An unhippie dinner at John & Yoko

No, you cannot eat barefoot at John and Yoko. When I first heard about this place, I was thinking low tables and comfy cushions. I could not have been more mistaken. If you've been to John and Yoko, you'll know that the place does not whisper anything sixties. It shouts "Future!" in a robot voice. It also screams red and purple - literally. I don't know about you, but I prefer my meals to look unedited. Something about John and Yoko is stressful. Perhaps the sight of a full restaurant, even well past the usual dinnertime, combined with unhappy-looking waitresses in highly uncomfortable-looking boots and skirts too short for stairs made for an unwelcoming aura. Oh, and did I mention the whole restaurant is bathed in light reminiscent of those plasma balls in interactive science museums? It was so difficult to ignore, it has to be mentioned twice. Every meal has a context, and this time, I was exhausted and very very hungry. It was the sort of hunger that warranted the claim "I could eat an elephant." However, being vegetarian, I could not. Instead, I settled for Vegetable Ramen for P258.

I like to think I'm difficult to please when it comes to noodles. The only noodles that have really impressed me are all the way in Palawan. Still, every time I see noodles on a menu, I give it a shot, hoping that maybe, just maybe, I won't get disappointed. John and Yoko's Vegetable Ramen was not bad. First of all, the bowl was huge, and it was actually filled. Second, I appreciated the fact that their interpretation of vegetables went beyond garnish-sized slivers of carrots, onions, and cabbages. I can't say if I was just incredibly hungry, but I found the Vegetable Ramen very satisfying. It was also good for sharing, so I could taste some of the other dishes we had ordered. The Agedashi Tofu (P158) was everything you'd expect from Agedashi Tofu: silky soft and flavorful, with a nice hint of spiciness from the ginger shavings. Four pieces aren't very filling, though, so unless you're only moderately hungry, it might be better to get something else. We're the kind of people who can't resist ordering California Maki at a Japanese place. We have this theory that if the restaurant can botch California Maki up, there isn't much hope for anything else on the menu. Fortunately, the California Maki Roll was pretty standard. For P218, you get a small platter of artfully arranged maki. The rice was soft and the flavors fresh, and the generous servings of kani on top were pretty good. The Sukiyaki (P348) was also pretty standard. We began to realize that the food, though not disappointing, was nothing spectacular, either. Of course, John & Yoko gets credit for their servings. While most restaurants serve food that is a lot less than what their photos look like, the case here is the opposite. What they may lack in taste, they make up for in quantity. But for a restaurant that calls itself cosmopolitan Japanese, it had a pretty laid-back taste. Of course, we could have been ordering the wrong things. There were some pretty exciting dishes on the menu with names like There Goes My Diet and We Found Nemo, but we were pretty stuffed by the time being adventurous crossed our minds. Overall, our meal was quite enjoyable, but there was a very persistent fly that seemed to like our food, too. Flies in general don't appeal to me, and flies in dining areas are particularly unappealing. Also, it may have been the lighting, but the waiters seemed to be unable to smile. They also moved in slow motion, and it took a few tries before they got our orders right. John & Yoko is one restaurant with a lot of hype, and I have to say it didn't quite live up to our expectations. Still, it's worth at least one visit, and maybe even a second one, if only to try the more adventurous items on the menu, and ponder the effects of red and purple tinted food. - GMANews.TV John and Yoko, Greenbelt 5, 2/F Greenbelt 5, Legaspi St., Legaspi Village, Makati City, (02) 729-8698.