Manila Bay Food Crawl
Nothing beats a perfect sunset with a plate of Manila’s finest tastes
The streets along the western shore of Manila Bay are dotted with restaurants of all types: high end and low end, formal and casual, serving all types of cuisine from all parts of the Philippines and the world. This food trip crawls from Kilometer One at Rizal Park to Zapote in Las Piñas, the southern boundary of Metro Manila.
1. THE MANILA HOTEL
Still the gem of the city 110 years after it was built in 1909, the Manila Hotel opened in 1912 on 3.5 hectares of land on the north end of Roxas Boulevard. Rebuilt after World War II and refurbished in 1976, it houses three very popular restaurants: Ilang Ilang, Red Jade, and Champagne Room. Red Jade offers fine dining Chinese cuisine, while Ilang Ilang is sought after for its extensive buffets. The Champagne Room continues to be voted as the country’s most romantic restaurant.
2. HARBOR VIEW
The only restaurant built on Manila Bay, Harbor View is one of the best places for viewing the famous sunset while enjoying the balmy ocean breeze and excellent fresh seafood cooked to order in whatever style: Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, etc.
3. SHAWARMA SNACK CENTER
The original Shawarma eatery, it started as a hole-in-the-wall 30 years ago and has grown to include a hotel, mini-mart for Middle Eastern ingredients, and a roomy Mediterranean eatery. It’s open 24/7 along Romero Salas St. between Mabini and M. H. del Pilar, Ermita.
4. REMEDIOS CIRCLE
Located where Remedios crosses Adriatico near Malate Church, the area is where a cultural revolution of sorts began 40 years ago when writer-gourmand Larry Cruz opened Café Adriatico in a small wooden house decorated with old santos and parts of demolished antique structures. Today the area is still dominated by Café Adriatico and its sister Filipino food haven Bistro Remedios.
5. MAX’S
Filipino-style fried chicken was defined after the war as tender, tasty-to-the-bone, the way Max’s Restaurant does it. Max’s has two outlets on Roxas Boulevard: one on Remedios near Malate Church and the original in Baclaran near the Redemptorist Church.
6. ARISTOCRAT
Eight decades old and still undisputed as the Philippines’ most popular restaurant, the eatery at the corner of San Andres and Roxas Boulevard is nothing short of a national landmark. It’s Chicken BBQ with Java Rice is unmatched, and the restaurant’s Filipino dishes have set the standard for taste and quality. It’s open 24/7, even on holidays.
7. SOFITEL
Opened in 1976, the hotel is the only one that sits on the shore of Manila Bay, making for unforgettable al fresco dining memories. Also drawing crowds are the lunch and dinner buffet spreads of its beautiful restaurant Spiral, popular on social media for its breathtaking Instagramable winding staircase.
8. 128 EL’S
El’s started as a makeshift canvas tent on Macapagal Avenue across the street from PAL building. Its home-cooked Pinoy dishes attracted so many taxi drivers that convinced CCP to give the eatery a better space, replete with parking spaces, along Buendia across the World Trade Center. It’s open 24/7, serving Papaitan, Dinakdakan, Salmon Head sa Miso, Lechon Kawali, Dinuguan, Inihaw na Liyempo, Pritong Galungong, and other Pinoy favorites.
9. DAMPA
Along Macapagal Avenue, across PNB building is a seafood wet market of sorts, where diners purchase seafood to be cooked by restaurants nearby. This seafood haven is a copycat of the original Dampa concept on Imelda Avenue near the airport.
10. THE GARAGE
Housed in the parking building of City of Dreams is The Garage, an entire floor filled with a dozen food trucks serving treats from around the world, such as tacos, pizza, smoothies, Chinese, even ramen. Open daily until 2 a.m, it offers free parking, strong internet signal.
11. BACLARAN SEASIDE MARKET
What started in the ’60s as a fisherman’s flea market is now a concrete building with restaurants above the fish market. It is not unusual anymore to bump into hotel and restaurant chefs. The market is considered an excellent supplier of live crabs, oysters, clams, fish, squid, and even imported items like salmon. Many buy fish to be cooked and consumed at restaurants on the upper floors.
12. LYDIA’S LECHON
It started as a small stall run by a Caviteña housewife five decades ago. Now, Lydia’s Lechon is a recognized leader and pioneer in the industry. The restaurant along Roxas Boulevard service road serves freshly roasted lechon, lechon paksiw, dinuguan, and bopis according to heirloom Cavite recipes.
13. TAPSILOG
Parañaque’s national road, known by locals as Quirino Avenue, is the birthplace of what we now know as Tapsilog. The place is a few meters north of the corner where stands the Sta. Monica Church and where a road begins toward Barrio Sto. Nino. In the early 1970s, we were told the tapa was made of horsemeat. Greasy fumes from the tapa eatery wafted into the jeepneys full of commuters, making passengers salivate. Today, tapa is still made and served in the area by Maty’s.
14. SOUP NUMBER 5
Driving south on Quirino Avenue, one enters La Piñas, where the road becomes Father Diego Cera. Past the Bamboo Organ Church, near the junction of Alabang-Zapote Road, is the town’s cockpit where men and women go for more than the cockfights. The cockpit arena houses a food stall that sells a unique dish with unique ingredients and an unusual name: batenbols. It is a thick stew using bull penis and testicles, known elsewhere as Soup Number 5.