Chef Laudico's Bistro Filipino turns classic fare into new

MANILA, Philippines - Their first date was at Farmer’s Market in Cubao. He was doing the marketing for his family and he asked her if she wanted to join him. They ate adobong pusit, one of the no-no dishes for a first date because squid’s ink sauce on the teeth is more than a little off-putting. Both tourism students at UP Diliman then, Roland Laudico wanted to test Jacqueline: Was she the type of girl who enjoyed eating or did she eat like a bird?

Jacqui ate with gusto.

Chef Roland, who has been cooking since he was eight years old, should have known that Jacqui loved to eat, since she, too, had been baking since she was six years old — yemas and cakes that she sold to her classmates.

And that was the start of a food collaboration between Roland and Jacqueline Laudico, chefs and owners of Chef Laudico’s Bistro Filipino, a modern Filipino restaurant in Bonifacio Global City, one of the city’s best-kept secrets for a place to have your fill of Filipino classics with a modern twist.

Before Bistro Filipino, the Laudicos ran a private dining business in their Makati subdivision. After seven years they decided to open Bistro Filipino.

An award-winning pastry chef, Jacqui says, “In the beginning people told us, ‘You’re crazy, who’s going to eat there?’ because our prices are more expensive than your usual Filipino restaurant.”

But word of mouth is a powerful thing, especially when the stomach is full. This is Filipino food you’ve tasted so many times before but Bistro Filipino presents its dishes in such a unique way — the look, the textures, the merging of flavors opposite and complementary are all combined for a meal that you’d want to go back to.

Think sisig served in shot glasses, lamb shank kare-kare, pandeninis, and other familiar dishes that taste and look new. For their weekend brunch offer, diners can order all they can from the restaurant’s a la carte menu of over 50 dishes. The record? One diner ordered 23 dishes.

Roland says, “We’re surrounded by office buildings, so Saturday and Sunday are traditionally slow. And we thought, what do people do on weekends? They have buffet lunch in hotels. Since we couldn’t put a long buffet table in this space, why not bring the buffet to their tables?”

So they started the Bistro Filipino Order All You Can brunch on Saturday and Sunday for only P788. At first it was simply to attract customers to the area but the weekend brunch has become the thing that Bistro Filipino is known for. 

Bistro Filipino’s menu has over 50 dishes, including crispy pigeon and mushrooms, eggplant torta with spicy crab, prawn sinigang martini soup, paella arroz caldo, tomato monggo soup, US Angus beef kare-kare, paella-stuffed squid, salmon escabeche.

Its pastas are as unique — with sundried tomato and tinapa; prawns and burong mustasa; chorizo and kasuy; calamari with crab roe; and coconut chicken curry.  

 “In the beginning, all hell broke loose in the kitchen,” says Roland. “We didn’t know how many people would come. We were so surprised that it became so popular right away and everybody was talking about it.”

They also offer an Order All You Can and Drink All You Can with wines from Manny O’s every Sunday. Citibank credit cardholders get 30 percent off the regular price of P1,488 (plus 10 percent service charge) from Friday to Sunday for four weeks starting July 23.

Or for a la carte dining, when Citibank cardholders use their card they can get a sisig basket or kangkong crisps for free when they spend P1,500 and above.

“We’ve innovated Filipino food in a way that it’s not accessible to just Filipinos but also to foreigners,” explains Roland of their passion to bring our local cuisine to the forefront. “Foreigners develop an interest in Filipino food and they’ve often told us, ‘You opened the door to Filipino food for me.’ So now they try other places as well and they keep going back to us.”

Jacqui carries this passion in her chocolate and pastry creations as well, combining Filipino flavors with Belgian chocolate by using fruits such as mango and dragonfruit. “I don’t’ know of any person who’s more of a sweet tooth than my wife,” says Roland. “She can pretty much survive on eating desserts for a year and not eat anything else. I’m serious. She eats anything sweet! I don’t have a sweet tooth but I love her desserts because she focuses more on other flavors rather than just the sugar. The inspiration for the ice cream that I made for Selecta was actually inspired by her chocolate dessert.”

So when there are two chefs in the house, who gets to cook?

Jacqui laughs and says, “Somebody else cooks for us — and more often than not, we eat out.”

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Citibank credit card holders get a free sisig basket and kangkong crisps when they spend P1,500 and above. They also get a 30 percent discount when they avail of the Sunday brunch Order All You Can, Drink All You Can with Manny O’s wines. Chef Laudico’s Bistro Filipino is located at the ground floor of Net 2 Bldg. in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. Call 856-0634/0541, 0917-800CHEF (2433).