Date #8: Gloria Maris

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For everyone’s information, my boyfriend Douglas is actually full Chinese. It’s quite surprising that this is the first time we’ll be featuring a Chinese restaurant, knowing that I’m absolutely in love with Chinese food and that Douglas is Chinese. He will be helping me in writing this entry, since he’s more knowledgeable about the topic.

Gloria Maris is a restaurant that serves a wide variety of dimsum and it is also a widely-acclaimed shabu-shabu place. It’s quite famous for being a venue for functions like parties or get-togethers. (When we asked what their best seller was, our waiter said it was the birthday noodles—haha, uh, no.) It is being managed by a Hong Kong chef, which should give it high expectations. I suggest being adventurous with your choice of food here, since a lot of them seem quite nice.

Bichu Rice Roll (P105) is sort of like a puff pastry rolled in sheets of white rice, topped with sesame seeds. This is very new to me, actually. We found the wrapper too thick that it overpowered the bread inside. Douglas also pointed out that the bread didn’t seem newly cooked since it must have been prepared during breakfast hours (we arrived here for a late lunch). The sauce was quite delectable though, with its salty sweet taste. However, we had to dip it for quite a while before its flavor finally penetrated deep into the roll.

When the Shrimp Rice Roll (P150) was served to us, it was literally swimming in a pool of sauce! Yum. Same comment from the previous one—the wrapper was quite thick that the sauce found it hard to penetrate inside. This dish gets a higher score than the previous one, though, because the shrimp made up for the thick, bland wrapper.

Siao Long Pao (P128) is my new addiction. I love it so much that I’ve eaten siao long pao thrice this week. Gloria Maris’ version has a thin wrapper with quite a heavy ground pork filling inside. I’m sad that it didn’t have much soup, though. They say the ability of siao long pao to retain the precious soup inside speaks a lot about its quality. Anyway, the generous portion of meat made up for it. It was very juicy and tasty, and bathing it with the sauce gives it a very satisfying gingery kick.

Our choice of Dimsum Combo (P298) was quite a good one because it had two pieces of a variety of dimsum. You and your date can eat one of each. It’s very easy to share. This combo had spring roll, hakao, siomai, japanese siomai, sharksfin dumpling and fried wonton. Because of this dish, I can say that Chinese people love shrimp so much. Almost everything had shrimp inside! Douglas’ favorite was the hakao, while mine, surprisingly, was the spring roll.

Trivia: Douglas taught me how to pronounce wonton in a Chinese accent, HAHAHA IT SOUNDED SO FUNNY.

You can ask your Soya Milk (P60) to be served either hot or cold. Isn’t it quite weird that I put this on the last part? Well, that’s how our lunch went, actually. We were so caught up with our dimsum that we forgot to order drinks until we were almost done eating! Hahaha, that speaks a lot about how much we have enjoyed. Their soya milk had the rich, soya flavor which I’m sure everyone will love.

The Verdict: To quote Douglas, “Good at everything but not best at anything”. So if you’re craving for Chinese food, you might say that this is a good place, but not the best place to go. Well, at least it’s relatively cheaper than the really high class ones. We don’t really need the best to enjoy, and I’m sure we did. You’ll find this restaurant quite pleasant, too, I’m sure. It’s perfect for any date, even for the sensitive, awkward, first date.

Off Topic: We had dessert at Cerealicious after! Maybe we’ll feature this sometime, especially now that it has opened a new branch in Katipunan—right across our school!