Koko Buri

Had a quiet dinner with my wife at Koko Buri restaurant at the Avenue of the Arts Building along Roxas Boulevard (near the Bayview Hotel).  We were in the area to check out some restaurants and decided to have dinner at what we initially thought was a Korean restaurant.  It turns out the the owner is a Korean national, but the food is actually a fusion of sorts, with Western and Eastern flavors thrown into the menu.  We quickly learned from our lovely food attendant that the chain started out with branches in Angeles City, Clark Field and Subic Bay, and that this Roxas Boulevard branch was the first foray of the group into Metro Manila.

Vicky goes nuts about onion rings and couldn't resist the temptation.  To her delight, these came in hot and crispy, just enough beer batter to make it a light appetizer.  We ordered the Nagasaki Champon, a spicy seafood soup complete with clams, shrimps, and mussels.  This was good for 4 people, so we had to take home almost half of the bowl.  Nice broth, flavorful and filled with lots of vegetables too.  We took the Koko Buri chicken, but we were a bit disappointed--while we thought that this was the house specialty, it was, in reality, merely crunchy coated fried chicken.  The chicken featured on the menu photos was actually the soy garlic chicken, which Vicky would have enjoyed better (same price).  It wasn't bad though, it just wasn't what we wanted to taste.

As it to make us feel better, our food attendant came over with a leafy salad plate, on the house.  We couldn't complain!  The interiors of the place are neat and simple, but aside from one other table, we were the only ones eating in the restaurant.  I guess that since this branch has just been open for 4 months now, they still need some local advertising to get the warm bodies in.  We spent something like P550 per person, but if you are on a budget, there are other items on the menu that could make you lower your average spend.