At Ely Buendia’s Sari Kitchen, You Can Have Tortang Talong with Sisig, and Sing Karaoke Too

(SPOT.ph) Sari Kitchen was once Thai Mookata, a brightly lit, all-you-can-eat Thai grill-slash-hotpot joint. If you've ever been, you'll remember the metal chairs and tables, people getting up to grab more ingredients from the open chiller, and a lot of good noise.

Over a year and a half ago, Audry Dionisio, Ely Buendia, and Pat Sarabia took over. But as anyone in the food and beverage industry will readily tell you, operating a restaurant, even a straightforward buffet where the customers are doing a lot of the cooking, can get pretty complicated. And while the food was good, the concept ultimately didn't truly belong to the three new owners—until now.

They’ve kept the Thai posters for Hollywood films on the red wall on the side of the restaurant, almost an homage. But the lights aren’t quite as bright, and the metal tables have been replaced by a more eclectic mix of furniture. “It feels more like your grandparents’ living room,” Dionisio says.

The menu is strictly ala carte, and other Asian cuisines enjoy some representation on it. We were treated to some appetizers from the menu in Sari-Sari, the adjoining bar hidden behind a door that looks like a Coca-Cola refrigerator. The restaurant refresh certainly creates a greater sense of cohesion between the two spaces, and Sarabia indicates that there will be some crossover between what’s available on each place’s menu. Sisig nachos and cheese sticks make for good bar chow, but they work just as well in a restaurant setting.

The first dish offered from the revamped menu is the Adobo Fried Rice (P200 for 1-2 pax, P300 for 3-4). This dish feels representative of the restaurant’s new philosophy. It’s not fancy or fussy – it’s just full of flavor. It’s something a resourceful home cook might make at home, confronted with an excess of leftovers in the fridge and the need for something a little different. Dionisio says that people order the fried rice and just have it on its own, and it’s easy to see why. You don’t really need much more than that.

Tortang talong is having its moment, and Sari tops its version (P265) with sisig. Again: it’s a pretty straightforward thing. These are two things that taste good, and Sari serves them together. Somehow, the sum is greater than the already good parts, with the eggplant serving as a new textural component to the salty, savory sisig. As is proper, the restaurant serves banana ketchup as an accompaniment.

Sari’s take on Pork Sinigang (P299 for a solo serving, and P550 for 2-5 pax) has crispy chunks of fried pork in it. And then, they fry up some bagoong alamang and add that to the soup as well. It cuts the sourness of the sinigang down a bit, but offers up another dimension of umami. It’s an interesting addition, the soup having an entirely different sort of depth from the ones we usually have.

Sari Kitchen hasn’t let go of the space’s Thai roots, though. They serve Kra Pao (P400), stir fried minced pork with plenty of basil and chili. And they’ve got Pad Thai (P330) on the menu, with a choice of chicken or seafood for the protein. For dessert, they’ve got Mango Sticky Rice (P200). These dishes stand alongside the new Filipino items, creating a menu that feels varied and eclectic.

When it comes down to it, though, it’s all still the same approach: simple, tasty food. There are new combinations, but they’re nothing outlandish. They’re all built on familiar components, and it’s all meant to amp up flavors that we already know.

As the meals were being served, Dionisio invited people to sing Karaoke. There’s a flat screen TV set up on one side of the restaurant, with mics at the ready. Dionisio says this is just how it is at Sari: people might just start singing. Pretty apt for a restaurant owned by musicians. But also, it indicates just how relaxed this place is meant to be. It’s a no-pressure place that one ought to think of when you can’t decide what you want to eat. It’s a place where there’s bound to be something that scratches whatever particular itch you’ve got.