Deanne Deanne Montoya says she has always been fascinated by Japanese food. As she was considering a bowl of katsudon (breaded pork chop rice topping), she realized the same cooking principle behind the Japanese donburi (rice topping) could be applied to Pinoy favorites like longganisa, tapa, and tocino. From this little seed of thought grew the idea that is now Pinoydon.
Pinoydon opened in 2002 at The Podium, offering a menu of Pinoy favorites served the donburi way, as well as grilled pork, chicken and salmon belly teriyaki rice bowls, and sushi varieties using local ingredients. Deanne Deanne, who is the restaurant’s managing partner, says it was a limited menu, but it proved to be a winning menu. The menu has since been expanded to include teppanyaki sizzling plates, salads, yakitori, noodles and pasta dishes, rice plates, and desserts.
And the secret to the restaurant’s success is its food.
There are 10 kinds of rice bowls with toppings of skinless longganisa, pork tocino, beef tapa, corned beef guisado, mixed veggies, pork sisig, pork adobo, boneless chicken adobo, marinated sukiyaki beef bistek-style, and boneless bangus belly. And no, these rice bowls are not just rice toppings. Each topping is cooked donburi-style, simmered in a donburi pan with egg, julienne veggies, and a special sauce before being poured over topped rice.
"I always thought it was that simple to cook donburi," she says. "But I’ve been watching our chefs all these years, and there is a special technique in cooking donburi. It might have been my idea, and the recipes are mine, but I can’t cook it at home the way they do it here."
There are also Pinoysushis, Japanese sushi rolls given a Filipino twist. The twist comes in the descriptive names that come with the Pinoysushis: tinapa maki (smoked bangus belly rolled in sushi rice and drizzled with teriyaki sauce); aligue maki (taba ng talangka rolled in sushi rice); tortang talong maki (pork and eggplant omelet rolled in sesame-sushi rice and drizzled with teriyaki sauce); and Manila maki (nilasing na hipon and lettuce rolled in garlic sushi rice and topped with Japanese mayo).
When Pinoydon opened in 2002, it clicked with the Ortigas Center business crowd. The idea that Filipino food could be cooked the Japanese way, or Japanized as Deanne Deanne describes it, was a fun and filling way to do lunch.
However, it took three years before the Pinoydon brand opened its first full service restaurant at the Paseo de Magallanes in Makati City, which has since been received with enthusiasm by residents and busy executives in the area.
With the new branch, a new set of partners came in. Along with Deanne Deanne and Pinoydon marketing manager Alain Panlilio, friends Joy Peña and Oni Razon joined in as partners for this franchise.
The Magallanes branch soft-opened late 2005; the menu has been expanded to include new dishes. "Most people look for a variety of food, or else they will get sawa," Deanne Deanne says.
Its new dishes, which were introduced just last week, include Pinoydon tempura, batchoy ramen, teppanyaki salpicao, longggi-yoza, and tuna maki crunch. Of these dishes, the tempura will only be available in Magallanes.
The Pinoydon tempura is like your regular tempura except that the batter is tastier due the addition of garlic and spring onions. It comes in three kinds: three-piece all shrimp, five-piece all shrimp, and mixed tempura of shrimp, two bangus fillets, and eggplant, onion and okra slices.
The batchoy ramen is like the usual ramen except that ramen is used for the usual batchoy noodles. The soup base is also prepared the Japanese way, although the crushed chicharon tips you off that this is batchoy you’ll be slurping.
The teppanyaki salpicao is tender cubes of rib eye steak cooked teppanyaki-style and topped with lots of fried garlic. It is served plain as a viand or starter, or as a rice plate with fried rice and coleslaw.
The longgi-yoza is a variation on the gyoza; longganisang Lucban and leeks were added to the filling.
A new Pinoysushi variant is the tuna maki crunch, fresh tuna rolled in sushi rice and nori fried in tempura batter and topped with taba ng talangka.
Deanne Deanne says that while Pinoydon was conceived to target office workers, its menu of healthy dishes has been attracting a senior clientele.
"Ever since people got more interested in healthy dining, we’ve had our share of senior citizens. They go for the Pinoydon tofu and our different vegetable dishes," she shares.
The Pinoydon tofu is the restaurant’s take on the popular tofu agedashi, deep-fried tofu served with a sweet sauce. However, Pinoydon’s version has three huge tofu blocks served in a thickly sweet special sauce. Popular vegetable dishes include the garlic kangkong teriyaki, which has shiitake mushroom slices, talong teriyaki (crisp eggplant slices with teriyaki sauce), and sesame prawn salad (chopped lettuce and mandarin oranges topped with crisp fried prawns and served with a special citrus-sesame-wasabi dressing).
And what meal is complete without a round of dessert? Deanne Deanne admits the restaurant has a limited selection of sweets, but she is proud of their banana surprise, which is a popular order.
"It really is our version of the maruya, but topped with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate syrup," she says. An order is actually good for two to four diners, depending on how hungry they are.
Another popular sweet is the green tea pandan, a sundae of green tea ice cream and creamy pandan gulaman and macapuno.
Through the years, Pinoydon’s clientele has gradually changed. From office workers on weekdays, they now attract the family and senior crowd on weekends. It sure is a sign that Pinoydon’s time has really arrived.