Food has increasingly taken center stage in Araneta City’s programming this year, as the district continually offers more reasons for visitors to make a trip there for a meal.
I experienced it firsthand in August during its inaugural Seafood Festival. In September, I returned to World Cellar at World Kitchens for Jade Table by Chef Peng of 18 Jade, one of the venue’s weekly wine dinners.
This time, I was there for lunch.
Now underway at Araneta City, the Lunch Festival brings more than 60 restaurants into a weekday dining program, with sets starting at ₱399. Available Mondays to Fridays from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the promotion gives diners plenty of options for a midday meal.
For this food crawl, I stopped at Hap Chan for authentic Hong Kong cuisine, East Cafe by Rustan’s for Southeast Asian flavors, and HK Ma’s Bistro at World Kitchens, where I was curious to try something beyond what I’d had there before.
Hap Chan’s Lunch Festival offerings include rice meals paired with favorites such as hakaw, butchi, siomai, and fried dishes. Photo by Ralph Revelar Sarza
Hap Chan
The first stop was familiar territory for me. Hap Chan was the only one of the three I had tried before, so I already knew what to expect. That familiarity turned out to be well placed, as the meals lived up to the experience I remembered.
The Lunch Festival sets start at ₱399, with two options at that price. Set A comes with sweet and sour chicken with blanched broccoli, shark’s fin dumpling, and garlic fried rice. Set B has sliced chicken with broccoli flower, hakaw, butchi, and garlic fried rice.
At ₱599, Set A pairs sweet and sour pork with hakaw, butchi, and Yang Chow fried rice, while Set B comes with beef with broccoli flower, shrimp siomai, butchi, and Yang Chow fried rice. Both sets include a can of soda.
The ₱799 tier steps things up with Set A's sweet and sour fish fillet, hakaw, butchi, mixed meat Canton, and Yang Chow fried rice. Set B has fried buttered chicken, shrimp siomai, butchi, sliced beef fried Ho Fan, and Yang Chow fried rice. Both also come with a can of soda.
Having tried the different sets, I found the tiered format useful because it lets diners decide how much lunch they actually want. The ₱399 sets work well for a straightforward meal, while the higher tiers make more sense when you want several dishes on the table.
The best part, especially if you're trying to stretch a budget, is that the ₱399 sets are generous enough to share between two people. If you just want something to tide you over without committing to a full meal, splitting one set is an easy way to do it while also leaving room to try something else.
But no matter what you order, it would be a sin to leave Hap Chan without trying the butchi.
East Cafe by Rustan’s serves up a spread of Southeast Asian-inspired dishes, including grilled meats, rice dishes, spring rolls, and salads. Photo by Ralph Revelar Sarza
East Cafe by Rustan’s
The Southeast Asian stop on my crawl offered all three of its ₱599 Lunch Festival sets. I got to try the full lineup, from grilled chicken to nasi goreng and pork kra pao.
There was Bun Ga Nuong Sa, grilled lemongrass chicken with rice vermicelli, fresh herbs, pickled vegetables, Vietnamese nuoc cham, and summer rolls. Then came Thai Nasi Goreng with Chicken Satay, Indonesian-style fried rice with aromatic spices, grilled chicken satay, cucumber, pickles, and crispy shallots, served with kropek, spring rolls, and som tam salad.
But their take on Pork Kra Pao was the dish that really got me. The Thai-style wok-fried minced pork comes with holy basil, garlic, and chilies, along with steamed jasmine rice and a crispy fried egg. It is also served with kropek, spring rolls, and som tam salad.
Of the three, this was the one I fell in love with.
The minced pork is savory and aromatic, with enough garlic, chilies, and basil to give it the punch I expect from a good kra pao. The crispy fried egg brings richness to the plate, and the rice does exactly what it should, soaking up all those flavors. Of everything I tried at East Cafe, this was the dish I would order again without much hesitation.
HK Ma’s Bistro’s Lunch Festival offerings include braised pork belly and fried fish fillet served with rice, dumplings, and other accompaniments. Photo by Ralph Revelar Sarza
HK Ma’s Bistro
At HK Ma’s Bistro, the Lunch Festival offers two rice toppings sets at ₱399.
I tried both, the Braised Pork Belly Rice Toppings Set and the Fish Fillet with Black Pepper Sauce Rice Toppings Set. Both come with steamed jasmine rice, chicken broth, dumpling, seasonal vegetables, and seasonal appetizers.
The chicken broth was a tad salty for my liking, but the Braised Pork Belly Rice Toppings Set was the one that won me over.
The pork belly is the highlight. It is tender enough to yield easily under the fork, with enough richness to make each bite satisfying without turning the dish heavy. The steamed rice gives the sauce somewhere to go, while the seasonal appetizers round out the meal. It is a straightforward lunch, but it feels complete.
At ₱399, the set makes a convincing case for itself as a weekday lunch. You get a substantial main, rice, soup, and several accompaniments without having to order anything else.
And that’s only three of the more than 60 restaurants participating in the Lunch Festival. Three stops barely scratched the surface. The real problem now is finding enough lunch breaks to get through the rest.