Mei Wei Chinese Kitchen: New Foodie Stop Near The Airport

My family and I used to frequent a Chinese place along Airport Road that sold King Dau noodles. That place has since fallen into disrepair and has now been replaced by a Jollibee.

Since I travel quite often, I’m always on the lookout for dining options in the area close to any of the NAIA terminals. Since the airports are usually crowded and Terminal 1 has absolutely no decent space to hang out while waiting to pick somebody up, it’s always useful to find a nice restaurant nearby.

I recently discovered Mei Wei Chinese Kitchen. The restaurant is located at the ground floor of the Asiatel Airport Hotel along Aurora Blvd. near the corner of Andrews Ave.

Here’s a look at at the sumptuous meal we had there, along with some off-menu items which they plan to launch in the coming month.

Let’s start with the dimsum. A good Chinese restaurant needs to have superb dimsum. We tried out the kuchay dumplings, bean curd rolls and hakaw. Everything was made fresh on-site. All the dumplings were generously filled and were clearly not full of extenders. I particularly enjoyed the sticky wrapper that they used.

Hakaw (Php 105.00)

Another Chinese staple is the siopao or steamed bun. We tried both the bola-bola and asado versions. Luckily, they came in small three-piece servings. This allowed us to sample one each without getting too full. Despite being small, they were also filled properly and we didn’t feel like we were eating mostly bread. I always prefer the asado version and this one didn’t disappoint.

Special Siopao  3 pcs. (Php 105.00)

Still on starters, we had some spinach soup. I have never tried this before even though I know it is also one of the classic dishes found in many Chinese restaurants. I was surprised to note that despite the deep green color, it didn’t taste leafy (is there such a thing?) at all. A good way to sneak in lots of leafy greens!

Spinach with Seafood Soup, good for 6 (Php 235.00)

After finishing off our dimsum starters, we proceeded with our main meal. Yeah, I know… we have already eaten a lot at this point, but the best is yet to come!

A large serving of Yang Chow fried rice arrived with some Salt & Pepper Spare Ribs. I have a soft spot in my heart for spare ribs because this is what I always order in China whenever I find myself in an unfamiliar place with no English menu. The Mei Wei version brings back memories of Shanghai adventures!

Salt & Pepper Pork Spare Ribs (Php 265.00), Yang  Chow Fried Rice (Php 220.00)

The Beef Tenderloin has a sweet sauce which my friends and I agree, sort of reminds us of tocino. The texture of the beef was so soft!

Sizzling Beef Tenderloin (Php 345.00)

The next dish looked very fancy. We had some prawns wrapped in strips of wonton wrapper. this dish came with a sweet and sour sauce and soon, I heard that there will be a wasabi based sauce as well. This is still off the menu but you can ask the servers for it if you visit the restaurant anytime soon.

The star of the show was the Roasted Duck. For Php1,500 for the whole duck, this is suck a steal! The duck was meaty and flavorful! Compared to a Peking duck, this is much more satisfying. It just feels like you’re eating so much more.

Whole Roasted Duck (Php 1,500.00) Half (Php 750.00)

The meal isn’t over yet! (Don’t judge) After devouring the duck, we were treated to some refreshing Mango Sago.

Why stop there? Of course we had two desserts. Instead of the traditional buchi (which they also have), there is an option to try mochi balls filled with white chocolate. Divine! This one is also coming up soon on the menu.

Mango Sago (Php 85.00)

Apart from the food, our group also enjoyed an array of freshly blended fruit shakes. I decided to try the Vietnamese Coffee and was pleasantly surprised to receive it in a large glass. Traditionally in Vietnam, they only give you really tiny glasses. This was a real treat although I would have wanted it to be a tad bit stronger. Given the size of the glass though, maybe that’s not the best idea.

Vietnaamese Coffee (Php 95.00)

That rounds off our meal. I will surely come back especially when I get stuck in traffic coming off a flight. The place has a good vibe, very clean and properly airconditioned.

Another plus is that it’s adjacent to the Asiatel Airport Hotel. It’s a good place to stay if you have several hours to kill between flights. I’ll tell you more about the hotel later. In the mean time, I’m going to try to burn some of those calories. See you next time!

See the full menu on Zomato: