We always welcome more reasons to eat Filipino food. This time, Manam Comfort Filipino gives even more: a new and beautiful branch in BGC, and a merienda line-up of new dishes exclusive to the branch that's worth the afternoon calories.
In January, Manam opened its outlet in BGC, a high-ceilinged space located at a corner building's ground level by the drop-off area. Spacious, breezy, and bright, this new Manam branch makes for an extra enjoyable dining experience, especially for long afternoons where one is seeking comfort from the city heat (it's now officially summer!).
Manam BGC makes the most of their beautiful space with more reason to linger in between meals: a new lineup of merienda-worthy food. Their new dishes are still served the signature Manam style — items in Classics or traditional dishes we've grown up with and Twists, their own playful and modern take on old favorites. The new all-day menu items are also available in three portion sizes (S, M, L) to cater to one's many levels of hunger and appetite, from light snacking to heavy-hitting feasts.
In the All-Day Savory category, there's Chicharon Bulaklak (P235/S, P420/M, P830/L) for classic bar chow snacking (read: gloriously deep fried) and balut served many ways. If you are with foreign guests hesitant to take the ubiquitous Philippine street food challenge of conquering the egg, Manam serves in quirky ways — Balut Ala Sisig (P85/S, P155/M, P220/L) chops up the insides and makes it extra savory in flavor, and there is also Balut Ala Adobo, and the plain option of Balut Classic with Salt Trio.
If noodles excite you, then head to Manam BGC the soonest to drool over their new All-Day Pancit lineup — it's extensive, a balance of traditional pancit and modern ones, with twelve items in total to choose from. Taking the classic route is Pancit Lomi (P180/S, P330/M, P590/L) — a thick noodle soup topped with fresh shrimp, pork belly, liver, squid balls, chorizo and mixed vegetables. And as classic noodle soups tend to be, they are comforting and hearty to soothe one's hunger. And just hearing about Lechong Batchoy (P235/S, P395/M, P655/L) makes one's mouth water — taking the noodle soup from Iloilo and combining it with lechon just seems like a delicious idea. At Manam, they serve pancit miki in a bowl with crispy garlic, fried green chilis, more lechon in strips, liver pate, spring onions, house-made pork floss, and more pork in the form of chicharon bits. It also includes a soft boiled egg drizzled with annatto-ginger oil, and to complete this modern noodle soup, they pour in a broth of lechon and oxtail bone which has been simmered all day.
If you're totally nuts about Manam's crunchy sisig just like everyone in Manila, then the new pancit version should bring you much joy. The Twist dish Pancit Sisig (P190/S, P365/M, P645/L) takes their fan favorite of house crispy sisig and crowns pancit canton that's folded into a pocket of soft lumpiang sariwa wrapper. Perhaps it's a 'lumpiang pansit' with a sisig component, but whatever you decide this dish is an amalgam of, we're all the better for it because of sisig.
Another visually appealing and Instagram-worthy pancit dish that belongs on the Twist category is Crispy Pancit Palabok (P200/S, P385/M, P645/L), a stacked of glass noodles and toppings of house-made chicharon, crispy garlic, spring onions, fresh shrimp, baby squid and crab floss. The palabok sauce is drizzled all over only when the plate of noodles arrives on your table.
All-Day Breakfast is also now available at Manam BGC — assorted silogs and ulam to go with rice, in both Classic and Twist variants. A crowd favorite of Manam is Sugar Glazed Corned Beef Belly Silog (P295/S, P565/M, P875/L), where homemade corned beef belly is sweetened so it's reminiscent of tocino, but with much more flavor and an appealing unctuous bite. Completing the dish is the silog part — a bowl of rice topped with egg, and served with vinegar for dipping.
Merienda can also lean on the sweeter side rather than savory, and the restaurant's All-Day Sweets appeal to the sweet-toothed folk craving for kakanin that they grew up with, or Pinoy desserts that go the playful modern route. The classic Bibingkang Galapong of Salted Duck Egg (P85/S, P155/M, P255/L) will whisk you to Christmas season no matter how scorching hot it is outside right now, the fluffy bibingka bringing nostalgia in every bite. The two twists to the traditional rice cake are must-tries too: Bibingkang de Leche (P125/S, P240/M, P360/L) and Bibingkang Ube (P120/S, P230/M, P340/L), each having its own unique charm. The first one is a bibingka beauty topped with leche flan with salted egg, which also has a tease of the leche flan syrup at the bottom; the second is your classic bibingka swirled with ube into the cake batter, giving more depth in sweetness.
Aside from bibingka, there's an assortment of Filipino sweets in Manam, like Puto Bumbong with Muscovado Butter (another Christmas staple), Sapin Sapin, Suman Roll, and an upscale version of palitaw (stuffed with flavors) in two variants: Palitaw Dulce de Leche (P115/S, P215/M, P315/L) and Palitaw Yema.
The new All-Day Menu of Manam is currently available only at the BGC branch. Visit the new Manam Comfort Filipino branch at the Ground Floor of Net Park Building on 4th Avenue corner 27th Street in BGC Taguig. Call 332-9390 for inquiries, like Manam on Facebook (/ManamPH) and follow on Instagram (@manamph) .
