Chef's Table, The Fort

There seems to be a something these days about reinventing and innovating when it comes to Filipino cuisine. Everybody is trying to make a sophisticated, modern, fusion, or haute version of it. And guess what, I think fellow Filipinos are loving it. That's why more and more of them are popping up. One of the most popular of the lot is Chef's Table.

Crab Cakes- P370
Freshly picked crab meat,
seared and baked to perfection
served with sampaloc aioli.

For starters, we had some crab cakes. I like crab cakes. Also fish cakes. These crab cakes had a fragrant fishy thing going on, they were also loaded with pimiento and bell peppers. There was a glitch though, they were salty. Not just salty, extremely salty. Almost to the point that it would be inedible.

Chef Doy's: Fusion, Flares& Twists of Filipino Cuisine

Daryl is off to HK and China for the week and I reckon you'd only be hearing from me blabbering about my foodie discoveries and restaurant reviews! Anyway, let's get this show on the road! Starting with this place I dined at when I was in Naga. 

After a day of wicked island hopping, we were all worn out. But we still made an effort (somehow) to head to the city and find some satisfying grub. And that's when we stumbled upon Chef Doy's.

Baby Squid in Oil and Spices.
I seriously haven't had anything this good in the longest time.

In my opinion, it was a rather cozy place to eat, it was very homy and the staff were accommodating. For starters, we had Batang Batang Pusit, which turned out to be such a dream. I'm usually not so much a big fan of oily food, but this dish was too good to pass up, that's why I just kept eating more and more. The small morsels of squid were cooked to perfection, succulent and tender. That aside, it was garlicky as well. Seafood and garlic are best friends, there's hardly any way they would go wrong!