Spices: Locavore

We got to visit and dine at Locavore during their soft opening and this was more than a year ago. I was kind of hesitant to dine here before since the place exudes more of a bar vibe than a resto atmosphere.When the restaurant was fully operational, we tried to dine here again and on both occasions, the line outside was way too long.

Locavore

The resto's Kinilaw or Ceviche are among its bestsellers. They offer Fresh River Shrimps, Kalibo Oysters, Tuna, Tanigue and Lapu-Lapu. We decided to order the Kinilaw Platter that consist of three choices, we picked the Fresh River Shrimps, Kalibo Oyster and Tuna. I was expecting the typical mouth puckering sour vinegar based sauce for the kinilaw but to my surprise each kinilaw has different ingredients in it.

Kinilaw Platter - Php350

The Fresh River Shrimps has green mangoes, calamansi, patis (fish sauce) and wansoy. The Kalibo Oysters has the typical cane vinegar, shallots, ginger, calamansi, red bell pepper and wansoy. The Tuna has wansoy, green and red bell pepper, ripe mango and red chili pepper flakes. Each Kinilaw was absolutely fantastic, it didnt taste anything like the typical Filipino kinilaw. It tasted smooth and flavorful, no mouth puckering sourness. Among the kinilaw dishes, the tuna concoction is my favorite, I enjoyed the play of sweet and spiciness in the tuna.

Fresh River Shrimp

Kalibo Oyster

Tuna

The Pusit ala Pobre might looked simple but it was delicious. The squid was perfectly cooked as each piece was soft and tender. The squid ink was filled with so much malinamnam goodness, it had the right balance of sour, salty and sweet. I'm guessing that they add a little coconut milk to the sauce. The addition of ears of garlic confit was an added bonus to the already tasty dish.

Pusit aka Pobre - Php200

The Tortang Talaba is basically fried breaded oysters. When it comes to eating oysters, I like them raw. I wasn't expecting to enjoy the Tortang Talaba until I took a bite, it was pretty good. It was lightly coated which instilled a slight crunch, the best part are the oysters, it still had that fresh slimy raw texture. Just make sure to eat it at once when serve, since the coating is thin, it gets soggy when it gets cold.

Tortang Talaba - Php280

The Gising-Gising was cooked well, the vegetables had a nice crunch and the gata was thick and creamy. I wished it was spicier, even after adding all the chili oil, it still wasn't spicy enough for me.

Gising-Gising - Php260

The Garlic Rice that went with our meal was really good, the stir fried rice wasn't oily, it taste of garlic and the crunchy garlic bits added a nice crunchy texture.

Garlic Rice - Php65

The resto prides itself of their cocktail concoctions but being wine lovers, we opted to order one of the only two bottles that they offer. I do hope that they have already expand their wine offering.

For dessert, the server insisted we order the resto's version of the Leche Flan, we obliged. The dessert looked promising, on the plate was a golden flan, slivers of orange and a jigger of caramel. Taste wise it was good but texture wise, I didn't like it, it was too airy. I like my flan dense yet creamy.

Leche Flan - Php180

As I've mentioned, I tried to dine here again but never got to because of the long line. From how it looked, the place seems to be flocked by bar hoppers and not by diners. I'm hoping that the taste and quality of the food hasn't change cause I will still try to go back and dine here again.

Locavore
Address:  10 Brixton St., Brgy Kapitolyo, Pasig City
Tel.No. : 0917 6218909
Webpage:  www.locavore.ph