LONDON - An Asian food hall in northwest London features Filipino flavors.

Manila Kitchen joins 25 other businesses at the Bang Bang Oriental food hall, situated in Colindale.

The restaurant, which opened in October 2017, offers traditional Filipino classics like kare-kare, chicken inasal, ginataang gulay, bangsilog, and halo-halo, as well as several other dishes with a modern twist.

It is owned and managed by Marc Malata – a chef whose passion for food came from his parents, Mario and Cathy of the restaurant Lutong Pinoy in Earls Court, west London.

The 28-year-old Malata told ABS-CBN Europe that he wanted to branch out. He saw Bang Bang Oriental, which opened last July, as a good opportunity to promote Filipino food to other communities.

“We thought it would be nice to try and make Filipino food more mainstream, and we felt there was no better place than an Oriental food court,” Malata said.

“Different people from other backgrounds try our cuisine to see what Filipino cuisine is all about. The fact that people are trying our food and we’re getting a good response is really good,” he added.

Manila Kitchen’s most popular dishes are the Filipino Brunch, which is a mix of lechon kawali, pork tocino, and a fried egg; and Boy Baboy, a mixed pork dish with grilled pork belly and spring rolls.

“We also have our modern dishes which we wanted to aim at the younger generations of Filipinos, like tocino and egg burger, tocino cheese fries, Filipino pork burger, ube cake, and custard,” Malata said.

The Bang Bang Oriental complex is the largest Asian food hall in London and seats up to 450 people. It houses shops specializing in cuisines from countries like China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, and Vietnam.

Despite the fact that Filipino food is not as well-known or popular as other cuisines, Manila Kitchen’s assistant manager Dawn Dayrit is encouraged by the response they have already received.

“We do get a lot of people who haven’t even tried Filipino food who say, ‘We haven’t had anything, what do you recommend?’”

“After they finish their meals, they come back and say, ‘The meal was amazing, thank you,’ and that they will be coming back another time,” Dayrit said.

“We’ve also had customers who have been to the Philippines but have never had Filipino food back here in London. So when they see us, they’re like, ‘Oh, my God, I had this in the Philippines!’ They get quite excited when they see they can order it here, so that is quite good,” she added.

In an e-mail, Bang Bang Oriental’s marketing manager Ying-Chu Chen revealed that prior to Manila Kitchen’s arrival, they received online feedback from customers saying that a Filipino option was missing at the food court.

“We particularly liked Manila Kitchen's menu proposal because their brand is current and modern, which we believed is a good combination with our Bang Bang brand,” explained Chen.

“Manila Kitchen also has a successful restaurant in west London which gives us confidence in their capabilities. It brings a great variety to our food hall which has been well received by our Filipino customers as well as all other nationalities,” she added.

Manila Kitchen recently launched its delivery service for the local area through the British online food ordering company Deliveroo.