Marina Makati a fave watering hole

MANILA, Philippines - Barely six months after it opened in late 2013, Marina Makati has become a popular watering hole among yuppies and a favorite restaurant among oyster and seafood aficionados.

Located at the corner of Rockwell Drive and Kalayaan Avenue in Makati City, this ninth Marina branch serves the same great tasting dishes that the restaurant chain has become known for in 26 years.

“Marina has very few branches because we carefully plan where we will open our restaurants,” says Marina sales head Maribeth Martinez.

“We also have not opened the restaurant to franchises because we want to be able to manage well all our different branches. Right now, we have branches in Quezon City, Pasay City, at Metrowalk, which caters to the Pasig area, and at Market! Market!, which serves our customers in Taguig,” Martinez adds.

The success of Marina as a brand rests on the restaurant’s expertise in developing dishes that meet the discriminating tastes of its regular guests.

Martinez says the restaurant has an R&D team that continually develops the menu to address the needs of their customers. By coming up with new dishes from time to time and maintaining consistency on items that are already on the menu, she says guests are given assurance of the best quality of food and service at any Marina branch.

It also pays that Marina specializes on Ilonggo dishes since this gives it an edge over the competition.

“We make sure that we are abreast of trends in the market, and what diners are looking for now,” Martinez says. “Based on this, our chefs work on our dishes, and present them for approval. All of our chefs come from Iloilo, and they are trained well in what they do.”

Marina Makati can seat almost 200 patrons at a time. The ground floor air-conditioned dining area can accommodate 40-50 guests, while an al fresco dining area can seat another 40. The al fresco second floor dining area can seat as many as 70-80 guests.

The restaurant is designed with a modern look to distinguish it from the Filipiniana common in most Filipino restaurants. It is open daily from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m. the next day. Live acoustic entertainment is available every night from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m.

Guests at Marina Makati are spoiled with choices as the restaurant offers a number of promotions. Ongoing promos available include the Breakfast Buffet for P199, Halo-Halo and Sorbetes All-You-Can for P149, Sizzling Hot Deals for P99, Beerkada Bucket for P299, group meals, and half-price on all beers during “Frosty Hours.”

Launched recently to coincide with Mother’s Day was the Marlin & Oyster Meal (MOM), a set meal for eight diners priced at P2,999. It comes with Marina’s most popular items: almost a kilo of grilled blue marlin steak, 16 pieces of oysters, two orders of sinigang na tanigue, two orders of grilled liempo, two orders of lato (seaweed) salad, and eight orders of buko pandan for dessert, plus unlimited rice and bottomless iced tea. Marina’s MOM is available until Aug. 5.

For more updates, Marina is on Twitter at @marinaseafood and Facebook at www.facebook.com/marinaoysters.