ONE NOTE SAMBA…& its fat, fat, fat
The Great.. an ambitious MO-FI (modern filipino) restaurant, farm to table, organic food and mid priced.
The Good.. Modern industrial design and good MO-FI food presentation.
The not so good.. read on…
The dishes we ordered were all recommended by our server… who also very oddly asked us to sign the order slip to confirm our order.
Sisig Sausage
While one expects to get a relatively fatty sausage when one orders a "Sisig" sausage, this was fat wurst (no pun intended) laden with fat, stuffed with fat and garnished with fat. Great if you love fat. Otherwise, the highlight of the dish was the Sweet Potato chips.
Gising Gising
This dish was the best of the lot, good use of local organic vegetables sigarilyas (winged bean), french beans, shallots, garlic and coconut milk. One would think that a restaurant that would expose organic ingredients would make the effort to use fresh coconut milk for this dish but this was not to be so on this day. The use of fresh coconut milk coupled with a bit of spice and citrus would make this dish perfect.
Sisig Fried Oysters
The fried oysters seemed fresh and were sufficiently moist and plump underneath the batter, the sisig lacked the crunch and missed the acid to off-set the heavy handed fatty gravy. Again pet peeve but the gravy tasted like industrial demi-glace (not a good sign). I can even tell you the brand ;)…
Sizzling Sinigang
This was the one dish that I had very high expectations for but was seriously disappointed, same note on heavy handed fatty gravy as above with the addition of instant sinigang mix from the same company that shall not be named.
Boneless Lechon Belly
Any dish that places Cebu before lechon sets the bar high. After all, the great Anthony Bourdain in 2009 claimed Cebu Lechon as the greatest pork ever. The dish presentation is also stunning and pictures very well. So this dish again over promised and under delivered. The pinakurat (coconut vinegar) & bagoong (fermented fish) sauce did not hold up to the overbearing stoutness of the pork. The skin also missed the signature crunch of a lechon. The meat also had an overbearing medicinal taste.. star anise?
Turon Con Leche
The puff pastry was crisp and delightful, the leche flan was more of a pastry cream. Not bad...
The Skinny:
Props for spearheading MODERN FILIPINO dining, I so wanted this experience to work out and tell the world that MO-FI = LOCAVORE & this is the best place to experience it.
But I am NOT quite ready to do that yet.
Ho hum till the next one.
website: http://www.locavore.ph
Facebook :https://www.facebook.com/pages/Locavore-Kitchen-Drinks/400958036723741
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