New year, new food, new places to try. The good thing about Iloilo City is that you'll never run out of places to visit and food to taste. This year's first restaurant I checked was David's Tea House at SM City Iloilo.

From their website:

David's Tea House Has Been Considered As Above Average Class Style, With An Ambiance Of a Modern Chinese Restaurants Here In The Philippines. It Serves Authentic Chinese (Hongkong) Food Consisting Of Noodles, Congee, Dimsum and Short Orders. Its Menu Is Frequently Changed With Seasonal Favorites. Despite Its Chinese Predominance, David's Menu Is Enriched By The Adoption Of Filipino & Hong Kong Dishes That Have Been Carefully Redesigned To Suit Local tastes In Order To Enhance Its Attractiveness.

I've heard a lot of good things about David's Tea House from friends and relatives who've been there. Today, we went out of our way to go to SM City and tried David's Tea House at Ground Floor, SM City Iloilo.

The Ambiance

David's Tea House has the best ambiance among chinese restaurants in Iloilo City. Even better than that chinese restaurant (I've been there but I really can't remember the name) in Iloilo Grand Hotel. David's Tea House is not your typical chinese restaurants that radiates a red aura seen a mile away. From the outside, probably due to the signage, it's definitely chinese. Inside, it's cozy. Nowhere in sight are the cheap stacking chairs and formeca tables covered with cloths. I have the impression they paid good money for the interiors. Just like any other chinese restaurant, David's Tea House is geared towards big filipino-chinese families so you'll see that most of their tables can seat at least 6 people.

The Food

Superb. We ordered their assorted dimsum - I want to try everything in small servings. Yok Pek's dry and over-cooked dimsums pales in comparison. David's Tea House dimsums are what dimsums are supposed to be. We also enjoyed their slim chicken wing with mushroom and tofu balls with cheese sauce. Just so you know chinese are not all about noodles. We could've ordered some more but there are only two of us. Next time, we'll try a different dish.

The Service

Another thing I liked about David's Tea House was their service. I made a comment about their tofu balls being a tad salty and they admitted the mistake and willingly took the them back to the kitchen. They then gave us a choice whether to serve us another dish or have the thing crossed from our bill. We took the latter. Now that's how customers should be treated.

The Price

For all the good food and great service, the price we paid was well worth it. It's in neighborhood of what you'll pay when you eat at Ocean City. Not really the type that you can go to everyday but definitely a bargain when taking the big family or group of friends out.