Sarsa Kitchen + Bar is in my list of the top three places to eat and visit during my trip back to the Philippines. My family had lunch there to celebrate my dad’s 77th birthday. After attending a short service at UCM we just walked a few steps to the restaurant which is located on the same street in Legaspi Village, Makati.
I have heard many great things about this restaurant and was really excited to try out their food. They serve modern Filipino food with a twist. Meaning they make traditional Filipino food but present it in a more exciting way. We kind of went overboard and ordered at least 10 different dishes. Everything on the menu looks so good and my family wanted me to try out as many as I can.
For appetizer we got Isaw or grilled chicken intestine. This is considered a very popular street food and I must admit it’s my first time to ever try it. Theirs was grilled to perfection and the spices and flavorings just right. Upon my nephew’s recommendation we also got Sizzling Kansi which is bone marrow with gravy. This is a very rich dish, it has got a lot of meat in it too and a unique way of serving bone marrow.
Another note worthy dish is the Tortang Talong with Sardines and Kesong Puti (eggplant omelet with sardine and cheese) with a dipping sauce of spiced coconut vinegar and chili banana ketchup. This is something I would like to recreate in the future.
Inasal lumpia is chicken Inasal (shredded grilled chicken) wrapped in lumpia (rice paper) with achuete garlic sauce. This was a surprise because the flavor just explodes in your mouth and everything goes well together. This dish reminded me of peking duck served in wrappers.
Their Pinakbet a vegetable stir fry dish was full of umami since it has talangka sauce (crab roe), crispy tofu and their very own XO sauce.
We got Crispy Hito as a seafood dish, it was fried really well and came in a coconut sauce. Our other main dishes were Kare-Kare (beef in peanut sauce) and Chicken Binacol which is poached chicken in coconut and ginger which kind of reminded me of Tinola.
Last but not the least is Chicken Inasal, the Bacolod style grilled chicken.
Eating Filipino food will not be complete without rice so we got two kinds garlic rice and danggit fried rice which is a special request of mine.
We didn’t have room to try out their dessert. Overall this is one of the best Filipino restaurant I have ever been too and would not hesitate to go back again.