Itsukan Restaurant opens on Middle Road

For a change, Filipino community leaders Ramon Awit and Nelida Atalig are focusing their energies on something other than being at the forefront of civic-oriented activities.

The two, who are both veteran officers of the United Filipino Organization, have opened a new fastfood restaurant along Middle Road in Gualo Rai called Itsukan.

The place is located inside the Shell Station compound that is nearest to the Ace Hardware and First Hawaiian Bank in Gualo Rai.

Awit said he got the name “Itsukan” years ago in the Philippines after treating their family driver to an eat-all-you-can meal.

Asked if they have already eaten, the driver unknowingly mispronounced the term “eat-all-you-can” and said in the vernacular, “We already ate. Boss treated me to ‘itsukan.”

“Every time I go home to the Philippines and when we eat in a buffet, he always calls it ‘itsukan.’ Since then that word stuck on my mind and I thought to myself that if I ever open a fast food business I would surely call it ‘Itsukan,’” said Awit.

The restaurant serves Asia-Oriental cuisine, as well as American and Western dishes and some Italian food.

It is open from 7am to 10pm, Monday to Sunday. Hot and fast lunch is served daily except on Sundays. The lunch package costs $3.50 inclusive of 2-choices of meal and a free soda drink. An additional 25 cents is charged for take-out orders.

The business partners said the restaurant has a drive-through service.

They said they are aware of stiff competition in the restaurant business so they try their best to contact friends to invite them in. Awit said he personally cooks and serves in the restaurant. His specialty is seafood spaghetti ala-Alfredo.

Atalig said the restaurant also offers ala-carte menu and does hot lunches and catering services.

Delivery is available with a minimum of three choices, and depending on the distance.

The restaurant serves different food items everyday.

The Filipino cuisine includes a variety of “Filipino favorites” such as marinated boneless bangus, bistek Tagalog, pork longganisa, pork tocino, dinuguan, sisig, and bopis.

Monday menu includes pork cutlet, sinigang fish, chicken afritada, nilagang baka, sweet and sour fish, and combo chopsuey.

On Tuesdays, the menu lists pork dinuguan, ampalaya con carne, sinigang pork ribs with tamarind soup, pancit combo, deep fried fish, and adobong pusit.

Wednesday meals are pork with monggo beans and ampalaya, adobong pork ribs with potato, sauteed calamari in oyster sauce with pechay, beef ribs with cabbage and corn on cob, chicken in coconut milk with pineapple, and deep fried fish.

Thursday treats include sarsiadong fish, pork hock paksiw, tinolang manok, beef steak, upo with shrimp, and beef ribs caldereta.

On Fridays, diners can enjoy sinigang na bangus, pinakbet, broiled chicken, fried fish and black beans, chicken curry, and beef pochero with cooking banana.

Saturday meals are binaguongang baboy, sinigang pork ribs with tamarind soup, ginataang kalabasa and sitaw with shrimp, sarsiadong fish with black beans, pork hock with pork and beans, and spring rolls stuffed with vegetables.

“We would like to invite everyone to come and try our food here. It’s prepared with our touch of tender loving care,” said Atalig, smiling.

Atalig is a former UFO president and current VISMINDA president.

Awit is president of LIPS and adviser of Northern Marianas Bars Association.

Both are members of Saipan Lions Club.

“In the past, we volunteered our time in preparing food during our community events. Instead of hiring somebody to cater for us, Nel and I thought, ‘Why not open our own place and earn something,’” said Awit.