that I taught myself how to cook based on the handed down recipes, but I could say that I can cook good food. In 2008, I started documenting my food trips for my