Teachers Village Welcomes Sweet Ecstacy, Manila Creamery, and More at the New Malingap Central Food Hall

Malingap Central Food Hall
40 Malingap Street, Teachers Village, Quezon City
Open daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

(SPOT.ph) Even with busy Maginhawa as their neighbor, Malingap is making a name for itself as a bustling food hub. You now have another stop to add to your food crawl with Malingap Central Food Hall finally opening after a year of anticipation. This may sound like an eternity given the way food parks and new concepts pop up with breakneck speed and regularity these days. But the team behind the new food hall—Chef Ed Bugia, Star Jose, and PJ Lanot, who are best known for bringing Pino Restaurant and popular vegetarian haunt Pipino to life—wanted to get things right.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

The location (which previously housed Korean favorite Don Day) had to be redone, for starters, and the team wanted to create a food hall (not a food park, mind you) that would be comfortable to visit and hang out in, rain or shine, and offer ample parking, too.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

Aspiring tenants also had to go through a fairly stringent application and selection process; Chef Ed admits that it was a difficult task, having to choose and turn down quite a lot of applications to pare down the food hall’s selection to 11 stalls that not only offer diverse food choices, but would also have the potential to be standalone successes. Lucky us, then, because we know that the 11 stalls that did make the cut are more than worthy of our money and the calories.

A post shared by Sweet Ecstasy (@sweetxmanila) on Oct 21, 2017 at 7:03pm PDT

Sweet X Go

The baby brother of Sweet Ecstasy will send burger lovers over the moon. They’re keeping the menu simple with their Steamed Burger and their Mom Burger, which is your classic quarter pounder.

Nice to Meat You

Consider this one Chinese-Filipino fusion cuisine. Their Shrimp and Chive Dumpling and Twice-Cooked Beef Ribs Sisig are favorites right out of the gate.

El Sombrero

With an eye toward making Mexican-style food accessible to more people, El Sombrero serves tacos, burritos, and chimichangas (try the chicharrones variant), and even elote.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

Alfred’s Roast Beef Station

Serving tender, mouthwatering roast beef since 2008, Alfred’s offers slices of roast beef drenched in gravy and served with pasta (you get either lasagna or baked penne) and potato croquette.

Sticky Pig

The Sticky Pig offers a lot of grilled goodness, from juicy ribs to chimichurri, as well as pasta. You can also get their surf-and-turf platters; they make sure not to skimp on the servings, with each platter containing as much food as two separate orders of one dish.

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HB Fried Chicken

Just think about it: Crispy fried chicken fillet topped with freshly whipped honey butter (or spicy or honey garlic butter, if you want) on a bed of steamed rice. Choose from different sides, such as corn, coleslaw, macaroni and cheese, and corn salsa, among others.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

Taza Platito

This dessert favorite has found a home, and you can get your fix of something sweet—like their Tablea Yema Cake and S’mores and Lemon Olive Oil cupcakes—anytime you want.

Bar Fight

This serves beverages for the entire food hall, and you can get anything from sodas to alcoholic drinks. Chef Ed urges everyone to try the Banana Milk, which features bananas soaked in condensed milk and topped with ice.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

Quixote

Expect great Spanish-style paella here made with fresh local ingredients, and pair it with some of the best churros in town.

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Hapitori

Offering delectable Japanese street-style food, Hapitori’s skewered treats—such as Tsukune, Butabara, and Beef Rib Fingers—are so satisfying and tasty you’ll likely want more than just one of each. There's an option to have them with Japanese rice as well.

IMAGE TJ Tantiangco

Shish K

A love for Persian food sent the husband-and-wife team behind Shish K around the world to try the best, and then Shish K was born, offering gigantic skewers of chicken, beef, and lamb kebabs. Tip: Their baba ganoush is pretty amazing.

IMAGE Manila Creamery Facebook page

Manila Creamery is also set to make an appearance soon, rounding out the food hall residents and turning Malingap Central Food Hall into a pretty complete dining destination that you’ll no doubt want to come back to over and over again.

Photos by TJ Tantiangco

*Prices to be updated