Singapore’s first fine-casual Filipino restaurant by founders of the Philippines' Manam

Singapore will soon have its first fine-casual Filipino restaurant in the form of Hayop ni Manam, a spin-off of the popular Philippines eatery Manam.

Opening on Amoy Street, Hayop ni Manam will serve classic Filipino dishes like sisig, kare-kare, lechon, lumpia and adobo, as well as cocktails inspired by Filipino flavours.

Expect the same ingredients you’d find in a Michelin-star restaurant, like Duroc pork from Spain, grass-fed New Zealand wagyu and French chicken from Toh Thye San farm. Sauces and condiments are also made from scratch.

Manam, which has close to 30 outlets in the Philippines, was started by three friends, Abba Napa, Eliza Antonino and Jon Syjuco, in 2012 under The Moment Group. The group now owns over 60 restaurants under a dozen concepts, and eight out of 10 Manam outlets see daily queues for lunch and dinner, according to Napa.

Hayop ni Manam is the group’s first venture outside of the Philippines.

In 2019, Manam held a pop-up in Singapore that sold out within 24 hours. “At the end of the meal, the Filipinos who came said, ‘We want to invest so that Manam can come to Singapore. We’d give our kidneys for this’,” Napa, 45, told CNA Lifestyle.

And, “For the last six years, we've been getting emails from people from different markets saying, ‘Please open here’. I didn’t take them seriously until finally, someone said, ‘If you get one email every month, maybe you should explore it.’”

“Hayop” is a slang word in the Philippines that literally translates to “beast” and is used to describe something unbelievably amazing, Napa said, while “manam” comes from the word “malinamnam” meaning “heartily tasty”.

The majority of dishes on the menu are Manam classics that have remained unchanged for over a decade, while other dishes are unique to Singapore; these were inspired by the availability of good produce from all over the world.

With the choice between doing a tasting-style or an a la carte concept, Napa shared, it was important to keep the cuisine “recognisable” to what Manam is in the Philippines.

On Hayop ni Manam’s menu are dishes like kinilaw or raw seafood including hamachi and Kuruma ebi (from S$26) with Hayop’s local vinegars and spices; chicharron bulaklak (S$16); lechon kawali (S$18); and Manam Manila favourites including crispy sisig (S$22), wagyu and watermelon sinigang (S$56), and halo-halo (S$18). There are also pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan options.

Unlike other global Filipino concepts around the world, said Napa, who studied restaurant management and culinary techniques at the French Culinary Institute in New York and was formerly in retail, Hayop ni Manam was “created with the lens of Filipinos who are born, bred and raised, and continue to live in, the Philippines.”

And so, “I feel like maybe, there's a chance to take care of nostalgic, homesick Filipinos. That's really the primary reason we said we'd come,” she added. At the same time, she hopes to also offer them “a dining room where they can introduce their non-Filipino friends to the cuisine” – and, of course, a place for Singaporeans to deepen their understanding of Filipino food.

“Singapore, to me, has an amazing, rich, mature dining scene, and Singaporeans have very high standards for food. I feel if we can do something here that can resonate, maybe we can resonate in other markets, as long as we pass the Singapore test,” Napa chuckled.

Hayop ni Manam’s local partners are Russell Yu of Iki Concepts and Gwen Lim of Patisserie G. Manam’s R&D chef and junior executive chef are currently in town, and The Moment Group’s founders plan to be here often. Napa herself has family here, whom she has been visiting regularly for many years.

“I always say Filipino cuisine is magical because it makes so much out of so little,” she mused. “I think that's what's special about our cuisine – it’s a heritage of flavours. We haven't tried to mess with that. I think there are amazing global Filipino concepts you'll find in other markets that take advantage of all ingredients from other cuisines. And that's wonderful. I love going to them. But, we kind of wanted to stay true, for the most part, to the pantry list that the Filipino household has.

“There are very few ingredients we have here that don't belong in that pantry list – one would be extra virgin olive oil, because that's yummy; butter, which we've used with a lot of discipline; one dish has red wine; and one dish has honey. Other than that, every Filipino mama will have our ingredients.”

And, each dish is complex in its components. “We only have around 30-plus dishes on the menu, but we have over 100 sub-recipes for those dishes, so, there's a lot of effort that goes into making them,” she said.

Hayop ni Manam is at 104 Amoy Street. Opens Jul 19.