Chinatown’s Best Food: The Buffet Specialist’s

Chinatown’s Best Food has long been an institution along Banawe St., immensely popular because of their well stocked buffet of more than 100 items. I’ve actually seen the store grow from its small store to its present size of 3 whole floors since we been enjoying their wonderful food for many many years.

Chinatown’s Best Food is essentially 3 different restaurants, the top floor serving as banquet area for parties of 60 to 150 people, the middle floor is the buffet area with large sized crabs and even Peking Duck on the menu and the ground floor is for ala carte customers.
 
Buffet Prices

• P518 – Regular Price
• P468 – M to F dinner (except holidays)
• P388 – M to F lunch (except holidays)

We were served dishes from their alacarte and set menu’s since they wanted to highlight creations by their new Chinese chef..

Chinatown’s Best Combination (set menu). A mix of Japanese sushi and Chinese cold cuts, a hit with everyone since it got our appetite going.

Crispy Fried Shrimp Dumpling (P98). Each bite had a crispy exterior and juicy shrimp inside. I’m a sucker for shrimp dumplings and this was no different but be sure to eat it quickly else the crunchiness dissipates.

Chinatown’s Best Hotpot (P280). A mixture of shrimps, scallops, mushrooms and other seafood served in a nice looking pot. This was very tasty and goes well with rice.

Cold Prawn Salad (P480). A special request by Irene, her favorite dish. Sliced shrimp layered over a mixture of fruits and mayo, served frozen so better to let it sit a little before digging in.

Pork Spareribs with Taro (P260). I loved this dish, tender taro pieces gave the dish a lot of hearty flavor. I could have finished this dish all by myself if not for the other food vying for my attention.

Beef Brisket Radish Hotpot (P260) Tender pieces of beef mixed with radish cubes make for a perfect partner for rice. Everything was perfect with rice, bad news for my diet. I drizzled the sauce all over my serving of rice, bringing back memories of my childhood when I always have this dish.Be sure to get the radish pieces as they soak up a lot of the flavor of the dish.

Braised Pata Tim (P360). A large piece of pig leg simmered in spices, one of the dishes Chinatown Best Food’s is famous for. I was wishing for some soft rolls to stuff the meat in.

Crispy Noodle w/ Seafood (P180). The dish looks alot like a birds nest with the seafood topping occupying the middle. The outside is composed of the super crispy noodles, you just mix it together before you serve it. Surprisingly, the noodled stayed crispy after mixing it with the wet topping.

Shrimp Stuffed Frog Legs (set menu). This may look like your usual stuffed shrimp but a closer look at the tail and you will be surprised to see a frog leg instead of a shrimp tail. This one was more of a novelty dish since the shrimp taste overpowers the smooth flavor of the crab legs but still yummy anyway with their sweet and sour sauce.

Salted Egg Prawn (P480). Deshelled shrimps coated with salted egg, i liked this version more than Peking Garden’s even though the shrimps are smaller in size. I think they used more salted egg giving it more flavor.

 

Braised Tofu w/ Black Mushroom (P180). At this point, my tummy was almost at the point of bursting yet more dishes were still to come. I just had a piece of the crunchy vegetable.

Steamed Crab with Onion and Ginger (P450/half kilo) Fragrant smells waft up as this dish was laid down on the table owing to the ginger and spring onions it was steamed in. It was very fresh and simple so that you could really taste the crab.

Buko Pandan. Despite my full stomach, green cubes mesmerize and tempted my eyes like shining emeralds with a bright red cherry in the middle. What would usually have been a very sweet dessert turned out not so, it was just right and served as a fitting end to the meal.

Some other dishes served to us were:

• Steamed Kingfish with Tauso (P280/350g)
• Dried Scallop with Sea Cucumber Seafood Soup (set menu)
• Lechon Macau with Wintermelon Hotpot (P260)
• Chinatown’s Best Fried Chicken (P240)
• Fish Fillet Baked with White Sauce (P220)
• Chinatown’s Best Fried Rice (P180)
• Birthday Noodles (P160)

The meal was literally a smorgasbord, dish after dish came out one after the other, even when we thought the last dish had come out, another one would appear yet again.

I encourage you guys to try out New Chinatown’s Best Food and have a taste of the excellent ala carte and banquet menus aside from their sumptuous buffet spread.

New Chinatown’s Best Food
589 Banawe corner Don Manuel Sts.
Quezon City
712.4249 / 711.1444

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