Harbor View Restaurant

I was searching for a place to have dinner with my family to celebrate my special day and I was supposed to be leading them to the Makansutra Asian Food Village in Manila Ocean Park. However, i was hesitant to bring them there since I've never tried it for myself. There are bad reviews circulating the net since it was opened in 2009 so I felt I should have a plan B and here it is, The Harbor View Restaurant, just beside the Manila Ocean Park.

This place was celebrating their 25 years of existence and many of the famous celebrities already flocked the place every now and then. This place was also recommended by foreign tourist who visits Manila for an authentic Filipino cuisine and specializes on seafood.

This place is isolated from the busy streets of Manila since it is located by the bay area of the Quirino Grandstand. The area was really dark and doesn't have any other features except the Manila Ocean Park.

Live sea creatures will welcome you at the entrance of Harbor View since the place was a former warehouse pier. Huge aquariums are placed to ensure the freshness of the seafood that you may order.

They have almost all kinds of fish that you could eat and caught in the Philippines except a live squid. There are live lobsters and shrimps too!

The walls of the place was filled with souvenir pictures from celebrities who already paid a visit to the place since 1985. Be sure to be here earlier because the dining area with the view of the Manila Bay are always full but they have an open second floor, which is great for dinner dates.

We ordered the 'nilasing na hipon', which I think is great finger food for a drinking session. It was really crunchy and fresh but was already served cold.

I ordered a fresh orange juice but be sure to ask the waiter to put some ice if you want them cold because it was served really fresh from the fruit without the added ice.

I have never tried a baked oysters before so I gave it a try but I can't help my self to compare it with baked mussels, which I find the baked mussels better because of its garlicky taste. This one is great too because of the butter and cheese combination.

This is fish tausi with tofu and mushrooms, the fish was perfectly right and soft. We also ordered 'sinigang na tuna belly sa miso' for our soup but the pieces were limited to 5 pieces per order but the soup broth was really great with its sourness mixture.

From the open view of the second floor you could see the huge LED screen of the Manila Ocean Park, the playfully colored building of the Hyatt Hotel and even the bay walk fully lit. I think the Manila Ocean Park lacks something here because the place was really really dark, even the facade of the H2O Hotel and the mall was poorly lit, so how would the public know that they are still open from the outside. The Harbor View was even brighter and its only a restaurant and not a themed park.

If you are planning to go here from Roxas Boulevard, just turn left after the US Embassy then left again before the Quirino  Grandstand and another left again to enter the parking lot. If you see the blue lights, that's the entrance of Harbor View. c",)

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Harbor View Restaurant

South Gate A
Rizal Park
(beside Manila Ocean Park)
Telephone: 524-1532
Open: 11am to 12mn daily