North Park Goes South

Price, almost every time, dictates taste and quantity. It is unfair to expect 5-star-quality food from a medium-priced restaurant. However, the dishes from North Park, while affordable, are just unimaginably bad. My family used to be regulars at the place, and for some reason I forgot, we stopped eating there. Well, the night my friends and I decided to get something to eat there served as my disastrous reminder. 

Pinsec Frito, Php133
Rating:

It was very obvious that old oil was used to fry this dish. It only took one bite for me to feel sick from it. The meat inside had a fishy or "malansa" smell and taste, just like what our next few orders had.

Potstickers, Php203
Rating:

This dish was served slightly uncooked, something I could tell from the taste of the skin. Actually, it tasted, like the old-oil-fried Pinsec Frito, so bad that they could have placed any kind of meat inside that dumpling and it would have made no difference to the doesn’t-taste-like-anything-sans-the-sauce dish.

North Park Special Toasted Noodles, Php268
Rating:

This offering, a full plate of fried noodles with some meat and sauce in the middle, was presented to us very well although it looked a bit too oily. Very, very promising. Unfortunately, as they say, promises are made to be broken. It turned out that the "toasted" in “North Park Special Toasted Noodles” was a misnomer; once the sauce touched those noodles, it was as if I was chewing shredded paper. And the meat? Too bland and oily, not at all "special".

Salted Fish with Chicken Fried Rice, Php163
Rating:

Terrible. This might just be the worst fried rice EVER! When it got to our table, it took me maybe less than 5 seconds to take a picture of it before we tried it, but on my first mouthful, sinesebo na! How was that even possible?! Nakakawalang gana…

Lechon Macau, Php243
Rating:

This dish was the Not Worth Eat (NWE) highlight of the night, the clincher, the winning ticket to being featured on this blog. Their Lechon Macau had – you guessed it - a very fishy smell and taste, the type from which you could tell the meat had been in and out of the freezer many times before it was cooked. I could not stand the taste of this dish, and the few bites of it that I took made me feel like throwing up. 

Almond Jelly Drink, Php99
Rating:

This drink, I usually order whenever I dine at Chinese restaurants. I have no complaints on the taste of the almond jelly; I assume that the same kind is used in all Chinese restaurants. However, the amount of almond jelly they put is this drink was just preposterous! For Php99, something that would get me a good glass of milk tea, a good cup of coffee or a scoop of premium gelato, this drink was terribly overpriced! The almond jelly wasn’t even up to half the glass, terrible considering that Gloria Maris and Choi Garden serves this drink with a whole lot more of the almond jelly for only around Php80. Very irritating!

My Ratings:

Food:                               - Need I say more? ;)

Service:                           - The wait staff were just standing and gave me a bad look when I asked
                                                                                          for some water. They seemed to hate their jobs.


Ambiance:                                           - Nice place, well lit but the tables were those steel cafeteria tables.

Price Level:                                                  - Just right, not too cheap nor expensive. But for the quality, expensive!

Overall:                   - STAY AWAY!


Alternatives:

Mann Hann(San Juan):                                                   -Well prepared home cooked Chinese food, their oyster cakes are
                                                                                            amazing.

Kao Chi (Banawe):                                                  - You cannot go wrong with this new place. One of a few places
                                                                                             serving good Stinky Tofu.

Wai Ying (Binondo):                                              - Closest you can get to authentic Chinese food, this is a must visit.
                                                                                             Oh yeah, it's very cheap!

No, my family definitely won’t resume dining at North Park.


Don't tell me I didn't warn you!

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