This 24h restaurant is located in the heart of Manila's Red Light District area. The goal seems to be emulating a Middle East ambience. But when you put all the "arabian nights" clichés together - with pink walls, pink tables and coloured cushions - the chances of being kitsch are high. That's what happens with Ziggurat, in my opinion. I particularly didn't feel in Middle East.
The extensive menu made me forget about the kitsch ambience and focus on the food. What makes Ziggurat interesting is that it offers dishes from every corner of Middle East - that includes countries less obvious them Morrocco, Siria, Algeria, Egipt and Libanum. Maybe you can try some recipe from Ethiopia or Pakistan.
I liked the menu presentation. It's designed as a newspaper (Ziggurat Gazette) and there are some texts about Middle East cultures. I'm the kind of person who always read what's on the menu. If you like that, the gazette is nice to entertain you while you wait for your meal.
Don't get that impressed with the amount of dishes possibilities, though. At first I said: "wow! It's 24h and it offers thousands of dishes from all these countries!". My husband told me he didn't believe it was possible to offer all that is there on the menu...well, I accused him of being negative, but when I told the waitress my first order, she said: "sorry, ma'am, it's not available". Then the same for my second choice. Hubby was right.
We decided to order one of their best-sellers, so I would make sure it was available. As a starter, we had a Mezzo Mezze (hummus, muthabbah, jazar and mahroussa) with flat bread (kohbiz) and the Pakhistanese Bread called "roti". This one was definitely the best! I loved it. Then we shared a potato curry, which was tasty, but not extraordinary.
For the main course I had a chicken shawarma and my husband had a kafta. He didn't like his, but my shawarma was tasty.
To drink, I recommend their mango lassi. If you are curious enough, you can try one of their artisanal beers. Hubby had one from Ethiopia, with honey, which actually tasted like Coke for me. read more