
Whats the best halo-halo in town?

Halo-halo is as Filipino as over-decorated jeepneys and colorful lanterns.
Halo-halo is a source of livelihood for many occasional entrepreneurs. One of our writers passes by five halo-halo stalls in her neighborhood garages converted into merienda stalls on her way to work.
Halo-halo is an obsession. When our friends found out we were on a halo-halo assignment two weeks ago, they gave us recommendations. Why dont you go to Cebu? To Cotabato? To Angeles City? To Baguio?
Halo-halo is memories. Friends have told us of past afternoons and journeys in search of the perfect halo-halo. The famous San Juan halo-halo ice cream of yore, which was served without ice (no kidding!) but with heaps of dirty ice cream. The Mt. Arayat halo-halo, which comes with minatamis na kamote, carabaos milk and topped with pastillas.
There are so many places that sell excellent and also inferior halo-halo. So, before the summer ends (and our editor fires us for taking too long and before our blood sugar hits the roof), the two authors have decided to end their search and let you do the rest. After all, the summer is long and hot.
So, enjoy the sweetest story weve ever had to write. And, as they say during elections, these are incomplete and partial results.
Price: P185++
Location: Lobby, The Peninsula Manila, Makati Ave., Makati City
Cabalen |
Price: Its part of the P242 buffet. Served a la carte, its P38.50 per glass.
Location: Cabalen branches at Glorietta, Ayala Center, Makati; SM Megamall, Mandaluyong; Robinsons Place, Ermita; West Avenue, Quezon City; Katipunan Avenue, Quezon City; SM City Manila; SM North Edsa; Sta. Lucia East Brick Road and soon, Harrison Plaza and Starmills, Pampanga
Coolman |
Its your regular fast-food halo-halo served faster than you can say, uh, halo-halo (unless the customer before you is a first-timer whos taking forever to order because he/she cant decide which ingredients to throw into his/her glass). We sifted through the menu board ourselves and found they serve lotsa halo-halo: regular halo-halo, Choose your own 7 ingredients, Special Halo-Halo with 12 ingredients, Super Special Halo-Halo with one ice cream scoop, and Super Special Halo-Halo with two ice cream scoops. (We remember getting into a cold argument with some friends when we were in grade school on the difference between regular halo-halo and special halo-halo. One theorized that regular halo-halo has no ice while special halo-halo has ice.)
Coolmans 12 ingredients include: sago, gulaman, kaong, nata de coco, ube, langka, saba, white beans, garbanzos, corn, corn flakes, pinipig. We settled for seven (its our lucky number). Unfortunately, we had a hard time picking out our seven ingredients because they were not visible from the glass counter. But we had to blindly point out our choices to the lady attendant real quick because the guy next to us was glaring at us, ready to eat us whole.
Prices: Halo-Halo P20 for junior, P35 for regular; Choose your own 7 ingredients, P35; Special Halo-Halo with 12 ingredients, P43; Super Special Halo-Halo with 1 ice cream scoop, P45; Super Special Halo-Halo with 2 ice cream scoops, P55; each additional ingredient, P5
Location: Festival Supermall, Alabang Town Center, Parañaque and Southmall, Las Piñas
Via Mare |
She reveals, "The secret of our halo-halo lies in the thickness of the syrup that we make. We make our own sugar for flavoring. We cook our kaong and syrup in pandan leaves. This takes hours."
Such a laborious process for something that can be served in a jiffy and demolished just as fast. We ordered a halo-halo to be shared and Archimedes Hipolito of Via Mare Landmark reappeared with our glass after four minutes. In five minutes, it was gone we were in a hurry to go shopping.
Prices: P58 for regular halo-halo; P70 for special halo-halo with ice cream (a choice of macapuno or ube)
Location: All Via Mare outlets
Kusina Ni Maria |
Kusina ni Marias original halo-halo was concocted by its owner, the late Bulak Bustalino, who brought fine Zamboangueño cooking to Manila. Its a colorful blend of beans, langka, red mongo, nata de coco, ube, garbanzos, topped by ice cream. "For us, only mantikado or Manila vanilla will do. We also use syrup instead of sugar because syrup blends well with the ingredients."
The halo-halo is served in a tall attractive glass especially made by a supplier in Echague for Kusina ni Maria. "It goes well with our bibingka," Toby teases our appetite. But then, we thought that an added poundage wont go well with the skimpy swimsuit we just bought. And we suddenly remembered what our colleague Kathy always tells us, "A minute on the lips, a lifetime on the hips."
Prices: P56 for regular halo-halo; P85 for special halo-halo
Location: Festival Supermall, Parañaque
Digman |
And the ingredients are: pinipig, leche flan, langka, saging, macapuno, beans, garbanzos, nata de coco, kaong, ube, gulaman. Hope we didnt miss anything. We almost missed the place. Digman is a little street (tucked somewhere in Bacoor, Cavite) thats become big because of its halo-halo. Once upon a time, the street was lined with eateries serving halo-halo. You can say its the street that halo-halo built.
The EC2 Original Digman Halo-Halo Street has been enjoying sweet success for the past 30 years. "It has sent all of us five children to school," says Erwin Cuevas, youngest son of Salud Cuevas who started making halo-halo way back during the Japanese Occupation. "May papaya pa noon sa halo-halo," she recalls. "Ang garbanzos stateside na."
A bitter note though: A neighbor filed a suit against the Cuevases for using the name Digman which the former had registered earlier. But the suit did not progress and business goes on.
So hows business?
"In summer, we usually sell up to 1,000 glasses of halo-halo in a day, from opening time at 10 a.m. to closing time at 11 p.m.," says Erwin as he shows us how his improvised steel ice crusher works. (Good thing hes got his shirt on and isnt sweating.)
He reveals, "We cook all our ingredients fresh every day, under the supervision of my mother. There are no leftovers. My niece Gloria Carascal is the one who supplies the ingredients to the mall outlets of Digman."
Prices: P32 for regular halo-halo; P42 for special halo-halo
Location: Digman St., Bacoor, Cavite
Razons Guagua Halo-Halo |
It was the Razon family who popularized it before World War II, but it was actually started by Sersia Juan in 1908, grandmother of current owners, octogenarian sisters Elena and Virginia Razon, who were preceded by their mother Martha Razon in the family business.
There are two reasons for Guagua halo-halos popularity: One is that it has the fewest ingredients at three (macapuno, leche flan and minatamis na saging na saba); and two, it has been around for as long as anybody can remember.
The secret of the halo-halo is simple: The ingredients are cooked to sweet perfection, that is to say you dont need to add sugar because the ingredients are balanced enough even when added with shaved ice (which they do manually) and milk. They make the leche flan the way they do in the provinces: with dayap rind.
Razon is so famous that when we went to Guagua without any idea how to find the halo-halo, all we had to do was ask the locals at a gas station, at a tricycle stop and at a street corner where to find Guagua halo-halo and they told us only one name: Razon. Indeed, people as far as San Fernando and Manila go to Guagua only to buy halo-halo and also its famous pancit luglug.
Elena Razon says theyre opening a branch in San Fernando. Why only now? Well, because people seem to like making the trip to Guagua. And why havent they changed the ingredients? Because you cant argue with success.
Price: P35
Location: LVM Subdivision, Sta. Filomena, Guaga, Pampanga
Mangans Guagua Halo-Halo |
What makes Mangans halo-halo better than most is the ice: its shaved so fine your spoon just slides effortlessly into the glass. The way to eat it is to savor every spoonful and not hurry it up and get brain freeze.
You can have the syrup on the side if you want it sugarless, otherwise its included in the glass.
Price: P70
Location: Mangan branches at Padre Faura Wing, Robinsons Place Malate; Robinsons Galleria; Glorietta, Makati
Chowking |
Chowkings halo-halo has the usual set of multi-colored ingredients of kaong and nata de coco and an extra helpings of garbanzos, black mongo and beans (not exactly our favorites). We like the fact that it has pinipig. We do have two complaints about Chowkings halo-halo though: The sweetened banana is hard and doesnt have that homemade taste. Our second complaint is the ice. All the office staffers have tried this halo-halo since a dear columnist likes to send it to us every week. But when they deliver it to the office, we find the shaved ice packed so tightly that we actually break plastic spoons in trying to dig at it and look like were archeologists excavating ingredients from a frozen lake.
Thankfully, halo-halo taken inside the fast food is an altogether different story. Its served in a large-mouthed bowl, making it very easy to mix the ingredients.
Prices: Without ice cream, P40; with one scoop, P51; with two scoops, P61
Location: Branches at mall food courts and commercial districts
Icebergs |
So pardon us if we had Super Expectations as well.
Icebergs has ingredients that you will not find in other halo-halo versions. One or two are a hit, most are a miss. Instead of pinipig, Icebergs serves its version with cereal (not a good idea). It has two kinds of gulaman red and green that taste the same (so whats the point?).
One ingredient you wont find anywhere else is the macapuno balls yes, like the candy you bring home from provincial trips. Also, it has fresh buco (not macapuno), and nata de coco that looks like buco except its green instead of the usual oblong shape. Two scoops of ice cream top the halo-halo: strawberry and mocha, which dont go well together. This version also has fresh corn kernels, which is a big mistake in our opinion since corn subdues the taste of other ingredients so its like eating mais con hielo with halo-halo ingredients instead of halo-halo with mais.
Price: P63
Location: Robinsons Place Malate and other major shopping malls
Milky Way |
All ingredients, like most stores we went to, are homemade. Milky Way makes the ingredients in its main branch on Pasay Road.
Price: P65
Location: Branches at Rockwell Power Plant Mall, Makati; Shopwise at Festival Super Mall, Alabang; #900 Pasay Road, Makati
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