Dinner at Seryna & Little Tokyo

I’ve heard of Little Tokyo in Makati but I’ve never been there. It’s the same for most of my friends. When it was time for birthday girls Jennie and Florence to treat the group we decided to have dinner at Seryna.

Seryna is part of Little Tokyo but it’s just outside the Japanese Torii gate that marked the entrance to Little Tokyo. The place was packed with Japanese diners. That’s a sure sign the food was good.

I liked the details in their ceiling.

birthday girls Jennie and Florence

our group of 11

Since Deb has eaten in Seryna several times she ordered for all of us.We started with a spinach and bacon salad with sesame dressing. It was quite good.

horenso shaki-shaki salada P200

goten ten mori P505

Puri puri maki is shrimp and veggies wrapped in rice paper. It was just like Vietnamese fresh spring rolls.

puri puri maki P270

California maki P250

spicy tuna roll P250

Deb ordered two sets of ten assorted yakitori sticks. The meat were all plainly seasoned with salt and pepper. There wasn’t any sauce or marinade used. 

kushiyaki moriawase (10 sticks) P450

chicken tendon

We also ordered kamameshi rice. It brought back memories of the popular Kamameshi restaurant in the 80s.

I found the rice dry and not as flavorful as the ones in Kamameshi restaurant. Even the toppings were sparse.

kamameshi P560

Basically I found the food to be ordinary and typical of any Japanese restaurant. There wasn’t anything that really blew me away. 

The Little Tokyo gate is right beside Seryna. Right after we ordered food at Seryna some of us went to Little Tokyo to buy more food. You can actually order from any restaurant in Little Tokyo and they will deliver the food inside Seryna.

The place was an open courtyard with the seating in the middle and several small restaurants surrounding it. Each restaurant had it’s own specialty. One was for noodles while there was also a yakiniku restaurant among others.

Deb led us to Kagura which specializes in Okonomiyaki or Japanese savory pancakes. Okonomiyaki is made of flour, eggs, shredded cabbage, bacon, and other ingredients. Some versions include noodles or potatoes.

We ordered the Mikkusu-yaki or  “the works”. I don’t know what exactly was inside but I loved it! I enjoyed it more than anything we ordered at Seryna. We ate this inside Seryna. The waitress even gave us new plates for this. 

Okonomiyaki P350

We also bought takoyaki balls from Hana restaurant in Little Tokyo. These octopus dumplings are the current fad in Manila. Takoyaki stalls have sprouted in fast food centers in all the malls in Manila. But these balls were a milion times better than those cheap imitation balls which don’t even contain octopus.




 
Takoyaki P100 for 6 pcs

We also went Choto stop grocery and snack bar also located in Little Tokyo.

This small grocery carried fresh produce, frozen meat, fish and lots and lots of packaged food.

Most of the items here cost P75. Pictured below is a wall of different kinds of furikake, a condiment made of dried seaweed and other spices for sprinkling on top of rice. Everything is in Japanese so you will have to rely on the pictures to tell you if the flavor is chicken, egg, or salmon. You can also ask the very knowledgeable sales ladies for their help. They also have a wide of variety of instant noodles, junk food, candies, salad dressing and ice cream. All for P75. 

We plan to go back to Little Tokyo and sit in the courtyard and try out more food. The prices there are cheaper than Seryna and offer more variety.

Seryna menu (They have a very extensive menu but I think it’s time to reprint new menus. All the prices are covered with new typewritten prices)
appetizers, salad, a la carte, seafood/meat, sashimi, sushi, maki mono
tempura, age mono, yakitori, yakitori choices, nabe, steak, noodles,
donnburimono, soup, drinks, more drinks, special rolls

Pasong Tamo entrance