COCONUTS HOT SPOT—Sunshine Kitchen, a casual dining restaurant that’s been serving delicious contemporary comfort food for a little over a year now, has grown up and has worked closely with a cocktail consultancy to create sophisticated drinks that match their new bar chow menu.
Easily a family-friendly joint serving fried chicken (so good), Cabanatuan longganisa paella (even better), and pizza (yasss!), the restaurant stays true to its name. It’s hard not to feel an endorphin rush upon stepping in, thanks to the yellow walls and brick stone panels that’ll remind you of gardens and verandas of countryside homes. There are also large windows at the end that take in daylight. Wooden tables are paired with bright yellow chairs. This cheerfulness is tempered only by a cool black bar that stocks imported beers, wine, and bottles of hard liquor.
The eight partners behind Sunshine Kitchen—all of them are hip, young, and well-to-do—now feel that it’s high time they shine the spotlight on their ninth quasi-partner: alcoholic drinks. They tapped Barmansmix, a company put up by California native Tim Walters, to create cocktails to pair with a new food menu.
It isn’t so much deviating from the wholesome reputation they’ve gained, but more like growing up. Sunshine has always had these happy hour promos anyway, and they have a nice selection of imported beers on offer. Why not push it further? With the push for these new cocktails, the restaurant’s cheery name gets a new angle.
For their, erm, reinvention if you will, Sunshine Kitchen’s head chef Tanya Chua came out with delicious items that can stand on their own as courses to a meal yes, but also, are nice sophisticated bar chows. If you’re f*cking tired of the same old calamari or cheese sticks to go with your happy hour liquor treat, come here instead.
The chicken and mushroom vol-au-vent (PHP340) is a familiar beauty reminiscent of chicken ala king. It’s creamy and warm, the bread being the right kind of flaky. Tim Walters designed a fruity drink to go with this, the Tea-to-tatler’s (PHP270), made with gin, tea and cranberry that lifts the creamy base of the vol-au-vent wondefully.
The Asian-style ceviche of Mackarel with fried pappadum (PHP320) is a light appetizer that you can pair with the brandy-based Delux (PHP450); smooth and rather strong, it’s easily our favorite.
The Outlaw (PHP280) is an interesting drink—with watermelon, tequila and chili pepper. For this, Sunshine Kitchen recommends the healthy salad of greens with grilled mushrooms, feta cheese, cherry tomatoes and honey balsamic glaze (PHP320).
Folks familiar with Sunshine’s awesome array of pizza will love the mixed seafood pizza to go with the Cup Full of Sunshine (PHP510). Note however, that the Cup Full is a to-share kind of a drink. It is good for two, with the two sure to get buzzed because hey hey hey, that’s quite big. It has Don Papa Rum (which is love, love, love), some tropical juices, and hous- infused ginger cassis.
Sunshine Kitchen, 2/F Fort Pointe Building 1, The Fort Strip, BGC, Taguig; +63 2 88212625. Sun-Wed 11am-2pm & 6-10:30pm, Thurs-Sat 11am-2pm & 6pm-2am.
