Rolling Pin Gold Ribbon Bake Shop

Closed… was a nice little place but it closed hopefully the owners open it up somewhere else.

3.5
Listen: My Filipino mother makes crazy good food. I don’t even think my aunties make food as good as she does (sorry, everyone!). So of course, the buffet here doesn’t wow me.
HOWEVER: The bakery is stellar. I love the mamons, the pandesal, the everything. It’s incredibly cheap and yummy.
I heard they are moving soon because the restaurant is too big and there’s too much overhead. I hope they don’t disappear, because this is my favorite Filipino bakery. I also have a slew of memories here with my family and friends growing up. Plus, can the Med Center afford to lose another restaurant?

We eat here every so often or whenever I am lazy to cook Filipino food. On Saturday 08÷18÷12 we decided to eat here since we were in the area. Not much choices to choose from in the buffet. The Eggplant with Eggs were very delicious and it brought back memories of when my Mom used to cook that back home in Hawaii.

Came here once just to pick up the famous Shanghai Spring Rolls and ended up having a buffet down memory lane with all the various dishes my grandma used to make. So for Mother’s Day, I thought to bring my mom. We’ll maybe because it was a «special» day, all the normal things I liked the first time were replaced with items I didn’t really care for. In Philippino foods the yummier the food, the more easy the name is to the ears; the more hard it is to pronounce and the more «yucky-​sounding» the dishes, the lower on my list of faves ie. dinuguan. And I guess the buffet nature of taking so long to fill the plate while the food gets cold kinda spoils the dish, plus you’d think they didn’t get their chicken from Tyson based on the size of the meat on the bone. I probably should have brought my crab fork. They threw out a huge fish, but between me and the other Filipino lady, we went half on it — so now the rest of starving people waited for another fish. Good thing our family, party of six, was having too much being there the first time. We’ll have to try it again on Non-Mother’s Day.

Got halo halo with my friend who was completely green to filipino cuisine. Umm, the ube was a shade of grey. I was slightly horrified.

I recently ordered a mocha cake from them and it was delicious but the problem I had was that they made a mistake with the lettering of the name on the cake. I spelled the name 2x to the person taking down the lettering but the baker made a mistake and when I went to pick up the cake the baker had gone home. They tried to fix it by scooping the letters off and rewriting the letters and then dousing the cake with multicolored sprinkles to distract from the correction but it looked a little funny because the cake was cream colored with pink flowers for a wedding shower.
I asked the manager/​owner for a discount for their mistake and they refused which I thought was pretty TACKY and POOR CUSTOMER SERVICE on their part since all it would have taken was a few dollars off a $ 22.77 cake to keep me appeased. Considering they made a mistake and I had to wait like 20 minutes for them to fix everything and it still didn’t look perfect.
The cake was delicious but I was really turned off by how they handling things… really they should have offered a few dollars off but to refuse after I asked was poor on their part.

Mold on their ensaymadas & mamon. Enough said.

IMHO there are only 3 things that’s worth buying at this place…
Lechon, Ensaymada & Halo-​Halo.
Tried the buffet maybe like twice because the first time I tried it & I was dissapointed. I’m quite forgiving, so I went & try them again for the second time & the result was the same… dissapointing. Dry. Not Fresh. So-​so taste. Not much variety. Overprice. My friend’s mom cooks better food than that just sayin…
They also have a la carte menu. Tried the Pancit Palabok & it was a little fishy. I used to live in LA & I know what Palabok taste like & it’s not that fishy… yeah no more Palabok from this place, I couldn’t even finish my plate.
The restaurant is a bit dirty & old looking but it doesn’t bother me. What bothers me is there’s a weird smell in the air… maybe it’s because of they’re cooking in the back & they are trying to save on electricity by not turning their ac on & leaving the front door open while it’s humid & hot outside… ya, the Halo-​halo saved my life… hehe

Not bad, definitely a step up from my first Filipino food restaurant experience in Houston. We went for the lunch buffet ($ 8.50 per person I think?) and on average, I preferred the fare here over what I had seen at Boracay Café last week. Rolling Pin’s steam table dishes weren’t quite as greasy, and the meat wasn’t as fatty. Not fabulous enough to warrant more than 3 stars, but it could grow on me.
The lechon kawali was fried so crunchy-​delicious, and it tasted like they make their own liver sauce instead of using the bottled Mang Tomas. I brought home ensaymada (one was a little dry) and pan de sal (planning to have some later). The cakes offered in their buffet were not great quality (one was mushy, the other dry) but they did have that familiar Filipino bakery flavor.
I’d have to try their ordered food and halo-​halo to give them a comprehensive review, but this was a good start.

Im Filipino but avoid this place like the plague. I almost feel like ill get a stomach ache from eating the not-​so-​fresh food here. Both times I came to the place it was for a party and even then, the food wasnt great. The broth for the sinigang was bland, and no amount of patis would make it right. The other dishes on the buffet seemed sad and old. I can cook Filipino food well… but there are just days when I dont feel like cooking. I dont go to Gold Ribbon during those days … ive been to Godo’s in Fannin by the Med Center and it was WAY better than Gold Ribbon. The Filipino fast food place in the Viet Hoa food court is pretty good too.

this place is aite. they use to have this big jumbo fried shrimp serve on the buffet but now everytime i go it’s nowhere to be found. but i do like the halo-​halo

I’m very puzzled by this restaurant. First off the parking is in the back and they have a back entrance. Now this is where I start getting confused… As I walk in I walk past what seems to be a meeting? I looked as though maybe some sort of conference was being held in the back area, the only problem is this area is not separated by walls or a door, it was just like the other side of the restaurant. So I walk towards the front… there really is not a hostess stand of any sorts so I ask the first person with a Gold Ribbon apron on and ask can I sit anywhere? He says what do you want to drink and points me in the direction of the buffet line. He then places my drink on the table where I had asked him the question… I guess I didn’t care but I could tell this lunch was going to over come a language barrier. As I arrived at the buffet line I was very very hesitant. I could barely make out what any of the dishes were and in some cases what kind of meat it was. I grabbed a little bit of everything just to try it out. I had never been to a Filipino restaurant before and only have had a few dishes from friends. The items were NOT fresh and looked like they had been sitting out for quite a long time. I went ahead and tried the dishes anyways since I was starving. I was very amazed that the items actually tasted good. The biggest problem is there is only about 12 possible items and a very limited dessert area. I don’t recommend coming back here unless you are with someone flip to help translate. All in all good food just bad service and no one really speaks English there.

Two Words:
Sans Rival. You know you want it, just go ahead and get it and worry about your clogged arteries later.
Three more words:
Embrace the Buffet. Sure it could be more exciting, a little more fresh and diverse, but Filipinos love to eat and have stomachs of steel. Just eat and revel in the fact you are eating pancit, lechon and beef tapa. Again, worry about your clogged arteries later.

Coming from a Filipino background, I know what authentic Filipino food tastes like. Last night I was having a craving for something familiar. I wanted my Mom’s cooking. But since she lives about 200 miles away, I decided to stop by this place instead.
I ordered the Tapsilog, which is beef steak marinated in spices, dehydrated a bit then pan fried. The meat comes with a side of rice and an fried egg over hard. Mix the dish with a little rice vinegar and soy sauce and voila! The meal satisfied my craving but it’s no where nearly as good as Mom’s. But then again, I’m a bit biased. Yet it was nonetheless flavorful.
I would still recommend this place just because it reminds me of home.

I moved here from the Philippines, and well, after a while, I miss Filipino food. A fellow Filipino (or Flip) brought me to this place for lunch buffet. I was told this used to be a Red Ribbon (a popular Philippine bakeshop) franchise but they lost it hence the name. The food was not super good, but it was close enough to home to remind me of it. The beef tended to be a bit tough; the soup was bland, and the (pork) asado was bad, but overall, it was Flip food, and that’s good enough. They had flan the way I know it, but only in big sizes, so I couldn’t bring my beloved bf some. They did have pan de sal (sorta like dinner rolls), though, and ensaymada (sweet bread-​like pastry with cheese, butter and sugar on top), so I got him a pack of the former and a piece of the latter. Also got turron, which is basically sweet plantain in a fried roll and caramelized with brown sugar. YUM. Yeah, I just wish they had later hours so I can bring him here after work (him living 21 miles out).

I love their Kare Kare but it’s only served on Fridays and Sundays. I wish they had fresher rice though.

Omg the bread. My roomate brings home the bread and I’m so jealous.
I need to try the buffet though. Will review later.