Manam - Estancia — Restaurant in Pasig

So, we had our breakfast here during their 10am opening time. We ordered their "crispy" sisig, pork sinigang, gising-gising, and deserts for later consumption such as halo-halo, turon, and mango pomelo shake. My take on each food that we ordered are below: Pork Sinigang: Since it's early morning, we were expecting that the sinigang would be very hot as this was what we're craving for. However, the sinigang soup was not that hot but rather warm and we don't even think that it's newly cooked. To be fair, the pork was tender but the soup was not fit to our liking when it comes to the sourness of the sinigang. Crispy sisig: Their crispy pork was not crispy at all. We ordered large as we thought that this would really be "large" but it was not. They just had it in a flat pan and spread it to look liked it is for large consumption. But it taste good though. It was just not crispy at all. Which is, ironic, for a "crispy" sisig. Plus, it was during their opening time. So, we thought they will serve us hot and newly cooked meals. Gising-gising: this dish is known to wake you up due to it's intense flavor of spiciness, and the neutralization effect of the coconut milk (gata). But this was not hot nor spicy at all. The sigarilyas doesn't look fresh as well as there are brownings and black marks on our dish. Also, it lacks more sauce as if it eas just the sigarilyas and the garnish were only at our plate. Bagoong rice: This taste delicious. It has a good amount of saltiness and the the rice they used was not sticky, which is, good. Desserts: we had our dessert served for later as we don't want to shakes and halo-halo to be watery. The turon is plain, not too sweet but isn't special at all. Not worth the price as it doesn't taste that good. Also, our shakes, especially the mango pomelo, arrived 40 minutes late. We had it followed up 4 times before it be served. I'm not exaggerating the 40 minutes. Even the waiter argued with the one at the bar and stated "kanina pa 'yan, pre" and later on apologize to us. Considering that we had it "served for later", we thought it would be prioritized, but it was the exact opposite. On the other hand, the mango pomelo shake taste great! I like the combination of sourness of the pomelo and the sweetness of the mango and milk.

Also, the place was nice. It has a good ambiance and it was neat. The tables were not messy and greasy at all. The chairs are even arranged properly. But at the entrance, as you can see on the attached picture, the "exit" sign kind of ruined the design of the place.

Overall, I'll rate it as 2/5. It needs a lot of improvement in terms of their food...

Hostess - awful. Restaurant was half empty, but she still told us we were fourth in line. I asked how long it would take to be seated, she said they couldn't guarantee anything and she had a big group to seat (there were only 5 other people sitting outside the restaurant). I told her "look, i know you guys don't take reservations, and your restaurant is half empty. Is it gonna be 15min or 30min? I just need an estimate." She scowled and said it would be 5min. Was that so damn hard?

Service - resto very busy, so staff not looking around. But that's typical here.

water service - poor. They assume that since they've left you the caraffe, they don't need to pay attention to you anymore

Food - manam's typical fare. Decent, but pricey.

Atmosphere - Hard surfaces all over makes this place hard to enjoy during meal times - the noise of the dishes and cackling of fellow patrons is defeaning.

Also, bathroom is broken at the moment ( aug 2025 ) so take note - u need to go thru the sm to the next floor for the closest bathroom...

A lot of people have highly recommended me to go eat at Manam when in the Philippines. I finally decided to stop by and give it a try.

We ordered the famous beef sinigang with watermelon, Kare Kare, garlic rice, bangus, fried chicken wings, and halo halo.

I was pleasantly surprised by the sinigang. I was expecting it to be on the sweeter side with the addition of watermelon but it actually wasn't. It tasted just like good beefy sinigang. The kare kare was a little on the bland side and lacked vegetables. There was more tripe than oxtail. The garlic rixenwas just ok. I've had better at Mesa. It wasn't as garlicky as I wanted. The chicken wings were very nice fried and crispy and flavorful.

I was excited to try the halo halo was it was underwhelming. It was as creamy as some other halo halos I've had. And the ice was not as fine but more like the texture pieces of hail.

I'm glad I tried the famous Manam but honestly, I prefer Mesa over this restaurant.

Service was...