Tim Ho Wan

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Lunch for 2
Price:  1465 pesos
Payment: Credit cards accepted (but the machine was broken and I had to go change money to pay)
Dishes: Lots of dimsum, see below
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:  No

Oh man, this was a delicious find!   My wife and I had taken a 3 hour taxi drive (should only take about an hour) in the heat of the day from the outskirts of Manila to the Mall of Asia which is near the airport and our hotel for the night.  We decided to spend the night near the airport so we could make our flight the next morning easily and with less stress.  I must say, this was a great idea!  The Mall of Asia is a huge new mall in Manila that looks out over Manila Bay.  We wandered around a bit to see what we would eat for lunch, but as soon as I saw Tim Ho Wan, I knew were done looking.  Amazingly, the line wasn't very long, so it didn't take too much waiting to get in.  Tim Ho Wan is a Hong Kong based chain that boasts a Michelin star.  I don't know that that means the same thing for all the branches, but it's certainly nothing to look down on!

We ordered just about everything on the menu and were quite full afterwards, but wow, it was all delicious.  Not the absolute best dimsum I've ever had, but still up there, and I would *kill* for a franchise to open up near us in Japan.  It was the first real "dimsum" meal we've had in years, and boy do we miss it.


Enough talk, here are the pictures:

Mang Inasal

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 2
Price: 371 pesos
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Spicy chicken leg, several roasted pork sticks and halo halo
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Mang Inasal is a very common "fast food" joint in the Philippines that can be found all over the place.  They serve roasted chicken and pork dishes mostly, pretty simple fare, but much better than typical fast food.  We had been in Manila for several days but had yet to eat any local food (we were there for other reasons) and were very glad to get the chance to eat something tasty for the first time on this trip.  So despite the Ok rating, we really enjoyed it.  I just know there is much better roasted meat (ahem, Andok's) available.  Sadly I didn't get a picture of the halo halo, I was too intent on eating it!

Nan Lin Ka

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 3
Price: 4500 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Fried rice, ginger seafood on noodles, seafood on rice
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

Another Haneda Airport restaurant, Nan Lin Ka is a Chinese restaurant located on the upper area where there are tons of different restaurants.  We ate here because my son requested Chinese food...but it wasn't great.  My wife's dish was the best, with the lovely flavor of ginger helping things along.  The seafood portions were generous, but the prices were very high for what we got.  We thought if the prices were more typical we might have given it a Very Good, but as is, it just gets an Ok.  There are much better places to eat at Haneda.

Aoyuzu

Rating: OK
Meal: Lunch for 3
Price: 3650 yen
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:Sashimi don, tempura/fried fish teishoku, red snapper sashimi teishoku
English Menu:No
Smoking:No

Aoyuzu is a Japanese restaurant located in one of the buildings near Lalport Mall Toyosu where we go to church.  This last Sunday we walked over there to try another restaurant in that area.  This place looked nice enough so we gave it a shot.  The Ok rating is actually a high Ok, or a low Very Good.  We enjoyed the food fine, and my wife commented that the tempura was particularly good compared to sub par offerings elsewhere, but we weren't super impressed by it.

Partially decimated sashimi don

My son barely consented to the sashimi don and otherwise would have gone hungry.  My wife and I ate all the delicious fish and shrimp, leaving him salmon roe and tamago, and of course rice.  Not a feast, but oh well, picky eaters can't complain (at least they shouldn't).  My wife went with a tempura/fried fish teishoku that she quite liked, though the chopsticks there were not very pointed at the end, making the delicate work of sifting through bones quite difficult.  Normally I quite like using chopsticks to pick through fish bones, but when they aren't pointy enough you can never quite grasp anything.  My dish was a red snapper sashimi dish with dashi broth.  I was a bit puzzled by the broth, as it came in a small iron container.  I just poured it out into the bowl and drank it...yummy but I got the feeling I was missing something.  The red snapper was fine...I'm not super into delicately flavored sashimi.  I like big, bold tastes like tuna and salmon.

Tempura/fish teishoku

They seem to be primarily a seafood restaurant, but with the tempura in there it's kind of generic Japanese.  It was quite good, definitely a high Ok rating.

Red snapper sashimi teishoku

Hanbei

Rating: Very good
Meal:  Dinner for 2
Price:  3132 yen
Payment: Cash only
Dishes: Drinks, see below
English Menu: Yes
Smoking:  Yes

I was looking for a spot to smoke a cigar last night as I had left my keys at home and my wife and son were out and about.  I finally found this interesting 50s Japan themed izakaya that is down the little alleyway that the standing Yakitori stand is located on.  I really liked the decor and vibe of the place.  I really only had 3 pieces of oden for a meal and it wasn't the best, but I liked the place overall enough to give it a Very Good and hope to come back to confirm the rating with more food some time.  Just a note:  they don't sell cigars there, they were just ok with me smoking one.

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Update:  7/28/2019

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So I went back here with my son last night to check out more of their food options.  And hey, they do have an English menu!  This was excellent as now I could read all the crazy food options they have.  Check it out:

Free refills on cabbage!

It's pretty good actually

"Chicken rice"...not so good

Grasshoppers...quite tasty

"High quality cat food" - not bad!

Mmm..froglegs

Yakitori

Melon Sherbert

Yakitori and offal in soup

Bar Shinano

Rating: OK
Meal: Dinner
Price: 1400
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes:Ginger pork fry, rice, gin and tonic
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: Yes

Bar Shinano is another izakaya along with Shell, Susquehanna and Angelo's that are all owned by the same group.  The only one left that I haven't been to is Angelo's and I plan on going there soonish.  I was coming home from meeting a friend in Yokohama last night and unfortunately wasn't ready for dinner while there, so I decided to eat in Yokosuka.  There are still a ton of little bars and restaurants to try here, it's going to be a long while yet before I've exhausted everything.

Ginger pork fry

There was absolutely no one in the bar when I went in and therefore, thankfully, no smokers.  But you can tell it's a smoking friendly establishment.  The menu does have english on it, and they do take credit cards.  I wasn't impressed by the items on the menu really, seems pretty uninteresting.  I went with the ginger pork fry, expecting some rice would come with it.  I was wrong and had to order rice separately...that was...definitely odd and not cool I think.  The food was just ok.  The gin and tonic was waaay too sweet and kind of nauseating.

I have to say the spot was disappointing compared with the other restaurants they have, but it wasn't bad enough to rate below an Ok.

Bayside Food Court

Rating: Not great
Meal: Lunch
Price: $12.00
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Restaurants: Subway, Pizza Hut/Wingstreet
English Menu: Yes
Smoking: No

So it was raining today and I didn't feel like going far, so I walked about 10 minutes to the Bayside Food Court, located in middle of the shipyards here on base.  It's a nice location, with a curved window area that looks out on the bay and some of the ships.  The food options aren't great, but hey, sometimes you just want something different.

I had a Subway cold cut combo with broccoli cheese soup, and then feeling a bit more peckish went back for some boneless wings at Wingstreet.  That was probably a mistake I shall regret later.

So there it is, not great, but it might be someone's cup of tea.