One World Deli: Eating Around the World in One Deli (A Review)

One World Deli is a pandemic-born specialty food market curated by PYC Foods Corporation, featuring a selection of premium ingredients and beverages made by international purveyors and local food artisans. Each product has a delicious story to tell, each originating either from the US, Europe, Australia or the Philippines.

How delicious is One World Deli? Here’s what we think.

One World Deli
Bringing the world’s best flavors in your kitchen.
Urban Building, 11 Jupiter St. Bel-Air Makati (Across Sweet Ecstasy)
Operating Hours: 9.00am to 9.00pm Daily
Mobile: +63 917-804-0821
Facebook: One World Deli
Instagram: @oneworlddeli
Website: https://oneworlddeli.com/

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

One World Deli feels like entering a US specialty food shop. It has a roadside entrance along Jupiter St. so no need to enter a mall.

Like any food shop born out of the pandemic, it is spacious, with careful attention given to ventilation and social distancing.

The centerpiece of the deli are the specialty steaks from the US, Ireland and Australia. Each product is selected based on the artisanal story it tells and how sustainably they are produced.

They are happy to give you a tour around and tell the product’s story (minus the food tasting).

Beside the deli is a simple cafe where you can enjoy the premium ingredients from the deli with Chef George Bustamante at the helm.

One World Deli Cafe Menu:
• Small Plates, Greens, Between Bread
• From the Pasture, From the Sea, Sides, Beverages, Coffee
• Raw Oysters Menu

That’s the boring part. This is what makes us excited about One World Deli….

THE RAW BAR

This is the most coveted place in the store where you can taste the best the deli has to offer. (Make sure to reserve before you go.)

The view from the bar is exciting as you see the foodies’ reaction when they shop or get a behind-the-scenes look when they slice the seafood.

**Kumamoto** (₱285/pc), **Pink Moon** (₱200/pc) and **Kusshi** (₱210/pc)

Beside you are live oysters from the US in a sea-like environment.

Rache loves oysters so they’re on top of our list. Since they can’t be eaten on an empty stomach, we ate sourdough first.

We tried three different kinds of US Oysters—Kumamoto, Kusshi and Pink Moon.

While they were fresh, the oysters were small (priced from ₱200-285/piece). Although the kumamoto had the tastiest sea flavor, I personally liked the pink moon because it was bigger and had a balanced taste.

We still prefer the oysters from Japan, Ireland, France or our very own from Aklan.

**Mixed Seafood Ceviche** (₱800) with Wasabi Cream

This was probably the best ceviche we ever had, freshly prepared from the store with just tuna or mixed seafood and their signature wasabi cream!

The freshest tuna and seafood are used and prepared right in front you.

Loved the leche tigre sauce, especially when combined with the wasabi cream sauce! A must order. 🙂

TASTING MEATS

The sausages are house-made by One World Butchers with the famous sausage maker Chef Miguel Gianan of Spice and Cleaver fame at the helm.

You can get their Kielbasa Sausage from the deli’s chiller and the kitchen will cook it for you to enjoy—served with whole mustard and Mischbrot fine rye bread made by Swiss Chef Robert Lilja. Everything was quite good. 🙂

**Katsu Burger** (₱650). *Allegiance pork loin deep fried till golden with tonkatsu sauce and Japanese coleslaw on a brioche bun*

With Sweet Ecstacy across the deli, it’s hard to order the burgers without comparing so we decided to try their bestselling pork tonkatsu burger.

The Allegiance Pork Loin, brined overnight to have a tender meat but still with a good bite, was topped with coleslaw and tonkatsu sauce in a brioche bun.

**Steak Sampler** (₱1,600). *Butcher’s selection of different cuts of Jack’s Creek, Brave Heart and John Stone beef. Served with finishing salts.*

We saved the best for last—steak sampler of Jack’s Creek Tri-tip (80g) from Australia, Brave Heart Rib-Eye (80g) from the US and John Stone’s Striploin (80g) from Ireland.

Jack’s Creek Wagyu X is the best among the three steaks because it has a good marbling of Wagyu (50%) but crossed with a Black Angus (50%) to get a firmer bite and good taste.

The Braveheart Black Angus Rib-Eye Steak is one of the preferred steak brands used in Michelin Restaurants in the US. You can likewise enjoy the same premium quality at home this Christmas season.

John Stone Steaks are the best grass-fed beef steaks from Ireland which are leaner, the healthiest steak you can eat.

First, we loved how the kitchen knows how to cook the steak medium because most of the restaurants in Manila tend to overcook it.

Second, I would have expected John Stone to taste better in the sense that the quality of the beef can be tasted as it is being chewed, but it tasted bland throughout.

Third, I would not order the sampler and just enjoy a 200g Jack’s Creek or a Braveheart to properly enjoy the quality of the steak.

Lastly, you can enjoy the quality of Saltverk finishing salts that come with the steak in three variants—Seaweed, Arctic Thyme, and Smoke Birch. The best salts for the steaks that you can also enjoy at home.

They import and carry directly small batch specialty wines from Napa Valley, but unfortunately you can’t try these in a glass and you have to order a bottle.

Can’t wait to try their Napa Valley Wines—Dragon’s Tooth, Trefethen or CrauforD next time.

PROUDLY LOCAL

Rache’s cousin Pam Cinco, who leads PYC and is more known for her famous Risa’s Chocolate, offers a complete line-up and different variants in One World Deli.

She also curates the best local artisan products featured in the store, including:

The Best Calamansi Extract – Saint C

Malagos Artisanal Cheeses

Best Gelato in Manila – Gelato Manila

Best Fruit Jam In Manila – The Fruit Garden

**The Fruit Garden Strawberry Juice** (₱113)

You can enjoy Fruit Garden’s latest Fruit Juices to finish your meal.

Finally, the best Filipino premium clean beauty product – For Keeps.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Overall, we were impressed with the raw bar setup, especially with the ceviche and wasabi cream sauce. There are better and bigger oysters out there, but you can experience the novelty of trying the live US oysters in the deli. The Jack Creeks and Braveheart steaks were the highlight of our meal, and we can’t wait to pair these with a Cab Sauv from Napa next time. Best to go with your foodie friends to enjoy more food to taste at good value.

What we like about One World Deli:

👍 You can literally taste the world within the walls of the the deli and enjoy it in a safe and clean environment.

👍 Each product they offer has a story, and Chef George will be more than happy to tell the story. I suggest that you take your time with each product and eat it like one course and discover the story behind each one. We were there for 3 hours thinking that we will just be there max of 2 hours!

👍 I love that they showcase proudly locally-made products like a stamp of approval from One World Curators.

While there are still on soft opening, they need to improve on:

☑ The service team needs to be story tellers more than just servers.

☑ Get more artisanal products from Ireland, France or even from Morocco or South Africa to deliver a complete One World experience.

☑ Provide ONE bill from the cafe and the deli.

Congratulations to Jun Sy of Tao Corporation and Pam Cinco of PYC Foods Corp. for an awesome One World Deli concept even on its soft opening!

It must have been difficult conceptualizing, innovating and creating this deli from the ground up at the start of the pandemic. Well done guys and good luck on the grand opening in 2022!