MANILA, Philippines - In the diverse world of Chinese eating establishments, everyone tends to pick a favorite, no matter what the menu. Most are well-established institutions in their own right while some cater to more pedestrian tastes. So, in this great country of ours there really are that many Chinese restaurants to choose from. But if you really have to pick, go in the direction that serves the real deal — like day-tripping in Hong Kong minus the price of a plane ticket. To some, there is joy to be found at just another Chinese restaurant. But to many, it’s a fine-dining experience at Hap Chan Seafoods Restaurant.
Located at the Harbour Square in the CCP Complex, Manila, Hap Chan Seafoods Restaurant is the company’s first entry into the fine-dining category. Since coming onto the scene almost 13 years ago with their first, tiny carinderia-type restaurant in Manila, Hap Chan has grown by phenomenal leaps and bounds and now has 17 full-service casual dining restaurants and teahouses to their name. This year alone around 10 new Hap Chan restaurants are expected to come out.
John Sy, president of Hap Chan, recalls: “In 1997, the first Hap Chan in Tomas Mapua was a very small store. They started with noodles, congee, etc. Only dim sum was served at the time. It was a very small space including the second floor with six or seven tables only.”
After a year, Hap Chan opened another “small” establishment at Dakota, also in Manila. The reception was unheard of, with people lining the streets during lunch and dinner waiting for their turn to get in. “They gave out numbers for you to wait,” added Sy. “The waiting ran up to 80 or 90 during lunch and dinner.”
With that many people waiting in line, something in this restaurant must be really, really good. Let me tell you now, it’s probably the noodles. “Our best-sellers are the siomai and noodles,” Sy continued. “Our noodles are different from other noodle houses because we use all-imported ingredients. We don’t use local flour; it’s a special kind of noodle flour which comes from Canada.”
These specially made noodles are the kind you can only taste in a place like Hong Kong. Sy emphasizes, “Anywhere in the Philippines you don’t have these kinds of noodles.” In not so many words, the folks at Hap Chan say they are keeping the Hong Kong way of eating Cantonese food that most of the stores here do not offer.
I noticed this with their steaming plate of pancit canton cooked without any flavor enhancers or MSG. This is welcome news to people, like me, who suffer many ill effects from flavor enhancers.
Hap Chan is selling quite a few more now than what its regular customers may be familiar with. The restaurant now has three categories. There’s the traditional teahouse, which everyone and their mother knows and loves, that serves the usual dim sum, toppings, roastings, congee and what have you; then there’s the casual-dining restaurant, which serves everything plus full-course meals; and now, the fine dining Seafoods Restaurant, which have a few exclusive menu items cooked by the best and most well-known Hong Kong chefs in the industry.
Specialties of the Seafoods Restaurant include such favorites as the yang chow fried rice but also the exclusive braised South African abalone imported directly from South Africa. Other exotic dishes are the braised superior shark’s fin soup and stuffed Austrian scallop with minced shrimp. For those less adventurous but who still like to taste some of what the fine dining restaurant has to offer, there’s the crispy fried shrimp balls and the jumbo golden prawns.
The chefs who made all of these deliciously satisfying stomach stuffers have a preferred dish that’s not even on the menu — but you can ask for some if you like. It’s a unique lugaw mix of leftovers that is served in this huge soup bowl. Sy tells me, before grabbing a bowl of it himself, that it’s what their chefs have during breaks.
Much of the food here really is exclusive to their one and only fine dining restaurant at Harbour Square. This particular restaurant is perfect for small family gatherings, with one VIP room facing a plate-glass window view of the bay. Soon, though, another Hap Chan Seafoods Restaurant will rise over at Annapolis St. in San Juan.
Hap Chan takes its role seriously as an institution among Chinese restaurants. Focused solely on bringing the true Hong Kong experience to Filipino palates.
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Hap Chan Seafoods Restaurant is located at 1101 ground floor, Harbour Square, Pedro Bukaneg St., CCP Complex, Manila. YFor reservations 403-5905/06. For franchise inquiries, call Jane Jalandoni at 411-6186, 410-4009 and 410-4012, sms 0918-907-9317 or email janecelnicolas@yahoo.com.