Pino!

By Stella A. Estremera
Goin' Places

UM, YES, that's the name and it really goes with an exclamation point.

Pino! Filipino Cuisine is the newest addition to the row of food places and stuff at Damosa Gateway (the stall used to be occupied by a South Asian resto and bar... I'm not sure if it was Indian or Persian or what... beside Tsuru, Q, and Avenue S. Yes, that part of the Gateway. And from what I have researched, it's a franchise from the original in Kyusi and not a local-born resto.

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It was Trisha's treat for her guest and fellow ABS-CBN mainstay Stanley Palisada and me. Yipiii! Free food.

And food we intended to have.

Chicharong bulaklak, crispy pata, the Pinoy veggie salad (I can't recall the name, I think it was Ensaladang Pinoy Ensaladang Tagalog or something. Basta, look for that salad that sounds unique -- described as lettuce, eggplant salad with salted egg and bagoong -- it is really gooooood!), and tinolang native chicken.

The waiter dutifully repeated our orders in a voice that anyone on the next table can hear...

"Shhhhh!!!! Huwag mong ilakas, nagda-diet kami," we chastised him in jest.

The waiter left, and one-two-three, must be five, ten minutes... I wasn't able to take time, but I was so impressed. Service was fast, very fast; all the food had already been brought over to our table long before Stanley arrived. (Hehehe!

The downside, Stanley had to eat our leftovers... But you can always ask them to reheat the food. We did.). The bigger plus was, the food didn't look and taste as if they were done in a hurry. There must be one really good system in their kitchen because it wasn't as if the place was empty. There were several tables occupied by families at that. Hmmmm...

Just in case you think all you're gonna get here is pork and chicken, they have fresh seafoods that you can pick from "inside". We were just on our normal suicidal pork trip. The health conscious can go inside and pick through the array of seafoods in there and pray that you will not be tempted by the crispy pata, which was sinfully good, I was nibbling on the knuckles long after I was supposed to have finished eating.

My favorite is still the salad. It was an interesting mix, light on the tummy too. (Good for the self-esteem and to assuage guilty feelings after gobbling the crispy pata and chicharong bulaklak).

Here's a new find that we all hope would stay long and prosper.