This Fab New Asian Brunch Concept Breaks A Lot Of Rules

The more you look at it, the more it seems like contemporary dining in 2024 skews toward a total experience. A new generation of diners want it all—a sensorial playfulness that engages and tells a story. I think it’s a good thing. It certainly adds a new dimension, steps away from the same old same old. While it is still integral, it isn’t necessarily just about the food anymore. And that is where this story begins. 

You have to be a special (and good) kind of crazy to pull off something like Now Now, an experimental fast casual brunch concept. Off the usual eating path, it is located on the ground floor of the commissary of Kurimu Ice Cream. The charming couple behind it, Bryan and Maxine Kong, are clearly looking beyond their ice cream brand. 

Get up close to them, and you can immediately get their Nippon-vibe—it’s not just their Japanese-inspired confection creations, but their overall aesthetic, as the kids like to say these days. This concept, done in collaboration with Japanese outdoor brand Snow Peak, feels like some shop or cafe you’ll most likely stumble on in the creative corners of the world: unexpected, stark, but focused on what they want and what they wish to convey. 

An earth installation by Paraluman Flora in one side, Snow Peak merch in the other, a Chino Yulo art piece floating above you, and with a soundtrack of sophisticated tunes played by Up Dharma Down’s Ean Mayor (whom Bryan met in the band scene, as Bryan is a drummer himself with the Taken By Cars), this isn’t your usual tita brunch place. And in that sense it is actually refreshingly different.

With food and beverage managed by the couple’s friends—Polish chef Mateusz Laczaj on the savory offerings and wines, with his lovely Filipina wife Lisane Łuczaj on the pastry side, and both with quite impressive culinary cred—one may surmise that this might fly over the heads of the casual diner, and that is where one will go wrong: it is surprisingly quite accessible. 

Sure, Chef Mateusz has cooked in Michelin-starred restaurants, and there are hints of it in his preparations (he loves to go the extra mile, fermenting this, smoking that) but upon tasting his dishes, they really are well-executed preparations of dishes you’ve had before, like an excellent Polish flat bread with house-made labneh and gremolata. This was the pizza you’ve been waiting all your life! Their take on machang, nestled inside some nori like a remixed onigiri, was kicked up by papaya chutney. Okonomiyaki played well as tortang talong (who would’ve thunk?) Fried chicken was boosted by their own koji, as well as toyomansi. Even donuts—rather excellent ones, I might add, so good they’re good enough to sell—was enhanced by dulce de leche and matcha. On the surface, they’re so familiar, but look under the hood, and you’ll find they take quite an effort to produce. This is slow food, using local ingredients and techniques to produce something awesome: the philosophy of this kitchen, the bedrock of their offerings.

In this creative soup lies a compass: words from a famous Japanese poet named Matsuo Basho, who wrote haikus. Known for words that encompassed his life experience, simple descriptions of ordinary scenes, it is Basho’s journey of mindfulness that accompany you as you sample Now Now’s cuisine. The people behind the scenes want you to be in the now, enjoying the total moment, eating their food, and thinking of nothing but just being—preferably with people whose company you really enjoy. 

If it seems like a lot to take in, maybe it is… for like a brief moment. Soon enough, you’ll learn to detach from distractions, and get into the groove of things. Now Now, in its sophisticated simplicity, stands out in Manila’s culinary landscape, circa 2024, because it isn’t trying to be a clone of something, but a reflection of the owners tastes. If you’re in the mood for something left field, this is the place. 

Now Now | 497-C Rosa Building, Calbayog corner Esteban St., Mandaluyong, Philippines 1550 | IG: @nownow.ph 

Photos courtesy of Now Now