Wok All You Can at Bangkok Wok Davao

We were invited by Raffy and Carmina del Rosario of Bankok Wok to have dinner at their establishment the other night. At first, we thought that it was to sample new dishes but we were in for a nice surprise.

Carmina revealed to us that in celebration of their second year in operation, they’re offering a “Wok All You Can” every Wednesday night for the next two months at only 330 pesos. While this may sound like a typical buffet offering, it isn’t. Everything is freshly cooked and you can order anything and everything from the menu. This eliminates that typical buffet problem of food sitting in a warmer for hours on end, losing its texture and flavor.

Now, on to the food.

 

We first had the Thai version of fresh lumpia, which was pretty unique in flavor (I’ve had this before and this is pretty much one of the appetizers that I keep ordering from the place).

 

When there’s fresh, there also has to be a fried version, so we had that as well. Nothing much to say except that I love fried lumpia and I wished that there was more of it.

 

A new item on the menu which they had us try was their crispy meatballs with a secret filling. At first, I was like “Meh… meatballs” but when I bit into the thing with the curry filling, it was a whole new experience altogether. I wish it were a little bit more spicy but they intentionally toned it down a little bit for those in the group that couldn’t take the spice levels me and Blogie were accustomed to.

Next up was the crispy angel wings. In a twist to your standard chicken wing dish, this was deboned and stuffed with glass noodles and some other aromatics, coated in a batter and deep fried to golden perfection. The downside? Well, again, there just wasn’t enough, but that shouldn’t be a problem when you can order as much as you want.

 

 

The first main dish, the satay sticks, I wasn’t a big fan of. I’m accustomed to satay being soft and for some reason, the ones that were served were a tad dry and tough. The flavor was excellent but I wasn’t a big fan of the texture.

 

 

 

The next dish, one of my personal favorites was their pandan chicken. You can tell that they assembled the pandan chicken right before cooking it (as opposed to assembling them ahead of time and sticking them in the freezer) because of how evenly everything cooked. The outside was just crispy enough to give it that bite and the inside was oh so juicy and tender that I just had to snatch the wife’s piece from her plate.

 

The tom yum wasn’t much to look at but the flavor made up what it lacked in presentation. It had that authentic sour taste (not the chemical-y taste that comes with soups from sachets) that I always love about Thai cooking.

For the rice (yes, us Asians can’t go a meal without rice) it was as usual, the best Bagoong rice in town, which by the way is a total meal in itself.

The Pad Thai looked really tasty (and it was) but I didn’t enjoy it that much because it was along with the night’s Pièce de résistance which was…

 

The Ka Mod Ped Ped or better known as crispy pata over red curry sauce. Some people might argue with me on this but the way it was presented and prepared was for me, the way pata should be served. It was chopped up into bite sized pieces (making for easier pickings) and was re-formed into a rough pata shape and then smothered in red curry sauce. Other people like to see their crispy pata whole with the skin all intact but I feel that having it served this way makes for a less messy and more satisfying dish.

 

Everything was washed down with their version of the Mojito which was surprisingly light and refreshing.The mint and lime really masked the taste of the rhum making for a really light drink.

After all of that, we had our customary espresso, which was excellent of course, since they used illy beans and equipment.

Now if you’re ever lost in Davao on a Wednesday night and you’re feeling peckish, head on over to Bangkok Wok for their Wok All You Can! and experience all the tastes of Thailand for only 330 pesos.

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