Hot Pot Feast at Gloria Maris Greenhills

It's hard to miss the huge, white imposing building of Gloria Maris (Shark's Fin Restaurant) in Greenhills Shopping Center. Perfectly curved, it enjoin shoppers for a sumptuous meal.

There are two kinds of menu (or should I say dining area) they offer and serve at Gloria Maris: dim sum and hot pot (high-end). Since it's a hot pot night for us, a table of four shares an electric stove for the cooking.

Though we opted for hot pot, they allow for cross-over between dimsum. Perfect while waiting for the soup to boil. Speaking of soup, that's the first task in hot pot. Followed by the sauce. Good thing there were ready sauces I need not mix sate myself.

If unsure which soup to choose or what to mix, the staff are always willing to help. In fact, they're very accommodating.

There are a wide range of hotpot to choose from meats of chicken, beef, pork and lamb and seafood. There are even balls of meat available. For vegetables, there's the leafy green ones to eggs, mushrooms and noodles.

To cut the tedious process of selecting short, chose from their New Choices: Assorted Combination for 4 Persons- Php 1,925. Except for the pictures, it doesn't say on the menu what to expect but here's what I can remember of it: balls of meat, sliced meats, a few sticks of prawns, sliced squid, crab sticks and even sea cucumber which was rubbery but good. The veggie pot has brocolli, Chinese pechay, cabbages, corn, tofu, sotanghon even mushrooms and bean curd skin. The skin has a very interesting texture.

I mentioned that staff are very accommodating. But just too sad that it came too much that the staff who was serving us dumped everything in the hotpot. Chinese would say they don't know how to cook authentic hot pot.

First off, especially for the meats since it's thinly sliced, it should be cooked a few seconds only and you have to wiggle or dip in and out it of the soup. So, second, we don't know which is which then after. A hullabaloo then of meats.

Anyhow, for the dimsum, had Baked Pork Buns at Php 175. It's yummy it crumbles to bits especially when hot. Also had Hakaw at Php 175 and the shrimp was heavenly. Sharksfin Siomai at Php 170 also curb our hunger for a while. And the highlight of our dimsum was the Peking Duck 1/4- ~Php 1,500. Whole was about Php 3,000. Their glazed Peking Duck was sweet and tasty.

Here are some of my tips:

•  Select each for the hotpot if possible. Though tedious,  you can have control of which you like. Although if pre-chosen such as in the combination, might find a good pick just like the bean curd skin and sea cucumber.
• No to chicken. It got weird for me the chicken. I cannot remember eating one almost as is.
• Go for beef and cook them just in a few seconds. Remember my tip in Four Seasons Hot Pot City?

Was it fine for dining? All things considered, yes.

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Gloria Maris Sharksfin Restaurant is located at:

Greenhills Shopping Centre,

Greenhills, San Juan City

Website :http://gloriamaris.com.ph/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gloria-Maris-Restaurant-Greenhills/172831856076568