When was the last time you visited Binondo?
Touted as the oldest Chinatown in the world, Binondo hogged the headlines recently when CNNGo, the travel website of Cable News Network (CNN), included it in the list of the best Chinatowns in the world. Since then, locals and tourists alike find this crazy maze of thrift shops, jewelry stores, age-old churches, apothecaries, hole-in-the-wall restaurants and the popular estero selling Soup No. 5 (a soup dish made from a bull’s testicles) simply irresistible.
Enhancing the area’s aging landscape is the new Lucky Chinatown, an upscale mall (developed by Megaworld Corporation) over at Reina Regente Street, which injects new excitement and breathes new life into the area while staying true to its Chinese-Filipino roots. Not only does the new mall offer a superb shopping experience, it also teases the palate of Tsinoys with its roster of restaurants that offer the best of Asian and Western cuisines.
Providing Chinatown residents and visitors the best choices in California-inspired cuisine, exciting and flavorful pizzas, and American-quality service is California Pizza Kitchen (CPK), which recently opened at Lucky Chinatown, its eighth branch in the Philippines.
“There’s no development like this around the area so it was a natural choice for us to open here as part of our 15th year expansion,” says Archie Rodriguez, president and CEO of Global Restaurant Concepts Inc., which first brought CPK to the country.
Despite of Lucky Chinatown’s old-China atmosphere, Archie believes that mall habitués are in tune with the east-meets-west concept of CPK. The 200-sq.m. restaurant is decked with images of the California lifestyle: beach, surf and sun. The interiors are brighter with a relaxed and lighter atmosphere. There’s a bar right at the entrance so even if the place gets packed with diners, they can enjoy drinks first while waiting to be seated.
“The design of the Lucky Chinatown branch is completely different from our other stores. We want to bring back more of that California feel in our resto,” adds Archie.
DESSERTS COME FIRST AT CPK
For its Binondo branch, the restaurant is rolling out a new menu of sweet endings — Chocolate Sin, Mango Crunch, Caramel Banana Tart, and Caramel Hazelnut Cake — that are best enjoyed with a hot cup of coffee or tea.
Choco lovers shouldn’t pass up on the Chocolate Sin, a dark chocolate, milk chocolate ganache kisses-topped sugarless and flourless chocolate cake. The size of the cake is smaller as compared to the other dessert items, but it is packed with flavor. It’s so rich you’ll get a sugar rush after each bite.
The Mango Crunch is light and refreshing. The mango mousse has layers of walnuts and light cream topped with fresh mango slices.
I just can’t get enough of the Caramel Hazelnut Cake, a dark chocolate-glazed cake made of layers of lemon chiffon with caramel mousse and candied hazelnuts. It’s pure indulgence with each slice.
We were served interesting food items like the Cappuccino Soup, the Asian Specialty Wrap, and the Farmer’s Market Pizza during the launch of the new desserts menu.
Served in a coffee cup with milk froth and nutmeg topping, the Cappuccino Soup has three kinds of mushrooms crushed and mixed in shiitake cream.
Enoki mushrooms that have sprouted from the tortilla wrap filled with prime steak ribs make the dish look pretty good. It tastes good, too, especially when dunked in wasabi sauce or teriyaki glaze.
I’m not a huge fan of squash, but CPK’s Far
The Chinese Chicken Salad, which reminds one of CPK’s duck salad, is as refreshing as usual.
When asked if there’ll be more Chinese-inspired dishes at CPK Chinatown, Archie hastily replied: “The floodgates have opened with the Chinese Chicken Salad. We still have to take that next step (of introducing regional dishes on certain CPK branches) but it looks like we’ll be doing some research and development towards that end.”
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CPK has branches at Glorietta 3, Alabang Town Center, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Greenhills Promenade, TriNoma, Powerplant Mall, Greenbelt 5 and Lucky Chinatown.