Tien Ma's Taiwanese Cuisine v.2 [updated]
[EDIT] Updated with more meals.
I'm always on the lookout for affordable meals. I often go to Chinese restaurants when in a group because there's just value for money (especially the middle-level priced ones) when you eat with friends/colleagues/family.
Tien Ma is one of the accessible Chinese (err, Taiwanese) restaurants near my place. It was mandatory to try this out.
The first time I ate at Tien Ma's I was sorely disappointed with the quality of their xiao long bao. Personally my favorite is Din Tai Fung's, but I would eat Lugang Cafe's too (although it is nowhere near DTF's quality). What's wrong with Tien Ma's dumplings is that the wrapper cannot hold the weight of the filling. Although I am adept at using chopsticks (before anyone tries to accuse me!), the wrapping was just too thin and flimsy to carry the weight of the xiao long bao.
Their saving grace are their main dishes. I particularly like the Taiwanese Style Fried Rice which is fried rice with scrambled egg, chinese sausage (or ham), and scallions. It's nothing amazing, but it's pretty satiating because they use rice similar to Japanese rice (round-shaped, short-grained). It's a good bang for your buck order.
Recently Tien Ma has revised their menu and it now showcases the appetizing photos of their meals. You can check out the updated menu here.
I often gauge the quality of a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant by their 1) Yang Zhou fried rice and 2) Sweet and Sour Pork but this time around I figured I'd try a new dish. Tien Ma also sells pineapple and pork floss fried rice but I dislike pineapples as a fruit so that's never going on my order.
Their sweet and sour pork is reliable: right amount of sweet and sour, and ample amount of pork pieces. What's good is that the pork cuts are not thinly sliced so you can actually taste the pork with every bite, as opposed to some restaurants that over-douse their thinly sliced pork in thick batter and you can only taste the breading. Tien Ma's sweet and sour pork isn't the crispiest, unfortunately, but they're still good enough to eat (thankfully not soggy). It's definitely better than North Park's version, which is another restaurant near my place (so it's either North Park or Tien Ma for me).
There's one thing to remember when ordering beef dishes at the same price with pork/chicken ones: they're almost always going to have fewer meat cuts (beef) and more of veggies/sauces/non-meat parts. And that's what happened in my order with the beef stew. I think I ended up getting 3 cuts of beef for 220 PHP--if I'm eating by myself that's certainly enough, but with 2 people that's scrimping a bit. They tried to add more beef tendon (chunks of them!), but I never eat beef tendon so it was left untouched.
On another day I dined at Tien Ma's again. This time I had the three orders above. The fried rice with salted fish was pretty decent in the sense that it made you full and had bits of salted fish in it. The steamed garlic veggies were pretty flavorful too. The kung pao shrimp, on the other hand, was a letdown. For PHP 220+ you get five (5) pieces of shrimp swimming in sauce and veggies that I do not want to eat. I ended up getting an extra order of sweet and sour pork.
Recommendation: order pork/chicken/squid, but never beef and seafood if the price point remains the same as other pork/etc dishes because you'll get fewer pieces of meat.
Tien Ma is nothing exciting, but will feed a decent amount per order (beef and seafood orders not included). Giving it three hearts only because I don't think it's bad.
TFD's review - ♡♡♡
I'm always on the lookout for affordable meals. I often go to Chinese restaurants when in a group because there's just value for money (especially the middle-level priced ones) when you eat with friends/colleagues/family.
Tien Ma is one of the accessible Chinese (err, Taiwanese) restaurants near my place. It was mandatory to try this out.
The first time I ate at Tien Ma's I was sorely disappointed with the quality of their xiao long bao. Personally my favorite is Din Tai Fung's, but I would eat Lugang Cafe's too (although it is nowhere near DTF's quality). What's wrong with Tien Ma's dumplings is that the wrapper cannot hold the weight of the filling. Although I am adept at using chopsticks (before anyone tries to accuse me!), the wrapping was just too thin and flimsy to carry the weight of the xiao long bao.
Their saving grace are their main dishes. I particularly like the Taiwanese Style Fried Rice which is fried rice with scrambled egg, chinese sausage (or ham), and scallions. It's nothing amazing, but it's pretty satiating because they use rice similar to Japanese rice (round-shaped, short-grained). It's a good bang for your buck order.
Recently Tien Ma has revised their menu and it now showcases the appetizing photos of their meals. You can check out the updated menu here.
 |
| L: Taiwanese Style Fried Rice R: Beef Stew in Claypot (not the exact name) |
I often gauge the quality of a Chinese (Cantonese) restaurant by their 1) Yang Zhou fried rice and 2) Sweet and Sour Pork but this time around I figured I'd try a new dish. Tien Ma also sells pineapple and pork floss fried rice but I dislike pineapples as a fruit so that's never going on my order.
Their sweet and sour pork is reliable: right amount of sweet and sour, and ample amount of pork pieces. What's good is that the pork cuts are not thinly sliced so you can actually taste the pork with every bite, as opposed to some restaurants that over-douse their thinly sliced pork in thick batter and you can only taste the breading. Tien Ma's sweet and sour pork isn't the crispiest, unfortunately, but they're still good enough to eat (thankfully not soggy). It's definitely better than North Park's version, which is another restaurant near my place (so it's either North Park or Tien Ma for me).
There's one thing to remember when ordering beef dishes at the same price with pork/chicken ones: they're almost always going to have fewer meat cuts (beef) and more of veggies/sauces/non-meat parts. And that's what happened in my order with the beef stew. I think I ended up getting 3 cuts of beef for 220 PHP--if I'm eating by myself that's certainly enough, but with 2 people that's scrimping a bit. They tried to add more beef tendon (chunks of them!), but I never eat beef tendon so it was left untouched.
 |
| L->R: Fried rice with salted fish, steamed garlic vegetables, kung pao shrimp |
On another day I dined at Tien Ma's again. This time I had the three orders above. The fried rice with salted fish was pretty decent in the sense that it made you full and had bits of salted fish in it. The steamed garlic veggies were pretty flavorful too. The kung pao shrimp, on the other hand, was a letdown. For PHP 220+ you get five (5) pieces of shrimp swimming in sauce and veggies that I do not want to eat. I ended up getting an extra order of sweet and sour pork.
Recommendation: order pork/chicken/squid, but never beef and seafood if the price point remains the same as other pork/etc dishes because you'll get fewer pieces of meat.
Tien Ma is nothing exciting, but will feed a decent amount per order (beef and seafood orders not included). Giving it three hearts only because I don't think it's bad.
TFD's review - ♡♡♡
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