Exciting 8.8.8!

CEBU, Philippines - You want to enjoy real good eats in open air. But the rains won't let up! And it's just too much hassle to bring the food outside.

Don't let your craving for dining outdoor be dampened. Because now you can enjoy picnicking without having to deal with the weather. It's possible at "Exciting Picnic," a new concept restaurant at the Mactan Marina Mall in Lapu-Lapu City.

There’s a range of  budget and boodle meals to choose from, true to the catchphrase: "exciting cuisine, picnic fun."

The restaurant already had a soft opening on June 6. "So far, business is doing good," according to Singaporean national Morgan Chan and Jennefer Sison, co-founders of "Exciting Picnic." They admit, however, that a grand launch of the place is needed. And so they had set the big day to be on August 8, at 8 p.m. - an exciting 8.8.8 indeed!

Restaurant patrons, especially the early comers, are to be treated to an exciting "8.8.8" party. It is a thanksgiving of sorts as well as an occasion to introduce new food fares.

Morgan Chan himself is cooking up the entertainment for the big launch, something like "Wheel of Fortune" where diners get a chance to win premium items, including discount cards and VIP cards. The twist in Chan's concept is that diners will be given certain tasks or challenges, all simple ones though, before they could claim their prizes.

The items on "Exciting Picnic's" current menu are mostly familiar, like "Big-Big Clam Soup" that comes with a kick on the palate because of literally hot ingredients, "Picnic Beef Shiitake," definitely a healthy pick, and "Exciting Pork Binagoongan," a great appetizer especially among Filipinos who grow up to comfort food items like the shrimp paste. The picnic basket overflows with affordable set meals that draw mostly the workers of the export processing zone nearby.

The bestsellers are the "Exciting Boodle" sets presented in a shape of a boat. The "Meat, Meat and More Meat" combination of chicken, pork and beef is enough to be shared by a small group, at an affordable price. And the restaurant rightly deserves the title of "king of rice meals" because of the combination of aromatic rice varieties they use that makes their rice meals smell good and taste great. Going "unli rice" can even be arranged.

The "Exciting Picnic" resembles a real picnic grove because of its green grass setup with pebbles, a blown-up picture of a popular Cebu southern town beachfront, several cabins and areas with swings. Overall, the 100-seater restaurant lets people converge and converse over delightful meals, not just hang out and tinker with personal gadgets.

A cabin in the restaurant is soon to be turned into a mini-library, as Morgan Chan himself is an author, with two self-help books to his name. He wants to develop a culture of reading among "Exciting Picnic" diners - a kind of "feeding the body, and then the mind" philosophy.