Dining in unique settings 2

MANILA, Philippines—Tired of the typical dining options when in or near Metro Manila? Are you looking for a little uniqueness, inspiration and entertainment while chowing down a hearty meal? We’ve rounded up some of the restaurants with fun twists to suit every type of adventurous foodies.

Last week, we introduced you to a unique waterfall restaurant at Villa Escudero Plantations and Resort in San Pablo, Laguna, as well as a jeepney-themed restaurant, a Harry Potter-inspired coffee shop, and other uniquely-themed and artsy dining and drinking destinations in Quezon City’s hip Maginhawa Street. This week’s options are equally fun and awe-inspiring.

While most concept restaurants stick to a single theme, some like Isdaan Floating Restaurant and Fun Park takes you to different parts of the world with every few steps or direction you take. It’s a place where gigantic Buddha, monks, mermaids, gorillas, superheroes, dinosaurs and a mish-mash of other interesting statues hover over you, your dining table or your nipa hut.

Isdaan Floating Restaurant, located along the national highway in Calauan, Laguna is a multi-themed, open-air restaurant and park floating on a large fishpond teeming with koi and “crocodiles” that look like the real thing.

Some parts of the fishpond upon which the restaurant supposedly floats are deep so children are given life vests for safety reasons.

For the uninitiated, “isdaan” means “fishery.” Isdaan Floating Restaurant definitely turns a dining experience into something of an adventure on a fishpond. You can catch fish here and then ask the staff to cook it for you. For many of us, that’s too much of a hassle, so just order from Isdaan’s extensive Filipino menu served in banana leaves.

Isdaan Floating Restaurant is owned by the Barrio Fiesta and Bakahan at Manukan Group of Companies. So you’ll find some similarities in the specialty dishes and the settings—that of a Filipino fiesta ambiance, with matching nipa huts for group dining tables, floating bamboo pathways, food servers in traditional Filipino attire, the “Mabuhay” greetings, the kundiman serenades, and the singings waiters and cooks.

They offer Barrio Fiesta special dishes such as crispy pata, pinakbet and four types of kare-kare, as well as the Bakahan at Manukan Specials, from bulalo to pork and chicken adobo wrapped in banana leaves.

If you love fried food, opt for Mama Chit’s Special served in a tray filled with crispy fried pork, chicken, crabs, tilapia, shrimp, lumpia, eggplant, fresh tomatoes, and different mixes and sauces. Then add soup dishes such as sinigang, tinola, nilaga or cooked in coconut milk. Try the sizzling specials, their original lechon tinupig, or their Titanic sets.

Isdaan Floating Restaurant also offers three boodle fight sets depending on the level of your appetite: Round 1, Round 2, and the Championship Round. Boodle fight has its roots in the Philippine military style of eating wherein soldiers, regardless of rank or position, dine together on food spread out on banana leaves.

The tab is a bit pricier than other restaurants, but there is no admission fee to roam around, take photos, and enjoy the whole facility.

While food is at the heart of the floating restaurant, the real come-on for many visitors are the magnificent, gigantic and life-sized statues that make you feel like you have traveled to a Philippine fishing village or countryside, or other Asian countries such as Thailand, Indonesia or Hong Kong.

A red Buddha, a white Buddha and a golden Buddha are among the gigantic statues. But a humungous gorilla statue seems to hover over the whole 3-hectare “fishery” village. This place is packed with attractions everywhere you turn your head. This makes it ideal for taking photos. Or selfies. Hundreds of them.

You can start taking photos while waiting for your food to be served, especially on weekends when the place is packed and has a long line of people outside waiting to be seated or placed in individual nipa huts. Or get entertained by mascots, a circus show, mimes, unicyclist, or other performers while your food is being cooked.

Because the whole Isdaan Floating Restaurant is designed for the whole family and groups of friends, there is something to entertain every age group. There are giant Buddhist and Hindu figures, huge mermaids, young monks, dinosaurs with cracked and perfect eggs, the Angry Birds, Batman, Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Incredible Hulk, the Shrek family, nude fairy-like statues, elephants, monkeys, Universal Studios’ Madagascar characters, and crocodiles in the water and some pathways. Statues of U.S. President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, former Philippine presidents Cory Aquino and Joseph Estrada, along with statues of security guards, food servers and police officers, can also be found here.

Notice, too, the funny juxtaposition of statues. Goofy is standing next to a Buddhist or Hindu statue, for example.

You can also ride a boat, with life vest of course, and with a “mandatory” tip to the boatman of at least 20 pesos.

Feel like throwing something against a wall in anger or frustration? It could be about a terrible work supervisor, a cheating partner or an ex-husband. Or high blood or arthritis that just won’t go away? Vices you want to get rid of like smoking and drinking? At Isdaan Floating Restaurant, a so-called Tacsiyapo Wall allows you to throw plates, mugs, wall clocks, and even a television set against it, for a fee, depending on the item you want to throw and break.

As you can see, there’s definitely a lot more than just dining at Isdaan Floating Restaurant. If you can’t get enough of the concept, you can also try their other branch in Gerona, Tarlac.

City dining
Back to dining in the city, culinary adventures within the old Spanish walled city of Intramuros in Manila evoke nostalgia and a sense of culture and heritage.

This fits perfectly well with the period setting of Barbara’s Heritage Restaurant inside Plaza San Luis Complex just across the over 400-year-old UNESCO heritage site San Agustin Church.

Experience the old Manila at Barbara’s Heritage Restaurant, from the carefully maintained Spanish-era mansion to the grand stairways, the magnificent Spanish colonial-style interiors and exteriors, the beautiful centuries-old furniture and fixtures, the wooden floors, the sliding capiz windows, the surrounding cobblestone-streets, stone houses, a historic church, the cleanliness of the place, down to the buffet spread and the live Filipino cultural dance and music presentations.

When we visited the place for a friend’s birthday on Thanksgiving, most of the restaurant guests were from China, Taiwan, and Singapore, while the rest were from the Philippines and the United States.

The cozy restaurant is open daily for lunch buffets, but it is highly recommended that you visit the place for dinner buffet because it comes with a cultural show from 6pm to 9pm. (For reservations, call 527-4083/527-3893.)

Food quality is superb, from the appetizers to the main dishes of fish, pork, chicken, and vegetables. While the food choice is limited, everything tastes supreme and are a good value for your money. The food itself is worth an encore for a leisurely dinner in an elegant setting.

The place is perfect for balikbayans and first-time visitors to the Philippines, as the setting, the dinner show and many of the food served are a great introduction to Filipino culture and history. Wearing Spanish colonial clothes, the restaurant staff are also courteous and attentive to customers’ needs.

The well-choreographed and well-sequenced dinner show starts with the rondalla, an ensemble of stringed instruments, and then proceeds to the cultural dances including tinikling (the Philippine national dance that mimics the movements of a bird and consists of careful hopping and dancing over bamboo poles), some gravity-defying dances from the southern Muslim areas, pandanggo sa ilaw (women dancing with a lit candle in a glass on their head and hands), a courtship dance, cariñosa (dancing with handkerchiefs), binasuan (women dance with half-filled glasses on their heads and hands), and pandanggo sa upuan (dances on a bench).

Another concept restaurant that’s also across San Agustin Church in Intramuros is Ristorante Delle Mitre, the look and feel of which blends well with the ambience of an old Spanish walled city.

The restaurant name itself, “Mitre,” translates to a tall headdress worn by bishops and senior abbots as a symbol of office. The place boasts of Catholic Church memorabilia and pictures, and easily gets filled with foreign and local visitors.

After a sun-drenched exploration of Intramuros, the cool temperature and the food and beverage treats at Ristorante Delle Mitre are definitely a welcome respite. The tasty and well-priced food, from Filipino fare to pastas, are worth the long wait during busy hours.

Notice that some of the dishes are named after prominent Catholic priests. A sample of a buffet style set menu includes Delle Mitre baked scallop, Bishop Odchimar’s mushroom soup, Monsignor Georgio’s Mediterranean salad, Bishop Famadico’s herbed roasted chicken with mushroom gravy, beef rolled with pepper and spinach, grilled butterflied prawns, plain rice, mango crepe/blueberry cheesecake, pomelo juice, melon juice and iced tea, coffee, or hot tea.

Be it a round-the-world floating restaurant or a religious-inspired restaurant and a heritage-themed dining facility with a lovely dinner show in an authentic Spanish colonial period stone house, the items in your Philippine “eat-tinerary” are surely worth the explorations—each one unique in their setting, ambiance, food, or concept.