XO 46 Heritage Bistro has become one of the favorites of Filipino food lovers since they opened in 2010. The restaurant is known not only…
XO 46 Heritage Bistro has become one of the favorites of Filipino food lovers since they opened in 2010.
The restaurant is known not only for their delicious Filipino food, which captures the vibrant flavors of Filipino classics, but also for their theatrical service. Dressed in Filipiniana attire, waiters recite the menu and communicate with guests in straight and deep Tagalog, translating even words like softdrinks to “pampadighay” (something to make you burp) or chair to “salumpwit” (a portmanteau of “salo” or catch and “pwit” or “pwet,” which means buttocks). When the lockdown was declared in mid-March, the restaurant and many others in the industry were forced to close. They opened only in May for delivery services and then for dine-in customers, following government-required protocols, in June.
As with many other restaurants, it has been a challenging crawl back to operations. But there is a little window where sunlight shines through: quarantine has made restaurateurs innovate and the market has seen the rise of many new products. We have heard most about the “ube pandesal” and sushi bake… now XO 46 presents: the “panwich,” or their pandesal sandwiches.
Sandee Masigan, who founded XO 46 with her husband Andrew, shares that these creations are a product of quarantine: “One of the favorite meals of Andrew and my daughter is my fried chicken sandwich with homemade bread, mayo, onions and bacon.
