Win a Delicious Dinner @ Cruising x Zomato Contest! Shrimp Bucket Review

Last Thursday, I had a wonderful opportunity to have dinner at Shrimp Bucket in U.P. Town Center.

It was the 9th leg of Cruising Magazine and Zomato’s Taste #TravelforFood campaign. It is a campaign that is featuring 16 restaurants in Metro Manila. They even have a Facebook contest you can join to win! I think they pick around 10 winners (+1 companion each) to invite to dinner per leg.

This week, they will be featuring Lugang Cafe in SM Megamall. It’s so easy to join the Cruising x Zomato contest – just post a picture of your favorite food, answer why it is your favorite, and use the hashtags #‎ZomatoPH‬, ‪#‎CruisingMagazine‬, and ‪#‎TravelForFood‬.

SHRIMP BUCKET AT U.P. TOWN CENTER

This was my first time to go to U.P. Town Center, and although it was quite far from where I live, I am glad I got the chance to check out this place that everyone has been talking about as the "it" place to be to try new restaurants. The overall feel / design reminds me of Trinoma and Serin in Tagaytay. There is an open area, sort of like a little park, in the middle, and the restaurants surround it. Shrimp Bucket is actually located outside, facing the street. The Shrimp Bucket has a pirate/ nautical design, and that, combined with the name, always makes me think of Spongebob and Plankton  The tables are covered with white board, so feel free to eat your shrimp as messily as you want. They provide a bib to help protect your clothes. The only thing that I would suggest is they may want to provide some finger bowls and wet towels so guests can clean their hands after eating shrimp with their hands. I noticed most people ate their shrimp using spoons and forks, avoiding getting their hands dirty, but some guests really dug in the shrimp with their hands (but you can't blame them, because the shrimp is good!). Our menu for the night was:

• Appetizer - Kani and Shrimp Salad (P260) with Crispy Belachan Pork
• Mains - Shrimp in Salty Eggsperience Sauce (P560) with Steamed Rice (P40) or Buttered Corn (P50)
• Desserts - Sollie's Tapioca in Coconut Milk (P75)
• Drinks - Lemon Raspberry Iced Tea (P85) or Orange Passion Iced Tea (P80)

We had the Lemon Raspberry Iced Tea. I liked this. Even after sitting some time on the table, it still tasted great! It was still flavorful and did not taste watered down. The Kani and Shrimp Salad with Crispy Belachan Pork was okay. The vegetables were fresh and the addition of belachan (shrimp paste) added a nice twist to the salad's flavor. The Crispy Belachan Pork used pork belly, I think. Now, the Shrimp in Salty Eggsperience Sauce is the star of the meal! This is the thing to order if you are in Shrimp Bucket. It came in this plastic bag, which is fine by me. It is, after all, a casual restaurant. It's also easier clean up for everybody, AND, just in case you can't finish everything, it's easier to have them wrapped to go. I was told this was one pound worth of shrimp. The shrimp are trimmed and cleaned, which make them easier to eat. The shrimp was cooked just to the right level of doneness, but the salty eggsperience sauce is the one that makes this dish stand out! The sauce is made using the yolks of salted eggs. It is rich, creamy, salty, sweet, and addictive! If you have ever had salted egg yolks, you know what I'm talking about! It does not look very appetizing, but it's really delicious! I really recommend ordering rice with this. The sauce goes so well with rice and you can use the rice to soak up all that sauce! I promise, you will want to scrape up every bit of the sauce! They also provide a slice of lemon and salt and pepper that you can use to flavor your shrimp. Don't worry about the lemon + shrimp = arsenic thing, I think it's just a hoax. They also provide a small bucket on the side where you can put your shrimp shells and other trash. Sollie's Tapioca in Coconut Milk looked really simple but turned out to be quite good, too! Simple, comforting, sweet. Little chewy tapioca pearls in a chilled, coconut milk "soup" sweetened with something like coconut sugar caramel. Topped with a mint leaf. The round things are shaved ice shaped into balls. Perfect end to a rich, salty eggsperience meal. If you are looking for a sweet dessert to end the meal, but don't want to spend too much (which you would if you moved to a coffeeshop / bakeshop), I would recommend this, and it's only P75.

COWRIE GRILL

I was also fortunate enough to be invited to the 7th leg at Cowrie Grill. It was similar to the meal I had before, you can read more about my review of Cowrie Grill here. As always, Cowrie Grill never fails to impress  Thank you, Cruising Magazine and Zomato 🙂