THERE'S this restaurant behind Gaisano Mall that serves good Indian food an very good kansi, too, Mike D. said as we were having lunch one Sunday.
“The best ang kanilang kansi,” Mike declared.
Mike D. loves food and he's Ilonggo, so he must know what he's talking about. His final advice is eat there at night because the place is not air-conditioned.
And so, there we were, Imee and I, all set to sip the hottest Ilonggo kansi, the sour soup with kadios, langka, and beef shanks.
Except that... D'Silva Grill, the restaurant Mike highly recommended did not have kansi that night. The owner offered to share with us free kansi soup, however.
Awwwwww...
So, we tried two other Ilonggo specialties -- Chicken Inasal and Batchoy.
Imee also ordered barbecue chicken gizzard because there was no more liver, she said, and I added hummus with flat bread just to check out the Indian side of the restaurant.
Imee liked the batchoy a lot. I'm not an authority when it comes to batchoy but the chicharon was fresh (didn't taste rancid, which is a big no-no), there are lots of liver and kidney parts, and yes, the soup was hot.
I liked the chicken inasal and chicken oil that goes with it.
But we both agreed that the restaurant's suka tuba is among the best we've ever tasted.
This is definitely a place that is worth a visit and appears to be popular among locals as the place had lots of customers that night, families, most of them.
I still have to return to try their kansi and Indian offerings. In the meantime, I highly recommend their inasal, and go taste their suka tuba.
D'Silva is along Vinzon Street very near the corner of Guzman Street, but since Dabawenyos really suck at street names, let's just say that it's the first street to the right after Gaisano Mall if you are driving from San Pedro Hospital. The place used to be the Ngohiong House just a few years ago.