I had dinner here with my parents September of last year. I found out recently that they have permanently closed their doors on October 31, 2019. I’m glad that I was able to experience dining at this small but really wonderful Filipino restaurant.

It was upon my family’s recommendation that we decided to have dinner here on a Wednesday evening. It was before attending a midweek prayer service at the nearby Union Church of Manila. This little restaurant was truly a gem and a find. It was located in a tiny area on Rada St., Legaspi Village in Makati. You are likely to miss it if you didn’t know it’s exact location. It’s very narrow but it has made good use of it’s space. It’s decorated with Solihiya (woven natural cane) chairs which added to it’s charm.

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They provide complimentary bread rolls called bonette (they look like tiny pandesal) with butter and and some kind of local salsa.

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We ordered Ukoy as an appetizer together with Pako Salad. Their ukoy came out as a surprise since it’s not made into the traditional round patties but rather into square thin shapes. It was crisp and flavorful. I also loved the pako salad which was a combination of fiddlehead fern, jicama (singkamas) and kesong puti (local white cheese) with calamansi dressing. I love trying out salads made up of local ingredients.

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Then we had the oxtail Kare-Kare (oxtail stewed in a peanut based sauce) as mains and Pritong Hito (deep fried catfish) which was served with pickled papaya and ampalaya. These were also very well prepared and seasoned perfectly. Food was as expected made the traditional way and very well presented or plated. Prices were reasonable and I might say inexpensive for the quality of food served. If memory serves me right I only paid around 1,400 pesos for the entire meal and that’s for three persons. This is without taxes and tip and converts to around 30 US dollars.

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