Locavore’s been a talk of the town lately and to silence the noise that deafens our curiosity we decided to have our first stop in one of Kapitolyo’s fine restaurants.
Finding the place was not that hard for us since we know where Brixton Street is. Little did we know that the studio where we had dance sessions then was the exact place where the restaurant was situated.
We managed to arrive at the area at around 6 in the evening and even at that time, parking was almost full and people are already starting to fill up the place. Our advice is that if you want to have the best seats in the house, you have to be there before 6pm or have a table reserved for you, or if you would rather wait to be seated, then that’s fine too. Having arrived at the place we noticed that there are actually areas you can choose from:
1. At the rightmost area is the air-conditioned part where we think most of the reservations are provided for which is also where the open kitchen is located with a modern-industrial feel interior design.
2. Another is at their al fresco dining area, one at the middle and the other at the leftmost area where it is a little elevated. That area actually covers long tables which we’re not sure what the area’s purpose is for, but could be for huge groups ready to exhaust their voices out. We were lucky we found a spot just beside the glass wall which, voila, beamed us with the meaning of LOCAVORE – “people eating locally grown food”, thus saying our OOOHHS, and AAAAHHS and proceeded with ordering our chosen viands.
We started off with the ordinary Pampagana at Ensalada dish, Singkamas, Manga at Bagoong. The singkamas and mangga on sticks were placed separately in two glass bottles – along with it came three stainless cups of sawsawan; Bagoong Alamang, Patis, and Asukal Chili Smoked Rock Salt Pickled Organic Cucumber and Onion.
For our ulam we decided to try out one of their favourite dish, the Sizzling Sinigang, and the usual Dinuguang Lechon.
Sizzling Sinigang is cooked with tender beef short ribs, sautéed French beans, cherry tomatoes, garlic confit and onions, topped with their special sampalok (tamarind) gravy.
In other restaurants, Sinigang is almost often our usual order, so trying out this deconstructed Sizzling Sinigang is critical for us. The sampalok gravy, which though unexpected is an awesome idea to substitute the soup with, retained the sourness of the dish which is great since we’re talking about Sinigang here. The beef was very tender that it was really a breeze biting through it. The French beans were crisp enough adding flavour to the viand as well as the cherry tomatoes but left the garlic confit and onions untouched since we’re not really a fan of it. We noticed too that we didn’t have the Calamansi and chili sidings that were usually served alongside it which they may have forgotten. One thing that retained in our palates though is the taste of heavy butter – could be because they did cook it in heavy butter?
Dinuguang Lechon is cooked with Lechon Belly, bokchoy, garlic confit, cherry tomatoes and dinuguan sauce. The Lechon belly was cooked nicely since it was easy to chew at. We just felt that it could have been much better if there was enough Lechon skin on the plate. 😉 Bokchoy in the dish is new for us since we’re not used to seeing dinuguan with vegetables, but it surprisingly did complement the dish. We wouldn’t include this in our favourites but would still recommend it for people who would want to try it out. This might not be okay for those with hypertension. 😀
Oh, don’t forget to order the viands with rice which they also offer in choices: Steamed organic white or brown rice, and Roasted garlic white or brown rice. Better be specific on telling the servers if it’s steamed or roasted garlic so as to avoid confusion.
To cap off our heavy meals we decided to order Bicho Bicho as our Panghimagas. This was served fried, but still soft with filling inside (banana as mentioned by the waiter but was kind of doubtful about it) coated with desiccated coconut, banana slices on the side with coco jam and tablea sauce as its dip. The menu says it comes with whipped cream but didn’t have any on our serving which they probably forgot again. Taste wise, the sweetness of the coco jam and tablea complemented the bicho-bicho. It wasn’t that sweet nor too bitter. It was nice that they added banana to it to rid off the taste of the previous food that we had.
Overall Locavore proved well its mystery on why people are going out their way just to try out their Filipino dishes with a twist. Not only have they offered delicious, authentic dishes but would give them a thumbs up as well for the fast serving time and great service of the staff. It’s nice to know that people are still craving for what our local ingredients are able to provide to satisfy our daily craving tummies. Will definitely go back to try out the other dishes.
To know more about Locavore, you can visit their website at Locavore Philippines.
*** Locavore is open from Mondays to Sundays: 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM for lunch and 5:00 PM to 2:00 AM for dinner. It is located in #10 Brixton Street, Kapitolyo, Pasig City. For reservations or inquiries, you may contact 632.6350 or 0917.6218909.
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