The Bicol region, located in the Southeastern part of the island of Luzon, is famous for two food ingredients – chili peppers, and coconut milk (gata in Filipino). The owners, a couple, hopes to showcase the complexity of the cuisine and and to highlight these ingredients by opening Gata, a Bicolandia cuisine-themed restaurant. It opened last April 2018 in Tomas Morato area, Quezon City.
While waiting for our friends to arrive, we started with some appetizers. We had Sinantol with Kamote Chips – santol meat combined with coconut milk acted as a dip for these thinly-sliced sweet potato chips. It came as a surprise for us that this extremely sour fruit would go well with gata. We also tried Laing Bites with Gata Sauce and Crispy Okoy with Sukang Tuba. We found the laing wantons to be overly salty, but the okoy had good crunch and flavor.
It is believed that the reason why most Filipino soups are sour is because it is meant to increase one’s appetite. We believed this as well so we tried their Cocido Lapu-Lapu. This is Bicol’s version of Sinigang but is less sour. This soup had a refreshing taste from the malunggay leaves and the whole fish. It is a better version, especially for me (Dennis), since I do not like sour foods.
We hoped to skip rice for this visit, but failed miserably. Filipino dishes are best paired with a hot cup of rice, and Gata’s mouth-watering dishes made no exception. We tried the famous Laing, taro leaves mixed with coconut milk and chili. We must admit that it was the best laing that we had. The leaves do not leave a sharp aftertaste one usually gets from laing.
I have never tried Sisig until Michelle told me about it, I fell in love with it since, and it became my staple. I would highly recommend this Crispy Bagnet Sisig because of its crunchiness, creaminess, and the full flavor profile of a very good sisig dish. I think I ate three-fourths of that plate
Gata’s version of Bagnet Kare-Kare has a hint of coconut milk to add to its creaminess. The bagoong it came with enhanced the flavors of the dish.
One of the Gata’s must-try dishes is the Kinunot na Pagi (stingray). The first time we had pagi was in Bacolod and we are just glad the we could have it here often. The meat was tender and offered a great combination with the coconut milk and vegetables.
The country’s national dish made better with a splash of coconut milk. Adobong Manok sa Gata truly elevates the common taste of adobo to a more satisfying version.
With hard work comes rewards because these snails in coconut milk are definitely difficult to eat. Even with a toothpick, it takes skill to detach the meat from the shell, but once that is achieved, one will have an awesome feeling of accomplishment and a memorable gastronomic experience.
We sampled on their Halo-Halo Turon with Coconut Ice Cream. All your favorite halo-halo ingredients wrapped inside a lumpia wrapper then deep-fried. A perfect combination of hot and cold, something to end a perfect meal. (Sorry, we forgot to take a pic!)
As the Philippine cuisine is trending internationally, and starting to be placed on the food map, it is nice to see that our regional specialties are also starting to be available in the national capital region. We hope that through food, it could attract more domestic visitors around the other islands of the country.
Gata: Flavors of Bicolandia Atbp. is located at The Grandia Place, Mother Ignacia Avenue, Quezon City. It is open daily from 1130AM to 10PM.
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Disclaimer: This is a sponsored review. The author did not pay for any of the dishes mentioned in this article. However, we still provided you with our honest opinion.
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