Honest-to-goodness Pinoy cooking at Pantalan

Marge Yang has no pretensions about the food served at Pantalan Maynila Restaurant. Yang, who is the restaurant’s general manager, describes it as no-fuss, honest-to-goodness Filipino food. And she emphasizes that Pantalan is not a seafood restaurant, but rather a Filipino restaurant that serves good value seafood.

"Our diners don’t want anything fancy," she says. "They don’t want any Filipino fusion. They want food that is cooked the old traditional way, parang ’yung lutong probinsiya. Ganon kami dito – honest-to-goodness food talaga. Nothing fusion, nothing fancy."

In the past two years, Pantalan has been a popular haunt for diners seeking the best in native cooking and the freshest seafood. Although the restaurant was geared towards the BC market when it first opened, Yang said they were surprised to be serving the AB crowd, as well as tourists.

"A lot of those who come here are regular guests," she says. "We have lots of new guests too adding to our list of regulars. They’re not hard to please. They only want somethhing simple."

Before Yang took over the restaurant’s management this year, she was working as general manager of Sanbashi Japanese Restaurant, which is located at the second floor of the Pantalan restaurant complex. However, she held a job in trading before she started in the restaurant business.

"I did not graduate from any culinary school," she confesses. "I did not graduate from any HRM school. I took up a business course in college."

She adds, "Nagkakantiyawan nga, eh. Siguro kaya ka pumasok sa restaurant business kasi mahilig ka sa food. ’Yun ang connotation talaga. And, yes, it’s true. You can’t be in the food business kung hindi ka mahilig sa food. Parang hindi ka magki-click."

The business of managing Pantalan entailed a lot of new challenges that she didn’t encounter in her previous jobs. Now, she is hands-on in the job, personally overseeing the daily operations of the restaurant and managing the restaurant’s 130-plus staff.

Although she doesn’t cook professionally, she had a hand in Pantalan’s new menu.

"I can cook," she confesses. "Alam mo na, ’yung para sa party. I do the usual – lengua, chicken pastel with crust. That’s what I like about my job now. I can be as creative as I want to."

Going through the new Pantalan menu, diners will notice a lot of things that are not strictly Filipino. Yang points out the baked oysters.

"Ang dami namang nagbi-baked oysters. Pero ’yung sa kanila, alam nating may short cut. Sa amin, wala, live talaga and hindi ko binibili sa Cavite. We have our oysters flown from Roxas City. I was looking for a supplier and luckily I found one in Roxas City. So, ang delivery ko talaga ng oysters Tuesdays-Thursdays and Saturdays," she says.

"Our baked oysters are baked oysters," she adds. "We’re not ashamed to say that we serve baked oysters. Siyempre, this is not Filipino food, but since it’s popular and people do look for it, we do not hesitate to serve it."

Apart from the oysters, Pantalan has a number of aquariums with live fish, lobsters and prawns. There is also a setup of live shellfish and other seafood where guests can choose what they want and have it cooked any way they want. It is one service that the restaurant is known for.

The lobsters can be prepared either sashimi, baked with cheese, cooked in fried chili sauce, grilled with lemon butter sauce, steamed with garlic, thermidor-style, and hot pot with sotanghon in sate sauce. The crabs are cooked either deep-fried with salt and pepper, fried with chili sauce, steamed (halabos), lutong Bicol (with coconut milk), ginisa sa queso, steamed with garlic and hot pot with sate. And there are many more ways available for cooking live prawns, lapu-lapu, white pampano, eel and catfish. And there are still more choices of seafood.

She is quite proud of her Ensaladang Pantalan, which is her take on the regular ensaladang mangga. She adds to the usual mix of green mango shreds, chopped tomatoes and onions a salted egg and a dollop of bagoong alamang.

"’Yung bagoong namin is made with fresh alamang," she says. "Hindi kami bumibili ng sa lata. Kami talaga ang nagluluto ng bagoong namin.

She has also innovated on the sinigang na ulo ng salmon by adding salmon belly to the soup.

"Wala ka namang makakain sa ulo, eh. That’s why I decided to add salmon belly to this sinigang," she says.

Then, there’s Pantalan’s all-in-one fried rice dish which is adobo seafood rice sa kawayan. It’s a meal in itself. The adobo rice is cooked in a bamboo tube and garnished liberally with seafood.

As an added bonus, the restaurant staff puts up a show for guests during dinnertime. Unlike the usual singing group, the staff actually stages per table a special routine where they sing and do comic routines.

"Parang dull kasi if they just stand there and sing for you," Yang explains. "That’s why we have some form of audience participation with their routine. They connect with the audience. They can sing, they can perform and they do a live improv per table. Of course, their act depends on the people per table. Kung kalog at medyo bata, they can be a little bit more daring with their routine."

Of course, the food and the entertainment is just half the reason for dining at Pantalan. Located beside Manila Bay, the restaurant has a lovely view of the bay. With the setting sun as a backdrop or the reflection of moonlight on the water, it makes a perfect venue for couples on a date and even the barkada on a night out.

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Pantalan Maynila Restaurant is at the corner of South Road and Parade St., Rizal Park, Ermita, Manila. Call 400-4371 for inquiries and reservations.