Of course, it doesn’t hurt to jazz up things a bit. One newly-opened eatery on Ongpin St. should qualify as Binondo dive with the most design smarts. Called, appropriately enough, Funky Buddha, this bar and restaurant has nuance when it comes to interiors, appealing to one’s sense of visual wit.

Make no mistake about it: this is still an eatery. You know, videoke, billiards, natural ventilation, still within the compass of cafeteria design rectitude. But to find something as gleefully rendered and as transgressively different in Binondo as this is something worth checking out.

On one wall, a tryptych-style mural of the laughing "Funky Buddha," with John-Lennon sunglasses, Buddha-bead necklace and a diva-worthy hauteur. On a far wall, backlighted by the bluish glow of recessed lighting, two reclining baby Buddhas, heads resting on green basketballs, even. Near the restrooms, lockers for patrons’ billiard sticks are handpainted in latex with a Chinese bamboo motif. On the open frontage, a screen of real Chinese bamboo takes the place of a wall.

Look closely at the attendants and you’ll find similar marvels. Along with their black T-shirts and denim minis, they wear aprons with the Funky Buddha design, and, for a nice bit of resto-theming, colorful billiard-ball earrings.

All this is the handiwork of young fashion designer Kenneth Chua, whose brother, Glenn Anthony Chua, owns the place. " We though of livening things up with a modern Chinese theme," says Kenneth, who also studied interior design at the Philippine School of Interior Design (PSID) before being lured into fashion. "The concept is really modern fusion, even the food we serve is not exclusively Chinese."

Kenneth thought of making a "fashionable, younger" Buddha with a pop, cartoonish touch. His style savvy is evident everywhere—the baby Buddhas are wooden figurines—they look ceramic—he had procured from a thrift shop and handpainted with painstaking attention to detail (check out the florals on the baby girl Buddha’s dress). The walls are of marbled terracotta. There’s a large vase of dried twigs adorning the restrooms. Even the condiment packs are stamped with the Funky Buddha logo. Here’s concrete proof of that adage, things are as big as one’s imagination.

But where would an art-fab Binondo eatery be without fantastic food? Fortunately for the Chua brothers, their father, Chua Eng Lu, is a seasoned cook, having run his own restaurant in their native General Santos City (his father also was a chef back in China). The menu is replete with family recipes, such as the Funky Buddha Fried Chicken (P80), which has a uniquely piquant taste, and the Four Treasures, a skewer of fish, chicken, shrimp and liver sprinkled with sesame seeds (P80). Funky Buddha also serves rice toppings, binalot style (adobo, fried chicken, spicy chicken, tilapia) for P40.

And, for that cosmopolitan touch, Funky Buddha has special drinks, like Funky Red, which is Sprite, with grenadine and rum; and Blue Buddha, Sprite with blue curacao and rum. Both for only P30.

The place is open from 10 am to 7am the next morning, to accommodate the droves of Binondo nightlifers crazed for billiards and karaoke at the nocturnal hours. When the rest of Binondo is peacefully at rest, Funky Buddha throbs with the energy of the urban beat, if you will.

So you want something "exotic" (read strictly as culturally different from the usual mall-based experience) for your gimik? Try a night here.