Dining Guide
Restaurants
Most authentic, of course, are the Chinese restaurants in the Chinatown of Manila, Binondo. However, communication is a problem in most of the places as menus generally are only in Chinese and waitresses have a hard time translating to the guest entry after entry from the menu.
Of course, a stroll through Chinatown is something no foreign visitor should miss, and without a Chinese meal, it would be an in-complete experience. To the visitor unfamiliar with Chinese characters, the author recommends Pink Patio, a place near Binondo Church he discovered on a stroll through Chinatown and where he be-came a regular guest thereafter.
Pink Patio at 531 Paredes Street right in the heart of Chinatown is an exception in many ways. First of all the restaurant is much cleaner than most places in Chinatown; second, unlike most Chinese restaurants, it's furnished with taste and great love for decorative detail; third, unlike other Chinese restaurants, it is prepared to serve single diners or couples and not only big families and groups; fourth it's menu is probably the most appealing to Western taste among the Chinese restaurants in Binondo, without bird's nest soup and shark fin but with many delicious Chinese pork, beef and chicken dishes as they are cooked in bourgeois Chinese homes; and fifth, in spite of it's beauty it's still an economical place to eat.
TOURIST BELT
Hiong Mun Lau (88)
2nd fl Ambassador Hotel, Mabini St
Tel 50-81-57; 7:00-15:30, 17:00-23:00
connected to "Imperial Garden Seafood Market"; therefore it not only has a wide variety of Chinese dishes but also an excellent choice of seafood
Sea Palace (66)
1766 Mabini St, Malate, Manila
Tel 521-64-26 to 28
11:00-14:30, 17:30-22:30, Chinese cuisine of live seafood; one of the longest operating Chinese seafood restaurants in the tourist belt; large selection of rare fish, among them panther, parrot fish and snapper; one specialty of the house is lobster sashimi, originally a Japanese seafood dish; also popular coconut crab
Kim Wan Garden (58)
571-573 General Malvar St, Malate
Tel 58-72-54, 26-44-55
24 hrs; American and Filipino breakfast available; also serves vegetarian food and actually the oldest restaurant in Manila with a vegetarian philosophy; special "Kim Wan" recipes; upstairs Traveler's Inn
Szechuan House (87)
Aloha Hotel, Roxas Blvd, Tel 59-90-61
11:00-14:00, 18:00-22:30
Eva's Garden (40)
1347 Adriatico St, Ermita, Tel 50-53-18
11:00-14:00, 17:00-23:00; Sun no lunch
Lotus Garden (50)
Gr fl Midtown Hotel, Ermita, Tel 57-39-11
11:30-23:30
Eastern Restaurant (30)
Mabini St cor Padre Faura St, Er-mita
2nd fl, Royal Palm Hotel, Tel 58-53-95
9:30-21:00
Wok Inn
(80) - 471 Remedios St, Tel 50-84-98; 11:00-23:00; Sun 11:00-14:00,
17:00-23:00
(83) - 2033 Del Pilar St, Tel 521-82-24; 11:00-14:00, 17:00-23:00; closed on Sun
Maxim's
(2) - Roxas Blvd cor Kalaw St, Er-mita
Tel 59-59-72; 24 hrs; good value
(82) - 1965 Mabini St, Malate
Tel 522-04-15; 11:00-21:00, closed on Sun
Hong Kong Tea House (3)
1015 Del Pilar St, Ermita, Tel 50-03-48
10:00-3:30
More on Chinese cuisine:
Restaurants
More Restaurants
This page: http://www.cockatoo.com/english/philippines/philippines_chinese_cuisine4.htm
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