Sinigang na Hipon and Honey Glazed Chicken in Aristocrat Restaurant

Aristocrat Restaurant is one of Manila’s older restaurants. I got to eat at the old branch along Roxas Boulevard, home to memories and Sunday gatherings. It has been there since 1936, and it has been serving traditional home-cooked Filipino food that has been treasured from generation to generation.


I also see Aristocrat as somewhat symbolic of the city’s demise: while the food is still good, it’s a fraction of what it used to be. I got to taste the Sinigang na Hipon (Filipino sour soup with shrimp) and their Chicken Honey and was somewhat thrilled. The Sinigang while still good by any standard, is somewhat of a let-down considering it’s not as fresh as one expects it to be. It has hints of pre-cooked pre-packed sinigang mix to the taste, and somehow the shrimps were overdone.


The chicken fared much better. It was really tasty, and the flavors were spot-on, but it was somewhat dry in the inside.


The worst part of the meal is the service. While the waiters were courteous and attentive, they don’t seem to be trained properly for the job. It's not that the waiters don't do what they're told to do--they do it well--but they just weren't trained in the fundamentals of food service as well as the management should. They don't know when to dive in when they scoop out empty plates, they don't move efficiently from table to table, and they aren't as coordinated as they should be. I think it's the restaurant's policy to have someone carry the serving tray to the table and someone else to serve it. It took my server a couple of calls to his colleagues to help him set the food down. They also didn’t serve the proper condiments for the food. It’s been a habit of mine to crack chili on patis for sinigang and maybe add a dose or so of calamansi if I don’t find it sour enough but none of that was made available. I asked for catsup to make the chicken moist, and they served disposable foil packets of catsup on a saucer, something which I found really tacky considering the prices of Aristocrat and that the times call for environmentally viable practices.


Add to the tackiness is an identity crisis. Aristocrat should consider moving forward with its image if it wants to survive. It has shoddy interiors that do not speak of the cultural traditions associated with the kind of food it serves. It is a confusing amalgam of a past revered, funky modern colors, and bad construction. Imagine white walls with red and mint green accents, enlarged colored photographs of food hanging on it and then black and white photos of old events wallpapered on ceiling borders making you look up to towards the really busy checkered ceilings dotted with really harsh lighting. Inside the restaurant is a bewildering lamp post complete with the restaurant’s lone Valentine’s Day décor hanging from one of its arms. You just know it shouldn’t be there unless they commit to the concept and bring the old streets of Manila inside. The white plates are also somewhat of a let-down. While it is the safest way to go, it’s also thoughtless and cold and takes away from the kind of experience you would want to have when you take your self, or your family and friends there.

The scary things about restaurants you really have fond memories of is their incapacity to sustain those memories as they forge ahead. Aristocrat's modernizing efforts is half-baked and hesitant. That's just the tip of the iceberg: they have got to get their service back to shape and the dining experience in their restaurants a little more pleasant. A lot of us are fond of Aristocrat because we have so little remembrances of the past especially when it comes to food establishments. They die prematurely in the Philippines before they become great. I hope Aristocrat survives without riding on the coat tails of its famed past that just flickers alongside an ocean of forgettable places to eat.