Papillon Emerges in Salcedo Village With Your Next Southeast-Asian Craving

Papillon Contact Details

129 G/F Frabelle Corporate Plaza, Tordesillas Street, Salcedo Village, Makati City
Contact: 0905-445-7242
Instagram: www.instagram.com/papillon.salcedo
Open from 11 a.m. onwards, Monday to Sunday

(SPOT.ph) Salcedo Village is a pretty well-established hub of dining spots; primarily a neighborhood teeming with activity, the lucky residents seem to be constantly spoiled for choice. Still, new contenders are always welcome, and Papillon is poised to make its case.

Yet another brain-baby of the boys behind Lampara—that is, chefs RJ Ramos and Alphonse Sotero—this cross between the fanciful and the familiar draws no lines—almost as if there was a determined effort to be approachable and unintimidating. “We sort of wanted to reintroduce Southeast Asia to itself, in a way,” says Ramos. “[The Philippines] is a part of it, and throughout history, all the other countries have played their part in shaping us, and we don’t try to connect the dots.”

“[Whatever you order here] could be an entirely new dish to you, but it will still feel like you know it from somewhere,” adds Sotero.

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What to try at Papillon in Salcedo Village, Makati

The Food

One thing the boys don’t shy away from is presentation, and the Papillon menu stood no chance of becoming an exception. Even something as ultra-normal as beef pares gets a makeover here, but unlike other attempts at reimagining that feel… well, a little pointless, the reasoning behind the Beef Tendon (P420) is pretty clear. “It doesn’t make sense to be selective about tendon, especially if you’re really cooking it down,” explains Ramos. The giant rice cracker is meant to stand in for your usual carb, but this is the single way in which this dish fails: you will still look for white rice, and it just can’t be helped. The cracker works, certainly—the depth of a salty honeyed quality in the garlic and soy hits us where we live, and the tendon obtains all the richness of beef fat without the lingering texture that excess tends to have. But if you cherish every eating experience, it must be rice, and thankfully, they don’t hold it against you. It doesn’t quite get to the level of umay; we pray it never does.

The Prawn Balls (P390) are the dumpling stand-ins, falling somewhere between fun and unwieldy—funwieldy, one might say—so it’s one hell of an ice breaker if you need one. The crispy fried noodles in place of a typical wonton wrapper provide a lot of visual and textural interest, but this is a two- to three-biter that sort of demands your attention. On the other hand, it’s earned it; the chili sauce accents the natural sweetness of the tender prawn meat, and the crunch of the exterior exhibits both novelty and contrast.

But the thing that the Prawn Balls do best—apart from being a little hard to pick up but really easy to put away—is line your stomach before a Thai Me Up (P400). Try not to look your server in the eye when ordering this one, for obvious reasons, but the real challenge is not slurping and/or downing this like the iced tea it’s inspired by. It has the same anise-y sugariness and layer of minerality that makes it a dangerous, dangerous drink; by the time it hits you that it’s alcohol, it’ll be too late.

The Beef Belly (P1,750) is where the research and development stage makes itself very much known. You can expect it to be tender and savory-sweet with a touch of that juicy, meaty quality, and nothing less. However, it comes with an aromatic salad that echoes distinctly Southeast Asian flavors, as well as a small bowl of peppercorns unique to Vietnam. Crushed and sprinkled on the beef belly, these ordinary-looking black specks don’t just add notes of lemongrass and subtle spice; they change the dish completely.

Speaking of game-changers, the Dessert Hotpot (P600) isn’t only a fun dessert to share with the group. It’s a fantastic reflection of the street sweets of the whole region—bite-sized versions of glutinous rice cakes, candied fruits, and a slew of other classics submerged in fragrant tea with some optional subtle richness from the cream on the side. It’s worth busting it out for foreign guests, or if you’ve always wanted to know how the other Southeast Asians do their kakanin.

What We Recommend

The Crispy Pork Belly (P520) may be on the lunch special rotation—which will change every few weeks—but it’s a dish very much worth getting when it comes around. Served with a spicy salad, a perfect mound of white rice, and a rich, end-border-of-sweet sauce that screams “Asian barbecue”, the crunch is very much the main character, but the ensemble definitely pulls their weight. But if you’re looking to behave in terms of your intake, pluck the aptly named Chicken (P780) from the list of mains. There’s something about it that’s a combination of all the things we love about Hainanese chicken, Thai curry, tinolang manok—rather than a mere amalgamation of chicken-adjacent flavors, this plate is an interesting play on the many iterations of the classic viand, proving that it’s anything but boring, especially here in our neck of the woods.

We’ve sung the praises of Sotero before; it’s hard not to, given his weird and wonderful instinct when it comes to what should close out a meal. The Pandan Rose (P380) is just another great example of what this guy can do with dessert. It messes with the senses a little bit; it looks crispy, but it’s a moist and tender sort of pancake that’s fully rounded out with the flavor of coconut in its many forms. The accompanying quenelle reads somewhere between custard and ice cream, sprinkled with a sugary crunch and carrying that dark sort of sweetness one can only achieve with good ingredients (like gula melaka, also known as palm sugar) and patience. We are asking you, straight-up, to order this when you have the chance.

For a fun little lunch moment—you know, the kind that has you feeling like it’s summer all year round with you even though you had a nervous breakdown literally that same morning—we recommend the Disco Diva (P400) with the Chicken Satay (P460) from the lunch specials. The guava-pink, summery cocktail with a hint of basil has all the vibes of a poolside far, far from your day-to-day troubles—and it tastes like juice, so we urge you to proceed with caution and not necessarily order three of them. The thing is, it goes so well with almost everything Papillon serves, but the satay skewers we love just match its energy the most, what with tender chicken infused with the kick of tamarind and chili, the rich texture of candlenuts, and again, that bed of perfect rice.

Cocktails don’t make up the whole drinks neighborhood, though, and that’s thanks to the chefs’ collaboration with Project Vino. Rob Martin, half of the motor behind this blossoming wine wagon, doesn’t believe in keeping Filipinos in the dark about their liquor. “It was baffling to me that you all drink heavy reds in this weather, but I’ve come to learn that that speaks to the history of the Philippines,” he says. “[The chefs] are doing something that’s quietly ambitious—reestablishing cultural ties through food—and like any menu, the wine list should support that goal.”

“I’ve personally learned so much more about wine [through this collaboration], even though I still have to really give it my focus to know what I like or what wine goes with what,” says Sotero.

More Than Souvenirs

The look is certainly something worth taking in; when you enter, think of your crazy rich uncle’s den, teeming with random tchotchkes from his travels all over Southeast Asia. There’s a whiff of hotel to the air, too, with sconces that echo the butterfly theme without taking on the actual shape, and panel molding (with matching wainscoting, duh, who raised you) that says, “I may not be entirely bougie, but you can’t tell me anything.” Some mustard velvet chairs and pops of red in the cabinets bring that eclectic jetsetter energy to the place—this part of it, anyway.

But up at the bar, it’s “tropical prohibition,” at least according to the boys. It’s not entirely a different world from what you see downstairs, given the continuity of the green wallpaper and rattan seats, but one gets an ironic underworld feel. The more focused and diffused lighting bounces off of copper surfaces and the dark, polished floor, creating a sense of being even farther removed from the daily grind; it makes it very hard to leave.

Indeed, there’s something about Papillon that obviously doesn’t shy away from the European influence—although “influence” may be too soft a word—because it’s “as much a part of us now as anything is,” according to Ramos. And while the name, like many things, started out as a private joke between chefs, this new gem has found its home along Tordesillas, among other greats near Velasquez Park.

Overall, Papillon delivers a kind of old-world charm while playing by entirely new rules that the chefs are all too happy to break and make up along the way. It appears that no matter what culinary milestone Ramos and Sotero pursue, that element of joie de vivre always seems to be their throughline; their key trick, in business and in flavor, is balance.

Photos by Hans Fausto

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