It's not too often that a brand new restaurant immediately gains a loyal following that repeatedly visits and orders the same dishes. There's a charm to Hey Handsome, and it's ably backed by a tremendous amount of talent and full-on boldness in flavor.
I have eaten at this restaurant that's been getting much praises for three times already since it has opened to the public, for the simple reason that the food is delicious, and the experience along with service is memorable. With new food concepts and franchises sprouting all over the metro faster that it has ever been, this makes the homegrown Hey Handsome quite special. On my most recent visit to the establishment, we got to sit down and talk to Chef Nicco Santos (of Your Local fame) about his new restaurant in Net Park BGC.
"Hey Handsome — the name came from the hawkers in Singapore," Santos explains of their catchy name. "The hawkers call people queuing up, to call the attention of the people they say 'Hey handsome!'" The chef shares that originally, the concept was to bring in recipes that came from families from all over Southeast Asia, while he himself has a penchant for Southeast Asian fare (with his Your Local in Makati and him spending some time in both Singapore and Malaysia). The concept has then blossomed into introducing their own quirks and a little local spin. "I realized today that the food is actually more about Southeast Asian flavors with me and my team's personalities in it," he shares, "the food is not just Southeast Asian, but Southeast Asian with a local touch."
When asked about which of the Southeast Asian fare he leans towards to most, the chef answers that it is Singaporean food — this is where he lived previously, and one of his early food concepts in Manila is Singaporean food, after all. "It's a mix of bold, different flavors, different cultures. I love cuisine that evolves, I love people who evolve. I think for me, it speaks to me because the cuisine always grows. The fusion of Singaporean food is one of the more true fusion cuisines I know. Because people keep using things together–that works. I love it. I love Singaporean food."
While Your Local and Hey Handsome both offer Asian food, if you've tried both, you will definitely experience two different food personalities. Hey Handsome for me gives explosive renditions of a certain type of Asian food — full-on with flavor. "For this one, we try to be more bolder…" Chef Nicco says, "We try to push here dishes that aren't really tested out to the market. It's a risk, but I love it. I'm Filipino, so I can imagine other Filipinos liking the same bold, spicy, tangy flavors." And do they. At first one might read their chalkboard menu with furrowed eyebrows — what is a Laap Phet, a Nam Tok or Buah Keluak? But once you've given the unfamiliar a try, and ask anyone from their team about the dishes (everyone there is vibrant and always friendly with guests), you'll discover how comforting their food is as much as a Filipino rice meal satisfies your stomach.
The Laap Phet (P480), for example, is their take on laap, a dish considered as the national dish of Laos. It's typically a salad of mince meat with herbs, and at Hey Handsome is a pretty bowl of torched cabbage topped with minced duck, deep fried egg, herbs, and khao man rice. The same deep fried egg is found on a small plate of Fried Egg Salad (P250) you can have as appettizer — the fried egg's addictive crisp edges together with the strong flavor of wansuy begs more servings. There's also Bebek Penyet (P780) if you love crisp duck. White Pekin duck is deep fried and served with duck egg scramble on a bed of nasi ulam (steamed rice with herbs). It is served with achar (achara/pickled vegetables) and an incredible homemade sambal that has a little sweetness to it. If beef is your protein of choice, Nam Tok (P700) satisfies. In Thai, it means 'waterfall' and in the restaurant it deliciously translates to BBQ beef shortribs cooked in coconut milk with aromatics, served with coconut rice and som tam (Thai papaya salad).
Hey Handsome affiliates itself with Peranakan cuisine — something not too familiar to my tastebuds, yet their takes on it in the restaurant are altogether delicious and comforting. "In the last recent years being in Singapore I've met a lot of Peranakan families," the chef tells me, "they're mixed race families. This is why I keep saying Peranakan because I guess it has more of a family feel to it. It's already fused–the Chinese, the Malaysians, Indians–and the type of dishes that have come about different cultures coming in, it's mindblowing. Yeah, the French is there and the Italians are there, but this is something else. They're all herbs, really bold, and yet comforting."
"I believe we Filipinos, we love comfort food, we love slow food, and imagine slow food with punches here and there? It will wake you up every few bites," the chef adds, "every single bite is not the same–sometimes you get lime, sometimes you get mint, sometimes you get galanggal." The chef excellently summed up why I instantly enjoyed my first visit at Hey Handsome: food was spiceful, not just spicy-hot, loaded with combinations of herbs and aromatics that lure the senses. Flavors come in waves, undulating slowly and building up to bigger curls when you put in your spoonful more components of the dish.
The Beetroot Paneer (P560) takes center stage, plunging in vibrancy of sweet, sour, and salty. The Indian paneer curry comes flush with beetroot, and served with quinoa tabbouleh instead of bulgur. A crisp piece of pappadum is placed in the middle, and on one side, house yogurt dusted with beetroot powder. I take a spoonful of the paneer chased with the tabbouleh, then followed by another spoonful of the paneer scooped up by the piece of pappadum. Such joy to discover the many different ways to enjoy this dish, just like their spectacular Nasi Lemak (P720). Perhaps the most recognizable dish in the menu, this Malaysian rice dish is served with seabass otah, the fish cooked "otah-otah," blended with coconut milk and spices and traditionally minced and wrapped in banana leaf. The seabass is served with nasi lemak (coconut rice), homemade sambal, pickled egg, and a wonderful brittle version of the ikan bilis, a popular Singaporean snack of dried anchovies like our own dilis. The ikan bilis brittle gave the dish an added crunch that's both sweet and salty, and absolutely addicting. Like their sambal, I'm wishing Hey Handsome could also bottle these brittles, or sell them as snacks.
Galanggal, lemongrass mint orange mint, lemon balm — Chef Nicco Santos shares some of the many spices and herbs they use, and the many different combinations that they incorporate into each component gives that unique and complex flavor that keeps guests curious. "That's why you get many different flavors in each bite, it's not always the same," the chef adds. Sweets aren't excused from the different flavor punches of Hey Handsome — the Cream Puff (P190) for one is one unabashed durian dessert, the pate a choux black from squid ink (!) and sweetened with gula melaka and brown butter powder. A teaspoon of chia seeds sits on top of the cream puff, next to a piece of dehydrated pineapple. The bowl in which the durian puff is served in is slathered with some chocolate, balancing out the smothering effect of the pungent durian filling (durian burps are inevitable, you are warned). If you shy away from the bold fruit in all ways and manners, then apt for your meal-ender is the Yogurt (P200): a cup of house yogurt, with a layer of thick black sesame paste hiding underneath. The yogurt is dusted with beetroot powder and crowned with black sesame tuile you can nibble on in between scoops of the light and creamy dessert. The prettiest among them all is the blushing pink Kueh Lengkuas (P180). It's a rose flavored dessert with gula melaka, coconut meat, galangal cream, and bits and pieces of meringue that give it a sweet crunch.
Even before it had officially opened to the public, many who were privileged to have a food preview of Hey Handsome have already gushed and given it praises, and it has then since stuck–there are many returning guests and customers, and evenings get full. They will soon open for lunch and expand their menu sometime this October. "I'm very happy, definitely," Nicco shares, "because my team and I have spent so much blood, sweat, and tears with the food, and we're really trying to push our tastebuds in a non-uncomfortable way. I'm happy people love it and get it, that they understand what we're trying to do. That people are very open. It's fantastic. It's a good place to be."
May our palates grow bolder and more willing to venture into different kinds of dining experiences such as Hey Handsome — who knows, perhaps this is just the beginning of the many brave new comfort food surging in the metro.
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Hey Handsome is located at the ground floor of Net Park Building on 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. The restaurant is open for dinner Monday to Saturday, 6pm to 10pm (opening soon for lunch). Call 0926 051 1471, and follow Hey Handsome on Facebook and Instagram (@handsomecome).
