Bottomless rice draws crowds to Filipino eatery on Christchurch’s outskirts

Wednesday, 4 March 2026

The Detorres family are behind new Filipino eatery Sizzling Haus in Islington, Christchurch. Pictured from left, Marmalaine, Lito and Marlene.

Does it feel like restaurants scrimp on the rice?

That’s never a problem at a Filipino eatery where bottomless rice with every meal is the norm.

Sizzling Haus in Islington, Christchurch, is taking its customers to the Philippines with its menu and approach to unlimited rice and soup.

The chicken inasal is the eatery’s best selling meal.

“Some customers get seven cups of rice,” Sizzling Haus co-owner Marmalaine Detorres laughed.

Taking its name from the way some meals are served sizzling on a hot plate, Detorres said there are many sizzling house restaurants in the Philippines, often with the moniker following the owner’s name, like Amigo’s Sizzling House - but in the Garden City her eatery is the only one of its kind.

“We are the first Filipinos who sell street food in Christchurch,” she claimed.

The sizzling cheeseburger is one of the dishes served on a sizzling plate at Sizzling Haus.

Detorres, 29, moved to New Zealand a decade ago, the last in her family to leave the Philippines after her dad, mum and sister.

In their home town, her parents owned a restaurant for more than 20 years before spending a stint in Auckland to continue in hospitality. After settling in Christchurch, the family opened Pinoy Corner in Linwood in 2024, before renaming and moving the restaurant to the new block of shops in Islington late last year.

Detorres said the restaurant is a nod to growing up in Asia.

The decor highlights various cities in the Philippines.

“Sizzling Haus is like the story of my college days in the Philippines because the meals are actually unlimited rice and unlimited soup.”

But she said she couldn’t compete with the pricing back home, where a budget-friendly meal costs 99 Philippine pesos, fewer than NZ$3.

Authentic Filipino dishes on offer include crispy kare-kare pork belly in peanut sauce, silog (garlic fried rice and egg served with a meat) and the best-selling chicken inasal, served as a grilled boneless quarter leg with in-house seasoning.

Sizzling Haus offers diners unlimited rice and soup, to ensure no-one goes home hungry.

Serving steaming hot meals initially played havoc with the restaurant’s smoke alarms when they first opened, Detorres said. Now they ensure the bubbling gravy is cooked below the range hood.

One of the regular complaints was that the food wasn’t sizzling, but she said it couldn’t be too hot, or it would still trigger the smoke alarms.

“It’s still sizzling, but it’s just not smoking heavily. In the Philippines, they cook in front of you, and usually the sizzling houses are really open.”

Many of Detorres’ relatives are in the medical field - her grandfather is a doctor, three aunts are nurses, and her sister is a pharmacist.

“I came from IT. Since I was young, I was really into business… I love cooking as well.”

She creates the recipes for the dishes, and her specialty is sauces and marinades.

In keeping with the authentic Filipino restaurant, the open mic karaoke sessions on weekends allows customers to belt out their favourite tunes.

Detorres said her dad is “usually the entertainment on a Sunday”, crooning popular Eagles hits after singing at retirement villages during the week.

“Most Filipinos are good singers.”

* Sizzling Hau is at 670 Main South Rd, Islington, Christchurch.