Saturday, November 05, 2005
Somewhere in the middle
By Keith Aparri Bacalso
Consider what is obvious: there are enough food places along Salinas Drive to feed the masses. With all that competition, how does one fancy survival? A little bit of niche finding, Richie Ho of Kasadja might say.
The idea to survival, Carmela Ho (the lovely better half) hints, is in the Kasadja logo, “It’s meeting in-between.” A something of sorts for every one, besides, the fact that the we-are-not-cheap-we-are-not-expensive-either almost always works.
Barely half a year old, this restaurant-slash-bar-slash-billiard hall seems to be surviving better than other newborns. “We have yet to go big on the restaurant dimension, though,” Richie said. Lunchtime has yet to see a sizeable crowd, and so does dinnertime. It is already about past 9 in the evening when late diners arrive, the drinks flow and a decent crowd renders the pool hall pleasant to the camera lens. A well-stocked bar separates the clanking of billiard balls from the clinking of glasses, spoons and forks on plates. And this goes on into the wee hours of the morning.
Quite predictably, the beer sells, there are the silog variants, as well as dishes prefixed with sizzling and grilled. Admittedly, for one who rarely goes out, the sizzling pochero was a surprise, and turned out to be quite a treat for me. It made me reconsider my decision to have a two-part dinner, I should have saved it all for this one. My apologies for snubbing the veggies, though, I haven’t quite reached the vegetarian state of mind. I was all for meat, always was (thus my no qualms about sizzling and grilled all over again).
The couple did throw a heads-up, though, Kasadja is bent on offering Mexican food soon. And that is something to look out for in a street of grilled this and that.
(November 5, 2005 issue)
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