Looking for a special place to bring mom to this weekend? Why not take her where she can have a “taste of home”?
Located inside the Quezon Memorial Circle, Serye is like a pocket of nostalgia in the middle of modern traffic, where diners can get off the grid for an hour or two and enjoy a quiet meal. A meal that reminds them of home.
“What we serve is good old Filipino dishes, prepared the way our mothers and grandmothers would have done them,” owner and proprietor Alvin Reyes Lim says.
“Many of our recipes have been passed down from our families, with a few adjustments to make them more current.”
And by family, he means the Reyes family of Aristocrat fame. His great grandmother, Engracia Cruz Reyes, founded the restaurant chain, while his grandmother, Teresita Reyes, created the Mama Sita line of food enhancers and condiments. When it comes to food, he knows whereof he speaks.
“I grew up knowing how these dishes are supposed to taste, how they are supposed to be prepared. I started out working for my parents in our restaurant,” this self-proclaimed fourth-generation foodie explained. His mother, named after the famous Aling Asiang, was the general manager of the Aristocrat franchise at the time.
A four-month stint at the Ecole des Arts Culinaire et des l’Hotellerie in Lyon, France, exposed him to the joys of simple but well-prepared meals.
“I really enjoyed dining in French cafés and bistros, and saw the parallels between what they served, which were straightforward popular French dishes, and what we had back home, which were straightforward Filipino dishes. The difference was the emphasis on the ambience. French bistros and cafés had a look that invited people to eat, entertain, or simply hang out in. I wanted to offer that same experience back home, but serving Filipino food.”
Hence, Serye. The name holds double significance for Lim. “It’s an anagram of the name Reyes. At the same time, it means succession, a continuation of what we learned from our families.
Serye is a representation of generations of cooking tradition infused with my personal culinary leanings and experiences.”
The restaurant opened inside the Quezon Memorial Circle in 2003, eventually expanding to a branch in Sucat, Parañaque. Lim oversees both outlets with significant input from his wife, Gretchen.
“My wife comes from a family that cooks very well. They’re very particular about what they eat. Therefore both of us have high standards when it comes to food. The dishes are created according to our taste buds, based on how our families have been preparing food. We have a kitchen team, but both of us always lead recipe development.”
What can diners expect when they come to Serye? They can expect to have really good, classic Filipino dishes prepared the old-fashioned way. This means no shortcuts were made, so you can savor the richness of each dish. The kare-kare, in particular, is to die for.
“We make our kare-kare from scratch. We even make our own peanut sauce. Others would buy ready-made peanut sauce [or use peanut butter], but in our case, we roast and grind the peanuts ourselves, so the sauce tastes richer, you can feel the grittiness of the peanuts.” In fact, their kare-kare was selected as the best in Metro Manila during a recent segment of Food Wars Asia, a popular show on the Food Network.
Needless to say, it has become the restaurant’s best seller. But that’s not the only best seller on the menu. Check out the Boneless Crispy Pata, Sinigang na Baboy and Laing con Camaron (a personal favorite). For dessert, their Bibingka Classic never fails to please (it’s made from real galapong or rice dough, not the premixed kind.) While the restaurant serves up Filipino classics, the menu stays current, thanks to constant “tweaking” by Alvin and Gretchen. This includes adding, or subtracting, dishes to continually whet the customer’s appetite.
“Recently, we added dishes like Kinilaw na Tanigue, Chipirones en su Tinta and Torang Alimasag to reflect the bounty of our seas. We will also feature other seafood and fish dishes whenever they are in season.” Some dishes are just too tedious and complicated to prepare at home, Lim says.
“If you have a craving for classic Filipino cuisine, give your mom or lola a break and just come to Serye.”
Good advice for this Mother’s Day, don’t you think?