A Different Kind of M&M

One night while looking for somewhere to eat along Jupiter Street in Makati, we stumbled upon “Mana-ish & More! Middle Eastern Grills & Delights”, it was actually a place I’ve been curious about for quite some time. The restaurant is housed in the same building as O’Sonho and Distillery, so it won’t be hard to miss. They serve authentic Lebanese-Syrian cuisine, according to the kind owner Philip Mazloum who guided us through the menu after seeing us having a hard time choosing from his seemingly unique menu.

For our appetizer, we took his recommendation of ordering the Arayes (Fresh baked dough stuff with beef kebab and mozzarella cheese), according to B, its something similar to Turkish stuff flatbread, which on the other hand is fried. The Arayes is less greasy and supposed to be healthier being baked instead of fried. It tasted a bit like the Adobo Flying Saucer of Aristocrat for some weird reason; in a good way of course.

For our main dish, we decided on a safe choice – Shawarma! But since we were split on having chicken and donner, Mr. Mazloum suggested that we could order a combination of Chicken and Donner to our delight. Donner is actually lamb meat from the trims of the legs and shoulders. It came served with fries, pickles and two kinds of sauces.

The presentation of the Shawarma is quite unique as it is wrapped with cooked onions, then toasted giving the pita a nice crisp. The donner however, tasted dry and overcooked compared to the tender and tasty chicken. But both were well seasoned, however the donner also left a greasy feel in the mouth afterwards, which I didn’t like as well.

Much to our delight, we were given complimentary cups of tea (Middle Eastern I suppose) which nicely washed about the grease and oil left by the donner Shawarma.

If price were a consideration, this place wouldn’t make it on the winning list. However, the quality of the ingredients, the imported spices, and savory flavors definitely make every peso count. We’ll definitely visit the place again to try their Manaish (Manakeesh), where the place gets its name from.