Mangan is a Pampangan restaurant, related to Cabalen. In Ilocos, Pampanga and Pangasinan, “mangan” means “eat.” For Cantonese like us, “mangan” or 眼盲 means “blind.” That’s why when I first learned of this restaurant years back, I wondered why the owner branded the restaurant with such a negative connotation.
Current branches of Mangan are in Robinsons Place, Manila; Robinsons Galleria; SM Mall of Asia, Pasay; and SM North EDSA.
Review of Mangan (SM North EDSA)
Ambiance: ★★★★☆
Though Mangan offers traditional home-cooked meals, it projects such a modern ambiance. When we stepped inside, we were rapt with the white plates displayed on the opposite walls as design, while the longer wall imitated a shelf filled with mock violet books.
Elegant chandeliers provided the bright blaze of light valued by diners. The entire rectangular area of the restaurant can have room for about 70 people (yes, we counted the chairs).
Service: ★★☆☆☆
Except for giving us free fritters, the rest of Mangan’s customer service was devastating.
Mangan partnered with BDO credit card for BDO credit card users to avail of Mangan’s promo: buy the bistig bangus belly and get another dish worth PHp 220 or lower for free. You can also buy a dish with a higher price tag but you need to pay for the excess amount (more than pHp 220) later.
Mom inquired about the deal, and the waitress at the entrance corrected us with her own version. She said we needed to dine in and purchase at least PHp 1000 worth of food from them before we can have the free dish worth of PHp 220 or lower. My mother insisted on what she knew (according to what’s written on the voucher) and asked the girl to confirm the thing with her superior. After a few minutes, the waitress returned and admitted that her belief was according the old promotion they had and not this ongoing one we were referring to.
Second encounter was the wrong order the waiter served, which I could probably blame on the name of the restaurant. Mangan, right? Does this actually mean the waiter was not able to clearly see what he wrote on the paper where he listed our orders? Instead of placing the lengua caldereta on our table, he mistakenly gave us lengua with button mushrooms (sauteed slices soft boiled ox tongue with lavish creamy mushroom sauce and hefty mushroom).
I thought they just had a different kind of caldereta (brown, not orange) and even turned to Mom to argue my point. 😛 However, when Mom tried it, she immediately knew it really wasn’t what she wanted to have. So the apologetic staff couldn’t do anything but change it to the right one.
Third fault was another wrong order served by another waiter. He gave us the glass of regular halo-halo instead of our actual order, the special kind. Whoa! What’s happening here? They were all careless. Not to mention customers were not that many for us to tolerate their sloppiness.
After giving us the right desserts, my sister asked for two extra spoons for my mom and me (since we would share the halo-halo). The waiter gave us only one and walked away! ‘哇佬耶!
So this branch should not only stick with the name “Mangan” or blind but should also affix “Jilung” or 耳聾 which means deaf. 哎喲! 🙄
Food: ★★★★☆
Filipinos of any province or region are typically known to be good cooks. And Kapampangans are no exception. Their cooking prowess made them win the reputation for being creative at the forefront of culinary wizardry. That’s why when we learned that Mangan is Kapampangan, we really set our expectations up high.
Mangan did not fail to meet that level of expectation. As much as it offers a variety of meaty dishes, it also has plenty of selections for vegetarians and seafood-lovers. So we ordered: jasmine rice (PHp 31), tofu sisig (PHp 100), bistig bangus belly (PHp 220), lengua caldereta (PHp 220) and special halo-halo (PHp 128).
Absolutely free of meat, the tofu sisig was well served without burnt portions stuck on the hot plate. We just pinched one calamansi for it to taste better and mixed it with rice.
The second course was lengua caldereta, made of soft-boiled ox tongue, garlic, crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, potatoes, red and green bell peppers. I can’t believe I ate a piece of lengua! 😯 (Huhu, eww…) Texture was soft and not spongy as I imagined. The potatoes in the caldereta were too solid and hard to chew on. There was not enough time to boil them, perhaps.
The pictures below show the wronged lengua order…
Next we had the fish fare. Because there’s a stable supply of milk fish in Pampangga rivers, locals have tons of resources to experiment cooking with inventiveness and versatility. Mangan reflected on this and included several variants of fish on their menu. Aside from the item we had, there are the likes of sinigang na bangus sa bayabas, kinilaw na bangus, bangus a la pobre and bangus salpicao.
Anyway, the bistig bangus belly was just one among the many results of their intrinsic talent. The central part had the belly fat which was sinful and delicious. The accompanying sauce was flavorful, both salty and sweet.
Finally, we punctuated our meal with dessert. The special halo-halo contained a mix of all the following: a dollop of ube ice cream, leche flan, macapuno, banana and mongo beans with smoothly shaved ice. Every spoonful made us experience one to two seconds of brain freeze. Its sweetness was acceptable though we can add more syrup if we wanted to.
Price for Value: ★★★★☆
All dishes were almost drool-worthy and they had affordable prices to match. Once tasted, twice satisfied!
Menu:
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