Locavore

Rating: Excellent
Meal:  Lunch for 3
Price:  2800 php
Payment: Credit cards accepted
Dishes: Sinkamas and green mango with patis, bagoong and salt, watermelon arugala salad, shrimp with crab fat and Japanese mayo sauce, ginataang kaldereta, kimchi sinigang, garlic rice
English Menu: Yes

Smoking: No

Today was our last chance for amazing food for this trip to Manila.  My dad had told us of this amazing Filipino restaurant called Locavore that serves incredible modern interpretations of classic Filipino dishes.  Unfortunately, he fell ill this week and was not able to come with us, but we went with his wife anyway for lunch today.  It's the kind of place you need to reserve a lunch table for, which she did.

The restaurant facilities were lacking a bit in style and certainly in air conditioning.  We found ourselves sweating partway through the meal and it continued throughout.  We even asked if something could be done about it but apparently we were in the corner with the busted air con and there were no fans about.  There is another location (the original I'm told) which is nicer inside and my stepmother prefers it to the one we ate at today.

However, the food was out of this world, making this the pinnacle of our food experiences this trip.  We had a shrimp dish covered in a sauce made from crab fat and Japanese mayonnaise that was the star of the meal in my opinion.  We got the green mango with fish sauce, salt and bagoong mainly because my wife had never experienced green mango with bagoong yet.  I think she was spoiled because instead of the scary dyed pink goop that is most common this was a dark brown artisinal bagoong or something.  It was soooo delicious.  There was a salad mostly characterized by the use of big chunks of watermelon.  And the two main dishes were a gintaang kaldereta (beef and vegetables stewed in coconut milk sauce) and kimchi sinigang (a spicy interpretation of sinigang with huge cubes of pork belly).  The kaldereta was delicious with super tender beef, and while the sinigang sauce was delightfully sour the pork was a little tough.

The whole meal was amazing, if very heavy, and we are so grateful to have been able to have a meal of this caliber during this trip.  Once again Manila comes through with so much amazing food available.