Reviewing The Vow

Rating: 2.5/5

Okay, I know a lot of people liked this movie, and I did too, because it was such a unique story. And it's inspired by true events too! Plus the team-up of Rachel McAdams (Paige) and Channing Tatum (Leo) is just so hard to resist. 

Casting-wise, I don't think anyone else can play such amazing roles other than these two. I don't know most of the rest of the cast though, so I can't say anything about them. 

Story-wise, I kind of think that this movie has no climax. It opened with Tatum narrating about moments, moments, and lots of moments colliding into one another. It was kind of boring for me though. I would love to hear his voice some more, but not when he's narrating like that. And when Paige had the amnesia (it's been so long already, am I still spoiling anyone?) I think she was a little too mean. There was one scene when she went out with her friends and she just let Leo standing there are the bar while they talked about their high school lives. I mean girl! Even if you had amnesia, you could at least be polite to the person who had been trying so hard to fight for you. 

I would have wanted more outbursts from Leo! I mean, if I were in that position and my spouse suddenly turned into someone who hates everything she used to love, heck I would throw tantrums too! But you know what they say, a sick person needs to be pampered. Paige did get A LOT of pampering too. It was just too much.

I expected this movie to be really dramatic. We were actually hesitant to watch it at first, but we succumbed to the call of the big screen at the end. You should know that I am a crybaby, so I expected to cry at the lines that they were going to throw at one another. Imagine my surprise when the only line that made me cry was the one from Paige's uptight stereotypical suburban mother. 

So there. I am disappointed, that's all. 

CYMA

Rating: 3/5

Forgive me for the hiatus...but I come bearing reviews! I haven't entirely been slacking off, if you know what I mean.

A few weeks back, my friend had posted a review about this Greek restaurant at Greenbelt 2. Not being a fan of Greek food, I was hesitant to try this myself, but since she highly commended it, I decided to try.

Before I reached Cyma, there were other restaurants that caught my attention too. I might try them out next time. As for this restaurant, we ordered Chicken Gyro, Pastitsio (Baked Macaroni), and Moussaka.

So what can I say about the food? It tasted...very Greek-like. In the sense that you can taste all the herbs and the extra virgin olive oil.

And just when I'm about to post the images of the delectable dishes we had, I realized that when we went to Cyma, I did not have my camera with me! So much for being prepared, eh? So here are just the photos from various bloggers. Credits are theirs, of course.

Moussaka, the national dish of Greece. PhP 250. Photo credits go to the owner. 

 Karen ordered this and I took a bite, mostly because the top layer (cheese) was just soooo delicious. I can't say the same for the other layers though because I don't eat eggplants. :) But I guess she was satisfied with it.

Pastitsio, PhP 230. Photo credits go to the owner.

Notice how the stacks of macaroni are neatly piled there? That's the first time I saw such an arrangement! However, it's one arrangement I wouldn't recommend though because the taste of the dish is concentrated on the top and bottom layers, one layer being cheesy and the other being sour because of tomatoes. It left the middle layer a little too bland for my taste. Plus the tomato bed was too much, if you ask me. I love love love the cheese though.

Chicken Gyro, PhP 160. Photo credits go to the owner. 

This Gyro has a story. We were so full with the dishes we ate that we had this one packed instead. From Greenbelt 2 to Greenbelt 5, we had walked without realizing that we left this behind! We hurried back to get this and when we arrived there, the restaurant was already filled with a lot of customers! Being the shy person that I am, we waited outside as the waiter handed us our Gyro. So there, we ate it at home instead.

There are a lot of other dishes that I would love to try from Cyma, and I can recommend this to Greek food lovers out there. I wanted to try their flaming mangoes, but I got scared of the way they shout while serving it. I hate it when people look at me. :)

So there you have it. Have you eaten at Cyma yet?

Restaurant Review: Krazy Garlic

Rating: 3/5 

Last year my friend and I got a privilege card from The Bistro Circle, which entitled us to a 20% discount and is valid at any branch of their seven bistros and restaurants (namely Fridays, Italianni’s, Fish & Co., The Stock Market, Flapjacks, Pig Out and Krazy Garlik). But since then, we were always loyal to Friday's. It was only tonight that we decided to try another restaurant--Krazy Garlik at Greenbelt. 

So how was Krazy Garlik? My verdict would be that it's a so-so restaurant, one that I would try again sometime IF I have no other choice. Why? Let me recall the incidents of tonight.

We were ushered into a booth near the entrance of KG. We were seated and were asked our order by the manager (we didn't know then that he was the manager). Upon ordering, we heard him relay our order to one of the uniformed waitresses which confirmed the order to us. 

We ordered Flat Iron Steaks, with the mashed potato substituted with rice, Tweedle Dum, and Chocolate Milkshake. I have to raise the issue that I specifically ordered for their Tweedle DEE beverage, but the waiter (manager) could not understand it and misheard that I was ordering Tweedle DUM thrice even after my constant repetition of the word. I even pointed at the menu where the word was written for him to understand it correctly, but he never did understand. In the end, since Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee only had one different ingredient, I decided to just let him have his way and ordered Tweedle Dum instead. 

Flat Iron Steak with Mashed Potatoes Substituted with Rice

Flat Iron Steak with Mashed Potatoes Substituted with Rice

And when our steaks came, they were loaded with mashed potatoes after we mentioned twice that it was to be substituted with rice. The server hurried into the kitchen to fix this, but I can't say he hurried in returning it to us. Basically, the time it took for them to cook their steak was as long as it took them to change mashed potatoes into rice. 

Chocolate Milkshake

Tweedle Dum

The food was great. The milkshakes were great, too. Tweedle Dum tasted great and it was in a tall glass. My only complaint is that they should have put a longer straw in it to make sure that it could reach the bottom of the glass. But it's not a big deal. My friend's chocolate milkshake tasted good (according to her), but it didn't look like chocolate milkshake to me. For one, it was colored white. Was it vanilla milkshake? I don't know. They did not specify in their menu that they would use white chocolate in the shake, so it baffled us. I wasn't able to ask her if it tasted like chocolate either. 

The size of the steak was just enough to fill our stomachs. It wasn't like at Friday's where I could barely finish one serving (not to mention the serving of rice in Friday's is way more than the serving in KG, but hey, a PhP300 difference goes a long way in terms of serving size, so I guess it's just the right serving). 

Now on to the bill. When we asked to bill out, it took them an awfully long time to give the bill. Why? It seemed that they could not find our privilege card. They asked us at first if we had one, and we said yes, we gave it to the first man who served us, the manager, before we ordered. The server said there was no problem and she would just adjust our bill to reflect our 20% discount. So we waited. 

And we waited. 

And she came back to us again asking for the name on the card. Usually after taking our card at Friday's, the server would return it immediately without any hassle. At this point I was skeptical. Had they lost our card? Hopefully not. I hoped it was just coincidence that after taking our order, their manager was suddenly nowhere to be seen. 

Thankfully, after more waiting, they were able to locate the card and gave us our change. We were on our way home after that.

The verdict? I would try out Krazy Garlik again, but not that often unless they change their ways. They seem to lack coordination in their actions. For me, they are not that organized yet (I am hoping for some improvement). 

Have you tried eating at KG before? How was it? :)