On one family day Sunday, we went to SM North Edsa to pay some bills and since we seldom visit this mall, we decided to check what's new in its Annex section. Upon checking the first three floors (which most, if not all, the restaurants are located), we learned that they have removed their Savemore supermarket (seems like it has been decades since we last went here, LOL, does SM even have Savemore supermarkets ever since they've deployed their Hypermarkets?) located at the far end and replaced it with interesting new stores and restaurants.
Although the Annex section offered a lot of new restaurants which were also new to our knowledge as well, we went for something Filipino which my mom actually prefers. The Annex section however didn't offer much options for Filipino cuisine except for Mangan which we have already tried in Glorietta. Forgettable our experience maybe with the Glorietta branch, we pushed through with dining in this restaurant as this was the only resto in SM North Annex that catered Filipino food.
Mangan at 2nd Level SM North Edsa, Annex
Mangan which means "eat" in Kapampangan, offers Filipino cuisine. The restaurant having adopted a Kapampangan name, would make you think they would offer more unique or different Filipino dishes, their menu however depicts otherwise as they serve typical Filipino food most of which can be cooked by every Filipino family at home.
Mangan Menu
If dining in a group, average cost would be 300-400php per person
We tried their Adobong pusit and Kare-Kare for our main dishes and went for Bibingka for dessert. And since kare-kare is one of our favorite Filipino dishes, we have sort of established a high standard for this unique Filipino food and we were looking forward on how this restaurant's version of the dish would compare to other restaurants like Recipes which offers one of the best kare-kares here in Manila.
Pusit Adobo
Their version of the Adobong pusit was just right for our taste, having a good blend of salt and sourness to it. I believe they used calamansi instead of vinegar which we prefer, as calamansi gives a different sweet sourness compared to vinegar. They also used baby squids which we find better too as baby squids are softer, offering the same taste as bigger and older squids at the same time. We also liked how they presented the dish as the onions and garlic were very finely chopped (and not burnt) mixing well with the whole dish entirely.
Kare-Kare Buntot ng Baka
Sadly, their Kare-Kare wasn't able to match the excitement we had for the dish as it only gave us pure and utter disappointment. The different ingredients of the dish were totally out of sync where the vegetables, beef and peanut sauce had distinct tastes and tasted like as if were cooked separately and then just mixed all together. The taste was also bland that you had to put a lot of their oily bagoong to make the dish somehow work. The only good thing about their kare-kare is that it had a good amount of beef in it, though it wasn't purely from a Cow's tail as the name of their dish suggests.
Bibingka with Salted Egg, Grated Coconut (with Kesong Puti)
Their bibingka didn't have a bready texture to it and was a little bit mushy for our standards. We couldn't taste the kesong puti which was said to make the bibingka special. Good thing their grated coconut tasted fresh which somehow salvaged our dessert.
Lastly to add up to our disappointment, they offered poor service where they didn't even give out additional saucers for our dessert and we really had to call them out to get service water. Their tableware was poor too where they served water in tiny glasses and their bowls and plates had very apparent wear and tear which most had big chips in them.
The Mangan Glorietta branch may be forgettable but our experience with Mangan SM North Annex made its mark, its mark as one of the worst Filipino restaurants here in Manila, offering not much but with above average prices. So if you're adventurous enough (despite my forewarning), you may want to try this restaurant - I'm sure it will one of those experiences that you'll be charging to experience just like I did! :)
