The next Chinese New Year will be on February 16, 2018. But you probably do not want to wait that long to have your next Chinese meal. In Fort Bonifacio, particularly Bonifacio Global City, there are several establishments offering Chinese cuisines from different regions. We have listed all of them below, including two new comers that are expected to open just before the Chinese New Year.
Shanghainese
Hand-pulled noodle and dumplings steamed in small bamboo baskets are trademarks of food from the Jiangnan region in China, where the city of Shanghai belongs. At the same time, they are also popular in Taiwan, since many people emigrated to Taiwan from that part of China over the years and started their eatery businesses.
1. Bai Nian Tang Bao
Address: Uptown Parade, 9th Avenue Corner 38th Street, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (0927) 770 3740
Minus:
- The xiao long bao has no dipping.
- The chicken soup contained small pieces of bony chicken parts like neck and wing.
- Guotie is too thin.
Plus:
- The tomato noodle soup is very good.
- A free appetizer. One time it was black cloud ear mushroom in a vinegar dressing. Another time it was marinated seaweed. Both were healthy and delicious.
- Its xiaolongbao is a little cheaper than Din Tai Fung’s (P158 for 6 pieces).
Recommended dishes:
Tomato beef noodle soup.
Hand pulled Chicken with Special Sauce (P169). It is a nice cold dish for an appetiser or even main course. The sauce is mainly peanut based.
2. Din Tai Fung
Address: Central Square, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 809 1865
Good location in BHS. Large space. Variety of dishes and consistent quality.
Recommended dishes:
Xiaolongbao (P160 for 5 pieces). “Xiao long” (small basket) refers to the bamboo steamer. DTF’s wrapping is always thin yet strong enough to hold the content.
Golden Lava Salted egg bun (P85 for two small buns). A must-try dessert for any one who likes the taste of salted duck eggs. Simply gorgeous.
3. Lugang Cafe
Address: Skypark, Level 5, SM Aura Premier, 26th Street corner Mckinley Parkway, Taguig City
Contact No.: (0906) 455 5873 / (02) 519 5663
Lukang is a town in Taiwan, and this restaurant chain offers xiaolongbao as its main dimsum. So it belongs to the same group of Chinese restaurant as Din Tai Fung, i.e. Shanghainese restaurants from Taiwan.
Lugang is a high end restaurant with modern glam interior and high quality cooking.
4. Botan Black Cafe
Address: Second Floor, Wumaco Building, Lane P. Corner 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 873 3333 / (02) 873 9999
A nice hidden place with snacks like thick toast and braised beef noodle and bubble tea that are popular in Taiwan.
If you are looking for a quiet place to have a chit-chat with friends near Bonifacio High Street, you should consider Botan Black Cafe, which is hidden on the 2nd floor of Wumaco Building, corner of 9th Avenue. It is located above Agave Mexican Cantina.
The restaurant has a very hip interior design, and tables have good space between them. It even has a partitioned room, which is good for more intimate meetings. Each dish costs between P250 to P300.
Recommended dishes:
Braised beef noodle soup.
Bubble tea drinks.
Cantonese
Cantonese food is usually associated with dim sum, small bite size dishes. In China, dim sums are consumed either for breakfast or lunch, but outside China, not many places serve dim sum for breakfast.
5. Tim Ho Wan
Address: Uptown Place Mall, 36th Street Corner 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 776 4549
It is not exactly the Michelin star branch, but still, you can get a few good dim sum dishes at very good prices, and the branch in Uptown has short waiting time most of the time.
Large selection of dim sum by the Philippine standard. Low price. Decent quality. Opens for long hours, until 3 am.
Recommended dishes:
Baked buns with BBQ pork (P169 for 3 pieces).
Chow Mien stir-fried noodle (P130). It is a Hong Kong street food that you can rarely find in the Philippines. It is very simple, just noodle stir-fried with a lot of beansprouts and good soya sauce, but unique in that fried noodle elsewhere is often served with too much sauce and too oily.
Vermicelli rolls with shrimp, pork or pig’s liver (from P160). Not the best, but still decent since it is freshly made and the ingredients are good.
6. Crystal Jade
Address: 7th Avenue, Bonifacio High Street, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 808 5233
High-end decor and high-quality food, and centrally located.
7. Canton Road at Shangri-La at the Fort
Address: Shangri-La at the Fort, 30th Street corner 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 246 9069 ext. 742
Glitzy setting with posh and plush furniture. Very refined cooking and place. Regular dim sum, like shrimp dumpling, costs P248 per order.
The food is very good. Desserts are exquisite.
8. No.8 China House
Address: 8th Avenue corner 35th Street
Contact No.:Tel: +632 838 1234
This newly opened Chinese restaurant in the newest 5-Star Hotel in Fort Bonifacio offers Cantonese seafood and dimsum, but its specialty is Peking duck. The price and class range is similar to that of Canton Road in Shangri-La at the Fort. Read this article for more information about this restaurant.
Multi-regional Chinese food
9. Datang Jardin
Address: Forbes Town Centre, 29th Street, Burgos Circle, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 800 5955
Chinese food from 8 provinces, served in tapas style.
This unique concept of serving Chinese food in tapas style presents a challenge for those who are used to eating Chinese food for sharing or dim sum dishes. While Cantonese dimsums are bite-size also, DaTang’s dishes are like small orders of those that are usually served for sharing by 4 to 5 persons. This means 2 to 3 persons can try many different dishes at the same time.
10. DaTang
Address: Ground Floor, Venice Grand Canal Mall, McKinley Hill, Taguig City
Contact No.: (02) 845 2792
This restaurant opened in August 2017. It has a very attractive interior that mixes modern design with traditional Chinese style. The Chinese inscribed banner, for example, contains a well-known idiom written in brushstroke.
Their claim that it is the best Chinese restaurant in McKinley Hill is definitely true because it is the only Chinese restaurant there so far!
Their menu contains many Shanghai dishes, as well as dishes from other regions, similar to their smaller sister in Burgos Circle.
11. Tuan Tuan
Address: SM Aura Premier, C5 Road Corner 26th Street, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (0906) 433 2595
Tuan Tuan claims to be inspired by the tea houses in Hong Kong but actually serves food from various places in South and South East Asia with Chinese immigrants.
Recommended dishes:
Crispy snow buns (P149). The crispy crust is made in a way similar to the traditional pineapple bun sold in Hong Kong bakery. Very nice texture. 
12. Modern Sichuan
Address: The Fort Strip, 5th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 856 0470
Modern Sichuan is a full-scale high-end Chinese restaurant that specializes in dishes from the Sichuan province of China but also offers a small selection of Cantonese dishes such as a few dim sum, some congee, steamed seafood.
13. Zhu Kitchen
Address: Ground Floor, 32nd & 5th Building, 5th Avenue Corner 32nd Street, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: (02) 551 2099 / (02) 856 3639
Zhu is a simple, eatery type of Chinese restaurant that serves homestyle Cantonese dishes like meat stir-fried with vegetables, and a small selection of dim sum. However, what draws most Chinese to eat there are the La Mien, hand-pulled noodle dishes.
Recommended dishes:
Beef La Mien (P175).
Zhu special taho (P168, good for up to 3 persons).
Chinese hot pot
14. Hop Tung Hing
Address: 2nd floor, Fort Pointe Bldg. 2, The Fort Entertainment Complex, Bonifacio Global City
Contact No.: +63919 607 0179
The restaurant offers buffet dinner for P899 per head.
15. Firewood Kitchen
Address: G/F, Fort Residences, Burgos Circle, BGC, The Fort
This newly opened Chinese restaurant seems to target employees from China working in the Fort, because it offers a type of cooking that is not commonly found outside China. It uses real firewood to heat up a round-bottomed wok placed in the middle of the table, and if you order their signature dish of Wunan chicken, the chef will come and cook at the table. Because the signature dish of spicy chicken can generate a lot of smoke, a tall metal cylinder will be placed over the wok during cooking.
While the chicken cooked this special way is tasting, it is not for people who do not like to have bones in the food, because the chicken pieces are bony.
