It was, to say the least, a decision not to be taken lightly. Hence, our conversation on the ride from Makati Ave. to Greenbelt always sounded something like this:
Me: O, where are we eating?
Susan: You decide.
Me: No, you decide.
Susan: You decide.
Me: No, you decide.
Susan: Ako nag-decide the last time.
Me: Bahala na.
And so we’d find ourselves wandering around Greenbelt looking at menus on stands by the entrances. Sometimes, you get the feeling that despite or maybe because of the numerous new offerings there isn’t really much choice.
But my friend Susan de Guzman of Village Voice and I were on a mission: To eat as much pad thai as we could. Strangely, pad thai is our comfort food. While some people turn to pizza or burgers when they’re too lazy to try anything new, for the two of us, it’s pad thai in all its noodle glory.
So on to Oodys at the second floor of Greenbelt 3 we went, practicing our French lessons while eating Asian noodles. As gourmands, it’s almost shameful to admit that we would order the same thing over and over – pad thai with flat noodles. Though when we felt daring we would order the pad thai version with wanton or the one with Italian spaghetti. Yup, that’s three versions for you.
According to Oodys owners Maritel Nievera-Shani and Dory Shani, this kind of diner is most often the case with Filipinos: You can’t pry us off our favorite dishes. "In the beginning, some people didn’t understand fully what we were trying to do here, but now a lot more are starting to order other dishes apart from their favorites and they’re becoming adventurous in that sense."
What’s good about Oodys is that even if you played pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey with the menu, you’re bound to get a good dish.
"The food’s very authentic because most of the ingredients are coming from Thailand and they do have a lot – from their different kinds of chilis to lemongrass to ginger and tamarind, etc.," says Maritel.
Their chefs are also from Thailand, whom the couple met when they were researching the food, going from one culinary region of the country to another in search of dishes to bring back.
"We wanted to do authentic dishes, not to adjust them to the Filipino taste," Dory says.
It isn’t just Thai food that Oodys offers. In fact, it’s the famous noodle dishes from all over Asia, including Vietnam, Japan, Hong Kong, Philippines and, from Europe, Italy. After all, you cannot talk about noodles without taking into consideration Italian cuisine. The difference with Oodys is that Italian noodles such as spaghetti are cooked the Asian way.
Two months ago, Oodys opened a new branch in Quezon City on Tomas Morato’s newly spiffyfied restaurant row. This time, I vowed to try a different dish each time (Susan, on the other hand, still ordered pad thai the last time she was there!).
So, here’s a rundown of dishes that should whet your appetite:
Spicy glass noodles salad with minced pork and seafoods (P125), an appetizer that is so good you’d want to order another for your main; deep fried crispy catfish with mango salad (P139), which took me by surprise since I’m not a big fan of green mango but with the catfish fillet and bagoong, the mango’s sourness is balanced; and if you like the dim sum type to start your meal, you can try the grilled pork balls or fried pork balls (P99) or fried shrimp wanton (P105).
Under the Thai noodles category you’ll find our beloved pad thai Thai style (P139) and the wanton style (P149); Thai rice noodles in shredded chicken soup (P129) or in duck soup (P149); stir-fried rice noodles with chicken (P129).
The Japanese noodles include udon with seafoods in spicy soup or tom yam (P179), ramen with stewed duck in soup (P149) or fish (P169); stir-fried udon with shrimp Thai style (P159).
Using Hong Kong noodles are the shrimp wanton with honey roasted duck soup and egg noodles (P199), fried egg noodles with ham and mushroom Hokkian style (P169); egg noodles with crabmeat soup (P129) and crispy shrimp wanton with pork meat in gravy (169).
Also try the Vietnamese noodles with pork sausage and chicken in clear soup (P169) or Italian fried spaghetti with Cabalen sausage (P119) and fried spaghetti with chicken and yellow curry (P129). The dishes using spaghetti noodles, at first glance, look a little radical but they’re not – most of them are simply cooked the Asian way such as the spaghetti with clams and chili paste (P129), not unlike vongole.
If you pass by Tomas Morato at night, look for the restaurant lit by blue lights. Dory Shani designed the new Oodys as a modern bar-restaurant with touches of Filpino – such as the huge capiz lights and the single pandan leaves in slim glass vases punctuating each table. Some customers go to Oodys just to have wine – they have mostly French wines – while some have learned what the owners had hoped: To have wine with their noodles. Or if you don’t want to have wine, you can always try any of their interesting drinks: Tamarind juice with honey (yup, sampaloc juice!) or Thai iced tea, which comes with milk.
Either way, there are always the three pad thai versions to order. But if you don’t want to end up like us – in a perpetual pad thai loop – try to live a little and savor something totally unfamiliar. After all, you have about a hundred noodle dishes to choose from.