From the outside looking into Kodawari. Photographed by Kieran Punay
On 7th Avenue, Taguig, Kodawari welcomes its patrons to its second location.
During afternoons in Bonifacio Global City, Kodawari only has a few patrons filling up their tables. “It’s my favorite time to come here,” says Toni Potenciano, who is a partner and creative director at Kodawari. She enjoys the quietness that comes after the busy lunch hours, which is often filled by office workers from the area. But it’s the evenings that are often the busiest, with people wanting to cap off their day with a warm and filling meal.
Which is exactly what you can always expect from Kodawari. Since its inception during the pandemic, Chef Jake Aycardo’s mission has been to provide good quality meals for reasonable prices. From the ingredients they use to the amount of rice they put in their gyudon, Chef Aycardo carefully perfects every detail of the dish. It’s a passion that manifests itself in every facet of Kodawari, with its own name meaning “the pursuit of perfection.” This is the mindset that they continuously apply, even with their expansion in BGC. “We had learned a lot about what it meant to run a space, to open a space,” Potenciano shares. “The things that we could have done right or the things that we could have done better in the first branch, a lot of that stuff we applied here.”
She points to the vaulted ceiling that are built with acoustic panels that absorb sound. It’s a design choice made from their experience in Salcedo, where noise was one of their early problems. “Every little thing that you see here is the product of scrutiny,” she says, gesturing to the custom-made tables with rounded corners, one of her favorite details.
Apart from building on their experience from their Salcedo branch, the new BGC location is also made up of things that are new, borrowed, and adapted. The design process began with verbalizing what they personally enjoy; and for the new Kodawari, the space takes inspiration from the Japanese kissaten, which is traditionally a tearoom that serves coffee. In the same vein as a kissaten, Kodawari is aiming for an experience that invites its patrons to relax and slow down in the restaurant.
There’s plenty to look at when you’re sitting down at its tables: a few manga books line the shelves, a collection of anime figures on the opposite wall, and if you look up, you’ll find a Korok from the game “Legend of Zelda” lurking in a corner. In addition to the collection displayed on the shelves, the walls also display artworks in collaboration with local artists. And whenever they work with creatives, the process goes the other way around. Instead of telling artists what to do, Kodawari offers its space for them to create artworks that they would like to make.
“What would you be proud of? That’s something that has always been also for us,” Potenciano says. “As an artist, what would make you proud to say that you did this?” This free-flow of ideas in Kodawari allows itself to veer away from common Japanese aesthetics, creating its own identity that feels lived in; almost as if Kodawari is a person with their own set of quirks and characteristics.
When it comes to food, Kodawari takes the less obvious route. For example, when deciding on what pork dish to make, Chef Aycardo opts to add chashu to the menu instead of the popular katsudon. It also borrows flavors from other cuisines, such as the mapo tofu (which also references the ‘90s anime Cooking Master Boy) and the shishito peppers, which takes inspiration from dynamite lumpia. Developing the menu is also a process of balancing Kodawari’s flavors. With most of their menu offering saucy and meaty dishes, the cold noodles is refreshing to the palette.
It’s a culmination of giving back to the community that built Kodawari. “Our approach has been to ask what would be best for Kodawari, what would be right to the people who love Kodawari,” Potenciano says. She recalls the early days of Kodawari, when they only served three dishes: the gyudon, chashudon, and shroomdon. “The fear was how can we convince people to come here and try everything else that is not [those] three things,” she says, talking about their opening in Salcedo. This fear was abated when their friends came to the opening, and that was the moment when things felt real for Potenciano.
“We’re very lucky to have come from just a gyudon tray brand to what it is now,” she says. As much as she is grateful for Kodawari, she also confesses that she’s “crippled by the fear that this might end one day.” Regardless, they move forward, guided by their love for Kodawari and its patrons.
