Kanto Diyes turns uno; eyes breakfast fare

Kanto Diyes celebrated its one-year anniversary yesterday and what a journey it truly has been for contract worker-turned-small business owner Dante Suarez Conlu.

“We started out as a barbecue stall selling chicken inasal essentially for takeout. Half of my life I’ve been working in F&B and it never crossed my mind to start a business. It’s actually a blessing that this happened,” he said.

The 51-year-old Bacolod City, Negros Occidental native said it was actually his wife, Lot, who is the brains behind the operation.

“She was the one who had the drive to open this. She was actually the right hand of her mom in their karinderia business back in Cebu and she always wanted to open her own restaurant. As recently as five years ago, she pushed me to start Kanto Diyes because she thought we basically were running things at the Korean restaurant we used to work for,” he said.

As for serving their now iconic chicken inasal and other Ilonggo and Cebuano dishes, Conlu said the genesis for that was when his brother came to Saipan to work for one of the big hotels on island.

“My brother, who is a cook, one day prepared the dishes I missed since he knew I love ilonggo food like cansi, chicken inasal, etc.”

And afer tasting the food he served, Conlu had a eureka moment and told his brother, “this is the food I want to serve in our new restaurant.”

Conlu’s thought process was while there was already chicken inasal on Saipan, it didn’t really approximate the authentic taste of chicken inasal back home. A few months after that, he and his wife said goodbye to their old employer and started Kanto Diyes using savings and money borrowed from relatives.

From a three-table essentially hole-in-the-wall restaurant, Kanto Diyes eventually grew twice its original size in four months after Conlu and company finally headed their customers’ plea to expand.

Conlu admitted while they didn’t really expect Kanto Diyes to immediately strike a chord to Filipinos’ palates on Saipan, more surprising was along the way they managed to attract an unexpected crowd—the Korean tourist market—and he owes it all to a Korean dive shop owner.

“He always brought his clients here and eventually word of mouth via social media spread and made Kanto Diyes viral in Korea. I would say 30% of our customers now are made up of Korean tourists.”

Conlu also recalled the fateful day when he fired up the grill for a lovely Korean couple after he already closed Kanto Diyes following their usual lunch rush

“They happened to come here at Kanto Diyes after 2pm. Good thing I came back to get something at the restaurant and seeing he and his girlfriend waiting outside, I decided to cook for them and the rest was history as far as capturing more of the Korean tourist market was concerned.”

He added, nowadays many from Korea feel that their Saipan vacation won’t be complete without dining at Kanto Diyes and some days they will even see Korean tourists with their luggage in tow eating at the restaurant.

“It’s now considered a kind of a destination for them and they don’t want go home without first eating here.”

Conlu, meanwhile, said they decided to extend their first-year anniversary promotion on unlimited rice and free can of coke for every set meal ordered to Tuesday, Sept. 17. He said this is their way of thanking the community for embracing their small business.

As for plans for the next year, he said Kanto Diyes is weighing plans to open a second location on the island, but this time at a more commercial area. Conlu also said they may open for breakfast serving silog meals by early 2025.

“We’re just grateful and thankful to our loyal customers who until now patronize and keep coming back to dine at Kanto Diyes. We also see new faces everyday even if it’s already one year since we opened. Aside from ilonggos and Korean tourists, we also get the younger generation who just vacationed in the Philippines and ate chicken inasal back home. They’re thankful that we bought this iconic dish to Saipan,” he said.

Kanto Diyes is open for dine-in and takeout every day from 11am to 9:30pm. It can seat a maximum of 50 customers and is located along Flores Rosa Street corner Alaihai Avenue near the back of Dollar Days in Garapan.

For more information, to reserve, or to order in advance, call (670) 989-2728, (670) 483-2227, or email dconlu30@gmail.com. Kanto Diyes is also on Facebook.