A Savor of UNO
By: Kimberly Po
In China town, there’s a lot of food establishment that offers wide variety of Chinese Cuisine. There is a vast range of competition among restaurants in Binondo for there are a number of small and big establishments that sells identical Chinese dishes but they differ in taste. Our palates brought us to UNO Seafood Wharf Palace; a casual dining restaurant located at 270 Escolta St. Calvo Bldg. Binondo, Manila. The operation hours is from Monday to Sunday; 11:00am-2:30pm and 5:30pm-11:00pm. From the entrance door, you can already determine that you are entering a Chinese restaurant because of the traditional Chinese seal carved on the door. They are also offering 9:00pm Dimsum promo every day: until supplies last as one of their promotional strategy to clear out all the remaining Dimsum while maintaining their food cost.
The ambiance portrays authentic Chinese traditions such as there’s a statue of God with lighted incense located near the wall; the use of bright colors in table set-up like yellow chairs, red and yellow table cloth symbolizes the happy or lucky colors for the Chinese; they serve us the teapot with jasmine tea along with teacups, Chinese porcelain soup spoon, and chopsticks. But they do also have spoons and forks for the non-chopsticks users in order to adjust to the Filipino culture. Some of the Chinese diners are too loud which disturbs other diners, but we need to understand that it is part of their culture. The volume of their voices doesn’t mean that they are mad, but for them it is just their normal tone of conversing. I noticed that they have aquarium with live seafood, because they believe that the seafood is tastier when it is freshly cooked; this is the reason why they sell the seafood expensively due to the maintenance of having the aquarium. They also offer Hong Kong Style Dimsum which shows that they have broadly influenced by Hong Kong cuisine.
"UNO Seafood Wharf Palace is a place that we will surely come back and crave for its mouthwatering Chinese dishes."