Birthday dinner @Champagne Room

May 27, 2015, Wednesday

I was actually planning to just have a simple dinner at home.
But my daughter informed me a week ago that she booked a table some place secret. She didn’t tell me where. The only clue that I got was that it’s far, it’s somewhere in Pasay City daw. Ma-traffic.

I was worried she would bring me to Nobu at the City of Dreams. Although I love Nobu in NY, I didn’t want to bring my son to their newly opened restaurant inside a casino place. Baka he would go back to eat with his friends, tapos ma-entice to play a game or two. That would be the start of disaster. Not that I don’t trust my son. The world is full of bad influences.

My daughter’s surprise and secret choice of restaurant was broken when we had to tell the driver where to go. We had to instruct him which route to take to avoid the worst traffic. Our reservation was at 7:30 but we left the house at 7 pm plus traffic, we reached the hotel at 8:15 pm. Not bad. Thanks to Edmund’s knowledge of the streets of Manila, having lived in Malate at the Floro headquarters during his Crispa Redmanizer days.

Aside from the Manila Hotel’s two security people manually checking the contents of the bags and their walk-thru scanner, they still wanted us to put our bags in a basket that would go through the big bags and luggage scanner a la airport. Oyen and I stared at the big bamboo basket with no intention to put our bags there. The security officers sensed our big hesitation and were nice enough to understand. Without me saying a word, they just said “sige mam, paki bukas na lang”. Oyen heaved a sigh of relief. It was the very first time she used her precious bag she got on her big birthday last March. I opened my bag wide enough. Make up kit lang ang laman and phone. (Thank you security officers, you were very understanding and considerate.)

Picture muna.  Kainis naman, I looked so wide and short.

The last time I’ve been here was maybe 10 years or more ago. I think I joined a group of 10 people for a short re-cap after a luncheon meeting.

Inspect first where the plates were made before ordering food. If from the invaders, transfer to another restaurant!

This trip to the Champagne Room was nostalgic as far as I was concerned.  Although Oyen didn’t remember because she was only a toddler,  she knew the story because I told her several times.   This was  a trip down memory lane.  (Story in next blog.)

I was too lazy to go over the big menu book.  Edmund and I chose the Degustation Set Menu,  mine was A,  his was B,  both without the wine pairing.   Tubig lang kami.   Free filtered water with ice.

The head waiter moved the carving cart  closer to our table.  It had  one whole prime rib.  I was starving,  kaya every thing looked delicious.  We ordered a slice  (to share).

We all had a bowl of delicious cream of asparagus soup. I liked that they served it hot. Usually when I ordered soup, I always make bilin the waiter to serve my soup hot. Ayaw ko yung pwedeng lagukin sa lamig.

Nyke’s escargot.

The set menu included a large serving of smoked salmon and caesar salad. I shared half of the salmon with my kids, ang dami kasi.

Edmund chose the Degustation Menu B which had linquine with scallops and pesto. I ordered Menu A with no pasta and no cheese plate.

Buti na lang I chose A kasi the pasta could be too heavy. Actually the serving was just right except that with the bread, soup, full salad, sobra na akong mabubusog.

We were all served a tiny scoop of sorbet to cleanse our palate before the main course.

My Chilean  sea bass was actually very good especially the skin which was tasty,  except that I had difficulty enjoying it because my stomach was screaming “stop eating I’m bundat na”.

Oyen ate the baked potato. Nyke got the asparagus spears. We all got tiny slices just to taste it. The rest were wrapped to go.

Lobster Ravioli for Oyen.

Rack of Lamb for Nyke.

They gave us a plate of pralines with an orchid made of sugar.

Happy birthday to me.

Hala, I saw on Facebook that those people who are fond of posting pictures of food including their photos while eating in expensive restaurants are social climbers. Pano yan, lahat tayo mahilig mag picture ng food and family photos while eating in restaurants. We would ran out of pictures to post if we would eliminate food and eating. Ang tatakaw pa mandin natin.

Thank you Yen for choosing the restaurant.

I ate the vanilla ice cream and pushed the crepes suzette to Oyen and Nyke. The sauce was a little sour. My kids said it’s like Enervon C Syrup.

Happy birthday to me.

We wrapped the left over prime rib and the happy birthday choco cake slice.

Time to go home. We’re all sleepy. Check please. Dukot sweetheart.

Thank you anak (x2), thank you tart, for this birthday dinner.