Where Salcedo Street ends in Legazpi Village of
Makati City, the country’s financial hub, it can get a tad quiet. Though still
part of the business center, the area is off the shopping and dining hubs and
is characterized by the back view of imposing buildings. There is a couple of
residential condominiums and a few stores. A small art gallery just opened. And
at the corner of Salcedo and Benavidez Street, behind the one-way sign, perhaps
the most noticeable thing on the street is a restaurant named One Way.
The area is not known as a dining hub, but “we
hope to pioneer a dining scene here,” said wine connoisseur and distributor
Ronald Lim Joseph.
The director of the Philippine Wine Merchants
co-owns the restaurant at the ground floor of the Concorde Building, which was
first a wine bar called Nectar with a predominantly Greek menu, with his
brother Ralph.
“Then a bunch of friends came in. We changed
the concept and the whole menu,” Joseph related.
Seminal to that change is consul of Lebanon
Joseph Assad, who tasted pizza with crust made from sourdough for the first
time in 2012 at a restaurant called The Luggage Room in Pasadena, California.
He recounted the experience in One Way’s Web site: “I was flabbergasted! It was
the best pizza I ever had in my 60 years of pizzastromy! I was in Pizza Heaven!
I was in love! It was a major revelation! It’s the toppings that normally make
a great pizza but in this case it was not just the toppings it was the crust.
The sourdough had that extra tangy bite to it that the normal plain white dough
pizzas do not have. I truly fell in love with this sourdough pizza.”
When he got back to Manila, he told of his
discovery to the Joseph brothers and began his search for sourdough bread and
pizza, which led him to chef Harold Nilooban. A family lunch with Nilooban
cooking made him decide to open a restaurant pulling in the Josephs, executive
Nando Ortigas and “nightlife legend” Louie Ysmael. They transformed the
Josephs’ wine bar into One Way Restaurant, which formally opened in March 2014.
One immediately notices, upon entering One Way,
that the design motif is inspired by the iconic street sign—predominantly
striped with black and white. Diners who come in in outfits that match the
interiors need not fret; they get a surprise prize. Breaking the preponderance
of black-and-white stripes are framed photographs riddled the walls, mostly of
people, friends and visitors of the owners, enjoying the food and company.
The main dining area can accommodate about 120
persons, and there is a small deli and bakery for breakfast and sandwiches.
Equipped with its own entrance is the Tasting Room, which can accommodate up to
18 persons and can be used for small conferences, meetings, get-togethers, etc.
Here, we sampled some of One Way’s bestsellers,
prepared by its new Ukrainian chef Vitaliy Lavrenchuk, with wines (and wine
education) courtesy of Ronald Joseph.
“We don’t push it to be a fine-dining
restaurant,” Joseph said of the restaurant. “It’s not fine dining, but you get
fine dining food and experience without the fine dining prices.”
The
menu is predominantly European with smattering of American. Most of the dishes
are all-time favorites ? “comfort food,” they like to say currently.
While lunch was being prepared, canapés of
shrimp cocktail on multigrain bread with balsamic and garlic butter allayed our
hunger. A welcome drink of a slushie of lemon and generous helpings of basil
and mint was a goblet of sunshine, perking one up.
Lunch started off with cream of wild mushroom
soup (P290), served in a bowl of hallowed out bread, freshly baked and made
from sourdough. Not cloyingly rich but hefty with ample pieces of mushrooms,
the soup was thoroughly enjoyable, which made me scrape out the bottom and
sides of the bread bowl, bread pieces dissolving into the soup that got
thicker.
Lavrenchuk immediately rolled out their pizzas,
the two bestselling kinds with thin sourdough crust. The Mediterranean pizza
(P590) has toppings of goat cheese, sundried tomatoes, roasted peppers, fresh
basil, capers and salami, while the Pamplona pizza (P580) has jamon Serrano, Spanish
spicy chorizo, cherry tomato, mozzarella cheese, parmesan cheese and lemon
dressing.
Bright red and festive-looking, Pamplona was
unanimously the favorite, with the salty and smoky flavors of the meats perfect
for the light sourness of the dressing. Toppings complemented also the
sourdough crust, which is chewy and more flavorful than the ordinary crust.
“We’re pushing for the sourdough,” Joseph said.
Indeed, the pizza has become one of the popular items in One Way, which offers
five kinds. You can even create your own pizza (for P680) with about 15
toppings to choose from.
Sourdough is used for their breads, which can
be savored as Danish-style open-faced sandwiches and burgers (from P360 to
480).
Their pastas are also noteworthy. We tried the
cream of aligue (crab fat) spaghetti (P370) which had baby prawns, crab
paste, cognac and cream, and the red pesto (P360) linguine with Spanish-style
sardines and sundried tomato. The sauces were blended well, with interesting
flavors harmonizing like symphony.
The entrees employed much effort to prepare.
The classic French dish coq au vin (chicken braised in white wine) with
rice pilaf and green pea puree (P490) was tastier than I previously had, but
the three-hour melot-braised lamb shank with pimiento risotto (P990 for single
and P1,350 for size meant for sharing) was a delight, with the meat sliding off
the bones, drenched in rich tangy sauce.
Capping the meal was one of their crepe
flavors-the Mango Jubilee-prepared in a flamb‚ by the table.
As
much as the dishes, the wines were also stars.
“Our wine selection is probably the most
extensive in the whole country because we’re wine importers,” boasted Joseph.
He picked the wines that best go with the dish,
not minding anymore the red wine-for-meat rule. He said that it is best to
gauge body when pairing-light wine for light dishes. For the mushroom soup, he
recommended Angas Brut, dry chardonnay from Australia, while the pizzas were
accompanied by Valpolicella from Verona, Italy. It was Pirramimma from McLaren
Vale, South Australia, for the pastas. The crepe was paired with the sweet
Gancia Asti sparkling wine from Italy.
While they can whimsical with the design of the
restaurant, One Way takes their foods and wines seriously, taking much effort
to prepare them. And that’s the way dining should be-earnest in cooking,
light-hearted in eating.
One Way Restaurant is at 206 Salcedo Street corner
Benavidez Street, Legazpi Village, Makati City, Metro Manila, with telephone
number 869-8958 and mobile number 0906-5572588.
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| Black-and-white stripes is the dominant design of the restaurant's interiors |
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| Canapes |
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| Three-hour merlot lamb shank |
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| Cream of aligue pasta |
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| Cream of wild mushroom soup |
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| Mango Jubilee |
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| Mediterranean pizza |
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| Pamplona Pizza |
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| Red pesto pasta with sardines |
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| Three-hour merlot lamb shank |
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| Preparing the Mango Jubilee |
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| The chef |
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