Nikki (SANTISIMA B.
Google
First time in Maven and I've got to say I'm pretty impressed with what's going on. Service is good and the kitchen was very accommodating.
Friend and I had two dishes: Spicy Crab Fried Rice and Still In Manila subbed w/ Salmon.
What I appreciated:
- They offer sawsawan, sambal, and atchara--essential accoutrements to southeast Asian cuisine. Filipino restaurants, from what i've seen lately, have forgone this in their menus and I think it's a damn shame.
- Crispy Garlic Fried Rice. It was crispy, and nice.
- They aren't afraid to get spicy.
Things that could be better:
- Food was tasty but a little two-dimensional
- E.g. the Spicy Crab Fried Rice had everything going for it, until it didn't. Saving grace was the server offering atchara and other pickled sides, which gave the dish the necessary acidity to make it work.
- My dish, the Still In Manila, didn't have the onion tomato sawsawan, which really was a shame. The atchara was good, but onion and tomato sawsawan is iconic and a mainstay--especially if they use some sort of in house vinegar. I'm sure that with the sawsawan, it would have added much more to the dish, but as it was, the garlic rice lacked salt, and overall the dish lacked a bit of a kick. The sambal that I requested saved it, though, but would be amazing to have a chili vinegar sukang sawsawan, too.
Overall, 3.5 to soft 4. Would love to give them another shot though!