Tasty Dumplings: The Famed Pork Chop

Heading back from Angeles City wanting to have dinner since we missed out on the sisig, we dropped by the Chinese restaurant-lined Banawe area. Prior to hearing about it from friends, Banawe only reminded me of the rice terraces!

I've heard a lot about this place.

Tasty Dumplings, or Tasty, is a place I've heard a friend rave about for having the best pork chop ever. I never had the chance to try it until now, so I was looking forward to trying it. :)

I liked the warm atmosphere inside and it looked like a cozy low-key Chinese restaurant. The first thing we had were, well, the dumplings.

Fried and regular Dumplings, P90.00

You can have the dumplings just steamed or fried, so we tried both. To be honest, they weren't as tasty as I thought they should be, but they were good enough. The wrapper, unlike other dumplings I've tried, have a more mantau-ish (mantau is siopao bread) quality, but it was still delicate and fun to eat. I preferred the steamed version. I guess you really shouldn't expect too much from a restaurant's namesake. I should have learned that lesson after trying Yang Chow's Yang Chow fried rice and the brownies from Brownies Unlimited. Haha.

Hongma (small), P135.00 and Silver Roll Bread, P53.00

This looked very tasty, reminiscent of Korean beef stew, even, but was quite bland. My first comment was "hongma-tabang naman!" The quality of the meat was good, though. The Silver Roll was fried mantau, the biggest of which I'd ever seen, and it was good with the Hongma, once you flavored it up with some chili, that is.

Pork Chop Rice, P115.00

Now, for the moment of truth. While it is far from the best pork chop for me, I did understand its charm. It had a delicate taste, a nice superthin slice of pork, and great breading. It didn't exactly blow me away, but it was fun to eat, and there was a lot of it. Not bad at all for the price! It was like a Chinese, pork version of a South American dish I like called Milanesa, which is also fried, thin, and breaded.

Soya Milk, P35.00

We were about done ordering when I saw this on the menu. Hold the phone! Soy milk for 35 pesos? We got two. I really liked it! It had the usual pleasant Chinese restaurant soy milk taste of liquid taho and had just the right amount of sweetness.

Verdict:
Dumplings: Okay
Fried Dumplings: Okay
Hongma: Okay
Silver Roll Bread: Good (but it has to be eaten with something flavorful since it has no taste)
Pork Chop Rice: Good
Soya Milk: Great

It was a nice dinner to cap off an exhausting day and it looked like we made it just in time, because they were closing up when we left. I'd come back for the pork chop and soy milk, but before I do that, I'd want to visit the many, many other Chinese restaurants in the area when I do drop by this newly discovered Banawe. I'm a south boy through and through so this place is pretty damn far for me. Haha.

Love Tasty Dumplings? Hate it? Let me know by commenting below, or just tweet me!



TASTY DUMPLINGS
583-585 N.S. Amoranto Ave. cor Banawe St.
Sienna, Quezon City
(02) 742-2917


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