Shi Lin - Greenbelt

It's almost over. My 105-day maternity leave. We are still looking for a new nanny so good luck to us. Our funds are depleting but I told myself I deserve a good meal. Something I did not prepare or cook. This is how I de-stress. Food binge.

I know it's not right and very unhealthy, especially when you're getting old and all. But my mental health is more important right now. Healthy eating can wait.

To lessen the guilt of spending too much money on food, we availed of a discount from Eatigo. Hooray! I think Eatigo and I will be good pals from now on.

We made a reservation at Shi Lin. Tapioca was so looking forward to it because it's Chinese, his favorite.

. . . the facade

We were a few minutes early for our reservation but they accommodated us right away. Although the restaurant was not full, they made all dining customers gather in this area close to the window. It's as if they wanted to say to everyone who passes by "Hey, look here! We're a full house coz our food is awesome!" They wouldn't let us transfer to another table considering we have a baby and a stroller.

If it wasn't for the Eatigo discount, I would have walked away. Like seriously! I guess this is the downside of dining when you do not pay full price. Luckily, the table behind us cleared out and I finally had room to walk and rock Pumpkin to sleep. Also, I was thankful they did not seat anybody at that table until we finished our meal. It's because they finally opened the area where we wanted to be seated originally.

Anyway, so much for that. Let's move on to the food. First to arrive on the table:

xiao long bao . . .

Tapioca approved. And so did the nanny. Though I must say, the skin was a little too thick to my liking.

. . . braised beef noodle soup

This was the nanny's order. It was super huge! We didn't expect it to be good for sharing. Tapioca liked the noodles. The beef pieces were freakin' soft and oh so tender! But then the soup was the total let down. It was on the sweet side. Also, it was served lukewarm. Unforch, we are not fans of sweet soup. But if you like the sweet kind like sukiyaki, then this one's for you.

hakaw . . .

This was just okay. Actually, I can't recall how it was. Perhaps I was busy taking care of Pumpkin when I ate them? I guess that's how forgettable these babies are. And that's bad considering I love hakaw.

. . . mapo tofu

Tapioca's choice. This was good but we had better.

shrimp and pork shaomai . . .

Aren't they pretty? I think they're the prettiest shaomai I've ever laid my eyes on. These were kinda big so you cannot eat them in one go. It had some soup inside just like xiao long bao. But, between the two? I'd still prefer the xiao long bao.

. . . salt and pepper squid

I'm not sure what happened to me but I have turned into a squid person. Every time I see squid/calamari on the menu, I just have to order it. Good thing it did not disappoint. I think it's better with fried rice but we didn't order any.

pork, salted egg & chorizo bun . . .

. . . the innards

This was super yummy. I'm not really into the bola-bola type of siopao but this was not your typical bola-bola. The meat filling was very flavorful and juicy. The salted egg wasn't overpowering. This kinda reminded me of the pan fried siopao we had from Lugang Cafe. It was Nanay's favorite so it goes to say that it reminded me of Nanay, too.

congee . . .

Jellybean's choice. This was the last to arrive. We thought they forgot about it. Once again, it came in a humongous bowl. Prolly good for 2-3 pax. No matter how good it was I knew for sure I wouldn't be able to finish it with all the other food we ordered.

Overall, we enjoyed our meal. So sulit the discount at half the price excluding drinks. It's just saddening that we can't take home the leftovers (Eatigo's terms and conditions). Well, technically we can. But if we take the leftovers home then we will have to pay them in full price. And that defeats the purpose of the discount.

I wish the waitstaff could have set our expectations. But oh well, we know better. Next time.

Or, could it be that they intentionally didn't really tell us? So we would feel guilty of having way too much uneaten food? Then we would have the urge to take it home instead and pay the full price? Whatever. Prolly just my mind playing what ifs. Lolz!!!!