MEET YOUR NEW FAVORITE HOTSPOTS
Three restaurants in Pasig give a new take on classic dishes
Only a handful of establishments maintain the stamp of foodie mecca in the city—food so good that people are willing to brave Manila traffic, and sacrifice long waits, for it. With the traffic continuing to worsen, this particular stamp becomes all the more prestigious.
But now that three of Manila’s most-loved restaurants have opened in Pasig, the trek for that iconic truffle pasta, the city’s best burger, and fun Fruit Loop’d ice cream cones has become much shorter—it’s right next door.
Classic dishes paired with new meats
What to try: Venison curry, Kurobuta sinigang, Lola Femya’s birthday spaghetti Where: Mamou 3.0, UGF Ayala Malls The 30th, Meralco Ave., Pasig City Contact: 0917-8662668 Why: Mamou 3.0 brings a more youthful twist to the popular restaurant’s newest branch. Curry, one of the many staples in any Filipino kitchen, gets a twist with the use of venison that’s locally sourced from the island of a friend, shares Mamou manager Annie Montano-Gutierrez. Another must-try is their Kurobuta sinigang. Don’t be surprised if you get a dish that looks like karekare—a taste of the broth will prove it’s still the sinigang you know. It uses Italian tomato sauce to get its color, and has chunks of tender Japanese black pig in the mix. The Fores family also shares their special spaghetti, made by their yaya Lola Femya. The pasta, mixed with a tomato-cream-butter sauce and corned beef, is served on family birthdays, but it’ll be available off-menu at Mamou for a limited time only.
The best burger, according to burger devotees
What to try: The steamed burger, a not-so-secret offmenu item, or the new peanut butter burger Where: Sweet Ecstasy, 2F Ayala Malls The 30th, Meralco Ave., Pasig City Why: Unlike other burger joints that have come up over the years, offering outrageous fillings and other gimmicks, Sweet Ecstasy sticks to the basics. Aside from their standard selection of pure beef burgers (which you can swap to a lettuce wrap if you’re cutting out carbs), you can also get their wings—the Anghang P*cha stands out if you want a challenge. If the classics don’t appeal to you, go for their off-menu burgers: the steamed burger is sans the frills, with just the patty, cheese, and onions, while the peanut butter burger has a beef patty, peanut butter sauce, and is topped with jalapeños, lettuce, and tomato.
Psychedelic ice cream cones and flavors
What to try: The best-selling Space Cake ice cream which has cake and cookie bits, and chocolate syrup, with a colorful Fruit Loops cone Where: Emack & Bolio’s, UGF Ayala Malls The 30th, Meralco Ave., Pasig City Contact: 718-5510 Why: Although a newcomer to Manila, Emack & Bolio’s is anything but new. They’ve been serving ice cream in the US since the ’70s. Their first branch in the Philippines at Ayala Malls The 30th showcases the funkiest flavors, like Space Cake (which has angel food cake, chocolate syrup, shortbread cookie bits, and chunks of red velvet cake) and Stoney’s Dream (this time with vanilla bean specks, chocolate chips, and brownie chunks). As if the ice cream themselves aren’t Instagrammable enough, their assortment of cones—like the cereal-covered Fruit Loops cone—takes your favorite cold treat to a colorful, hippie trip. And did we mention the store’s quirky interiors?