Pan de Amerikana - Back To The 1950s

By: Nathalie Santos – Dayo

If you’re on a tight budget and looking for a place to go to, try going to Marikina and look for the best and cheapest food in town.

Pan de Amerikana

The best place to go to is Pan de Amerikana, a place that serves bread made from the same fresh ingredients that they used since the 1950s.

Their main restaurant and office is located at No. 92 Ordoñez Street, Concepcion Dos, Marikina City.

Keeping true to the promise that I made to discover the sights and sounds of Metro Manila before discovering more of the rest of my country, my husband and I decided to pay this popular place a visit on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

The façade talks about antiquity and novelty. There is a chimney which is functional, since the bread is baked inside a “pugon” or brick oven and there’s a windmill that turns too.

Entering the restaurant, I was enthralled by the beauty of it.

From the ceiling, we saw something that looked like small tree roots dangling, giving the patrons the feeling that they are dining inside one big tree house.

Around the restaurant are artworks made by some guests..

The Koi pond stretches across almost the whole length of the restaurant.

A small bridge was placed across the pond so that customers can go from one side of the restaurant to the other.

The pond was bathed in soft lights, adding to the welcoming, friendly and fresh atmosphere of the place.

Crossing to the other side of the bridge is the main dining area.

On one of the walls, the customers can look at the beautiful artwork by some photographers and painters while waiting for their food to be served or you can opt to borrow chess pieces from the counter and play a game on the table with embedded chess boards.

To order your food, you have to walk to the front cashier and place your orders there.

While waiting for our food to be served, I went around the restaurant and looked at the décor.

I was surprised that they have an actual “calesa” a horse drawn carriage used as means of transportation during the earlier days here in the Philippines.

Aside from this, I also got a chance to glimpse at the giant chessboard at the back of the restaurant.

Unfortunately there was a party going on so I wasn’t able to take photos of that particularly interesting area.

The chess pieces were imported from New York. It’s made from plastic and stands at three and a half feet high.

After ten short minutes, our food was placed on our table.

They serve two types of platters every Saturdays and Sundays. We ordered the Sinugba platter, filled with freshly grilled food. It had two pieces of grilled fish, two sticks of barbeque, a slice of pork liempo (belly), sliced tomatoes, steamed okra, two pieces of grilled eggplants and achara (pickled papaya).

Sinugba Platter

The only thing I can say about the food, superb! We also ordered a pitcher of red iced tea and two cups of rice. The best part of the meal, it was cheap. We only paid Php300 for everything.

And before going home, we bought the giant pan de sal and only paid Php55 for it.

Interested?

To get there, take a jeep or FX from Cubao with a signboard in front that says SSS Village, go down at Meralco, take a tricycle and tell the driver to take you to Pan de Amerikana. Tricycle fare should not be more than Php20.