First of all forgive me for the awful pictures. I set my camera to iso 3200 to take pictures of the dark menu under minimal lighting. I forgot to lower the iso for the food pictures that’s why the pictures are so noisy and grainy. I feel so bad.
I also want to apologize to Elizabeth for recommending Bistro Filipino. I read several blogs that said the food was fantastic. I saw the pictures and read their beautiful description. And since it was owned by popular chef, Roland Laudico I believed them. Alas, they were wrong.
I also want to apologize to Elizabeth for recommending Bistro Filipino. I read several blogs that said the food was fantastic. I saw the pictures and read their beautiful description. And since it was owned by popular chef, Roland Laudico I believed them. Alas, they were wrong.
Bistro Filipino serves fusion Filipino cuisine in a nice and comfortable setting. It’s located in The Fort in Taguig.
We were a group of 9 adults and 4 kids. We ordered several appetizers to share. 4 ordered set meals of soup, pasta and dessert while the rest ordered entrees to be served family style. That’s our table behind the gauzy fabric.
We were off to a good start. The first appetizer kangkong crisps were good but soggy. It wasn’t very warm too. Actually most of the food wasn’t hot by the time it got to our table.
kangkong crisps P228
The stuffed fish balls were made of smoked milk fish and stuffed with mozarella. I didn’t taste the cheese. This was just satisfactory for me.
stuffed fish balls P268
I liked the prito trio. It reminded me of okoy. It’s made with crispy fish, shrimps and squid with a trio of dipping sauces. By this point we were getting full with all the fried appetizers.
prito trio P228
I passed on the ubod spring roll. Too much oil consumed already.
ubod spring roll P248
Seared foie gras, fried foie gras cream and foie gras filo lumpia on mesclun greens with guava vinaigrette. I loved the lumpia most of all. It was very decadent. I also like the salad dressing which was sweet and tangy.
foie gras 3 ways
The food started to go downhill from here. The paella was soft and mushy. The mussels were coated in batter and deep fried. Why? It didn’t do anything good to the mussel but add fat. I would have preferred it naked.
paella stuffed squid P428
I wasn’t able to try the kare kare. I didn’t hear any positive or negative comments on this.
US Angus beef kare kare P488
Or this.
sinampalukang manok P388
Before going to dinner I did some research and read in a blog that the adobo overload was their most popular dish. On paper it really looked like a hit. Adobo sticky rice w/ chicken adobo and seared fresh foie gras, fried adobo flakes and adobong kang kong. The sticky rice tasted like suman. It totally didn’t go with the dish. I took a spoonful and didn’t even finish that. Plain rice would have tasted way better with this dish. Other than the foie gras which was a bit underdone this was just an ordinary dish. I ordered this dish and was glad I had so many people to share it with. It was a major disappointment.
adobo overload P788
Here’s another ‘looks good on paper’ dish. Boneless crispy pork shanks with creamy bagoong sauce. The pork was so not crispy! I ate a piece of the skin and it was so soft and chewy. The sauce wasn’t creamy at all and it lacked bagoong. The turmeric rice under the pork was also so soft and mushy. Another disappointment.
binagoongan crispy pata P488
Christine liked the mashed potato croquette in the middle of the soup. The soup was part of the set menu.
beef nilaga consomme P168
All the pasta were soft. None were al dente. Some of the sauces were good though. I really liked the angus beef kaldereta sauce. It was very tender and flavorful. Perfect with pasta.
beef kadereta pasta P388
It’s either you like this grilled chicken in tamarind coconut curry sauce or not. I loved it! The kids and some adults didn’t like it because of the strange taste they couldn’t identify. I liked the tangy kick from the tamarind combined with the coconut sauce. I would order this dish the next time I eat here again.
coconut chicken curry P368
Christine found the flavors of this pasta too strong. I found it ok. I guess she’s not used to eating smoked milk fish and capers. I basically like their pasta dishes more than their meat dishes. If only the pasta were al dente.
sundried tomato tinapa P368
Things brighten up for us when dessert was served. All the desserts were amazing! This trio of desserts is made up of halo halo shooters, suman cake and Spanish chocolate. Half of us liked the Spanish chocolate half didn’t. You can bet I loved it. It’s slow baked tsokolate-eh in a cup. I loved the flavor of tsokolate-eh. It’s so different from American style chocolate.
This is one of the best molten chocolate cakes I’ve ever eaten. It was gone so fast I didn’t even see the carabao vanilla ice cream in the center. I would go back just to eat this.
molten chocolate P188
5 seconds after the plate touched the table
Elizabeth loved the halo halo shooters so much she ordered a full order of halo halo napoleon. It’s ingenious of them to use fresh carabao cream sorbet instead of crushed ice and milk.
halo halo napoleon P168
Michelle loved the Spanish chocolate even more than me.
Isn’t the bathroom nice? They painted the walls with a light glaze and stenciled the round patterns all the way up to the ceiling.
It wasn’t all that bad. True we were disappointed with the main course but the dessert more than made up for it. I’d definitely go back for appetizers, salad and dessert.
Shoot First Eat Later 
Hi Les,I like how the pictures came out. The grains gave them a bit of warmth and character.Fusion Filipino cuisine? I don’t buy it. In my humble opinion, Pinoy food is already a fusion in itself. I would understand if the Chef’s restaurant is outside the Philippines, his ‘experiment’ could work. Adobo sticky rice? Naman…he should leave our adobo alone. Reading the 2nd sentance above the picture made me think of suman at nahilo ako. Adobo with just Jasmine rice or rice cooked with water-chicken stock mixture is the best (for me). Tantanan na kasi ang fusion Pinoy tsuva tsuva tienes. It infuriates me with what these so-called Chefs do to our food. (another example is Chef Bobby Flay)I know that I have to skip this resto when I come home.
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yay my pictures in there!!! i totally agree with the dessert part!!! it was great!!!
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I agree with Ariel about leaving the adobo alone. The adobo overload actually sounds nasty. It definitely is overload – in a bad way. And anytime foie gras is not made the center of attraction, I have to question the quality of the foie gras. On top of adobo?… bleck!Ako rin Ariel, ‘boo’ to over-fusion.L
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I agree. ‘Boo’ to over-fusion. I cannot even believe that this overload was featured in Jessica Soho’s (Filipino) TV show which focused on Adobo. My nanay and Kit’s adobo are the best. A resto in NY called Cendrillon had baby back rib adodo and it was amazing. Sayang, sarado na sila. Kit has a recipe. Do you want it, La?
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we loved the Spnish choco dessert!!! 🙂 so good!!http://jotan23.blogspot.com/2010/04/chef-laudicos-bistro-filipino-at-fort.html
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I totally agree with you, when we dined there, the appetizers and desserts were stellar but the mains were a huge dissapointment. We also had the paella–all I can say is, you can just got to Alba’s for the most perfect paella. Their bagnet tasted old and chewy, our bagnet at home is way better–straight from Ilocos.
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ay good thing I read this before going there. I have this feeling hindi ok.
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ate there with my partner and was extremely disappointed with their food. we got their adobo overload and sinampalukang chicken. HUGE mess. please try another restaurant people!
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i like chef laudico bistro fi;ipino
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