Chow Fun : Modern Chinese Bistro in J. Abad Santos, San Juan

I'm saying Chow Fun's because we're an "us". There's a history and histories don't happen overnight. In Mesopotamia or Ancient Troy or somewhere back there, there were cities built on top of other cities, but I don't want to build another city. I like this city....I mean I guess what I'm trying to say is - I'm saying Chow Fun's because I love you.

- Katie (Michelle Pfeiffer), The Story of Us

I'm so happy that another new restaurant has recently opened in our neighborhood! Really, I'm never leaving this part of town as it's really becoming a foodie mecca! Love love love ♥


Everyday on my way to and from work, I saw how this restaurant has turned from a vacant space into a pretty modern establishment. I love the bright colored assorted chairs, the cute hanging lamps and the fact that it gives a very modern Chinese vibe. No red table clothes, no Chinese music playing in the background, the menu is simple yet every items sounds mouthwatering making it so hard to us to choose which one to get.

Chow Fun opened last Friday and Paul and I dropped by to checked it out last Sunday on our way home from Tagaytay. Since we just had lunch, we ordered a plate of Haw Flakes Pastry (Php. 85) to share. While chatting with the owner, who happens to be my former boss D, he recommended that I try their Designer Tea in a Pot (Php. 120) too! The flavor changes from time to time and on that day that we were there, they had the Apple Crumble flavor.


Paul doesn't drink tea but I was very surprised that he enjoyed it. In fact he had 2 cups of tea! That's a big achievement considering that he wouldn't even take a sip of tea before. I love the light fruity flavor that doesn't have any bitter hint of tea. It went so well with our Haw Flakes Pastry.


Our dessert was delicious. Warm pastry filled with Haw Flakes pieces (yes, exactly the same kind that we would used to snack on as kids) and a generous serving of haw flakes paste. We loved the sweet haw flakes that somehow tasted closely similar to strawberry jam. It was so good and D was right, you should have this together with their Designer Tea. I highly recommend this dessert.

I enjoyed my first Chow Fun visit that I suggested this to my friends Didi and Sab. It has been a while since we got together and we want a place with delicious food and a relaxing ambiance that will allow us to catch up with one another. Chow Fun seemed to be a perfect choice! I'm glad my friends were excited to give it a try too.


My pregnant friend Didi was feeling very hungry so we started with some appetizers. First was the Chinese Fun-due (Php. 155) where we had bite-sized pieces of seafood balls, fried squid and deep-fried radish cake bits on a wooden board. A presentation totally not common in Chinese restaurants. Together with this came a small black pot filled with our choice of dip -- Chinese Curry. D told me that the dip is a mix of cheese and curry. Interesting! Who would have thought that these two would taste good together? The curry was mild and the cheese was very subtle that I could hardly taste it. We enjoyed dipping the bite-sized meat into the sauce. My favorite was the deep-fried squid (calamares) that I would even munch on minus the dipping sauce. Yum!


We loved it so much that we got another Chinese Fun-due this time with the Spiked Sweet Chili. Between the two, I still prefer the Chinese Curry.

What I love about my girl friends is that, just like me, they love trying new dishes and our mantra is definitely - the more the merrier. Even if there were only three of us, we got another appetizer and a lot more! Definitely no judging here. That's genuine friendship for ya! ;)


The Lechon Macau Pork Buns (Php. 145) is a modernized cuapao filled with tender lechon macau with crispy skin. One order comes with two slices. I was able to try a small piece and enjoyed the meat topped with house pickles and hoisin sauce. It also has two types of sauces to contribute in perking up the taste of the pork buns.


For our main dish, we had the Chowfun Chicken Fry (Php. 290/520). Very similar to a basket of Fried Chicken only it's made more oriental. The chicken pieces were coated in a blend of spices and peppercorn. D excited came over to our table and challenged us to determine what the secret ingredient was. I'm not telling as I'd like for you to try and guess too!

The chicken was juicy and the while other fried chicken places would keep the flavor up until the skin, Chow Fun has successfully made the unique sweet salty flavor go all the way inside. Hooray for people like me who doesn't eat chicken skin.


To go with our meal, we had the Fried Duck Rice (Php. 240) which was Chow Fun's signature fried rice. I liked that it wasn't very oily and I'll just make a mental note to request that they skip out on the corn when I order next time. It took me a while to remove every single corn kernel before taking a spoonful.

We made sure to leave space for dessert as Didi was excited to try the Haw Flakes Pastry too. As expected, my two friends enjoyed the dessert as well.

What a fun dinner! I had fun catching up with my dear friends and enjoying the delicious food too. I'm so happy to have Chow Fun just a stone's throw away from home. I can't wait to bring my family here for them to try!

Chow Fun is located along J. Abad Santos in San Juan City. It's right across Scuba World and beside Ristras, Kanzhu Hand Pulled Noodles and near Serenitea.