Ma Mon Luk

Ma Mon Luk is the iconic panciteria of old Manila. Those days that saw an influx of food practices from nearby Asian and Southeast Asian countries as well as innovative kitchen techniques by folks from all walks of life struggling to deliver their passion for food into something that can bring money to the table. Ma Mon Luk has such fabled beginnings. Named after the owner and founder of the restaurant, Ma Mon Luk was a teacher in China before moving to the Philippines to seek his his fortune here in the early part of the 1900s. He started with the very humble Mami, chicken noodle soup, selling them on the streets. His business slowly grew into big fully-staffed restaurants, a total of 6 during the height of Ma Mon Luk's popularity.

There are only 2 restaurants left now. One of them is in Quiapo and the other in Quezon Avenue near Banawe. We went to the latter and while one can say that it is only a shadow of its once glorious past, there is still a lot of pleasant surprises to be found in Ma Mon Luk. It has kept many old restaurant practices and hasn't really moved on with the times, but the food is still great. The inability to move forward has its benefits: prices in Ma Mon Luk are really cheap considering a lot of prfetentious high-end and over-franchised Chinese establishments could not compare to Ma Mon Luk. Case in point: everything pictured here is under a hundred bucks!


For starters, the chicken noodle soup (Chicken Mami) is nice to have especially in these rainy days. While many have succeeded at duplicating the chicken broth for this soup, Ma Mon Luk's is still great and remains constant to the taste I remember from my childhood.

The siopaos are big and hefty (bigger than a fist). The taste is as big as the servings.


But my personal favorite aren't the siopao and mami noodles, I am a big Ma Mon Luk fan because of their Shrimp Pancit Canton. I never miss it when I go there. It doesn't reek of soy and fish sauce or it isn't zealously seasoned with garlic. It's tempered by an assortment of meat flavors--my guess is these are parts often discarded in commercial kitchens.


There are more meals to be had in Ma Mon Luk but my tummy can only fit these for now.I'm thinking of next times filled not just with pancit but also crispy fried chicken, camaron rebosado, chopsuey and siomai.