Last Sunday, the hubby and I had to go to Divisoria to buy some materials. We wanted to leave the kids with the in-laws because in my opinion, Divisoria is much too crowded. However, the in-laws were not available and so we had no choice but to take them with us. Good thing that we only had to stay at the 168 Mall, which is not as bad compared to walking around the streets of Divisoria.
So, anyway, since we left the house right before lunch, we had to go somewhere to have lunch first. Luckily, the new Lucky Chinatown Mall was just near the 168 Mall. I’ve read about this mall in a magazine a couple of months ago and have been wanting to go check it out. So, in the spirit of my one word for 2013, which is EXPLORE, we did just that.
Looking around the mall was like getting in touch with my Chinese roots. I haven’t been exposing my kids much with anything Chinese and so they were in awe with all the typical Chinese decor. Ziya even remarked that it was like being in China. Haha! The center hall of the mall was adorned with these gigantic Chinese lanterns. So nice!
Outside, they had what’s called the Chinatown Walk. It was also decorated with lots of red lanterns. The area was still unfinished though so the stalls you can see from the photo below were actually still unoccupied.
This cute red tree can also be found at the Chinatown Walk. I hope they finish the area soon because I’d love to see what they’ll feature there.
At one side of the Chinatown Walk is this hallway of various Chinese restaurants.
It was along this hallway where we found a place to eat. We chose a restaurant called Shi Lin.
The place was not that big but comfy enough. I liked the big red couches where we sat. You can actually see inside their kitchen through a looking glass. It was cool seeing the cooks make the dumplings, etc. I wasn’t able to take a photo of that though.
Here’s what we ordered. This is shrimp and pork fried rice. Ziya and Zoe liked this a lot. I wasn’t able to try it though because I’m still on my no rice, no soda diet. Haha!
This was the native spinach that hubby ordered, also known locally as Kangkong. Ziggy loved it. Yup, I am so proud to say that my toddler still loves to eat vegetables.
This is the wanton noodle soup. It’s just like your typical wanton noodle soup. The serving is too large for a kid to eat but probably enough for an adult to consume.
Now, this next one is my favorite. This is spicy jellyfish. I love jellyfish. The spice gave it an extra kick. Love it!
This is Xiao Long Bao. This even came with instructions on how to properly eat it. I ate it as is, without sauce or ginger because I’m not really a sauce person. I loved this one too!
This is the pork bun my hubby ordered. It was just like your typical siopao.
This next one, on the other hand, was yummy. It’s the mushroom and veggie bun that I ordered. Perfect for those trying to eat healthy like me.
It wasn’t an excellent dining experience but it was good enough. We liked the taste of most of what we ordered. The servers were attentive and informative. Plus, the prices are very affordable. For all these things we ordered (which included a pot of hot tea for Php 40), we only had to pay about Php 900.00 in total. Not bad at all.
I definitely want to go back to Lucky Chinatown again. We weren’t able to explore the whole mall. One of the things we didn’t get to see were the cinemas, which I heard are really nice too. We’ll be back soon!!
