MANILA, Philippines — In the bar- and disco-hopping, and mall-proliferation scene of Metro Manila in the ’80s, when one got hit with a craving for comfort food that was so strong, no matter what time of day, there were two places to hit.

Affordability eventually became the final clincher for most: off to GoodAh!, the hole-in-the-wall that grew to accommodate the rush of diners looking for a place to satisfy a craving or simply to have filling, satisfying meals for surprisingly across-the-board affordable prices.

Innovators Of ‘Pagkaing Good For Every All’

Comfort food for Pinoys would usually mean hot, home-cooked faves coming into the consciousness before the sun rises, at midday, or way past dinnertime. The craving is something common to many, regardless of social strata or job description—one can be a driver, a closer in a fast-food chain, a doctor or nurse off a 36-hour shift, or a party animal looking for something filling before, in between, or after your gimmick.

GoodAh! then, became a nobrainer choice with lugaw (porridge), goto (porridge with offal), rice toppings like pares (beef brisket) that theypopularized, breakfast all-day meals like tapsilog, tosilog, and longsilog, or anything with sinangag (fried rice) and fried egg, served, “25 hours a day”.

The chain’s popularity grew so much, one would have to wait a bit to find a seat in their functional but oh, so nondescript usual al fresco dining areas, built around an open kitchen, where everyone ate side-by-side with just about anyone, in full view of their comfortably dressed-down and brusque kitchen staff and no-frills arrangement (or slamming of) of plates, platters, glassware, and utensils.

Then, somehow, the GoodAh! fever dissipated in the late ’90s, when branches eventually gave in to more spiffy franchises of some gourmet brand or businesses-of-the-moment. There were few attempts to revive the chain, but it seemed like the crowd was no longer interested.

Somewhere between then and today, when being open 24/7 and serving breakfast all day is a strategy to attract a chunk of a relatively new and growing market that is the BPO industry, GoodAh! should have been figuring somewhere largely in the pie. Where was GoodAh!, the “first-ever, all-native only fast food chain in the country”?

Back, Updated, And Ready For Another Round Of Being Open 25 Hours

Apparently, the business didn’t totally disappear, but just stayed open in relatively obscure areas for the cosmopolitan urbanites or perennially online students to find. It’s somehow comforting to know that it’s back now, big time, having been infused with new business blood about a year and a half ago.

Now owned and managed by Soyamensa Foods, Inc., the new GoodAh! will be bringing the classics that the market remembers and had grown to love, and adding more interesting items to the menu to keep it interesting for today’s market. “The market has matured, and

so you will see us growing with the market,” announced Timothy Yang, GoodAh! and Soyamensa Foods’ president. Yang has been involved in the local and international food business as early as his high school years, starting with working part-time in his cousins’ famous international food franchise (hint: golden arches).

After college, he went on to doing international consultancies in Dubai and the U.S. Choosing to bring GoodAh! back and giving it the work-up that it needs has its roots in Yang’s life in the ’80s. He shares, “GoodAh! has history, it’s all-Filipino, and I feel personally connected to it. Many times while studying and even when having to work late, nothing would be open after midnight, only GoodAh!”

Yang is using his experience and expertise to ensure that the restaurant regains its place in the local QSR (Quick Service Restaurant) industry.

“We gave (the business) a complete overhaul, with most of the changes we made being basically in systems, to improve efficiency and hygiene. The iconic products will always be there, of course, but we will be bringing in new items to the menu to keep it interesting,” he explains.

Perhaps to best illustrate how interesting they plan to be is the biggest menu item they recently launched, the GoodAhotpot, a dish inspired by the popular shabu-shabu.

How this hot and healthy shabu-shabu inspired concoction complete with meat and vegetables and coming in four different varieties—beef, pork, fish and chicken—can be brought to the tables of GoodAh! diners, lay on the innovation and experience that is now in place in the company. Not discarding the essence of a hotpot meal, the soup is served separately in a generous 13-inch metal pot and kept steaming on mini burners set on top of the table.

Diners would then add in their choice of meats and vegetables, egg, noodles, and dipping sauce (served separately) and watch these cook. In true GoodAh! fashion, the GoodAhotpot is priced at only P149, a far cry from the P400- to P600-priced versions in popular dining places. Refills are just as affordable, ranging from P25 to P49.

While they maintain the value for money principle, Yang says they aim to being in a new and younger market with menu choices like these, “to keep their dining experience interesting, varied, healthy, and interactive. That means we also have wi-fi in nearly all our branches—60 percent so far, but 100 percent within the year,” he says.

Next Up: Expansion And Franchising

Having all the systems working, Soyamensa Foods, Inc. is now focusing on their massive expansion program. “We will go where our target market is,” Yang reveals. From their existing 10 branches, they are scheduled to open three major restaurants within a month, including one in Eastwood and in Market! Market! Not long after, they will open 10 to 15 more.

To carry out the expansion they envision, they are also offering the GoodAh! franchise at P750,000 for 10 years.