At this Filipino soup bar, ramen is so yesterday and Filipino soup is forever.

Sabao Soup Bar, another restaurant opened by Mothership F&B group (Erwan Heusaff’s team) believes that the best way to present Filipino food to the world is through our mouthwatering traditional soups.

The restaurant name speaks straightforward what the specialties are. It’s rare to hear Filipino restaurants concentrate on one category of food but Sabao is brave enough to shout out and be proud of their soup creations.

Sabao breaks the code of our favorite traditional soups by using techniques that will make us fall on our knees. Think about combining creativity and novelty. All soup broth in the kitchen are made from scratch, simmered for 16 hours. The concentration is in the broth. So, whichever toppings you add to your soup, it’s assured that the soup is already complete with desired flavors.

First, start by choosing from Sabao’s list of Filipino favorite soups. You’ve got bulalo, tinola, sinigang, molo and binakol on the list. Second, choose your type of carbs – rice or noodles. Three noodles are on the list – sotanghon, canton or misua (Php 55). If rice is your pick, you’ve got red, brown or garlic rice. To complete your soup or sabao, add toppings. The menu has a list of toppings that ranges from Php5 to Php90.

Filipinos love to add condiments to their soup. Even if Sabao’s soup is already flavorful on its own, I know some of you couldn’t get out the system of adding patis, toyo or suka (fish sauce, soy sauce or vinegar) to your soup.

By just looking at the toasted bone marrow, I’m already impressed. In fact, speechless. Bulalo, pronounced as boo-la-loh, is a soup party of soy-ginger braised shank, toasted bone marrow of course, red and green cabbage, corn, potatoes, bokchoy, toge, black peppercorns and celery leaves. With its rich beef broth, simmered in 16 hours, you could change your infatuation for ramen to our local soup.

As you can see, one bowl of bulalo contains more than enough toppings. Now it’s up to you if you still want to full blast on more toppings.

Sabao’s Sinigang with Sampaloc Glazed Pork Belly charmed me in so many ways. Starting from its captivating sour soup, that I didn’t want to let go of. Sipping and slurping became my game when I drew near this Sinigang to my lips. A combination of sampaloc sambal, roasted tomatoes, red radish, gabi, pickled sibuyas tagalog, kangkong, eggplant and siling haba in divine tamarind broth. Taste it with the luscious sampaloc glazed pork belly, you would want your sinigang to taste this good everyday, aside from your mom’s original recipe of course. Sabao aced their Siningang!

Giving you more options, other than getting Filipino soup, Sabao awakened our Asian side in their Beef Noodles. Braised beef shortrib on top of sweet soya, pickled vegetables and toge, then garnished with sesame seeds, sili labuyo and cilantro. This goes well with either white garlic rice or sotanghon.

 Sabao means steamed bao in another category. Chicken Adobao has to be your choice for your break time snack. Mainly stuffed with grilled chicken breast, scallions, chicken skin, adobo glaze, spring onions and pickled sibuyas tagalog. Put it simply to a more spiced chicken adobo in an Asian bun. If you’ve been to other Mothership F&B restaurants like Pink Panda, you’ll find similarity to their Asian dishes including this steamed bao.

Even if I didn’t want my Sabao experience, particularly the Sinigang, to come to an end, it will happen. To cap off my soupy and slurpy afternoon, this Turon with vanilla ice cream scoops woke me up with its cold and hot mixture. Inside the turon, you’ll find slices of saging na saba, langka, cinnamon and cardamom.

Surrounded by 2-floored glass panels, Sabao shares an inviting space, transparent to all passersby. I love the uneven framed walls of native materials. It looks artistically clean that defines Filipino in one look.

Tagged my sister Reine along with me. I’ve been hanging out a lot with this lady lately since school will start on August for her.

Have you visited Sabao Soup Bar in Salcedo Village Makati?

Share with me your thoughts! 🙂

Cheers,

Location: G/F Signa Designer Residences, Valero corner Rufino St., Salcedo Village, Makati City, Metro Manila, Philippines

Operating Hours: 10:00AM-9:00PM (Mon-Sat) / 11:00AM-9:00PM (Sunday)

Contact: (+63 917) 581-8969

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SabaoSoupBar

Budget: PHP300++

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