Read: 10 Most Awesome Chinese Restaurants in Manila! Kung Hei Fat Choi!
Our family loves chinese food. On my father’s birthday, I reserved this special chinese restaurant — Choi Garden in Annapolis Greenhills. It is seldom that you hear a buzz on Chinese restaurants. Most people rave about Choi Garden because of the food prepared by their Hongkong Chef and the interesting interiors.
Choi Garden occupies the hole left by Country Waffles in Greenhills. It has two floors — the first floor is for shabu shabu, while the second floor is for fine dining. For special occasions, better reserve the rooms on the 2nd floor. The first floor is for casual meetings and romantic dates. Better reserve to get the best seats in the house. I love the dramatic tunnel entrance, and the interesting chandelier lighting effects. The word “opium den” comes to mind (I don’t know why) when I entered the first floor because of its bloody motif.
The specialties of the house are usually not found in the menu. Choi Garden is famous for their Pigeons (which you have to order in advance) and 3-way Lapu Lapu.
Choi Garden Pigeons (P350/ pigeon). I don’t eat pigeons ever because usually it is oily and rubbery in texture. This is the first time I’ve eaten pigeons because it is a bit crispy without the oil. A must try in Choi Garden for special occasions.
3-way Lapu Lapu (P3,000). First, the lapu lapu is served in Miso Soup. We kept raving about how good the soup is. It tastes like Japanese miso soup and appears like Lapu Lapu sinigang with a smoother taste.
The second way is to steam the lapu lapu with brocolli. The fresh and soft taste of lapu lapu stands out. There is no need for seasoning. My mom kept raving about this!
Finally, the rest of the lapu lapu is cooked adobo style in hot pot with tofu. This one got mixed reaction because it was mixed with meat and adobo sauce was super thick.
We also ordered the Crab cooked in Singaporean Chili-crab style. The sauce is a bit gingery in taste. (I don’t know why Manila can’t reproduce an authentic Singapore chili-crab?) We should have stopped with the pigeon and lapu lapu.
Of course, we ordered birthday noodles for my Father’s Birthday.
This is the best room in the fine dining area located behind the massive Choi Garden logo. (Minimum consumable isP8,000)
Happy Birthday Popsy!! Brobo and Ate Mina — we missed you in Popsy’s celebration.
Choi Garden Seafood and Shark’s Fin Restaurant, Annapolis
# 12 Annapolis St. cor. Purdue St. San Juan, Metro Manila
Telephone: (+632) 727-6042 , 727-7489, 726-8987
Email: Choi@yahoo.com
Text and Photos by Anton Diaz. Copyright 2008.
yap! this sure is a great chinese restaurant. i love this place. and it is always packed! i’d have to say that this is definitely better than summer palace (edsa shangri-la).
anyway.. anton, i saw you guys there that night. that night was also my uncle’s birthday.. hehehe see you around! 🙂
The food here is good! I miss the duck rice with plum sauce. The hot pot is also a good alternative to ala carte. The only thing that bothers me is the red ambient light caused by the tinted windows. At first it’s a new experience but after eating there a few more times it already gets to me.
I often pass by the place on my way to shop at Greenhills. I’ll give it a try.. just need to save up. 🙂 Nice review again Anton! 🙂
Tried it here (but didnt try the lapu lapu), the presentation is nicer compared with other Chinese restaurants but the menu doesnt stray far from the usual tried-and-tested Cantonese fare, give me Legend Restaurant along Macapagal ave. anytime.
hi anton. is the place handicapped friendly? wheel chair ramp, big doors, elevators? My dad is a very picky chinese eater and he’s also wheel chair bound which makes it so hard for us to find a good chinese resto outside hotels. =) Thanks.
haaaaaayyyyyy…. i miss manila na tlga, most of the resto hr are kiwi style, even chinese take aways serves fish and chips.. and ofcourse kiwi favorite ham and cheese and pineappple sandwich…..
i love their baby lobster too. Plus their shabu-shabu is also worth a try!
Tried it here out of curiousity because some of my friends keep on praising Choi Garden but sad to say I was disappointed the serving of the food is quite small. I prefer Gloria Maris in Greenhills.
Anton you should try also Gloria Maris Greenhills shabu-shabu but they had the name changed to Green Maris they have promo right now eat all you can from mondays thru saturdays lunch 11:30am-2pm and 6:30pm-9:30pm.
belated happy b-day to your popsy, bro!
ganda ng food porn pics!!!!
i almost bit my monitor tuloy
Anton, a Chinese foodie friend recommended this restaurant to me the day before your feature came out. It’s his family’s favorite place in Manila. Heading over there this weekend to pack on some pounds. Thanks for the tip!
your post makes me crave for my fave pigeon! 😀
Nothing beats food at EDSA Shangri-La’s Summer Palace. It’s still number 1 of all the Chinese restaurants in the Philippines.
Second place definitely goes to Gloria Maris, food that you can count on to taste good every time.
At first visit, Choi Garden is good, comparable to Gloria Maris, but quality is deteriorating and service is a definite let down.
With a myriad of restaurants to choose from in Manila, there is no shortage of options.
Restaurants pop up like mushrooms in new and different locations.
As a food lover and restaurant veteran, more than good food, service is a definite must have for any restaurant to survive.
Choi Garden has one of the worst services in the industry.
at 2am, you made me hungry!
Just wondering? Is Choi Garden owned by the owners of Mr. Choi?
Wow, looks good. Though I’ve never had pigeons before, as I used to raise/race/sell ’em but never for food.
Yup, service, service, service will make or break any restaurants. Antonios’s service… excellent!
Wow, looks good. Though I’ve never had pigeons before, as I used to raise/race/sell ’em but never for food.
Yup, service, service, service will make or break any restaurants. Antonios’s service… excellent!
looks expensive… but my bestfriend also said that it is good. haven’t tried it though… i usually cook for birthdays around here.. and i usually make singaporean chili crab that my family loves – messy to eat, and finger-licking good! for my recent birthday though, i made cioppino – something new. i agree with one of the comments. legend resto behind star city is VERY good. i rather like golden fortune in kalaw as well. or sheraton’s chinese seafood resto.
uy grabe!!! Mejo 10 months nakong na-stuck dito sa London kaya parang natakam talaga ako sa mga pictures ha!
keep feeding my imagination.
YUM!!!
Any recommendation on good Chinese Restaurant in Binondo with price range of Gloria Maris?
Went there last Aug 18 (lunch time), which was a holiday. The restaurant was packed and all the waiters were very busy. Service was therefore very very unacceptable.
We asked for spoon and fork and it took us 3 waiters and maybe 10 minutes to get them.
They have 2 types of menus. One for the fine dining and one for the ground floor. We were on the ground floor but I ordered from the fine dining menu. Three items that we ordered were unavailable. We were not informed immediately but only later on.
Waiter served us the food. I asked for the name of the food served. Waiter doesn’t know and he asked the manager. Manager answered, ask the order taker.
The foods are nothing to rave about and the service is lousy for that day. The restaurant was very noisy as well.
Any recommendation on good Chinese Restaurant in Binondo with price range of Gloria Maris?
Posted by: menph86 | Aug 20, 2008 11:43:47 AM
I’d go for Golden Fortune Seafood Restaurant on Soler St. There’s also one in Kalaw Ave. near Rizal Park?
you should come to chinatown and taste the local chinese foodstuff here
Hi Anton! We have a Pitch on Choi Garden and we came across your blog. We would love to feature your photos in our marketing pitch if that would be okay (purely for educational purposes)?
We will be referencing/citing the photos to give due credit.
Hoping for your most favourable response. Thank you so much!
Article: Choi Garden – A Chinese Restaurant Worth Raving About
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