Satisfy your Korean cuisine craving at Kiwa

Photos by Star Sabroso
Other photos courtesy of Kiwa Korean Grill Dining 

“Annyeoung haseyo,” greets the friendly staff of Kiwa Korean Grill Dining – the latest addition to Solaire Resort’s food and dining establishments – as you enter the 184-seater fine dining restaurant. It is a grill dining restaurant so people expect the smell of barbecue wafting in the air, but customers happily note the absence of heavy grilling smell as they enter the hallway to the dining area. 

“Kiwa is a new brand; kiwa means roof tile. When you go to Korea you’ll see a lot of houses with roof tiles, and for us we wanted the restaurant to be a shelter for getting the family together, and eating together in a setting where everyone enjoys the food. We wanted to provide a place where people can eat good and authentic Korean food,” says chief executive officer Ed Reyes. The restaurant’s grand opening is scheduled on January 28 but it has been operational since Christmas Eve and so far, the reception has been great. Operating from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight from Sunday to Thursday and from 9:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. on Friday and Saturday, Kiwa serves breakfast to dinner with big servings good for partners, families and friends. 

The restaurant’s interior utilizes a lot of wood in contemporary patterns and complemented with stones that give a feeling of tranquility to diners especially if they are  seated at the coveted row of booths facing a view of Manila Bay. “We got a top Korean firm to design the place, to be able to create an authentic experience. Everything that you see inside are all from Korea – the wood, the tables, everything used in the design,” shares Reyes. “At the same time, all the chefs are from Seoul; our managers are also Korean as well as some of the staff,” he adds. 

While there are already a lot of Korean restaurants in the Metro, Kiwa aims to be the go to place when it comes to Korean fine dining barbecue set-up in the country. “We aim to provide the best of everything. We can start with the ingredients; everything is fresh. We are using grade A+ beef, the best that is available,” says Reyes. Though Korean beef cannot be imported in the country, the restaurant serves Japanese meat (Wagyu) and USDA. 

Reyes says Kiwa’s service standard is higher than other restaurants. “We follow strict 5-star hotel sanitation rules and regulations. Everything has to be sealed, covered, labeled and stored in the right temperature. The golden standard of restaurant hygiene operations in the country is Solaire and we follow that standard,” he adds. 

Kiwa’s menu is a collaboration of its Korean chefs headed by chef Gi Won Park. The menu boasts of grade A beef but there are also a lot of other delectable dishes that cater to seafood and even vegetarian eaters. Kiwa serves Chaedol-dwenjang Jjigae which is a soy bean-based soup (you may ask to put sliced beef brisket or have it taken out for a vegetarian meal) with tofu and vegetables. You may also request for a vegetarian Bibimbap made with pan-fried vegetables and fried egg topped on rice with chili paste. For salads, you may order Cheese Tofu Salad – it doesn’t have tofu but the cheese resembles a tofu-shape and it is topped on the vegetables in season – or opt for a Pumpkin Salad. You may also request to make the popular Korean favorite noodles Japchae into a vegetarian delight by taking out the beef. Technically, if you have any meal specifications, and as long as the restaurant can provide, you may approach the friendly Korean and Filipino staff. 

For the meat lovers, and the restaurant’s specialty check out their menu for The Yangnyeomgalbi (beef ribs seasoned with special sweet soy sauce) and Sogalbiijim (beef short ribs cooked in a soy sauce seasoning with ginseng and assorted vegetables) and Galbitang Bansang (Korean traditional beef short ribs soup with beef, radish, onions and assorted vegetables). 

“The experience and the food is very authentic but to cater to the Filipino market we had to adjust how we serve our food in sequence,” explains Reyes. “In Korea, the rice, soup and noodles are served after the grilled meat. Because we believe that if you eat rice, you cannot truly taste the meat. But Filipinos demand their rice with the main course so we have to accommodate that.”  

A full course menu is around P3,000 and lunch sets start at P1,500 and rice sets go from P800 up. The portions are big and as with Korean cuisine, the restaurant serves the sets with appetizer, sashimi and appetizer assortment, the grilled main course, pancake, stir-fried glass noodles, vegetables, rice, soybean paste stew or taster cold noodles plus dessert. The breakfast menu is expected to be a favorite among customers. As early as 9:00 a.m. they will be serving six varieties of breakfast sets, each to include a soup, rice and three to four side dishes. They also serve a birthday breakfast tray with seaweed soup, so if it’s your birthday, just present a valid ID and instead of the usual birthday cakes, celebrants are treated to a complimentary seaweed soup.  

Kiwa Korean Grill is open from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight from Sunday to Thursday, and 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight on Fridays and Saturdays. Weekend hours will be extended to 2:00 a.m. after the grand opening on January 28. The restaurant is located at Solaire Resort & Casino, 1 Aseana Avenue, Parañaque City.  For inquiries and reservations, call (+632) 888 8888 or log on to www.kiwa.com.ph. or you may visit them on Kiwa Korean Grill’s Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts.