HOW would you like Wild Mushroom Truffle Pasta, Bone Marrow Foie Gras Burger, Bagnet with Thai Sauce, Tenderloin with Spiced Taro, Stuffed Squid with Black Ink Rice, or Paella Negra for your lunch or dinner?
Sounds delicious? They are. These ‘gourmet’ dishes, concocted by talented chef Marco Legasto for Twenty Two Jupiter Bistro Bar, are inspired by international favorites enjoyed by Filipinos but given a different twist to marry the familiar and the unique. The Bagnet with Thai Sauce (Php400), for example, offers the all-time favorite Ilocano crispy pork dish but, at Twenty Two Jupiter, it is served with Thai sauce, which is not usually done. Steaks are usually accompanied by mashed potato and buttered vegetables, but for its Tenderloin with Spiced Taro (Php670), Twenty Two Jupiter pairs it with spiced taro or gabi leaves, which is better known as laing, and potato chips. And Bone Marrow Foie Gras Burger (Php500)? You’ve probably never heard bulalo and duck liver being combined to make a sinfully gourmet burger!
Such interesting dishes form part of the lunch and dinner menu of Twenty Two Jupiter, a new restaurant located at — yes, you guessed it right! — 22 Jupiter St., Bel-Air, Makati City, which is the stretch of Jupiter St. that is near EDSA. Opening its doors to the dining public last August, 2014, the 60-seater restaurant is owned by a group of 12 businessmen who are constantly looking for a place to go to after work, a place where people can talk, enjoy good food with good drinks mixed with a little entertainment.
A bistro bar, Twenty Two Jupiter is a restaurant by day and a bar and watering hole with live entertainment by night. It serves lunch and dinner, boasting of a surprisingly extensive menu teeming with very interesting items. It has a lunch menu, some set menus to choose from at an affordable Php240 per set menu (*you just need to add Php200 if you want soup and dessert of Rum Cake with Butter Dulce Gatas Sauce or Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Icing to go with it), appetizers, main courses, desserts, and, of course, a full range of beer, cocktails, single malt, whisky, rum, gin, vodka, tequila, other liquors, and red and white wines by shots or bottles.
The menu offers Filipino favorites, such as Goat Kaldereta (Php480); Spanish dishes, like Lengua Estofado (Php450), Slow-cooked Ox Tripe and Tail (Php380) and Paella Negra (Php650); Asian staples, including Hainan Chicken (Php280), Korean Beef Stew (Php390), Seafood Malaysian Laksa (Php290), Chicken Tikka Marsala (Php 380) and Lamb Rendang (Php485); Italian selections, like Wild Mushroom Truffle Pasta (Php420) and Italian Beef Stew (Php380); and a host of steaks, such as Rib Eye Steak (Php2,000 for 300 grams and Php2,500 for 500 grams), Tomahawk Steak 1 kg. (Php3,800) and T-bone Steak 1000g (Php4,000).
Even its appetizer menu includes yummy treats — Four-cheese Croquetas (Php300), Chorizo and Saffron Shrimp Gambas (Php350), Nachos with Chorizo Cheese (Php290), Truffle Popcorn (Php250), Seared Tuna (Php350), Jalapeño Pops (Php290), Scallops with Foie Gras and Mushroom (Php550), Crab Cakes (Php350), Baked Oysters (Php380) and French Mussels in Mediterranean Spices (Php290), among others.
By around 9:30 p.m., Twenty Two Jupiter transforms into a bar with live entertainment, with dim lights, a relaxed and cozy atmosphere, good company, and good food. “Guests are actually surprised because there are very few bars that actually have good food. They’re normally just used to bar chow,” says Twenty Two Jupiter president Vince Tanjutco.
And while there are only a few parking slots in front of the bistro bar, street parking is allowed in the evening and arrangements have been made for parking slots at Buendia Car Exchange, which is just across the street.
A resto by day and a bar by night, Twenty Two Jupiter rocks.
(Twenty Two Bistro Bar is located at 22 Jupiter St., Bel-Air, Makati City; with telephone number 556-7097. It is open from Monday to Saturday, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and from 5:00 p.m. onwards.)
