Revolution @ Bonifacio

30th May 2010. Written by Xin Li.

Bonifacio is a Filipino restaurant located along Kreta Ayer Road. The restaurant was named after the Filipino nationalist Andres Bonifacio (fellow history students you will know who he is if you have done Southeast Asian history).

It is pleasant to see how food was able to bring people together. I had the opportunity to meet two fellow food lovers, Harris and Loraine for this dinner. Bonifacio was brought into our attention by Loraine. This unassuming Filipino restaurant housed within a shophouse in Kreta Ayer was a pleasant surprise.

The interior was simple yet cosy with pop art style or retro style artworks of the Filipino Revolution with familiar terms like La Liga Filipina and Bonifacio appearing here and there. To complement this cosy atmosphere is the warm service we received from the people of Bonifacio. The manager is very knowledgeable and friendly.

The menu features a lot of pork dishes and even the familiar meats seemed new to me with chicken liver and innards. According to Loraine, Filipinos love pork, which is very obvious with the various ways to delivering the meat via soup, grill, stew etc. The price of the main courses ranged from the 10s to the 20s.

For a start, Loraine had the Fresh Yellow Mango Shake (5.95 SGD), what is beautiful about this drink is that the sweetness was natural, coming from the mangoes themselves. It was a very refreshing and sweet drink with a hint of sourness. The manager told us that the mangoes were Filipino mangoes and they only use mangoes from the Philippines for an authentic touch.

Harris had the Filipino variation of the Sago’t Gulaman (4.95 SGD) with sago, pearls and jelly. The drink looks like a Sangria but it is not an alcohol. It was like what the menu described as a dessert beverage, a decent one too. The managed said that there are the Singaporean variation and the Filipino variation. The Filipino variation is much sweeter than the Singaporean one.

For appetizer, we had the Tuna Sisig (12.95 SGD). It was a mix of spicy tuna, chilli, egg (which was served raw till it cooks on the sizzling plate), lime juice and soy sauce served on a hot sizzling plate. The overall mixture had a teppanyaki feel to it. It was a spicy, hearty starter. Flavourful and satisfying dish especially when you mix it with your friends.

The Himagsikan, Mixed Grilled Seafood with Java Rice (22.95 SGD) or “Revolution” is Harris’ main course. I shall leave it to him to describe the “Revolution” since I have only tried a slice of tuna from the dish. The tuna was nicely grilled on the exterior yet retaining a pinkish interior, a nice balance for me.

Daing na Bangus, Deep Fried Marinated Milk Fish Served with Mango Tomato Salsa (22.95 SGD) was Loraine’s main course. While I enjoyed the fresh Mango Tomato Salsa, I find the fish slightly too dry for me, but this is a personal preference. I shall leave the details to Loraine.

I had the Chicken Inasal (11.95 SGD) Grilled Half Chicken Marinated in Annatto Oil. I was quite surprised how well executed this dish was. I normally have low expectations for grilled half chicken, especially for the breast portion which is normally too dry or rough. In Bonifacio’s Chicken Inasal, the breast meat was quite tender and slightly juicy. In addition, there is this sweet salad like thing that paired very well the chicken as well as the accompanying sour and spicy sauce. In addition, the chicken was flavourful, the meat was well-marinated.

If you are wondering what is annatto. According to a few sources online including Wikipedia, It is a derivative of achiote trees of the tropical regions of the Americas, it is being used for flavouring and food colouring and described as having a “slightly peppery and sweet” flavour. The ingredient is also used as a substitute for saffron in dishes with Spanish origins in Latin American cuisine.

According to Epicentre.com, the annatto (bixa orellana) is both a spice and a dyestuff. It is also known as achuete, atsuwete in the Philippines and roucou in French.

http://www.theepicentre.com/Spices/annatto.html

Overall, I thought the food at Bonifacio was quite good and the prices are reasonable if you are looking to spend about 15 SGD and above on an ala carte menu. They also offer set lunches around 7.95++ SGD which sounds like a good value for money deal.

The service was warm and friendly and ambience was quite cosy without too much crowd. In fact, it was quite empty while we were there except for a group of young adults. It is a nice place to have a casual meal with your friends or family.

It was a satisfying Filipino dinner especially with two great companions and good food.
Thank you Harris for organizing the outing and Loraine for introducing Bonifacio!

Bonifacio

Address:
35 Kreta Ayer
Singapore 089000

Telephone :
(65) 6222 6676

Opening Hours :
Lunch 11am to 3pm
Dinner 6pm to 10pm (last order)
Open Tuesdays to Sundays
Close on Mondays