And now, the affordably luxe food hall

Who hasn’t patronized food courts for their convenience — the fact that you can choose from many different brands depending on your food mood, the advantage of getting your order fast, and the affordable prices?

The downside, of course, is thanks to those low, low prices, the quality of the food is spotty at best (you usually get a tiny bit of ulam on top of a belly-filling mound of rice); having to play non-musical chairs to find a place to sit in a space where ambience is usually an afterthought; and the pungent cooking aromas ending up on you and your clothes.

If you want the convenience and variety of a food court without the unglamorous downside, Foodee Global Concepts has stepped into the void and filled it with The Food Hall on the Skypark level of SM Aura Premier. What was once the Todd English Food Hall has been transformed into an even chicer space featuring three of Foodee’s top brands plus one new one, a full bar with a collection of whiskeys, live stations for carving meat and seafood, dessert, coffee, and an ambience you wouldn’t be ashamed to take your business colleagues, family and friends to for a quick but quality, affordable meal.

“We just wanted to rebrand,” explains Eric Dee, COO of Foodee Global Concepts. “We were the first food hall of its kind, but the problem with that is the consistency, where Operator One is better than Operator Two, so if people eat at Operator Two, they might feel that the entire food hall is affected. So, because we have these individual brands that have already expanded around Metro Manila, we wanted to give it a fresher take and have a new identity.”

The new Food Hall brands are spinoffs from successful eateries Pound, Hook (both Todd English concepts), and Flatterie. In addition to classics from their menus, they will serve dishes exclusive to The Food Hall like Pound’s Food Hall burger.

Dee has also created a Food Hall-exclusive brand, The Grill Room — a full-size steakhouse with its own private room upstairs that seats up to 60 and has its own bar and bathroom.

“The Grill Room’s a little bit darker, a bit more manly if you want to have steaks,” Dee says. “Chef Carlo Miguel is our corporate executive chef, so whether you eat in Pound, Flatterie or The Grill Room, quality-wise we can have the consistency that we want.”

Dee wants customers to have the freedom to go around, see how their food is prepared, order from different stations, have the food brought to their table and pay with a single bill. And that bill is going to be value for money.

“Foodie Global Concepts is all about affordable luxury,” he says. “On weekends we have pizza and pasta all-you-can for P399. Our Valentine’s menu was P1,495 for two, which came with steak and prawn, soufflé salad, tuna tartare on crispy rice, a truffle pasta and a trio of desserts!

“Everything’s going to be very affordable,” he promises. “I’m allergic to expensive.”

Here, our quick guide to The Food Hall.

Pound for pound: Pound features individually branded burgers and chicken sliders, including a Food Hall-exclusive burger.

Pound #

Serves up: Chef Todd English’s master burger, made of house-ground beef cooked medium-rare to preserve juiciness, and served with your choice of toppings in between a house-made brioche bun individually branded with the pound sign on top.

Must-orders: The Food Hall-exclusive burger; the “Pound for Pound,” a burger slider and chicken slider. “I like it because you get to taste both,” Dee says.

Their world is flat: Flatterie specializes in flatbreads, pastas, and brick-oven pizzas.

Flatterie

Serves up: Flatbreads, pizza and pasta

Must-orders: Flatbreads like the Carbonara flatbread, which comes with an egg on top that they smash and spread all over the pizza before you eat it; pastas like the truffle pasta

Hook’s sushi and raw bar features sushi rolls, salmon sashimi and fresh oysters from Davao.

Hook

Serves up: Raw and hot seafood dishes

Must-order: The fresh oysters with cilantro granita. “The oysters are local from Davao, flown in every day by a German guy that flies a Cessna and literally delivers in Styrofoam boxes,” laughs Dee. “They’re clean, plump, and very, very good.”

Steakhouse: The ambience of The Grill Room is dark and manly, with a private function room upstairs.

The Grill Room

Serves up: Steaks

Must-order: The Petite Steak — P690 For 200 grams of tenderloin that comes with your choice of flavored butter and a side dish. “We sous-vide also so it gives you that tenderness,” notes Dee. “We really try to construct it as affordably as we can.”

Swirl all you can: The Food Hall makes its own cereal-milk and chocolate-malt ice creams and you can put as many toppings as you want.

The live dessert station

Serves up: Swirl-all-you-can ice cream with toppings all-you-want

Must-orders: House-made cereal milk ice cream and chocolate malt ice cream topped with your choice of chocolate or white chocolate sauce, berries, sprinkles, and graham crackers.

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The Food Hall is located on the 5th, Skypark level of SM Aura Premier in Taguig.

Follow me on Instagram @theresejamoragarceau.