Kiwami Master Kitchens in BGC houses Filipino favorites like Yabu and Ippudo, and introduces new delectable offerings like Koyo handrolls.
Then until now, Filipinos have been crazy over Japanese food. Who can blame us? Japanese food and dining are art themselves, with their unique, delicious, and perfectly arranged dishes, relaxing atmosphere, not to mention the friendly and efficient service.
It’s a cuisine that easily fits into your routine, especially with many sushi, tempura, ramen, and donburi spots almost everywhere in the metro. This wide variety of Japanese restaurants, on the other hand, can also make finding the most umami-rich menu quite a challenge.
If you’re looking for a place where you can have everything at once, then Kiwami Master Kitchens in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig might suit your taste. Kiwami Master Kitchens delivers high-quality Japanese dining in every corner—from its minimalist interiors with wooden brown accents to how it fuses some of the hottest Japanese restaurants in Manila into one appetizing full-course menu.
Kiwami’s 500-square-meter curated space in BGC houses Filipino favorites Yabu “House of Katsu,” Ippudo “Masters of Ramen,” Fukuoka’s “Yakitori Gem “ Hachibei, and Tokyo’s “Tender House” Hannosuke. All of which you can order from at the same time on your table.
Marketing manager Nicole Concepcion talked more about Kiwami’s creative concept in an interview with The POST during the restaurant’s launch on Oct. 7. She explained, “What makes Kiwami different is that we have all these Japanese master kitchens. We invested so much time and energy into creating a separate kitchen for each concept. Every kitchen has its own head chef, rice maker, stove, and everything they need to give each brand consistency.”
“Second, I think it’s the dining service. You get to eat like you’re in a fine-dining restaurant but you order from different Japanese kitchens. It’s a unique mishmash,” she added.
If you frequently visit Bonifacio High Street, chances are you’ve already seen Kiwami or have dined here more than once in the past years. The brand initially launched three years ago, in the middle of the pandemic. This year, Kiwami rebranded by expanding its food offerings, updating its interiors, and reflecting all those upgrades into its new name, “Kiwami Master Kitchens.”
“In this new journey, we’re focusing on giving customers the best Kiwami experience possible,” Concepcion continued. “Prior to this, people just come in, order Yabu, and leave. So what we really want to do now is that you experience the perfect sharing meal. We recreated the menu to give the customer the best full-course dining experience.”
Introducing the new and flavorful Koyo handrolls
To give customers a unique full-course dining experience at the food hall, Kiwami partnered with New York-based Filipino chef Mark Manaloto to create Koyo, a new dish designed to make a good start in your meals at the restaurant.
Koyo is Kiwami and Manaloto’s contemporary and more flavorful take on the traditional sushi handroll. Similar to sushi, this new dish comprises medium-grain rice cooked in vinegar and served with raw or cooked seafood with a variety of sauces and toppings.
What’s distinct about chef Manaloto’s masterpiece is that it’s made with high-quality ingredients you’ll easily notice on the first bite. It also comes with an array of variants, which includes Spicy Tuna, Scallop Aburi, Bincho Mackerel, Tuna Edamame, Katsu Oyster, Creamy Ebi, and Ebi Katsu Creamy Crab.
We got to try two of Koyo’s offerings — one with an ebi katsu on top and another with salmon aburi— during Monday’s event. True enough, each handroll was oozing with the finest ingredients: Japanese rice that is plump, chewy, and a bit sweet; creamy sauces; and fresh seafood that is infused with so much flavor. These colorful ingredients blend perfectly with the crispy black nori wrapping the dish.
Koyo, we dare say, is so tasty and flavorful that eating only one is being negligent. That is why it is ideally ordered by fours so you can indulge in or share with friends. Manaloto revealed to The POST that this unique dish was the result of hard work that spanned a whole year.
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It began when one of Kiwami’s partners, Jerry Santos, and its owner, The Standard Group, asked Manaloto to fly from New York to the Philippines “to create hand rolls that would be very accessible to the Filipino palette plus keeping the base of the Japanese sushi.”
“I only had one requirement: to keep the rice and nori high-quality,” he continued. “So we sourced for a year the best rice we could possibly get and the best vinegar we could use in building this handroll.”
Manaloto and Kiwami eventually found the perfect “high-level roasted nori” from Niyabi, Japan and high-quality rice from northern Tokyo. After that, the chef used his creativity to whip up handrolls that are “a little bit of Filipino, French, and Italian but still keeping that Japanese base.”
He added a Filipino twist, in particular, to Koyo by combining mango with seared scallops because “mango is big here in the Philippines.” He also included spinach and many other produce to the rest of the mix.
Besides its ingredients, what makes Koyo different is that it preserves the shape and quality of the dish by wrapping the nori with two plastic sheets. These plastic sheets are to be removed — one from the left and the other from the right — before you lift the handroll from its tray, hold it in two hands, and eat it in two bites.
“Many restaurants have tried to do the handroll,” Manaloto continued. “But to crack the code, we had to put this plastic technology wherein you still have that crispy nori once the dish reaches your table. And that’s what you want to have when you eat a good temaki.”
After enjoying the delectable appetizers of Koyo, guests are encouraged to proceed with the main course, which is also offered by the new restaurant Hibachi. The latest addition to Kiwami’s offerings alongside Koyo, Hibachi is a collaboration between The Standard Group and Sydney-based chefs Max Smith and Douglas Barker. It specializes in Japanese-style dishes grilled over Binchotan charcoal and catering to guests dining by groups.
Kiwami Master Kitchens is located at 29th Street, Bonifacio High Street in Taguig City. Open from 11 am – 2 pm, 5 pm – 10 pm from Monday to Thursday; and 11 am- 10 pm every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.
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