Hai Chix & Steaks in Greenhills, San Juan
If there's one thing that I dread experiencing whenever I'm back in Manila then that would have to be the crazy traffic jam! It must be the never-ending road works or the growing number of cars on the road but the traffic condition continues to worsen year after year. Take our recent trip for example. We were very lucky that our Philippine Airlines flight arrived earlier than scheduled giving us more time to quickly see our family and head to San Juan for dinner. We got to NAIA 2 at 6pm and believe it or not, we reached San Juan at 830pm. That's 2 and half hours on the road with Waze giving us various routes to help us get home as quickly as possible. Oh my goodness!
Papa, Pan and E were at home waiting for us and after we quickly dropped off our luggages, we headed to the nearest restaurant for our late dinner. I suggested Hai Chix & Steaks as it has been on my list for the past months. I wasn't sure if it was any good but I guess, we'll never know if don't go and try. The funny thing is I realized that "Hai Chix" stands for Hainanese Chicken! What was I thinking eating Hainanese Chicken for my first meal back home? Since we're all hungry, I quickly ordered some Butter Garlic Shrimps (Php. 295) which were pretty good. One order gives you 8 medium-sized shrimps and they were fresh and yummy. Even Mommy enjoyed this appetizer very much.
I also tried the Salt & Pepper Calamari(Php. 220), which sadly paled in comparison to the shrimps. This one had too much flour and the flavor was very weak. We're also not crazy about the fried onions on top which barely complemented the squid. I'd say, skip this and order more of the shrimps instead.
We also tried the Prawn Bisque (Php. 220) which was good too. Since we ordered quite a lot, we opted to just order two big bowls of soup and asked the server to split it into 3 smaller bowls each. This worked and I liked the Prawn Bisque. I'd say, they're doing an amazing job with their shrimps/prawns dishes.
Next came the main star of the show. The Hainanese Chicken Rice (Php. 280). Perhaps, given that I have eaten hundreds of plates of Hainanese Chicken here in Singapore, this one was a poor rendition of the Lion City's signature dish. The chicken was very bland and tough that we barely touched it and didn't even bother to have to wrapped up. It tasted like an overly steamed white chicken and definitely not how the real Hainanese Chicken tastes like. The rice was okay, flavor was somewhat there but clearly, this needs a lot more improvement to match up to the real thing.
Feeling a bit disheartened, we moved on to the Ribeye Steak Paella (Php. 550). Well, this one was definitely much better and even Papa enjoyed this one more. We loved the tender and fragrant strips of ribeye as well as the yummy rice too. They have definitely done a better job with their steak. *applause*
Lastly, we tried the BBQ Back Ribs - Full Rack (Php. 800) which came with fries and corn. Pan and I enjoyed digging into the fries while the boys went for the ribs. Admittedly though, the ribs was just a-okay. Not very juicy or tender as we were expecting it to be but the smokey barbecue flavor was very evident.
It was a mix of hits and misses during our dinner at Hai Chix & Steaks. It could also be because most of us were tired from the horrible traffic jam so I won't be writing this off my list and will surely go back to try more. For one thing, the service was amazing. We were well taken cared of by this nice lady server who was so attentive to all our requests. The food may just be so-so but with good service, I'll surely go back for another try.
Have you been to Hai Chix & Steaks? Do share your comments with me below!
Hai Chix & Steaks is located at 6 Missouri Street, Northeast Greenhills in San Juan City. Call them at 696-3358.
