A restaurant named after the list of dishes it serves—the menu—may not seem to be very original and, thus, may appear unexciting. But according to seasoned restaurateur Marianne Trinidad, general manager of the family-owned Metro Menu, a two-story, casual dining restaurant at the Metrowalk Central Park along Ortigas Avenue, “don’t dwell on the name, focus instead on what is on offer.” And she hastens to add: “Metro Menu has one mission: to offer good food, no more, no less.”

To achieve this mission, Trinidad has been circling the globe in search of gastronomic delights, which she then brings home and serves at her Pasig City restaurant. Thus, Metro Menu offers a wide gustatory repertoire that includes delicacies from China, India, Italy, Korea, and Spain. Despite the diversity of its offerings, however, one ingredient remains a constant complement to the wide array of dishes the restaurant serves: rice. “Rice is meant to neutralize any flavor of the dish, be it salty, sour, spicy, or sweet,” Trinidad explains.

China’s chao fan, for instance, is a mixture of cold rice mixed with vegetables, egg, and chopped meat. Basmati rice is cooked with spices, meat, or vegetables and yogurt, and is known as India’s biryani. And then there’s Italy’s risotto or rice cooked with broth and garnished with grated cheese, and is, perhaps, one of the most popular rice dishes from this part of Europe.

PINOY TASTE

“There are actually a lot of rice dishes to choose from,” says Trinidad, who notes that in the Philippines, “rice variations are, unfortunately, not that well-known since most Filipinos are only familiar with plain, garlic, and Java rice.” Therefore, so as not to shock the Filipino’s “conservative” palate, Metro Menu’s rice offerings were “tweaked to make them not too alien to the locals’ tongue, since rice still plays a major role in the Filipino gustatory experience,” she says.

For instance, the Spanish Seafood, one of the many Metro Menu bestsellers, mixes seafood sautéed in Spanish spices, topped with Spanish chorizo, bell peppers, and olives, toasted garlic, and then served with fragrant coconut rice (steamed rice sautéed in onion, garlic, and coconut milk). The Tendered Beef Stroganoff also mixes tenderloin sautéed in garlic, red wine, and mushroom sauce with turmeric rice (steamed rice with garlic, carrots, celery, and turmeric powder).

Metro Menu’s flavorful rice combos are good for sharing, matched with main dishes that range from P180 to P288.

“We want to be known as the Filipino restaurant that pioneered the concept of flavored rice that goes hand-in-hand with foreign dishes,” Trinidad says.

Beyond the rice offerings, Metro Menu also has after-meal offerings. These include smooth and soft cakes, sugar-free cakes and pastries for the diabetic, and the bestselling Better-Than-Sex Chocolate Mousse. Other unique after-meal items are the liquored coffee cocktails, such the cold Amarula Coffee of blended espresso, chocolate syrup and ice cream, Amarula liquor and cherry sauce, and frothy cream, and hot Frangelico Cappucino of steaming brew of espresso laced with Frangelico liquor.

True, there may be nothing fancy with “menu” as a dining spot’s name, but it definitely is “catchy,” Trinidad says. “‘Menu’ is a name that everybody can remember for it offers everything that diners want to see, have, and taste in a restaurant. And that’s what we have here.”