Grandma Approved: Mangan Restaurant

Filipino cuisine will forever have a special place in my heart. I am not being biased or what but there’s really something so comforting with eating Filipino food. Could it be the umami?

One Saturday, I had a girls’ lunch out with my mom and grandmother at Robinsons Galleria. Since my grandmother isn’t that adventurous with food, we decided to head to Mangan, a Filipino restaurant.

There wasn’t much people eating and it was lunch time when we arrived. I guess those new restaurants at BGC and Shangri-La’s east wing are eating other malls’ share of hungry tummies.

It didn’t took us long to decide what to order. We ordered my grandma’s favorite Sinigang sa Bayabas Bangus (milkfish) Belly (PHP280) and Gatang Sigarillas (PHP120). After some thought, I also ordered Lechong Babi (PHP240) as it goes well with the veggies I ordered.

While waiting and munching on the complimentary crispy shoestring sweet potatoes (where some were oddly wet), one of the servers approached us. He shared that they are selling PHP300 gift certificates and if we buy now, we get free puto bumbong. (It made me wonder if he saw my excitement when I saw that they sell puto bumbong.) I then asked if the GCs have an expiry date and true enough the GCs are valid until November this year. I told him that this is against DTI rules as gift certificates should be treated like cash as it was bought with cash, at full amount. The server just… smiled then asked if I still want to avail of it. Uhm…

Our food was served a few minutes after.

The Gatang Sigarillas was very savory. It was sweet and it made me crave for anything salty or more rice! I enjoyed the crunch of the sigarillas (winged beans) though.

The Lechong Babi (suckling pig) was a surprise. Serving was very stingy for its price of PHP240. It was literally a small chunk of pork. The saddest thing was that it wasn’t even crispy and it seemed to be over-fried. Thankfully, the siding enchaladang magga (green mango salad) was pretty good.

Now for the bangus belly…

You cannot deny the taste of guava. It was tangy, salty and sweet all at the same time. The serving was also pretty generous and a party of 4 can share one order. The vegetables used were fresh as well and crunchy (which was a good contrast to the soft milkfish).

Overall, the meal was satisfying. We were too full though to order dessert. I’ll definitely visit around 2 p.m. next time to avail of their merienda sets. :)

Mangan is located at the 2^nd floor, Robinsons Galleria, cor. Ortigas Avenue, Quezon City.