Hapag continues to prove its chops as one of the country's best, with an all-new lunch set menu you ought to try
With all the recent changes Hapag did to level up their customers’ dining experience, it surely deserves more than just the recent 50 Best Discovery mention. It has earned every right to be recognised as one of the country’s best.
A proper wine room housing notable vintages, sets of world-class quality glasses, and unarguably the best sommelier I’ve personally ever encountered in a restaurant in the Philippines have collectively contributed to the leap in the progress of the 3-year-old brand. Friendly and knowledgable servers garbed in outfits fitted with parts of a barong and chefs who each go out to present the very dishes they prepared themselves make the service tasteful without being intimidating. And as for the dishes, well it has always been inspired and inspiring as it comes from a sincere desire to learn about and promote the local cuisine, as opposed to merely using it as a means for marketing.
In a way, Hapag as well as its head chefs Thirdy Dolatre and Kevin Navoa have matured, and their heyday has only begun. And they’re not done rolling their sleeves up just yet as even more promising changes are lined up. Among them is their much-anticipated lunch menu (reserving the big announcement for another day!).
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“Ever since, we really wanted to offer weekend lunch but we didn't know if there would be people who would like to have lunch in a place like this. We wanted to test if there’s a market,” says Dolatre. The result was favourable as even before announcing it to the press, their tables were already getting booked by loyal customers.
Available from 11am to 2pm only, Friday to Sunday, Hapag’s lunch comes as a set, not ala carte, and can last for an hour or two. For only Php 2,950, guests get multiple courses, including a palate cleanser, and the same intimate and friendly service as dinnertime. As for the menu, Navoa says that it’s actually the kind of food he and Dolatre want to eat themselves.
It started with bread—two kinds, to be exact. There was pan de kalinga and pandesal dotted with gamet, an edible seaweed typically found in the north. They are delicious on their own, but matched with any of the four condiments such as the miso brown butter with Davao dark honey, pesto made of local herbs, kesong puti mousse, and a two-month aged Calumpit longganisa, their profiles become even more pronounced.
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