World Kitchens Brings Global Flavors, Fine-Dining Sensibilities to Gateway 2, QC

World Kitchens
L4, Gateway Mall 2, 28 General Araneta, Cubao, Quezon City
www.worldkitchens.com.ph
Open from 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., Monday to Thursday; and from 10:30 a.m. to 11 p.m., Friday to Sunday

(SPOT.ph) Araneta City has been making a real bid at becoming a food destination in Metro Manila. A lot of the recent marketing has focused on the sheer number of outlets, as well as the dining experiences unique to the area. There’s the Dampa in Farmers Market, the Times Square Food Park, and the Claude Tayag-curated Palenque in Gateway 2.

Their latest effort towards this goal is the opening of World Kitchens, on the fourth floor of Gateway 2, making up most of the stretch between the Ibis Styles hotel and the cinemas. It is a luxury food hall made in collaboration with Singapore’s Andrew Tan Hock Lai, a food and beverage expert best known for curating dining experiences for dignitaries visiting the city-state.

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A world of flavors awaits at the new World Kitchens in Araneta

World Kitchens is quite a space. The final plan is to have fifteen different outlets churning several styles of cuisine. As of this writing, eight of these outlets are now serving food: Chef Jessie Sincioco is behind Chef Jessie’s, which serves high-end Filipino food; Japanese chef Masaki Watanabe has two outlets open: Kuro Maguro, which serves sushi, and Unagi Yukimitsu, which specializes in eel, but also serves various rice bowls; Steve Ma from Hong Kong has Ma’s Bistro, which serves plussed-up Cantonese roasts like Iberico pork sous vide char siu; Chef Nishinomiya brings Kyushu-style ramen from his restaurant The You No Men from Nishinomiya in Japan; Pizzaiolo Dario Bonaccorso from Singapore’s In Piazza is behind Dario Pizza & More, which serves Neapolitan-style pizzas.

The other two outlets that are open don’t have names attached to them. Santai Bar serves cocktails and other alcoholic drinks, and Sticky Sweet is their dessert bar, serving wagashi, or traditional Japanese desserts like dango and mochi, as well as a small selection of sweets from Chef Jessie as well, like a premium halo-halo.

Later on in the year, there will be two more kitchens from international chefs who primarily work in Singapore. There’s Cantonese chef Fung Chi Keung from Kai Cuisine and kaiseki chef Hoshiba Fumihiko from Shima. There’s also Chef Rajan Veeranan, who is behind Prana in the Novotel in Araneta City, and Chef Gale Tan Sun, who is the culinary director and CEO of MNL Food Co.

What's on the World Kitchens menu

The experience of dining at this food hall is pretty different. Upon being seated, you're given a QR code that links to an online ordering portal where you can browse all the available outlets and place a single order from multiple vendors. Everything—from ordering to payment—is handled online, making the process seamless. Service is surprisingly quick for such a complex operation, with food arriving at the table within ten minutes or less.

World Kitchens is also pushing an AI component to the ordering portal, as it will recommend dishes based on your orders, touting a certain percentage match with your perceived preferences. This feature is in its early days, and it’s tough to say if this will actually matter to diners at all but it’s certainly interesting that they’re trying to do something new here.

Of course, none of this matters if the food isn’t any good. It all leans luxury, so it’s not going to be cheap, but there’s some really tasty stuff here. There’s the Beef Cheeks Adobo (P995) from Chef Jessie’s, a perfectly unctuous version of the national dish that deserves extra rice. The Iberico Char Siu (P460/small, P780/medium/ and P1,350/large) delivers a really smoky punch that plays nicely with the deep meatiness of the premium pork. The Unagi Hitsumabushi (P590/small, P780/medium, and P960/large) from Unagi Yukimitsu is eel served in the style of hitsumabushi—that is, with the meat served alongside small servings of wasabi and green onions which you can add as condiments, and a little teapot filled with dashi which you can pour into the bowl to have it as a chazuke.

Kuro Maguro is pushing otoro, or fatty tuna, and if you’ve never had it before, the place is offering Premium Otoro Rolls (P1,080) at a surprisingly reasonable price. The noodles from The You No Men are pretty great too, with the Maze Soba (P340) in particular showing off their tender chew and the richness that they carry.

The cocktails are a highlight as well. This doesn’t show up on any of their marketing, but the drinks were designed by Edu Zamora, a partner at Butcher Boy in Salcedo Village, and a bartender with years of experience working in the Mandarin Oriental and Shangri-la hotels in Singapore. Their signature is a Negroni made with Pandan-infused Beefeater Gin, adding a very Asian tinge to the classic Italian drink. “Island of Spices” is made with Planteray 3 Star, five spice syrup, and tepache, and it is a nicely balanced cocktail that tastes very tropical without becoming too sweet.

The Shang-Chi is built on Tokki Soju, an American craft soju brand, and gets a big funky kick from fermented dragon fruit. For something more fun and friendly, try Ace of Araneta, a single malt whisky cocktail that gets a boost of fruity flavor from a green grape cordial.

World Kitchens is impressive: that much is undeniable. It is a huge space, and every bit of it screams upscale. Even the bathrooms, with their Japanese washlets, make it clear that no expense was spared to give people an experience that is totally luxe. Whether that’s a good fit for Cubao remains to be seen, but this is a big swing from the Aranetas that is certainly worth keeping an eye on.

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