For my very first meal in my new home, Makati, Philippines, this restaurant hit all the familiar notes for me. I ordered the beef kare-kare and the chicken adobo all with a side of rice and veggies. Straight to the point, it was all very tasty but nothing special to me. Soo to be clear, 3 stars means good and meets expectations. Four stars is great and five is amazing. So, this review is a positive one in my view, please do not think I'm bashing this restaurant.
The beef kare-kare was by far my favorite of the two dishes. Kare-kare is all about the tenderness of the meat and of course the balance and flavor of the peanut butter based sauce. Although the amount of meat was small (I've already corrected for the difference in meat portion between the US and the PI) it was in my opinion, cooked perfectly and was proportioned just right. In fact, the house bagoong was also so freaking good I tried asking for more to go. I didn't get it, but they did say know with a smile. It was a little sweet, which was something I want expecting, and which I didn't realize would work but totally did.
The chicken adobo was tasty, a little too vinegary for my taste, but really lacked any substantial meat on it. It was all just a lot of skin and fat in my opinion. Again I knew portion size was small, but for the price, in not sure I got all my money's worth. In addition, we also had to wait an additional 25 minutes after ordering to get our first plate delivered.
We ate at 8 pm and they had already ran out of bottled water. I wasn't going to date drink the self serve water they had available so instead I went to a nearby so to pick up a bottle of water to go along with my dinner. read more