Chef Jessie Sincioco with Josefina and Manny Reyes

The formula for the perfect date would always include the unpredictability of certain variables, but good food partnered with a great setting remains the major factor. The recently opened 100 Revolving Restaurant has a monopoly of both and is, by all accounts, the newest romantic date destination in the city. Early believers are the chairman of the accounting firm Reyes Tacandong & Co, Manny Reyes, and his wife Josefina.

The classy restaurant is on the 33rd floor of the Mercury Drug Corporation building in Quezon City, the monument of a remarkable business in pharmaceutical retail that its head mogul, Mariano Que, built in the 1940s with a mere 100-peso capital. The 692-square metre circular space is well-appointed, with floor-to-ceiling windows all around. It holds over 70 tables for a comfortable 250-person seating capacity but the prime seats are, naturally, in the revolving area by the windows that provide a spectacular 360-panoramic view of the cityscape at a rate of an hour and a half per revolution.

The restaurant’s outer ring revolves around the steady parquetted centre

Besides the romantic ambience, the presence of chef Jessie Sincioco adds to the restaurant’s superiority. Sincioco is a local culinary icon, being the first Filipina pastry chef. She began to get noticed at Le Souffle, a premier fine-dining restaurant, which led to Chef Jessie, as she is fondly called, expanding her menu from not only scrumptious desserts but delectable entrees and appetisers that carry her definitive stamp. Soon, she was at the helm of her own restaurants in tony metro addresses. 100 Revolving Restaurant is her latest baby.

Through her culinary journey, Chef Jessie has developed no less than a cultish following that includes the Reyes couple. “The highlights of our lives, whether it were a christening or an anniversary, have been celebrated with Chef Jessie’s delicious dishes,” says Josefina, a senior executive at Pointwest Technologies Corporation, the Philippines’ only locally-owned IT services company. Despite the many years of patronage, however, it seems the chef can still surprise them.

With a bottle of Möet & Chandon, the smoked salmon caviar pie with cream cheese, eggs, and shallots kickstarts the couple’s Valentine’s meal. It is one dish the couple has never tried. “I don’t think it’s offered at Top of the Citi [one of three Chef Jessie restaurants] but it is a very good starter,” says Josefina. The 100 Revolving Restaurant’s menu is indeed refreshing. It includes new dishes and old favourites from the vast Chef Jessie repertoire, from the alugbati salad, vegetable sushi, and sisig pizza to the signature Balut Surprise.

She then serves Manny grilled tiger prawns with salad panache and fresh fruits with raspberry vinaigrette. Josefina gets a salad with pan-fried goose liver and seared scallops. Both are made to perfection and provide a preview of how divine the rest of the meal is going to be.

The Bistek a la Manny

For the main course, Chef Jessie brings out a bottle of Bernard Magrez Jamais Renoncer Côtes du Roussillon 2010 to pair with Angus beef plates. The Bistek a la Manny arrives for Manny himself, after whom the dish is named. “Whenever I have a foreign client, they always ask me to try a Filipino dish,” says Manny who frequents Chef Jessie’s restaurant at the Rockwell Club, where he sits as chairman of the audit committee. “So I told Chef Jessie to put something together that isn’t so exotic.” The result of his request is in his eponymous dish. “Manny has that all the time,” says Josefina, as she exchanges her plate of grilled Black Angus beef tenderloin in pink peppercorn sauce with her husband’s. “If you want your Angus with a little bit of Filipino flavour, this is what you should order,” she says.

The dessert arrives for Manny, a peanut butter cheesecake, which his sweet tooth delightfully consumed. “We make our own peanut butter here,” Chef Jessie shares the secret of this cheesecake. Josefina is served the restaurant’s signature Revolving Jackfruit Torta, a modest dessert with delightful traces of Filipino flavours.

The signature Jackfruit Revolving Torta

Throughout the years of pleasing discriminating diners, chef Jessie have known many other couples like Manny and Josefina who have built happy memories in her restaurants. With its unique feature and exciting menu, 100 Revolving Restaurant is certain to draw the couples who will be in for, expected or not, a memorable experience.

Photography by Jinggo Montenejo and MTL Public Relations, Inc. |