Food - Drink
The San Francisco Filipino Restaurant With A 'Secret' Menu
By KATIE HORST
Although San Francisco-based chef Francis Ang grew up stateside, his culinary style is inspired by the flavors of his native home of the Philippines. Named People's Best New Pastry Chef by Food & Wine, chef Ang and his wife Dian inspire San Francisco's restaurant scene with the allure of bright, colorful, and irresistible Filipino dishes intertwined with the best of California's fresh ingredients in their new restaurant, Abacá.
Chef Ang introduced his twist on Filipino dishes in his pop-up restaurant Pinoy Heritage, and now his first brick-and-mortar place, Abacá, is housed inside the new Kimpton Hotel in Fisherman's Wharf. The name is a nod to the strong plant fiber "abacá," which is used to weave the baskets decoratively hanging around the restaurant — a reminder that the Philippine bond is just as strong.
What is unique about his restaurant is a ‘secret’ menu that you can get through a QR code on the back of the menu titled with the hint “psst.” This menu contains some of Ang's favorite family snacks like duck hearts and pig's tail, and the portion sizes of the dishes all point to Ang's desire for guests to "nibble and taste and share" like they would at a family table.
