Manila Restaurants

If you like to eat, you'll love Manila. Filipino food combines its Malayo-Polynesian origins with many Hispanic, Chinese, American, and other Asian influences. If you want to stretch your budget, eat like the locals. Popular dishes include adobo (chicken and/or pork braised in garlic, soy sauce, and vinegar), kare-kare (oxtail and vegetables cooked in peanut sauce), crispy pata (deep-fried pig's leg), sinigang (meat or seafood in sour broth), pancit (noodles), and lumpia (fresh or fried spring rolls). Snacking is normal, with many Filipinos eating five "meals" in a day. Good, cheap restaurants can be found everywhere. Two places we enjoy are Cafe Ysabel, run by one of the country's most famous chefs, and M Café, just beside the Ayala Museum in Makati.

For French food try L'eau Vive in Asia. This is run by Carmelite nuns who serve frog legs in garlic and butter, and rabbit with white cream sauce among other dishes. Kashmir Restaurant in Ermita is a top Indian restaurant. Try the chicken tandoori, and kesu pullao, a saffron seasoned rice dish.

If you are a lover of fast food then Manila is full of the usual American fast-food outlets such as McDonald's, Burger King, Pizza Hut, KFC etc. Jollibee, the native version of McDonald's, is another common fast-food outlet that is very popular with the locals.

Besides restaurants, there is a variety of street food, however, some precautions are needed. You should probably avoid the Balut-boiled duck embryo, but bananas fried in oil and coated with brown sugar, barbecue pieces of pork marinated, skewered and grilled and chicken barbeque are generally safe and tasty.

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