Eats Cheap: Top 5 Budget Restaurants in San Antonio Village, Makati

You know where to go this payday weekend.

For this month’s edition of Eats Cheap, we take you around one of Makati’s fastest-growing food hubs: San Antonio Village. While the area is famous for rooms and apartments for rent, it is also home to many hole-in-the-wall restaurants that offer both delicious yet affordable treats. Ready to explore the ins and out of San Antonio Village on a budget? Time to check out these cheap joints.

  • Bon Banh Mi
    8390 Mayapis Street

    Banh Mi, Vietnam’s famous sandwich, may look too simple for people with epicurean tastes, but don’t let its simple looks delude you. It’s two kinds of pork, liver pate, cream cheese, veggies, and cilantro gloriously stuffed inside a baguette. If you do not have plans to go to Vietnam any time soon, then make a side trip to Mayapis and visit Bon Banh Mi. Aside from the traditional banh mi sandwich, you can also get the chicken, roast beef, roast pork, or combination variants. The clincher? They only cost Php79 and Php99 for the regular and large servings, respectively.

    (See Related Topic: Eats Cheap: The Most Affordable Buffet Restaurants In Metro Manila)

  • Tonkatsuya
    LGF Palm Tower C, St. Paul Road

    Long before renowned tonkatsu shops like Yabu and Tonkatsu Maisen entered the Philippine market, a hidden joint somewhere on the ground floor of Palm Tower has been in existence, serving honest-to-goodness katsus and other Japanese favorites. For only Php220, you can get a set of katsu with rice, miso soup, and pickled vegetables. If you want other variants of deep fried cutlets, try their cheese hirekatsu (Php270), which is a tenderer cut of pork breaded and deep fried to golden brown perfection; or katsu curry (Php 250), your usual tonkatsu smothered in Japanese curry sauce.

  • Bagnet Republic 8065
    8065 Estrella Street

    For a slab of deep-fried crispy pork belly, head over to Estrella Street. Here lies this humble place that offers all things bagnet: be it the original (Php115 for the solo serving), or curry, binagoongan, kare-kare in coconut milk, sinigang, pakbet, or sisig (Php120 for each of these). If you’re not in bagnet mood, they also have fish in different sauces (Php115) and chicken (Php115 for the original and Php120 for the curry variant).

  • Pat-Pat’s Kansi
    8809 Sampaloc Street

    One of the most famous go-to Ilonggo dishes, kansi is like the lovechild of sinigang and bulalo, because of the sour and fruity goodness oozing out of its bone marrow. However, kansi uses batwan as a souring agent, a fruit endemic in Visayas. A bowl of kansi with bone marrow (Php155) is already good for two. If you’re not a fan of the bone marrow, you can order the all-meat version (Php135), which is also good for sharing. They also offer other treats like grilled pusit (Php240), grilled pork belly (Php 90), and so much more.

    (See Also: Eats Cheap: Top 5 Surprisingly Affordable Restaurants In BGC)

  • Mang Rudy’s Tuna Grill
    7522 Bagtikan Street

    No list is complete without a grill dinner or lunch joint where you can also have nice nightcap. At Mang Rudy’s Tuna Grill, you can have savory grilled tuna dishes and a whole lot more. Choose from inihaw na tuna (Php400), sizzling tuna steak (Php175), or tuna kilawin (Php200). Aside from tuna dishes, you might also want to try other mouth-watering dishes like bicol express (Php115), sinigang na corned beef (Php185), and steamed lapu-lapu (Php250). All these are best with either rice or your favorite ice-cold beer.

–Dino Mari Testa