By now, parties and get-togethers are already filling up your schedule. It’s to be expected since Christmas is just around the corner.
To give everyone a welcome break from the usual dining spots, here are three new restaurants that make for good venues, whatever the budget may be.
Budget-friendly, HK-style roasts
What was supposed to be a simple reunion among classmates ended up months later as their first venture into food. This, in a nutshell, was how week-old Hong Kong Little Kitchen started.
Patrick See reconnected last March with his good friend from grade school, who is now a chef specializing in Hong Kong-style roasted meats. With See’s wife Nelly, the three opened a shop in San Juan that reminds guests of the delicious and reasonably priced street chows in Kowloon.
The regulars are all there—roast duck, roast barbecue, roast chicken, crispy lechon, soy and white chicken. They all come with sauces, which are made in-house (except for the mustard).
Your choice of meat can come with rice, or placed over a steaming bowl of noodle soup.
What’s piquing people’s curiosities are the soy dishes. There’s soy egg and tofu, soy pork lengua, (which is so fork tender), soy pork intestine, soy tito (stomach), pork tail and even soy chicken gizzard.
If you think there’s too much soy, think again. Customers are ordering by the platter and enjoying every bit of these lovely offals.
Hong Kong Little Kitchen, Sonoma Square, 44 N. Domingo St. QC
Rustic-style pizzas to share
For many years, a humble pizza brand has been a regular at weekend markets and events like ArteFino and Spectrum Manila. Now, loyal fans of Pizza Morena need not wait for the end of the week or special fairs to get a slice of their rustic-style, brick-oven pizza as they are the latest addition to the Corner Market at Podium.
Linfred Yap, managing partner at Relish Group of Companies and the brains behind the food hall, says that the inclusion of Pizza Morena in the roster was a no-brainer as its food was “fresh, authentic, delicious and a perfect fit for the Corner Market.”
Owner Jenny Burns feels the same way: “With the hall’s modern vibe and contemporary interiors, it makes for the perfect setting to take our brand to the next level. It helps that it’s in an über-chic mall. We’re definitely happy to be here.”
And so are her loyal customers who can finally have their fill of Pizza Morena’s treats like the prosciutto and burrata pizza anytime, any day.
Pizza Morena: 2/F, The Corner Market, The Podium, 18 ADB Ave. Ortigas, Mandaluyong
All-out splurge
Red Lobster is a brand The Bistro Group genuinely believes in. The American restaurant, as one of the world’s largest seafood purchasers, has been practicing and advocating sustainability by offering seafood which is 100-percent traceable to their suppliers.
“It’s an expensive piece of meat and you have to cook it properly so it won’t be a waste,” says Jean Paul Manuud, Bistro Group president and COO.
At Red Lobster, the Cheddar Bay Biscuit is a must. The pizzas and pastas are studded with seafood, like the Alfredo spaghetti which has crab meat mixed in the garlic Parmesan cream, and the crusty pizza with two cheeses and langoustine tails.
They also have heartier seafood fare cooked simply for their natural sweetness to come out. There’s the Soy Ginger Grouper, a dish offered only in the Philippines; the Blackened Barramundi with beurre blanc, and the Seafood Feast, composed of a Maine lobster tail, snow crab legs, shrimp scampi and wild rice with veggies. —CONTRIBUTED
Red Lobster, 1/L, S Maison, Mall of Asia Complex, Pasay City