Toyo Eatery is the new home of Chef Jordy Navarra's understated yet delicious food ideas. There's humbleness in its straightforward and simple menu, yet everything in the restaurant is spirited in technique, artistry and flavors — the chef's approach always deeply rooted in everything Filipino.
Photo by Daniel Soriano courtesy of Toyo Eatery
Filipino Forward
Navarra's Filipino culinary leanings has already been prominent over at the previous restaurant he helmed, and now at Toyo Eatery, it is much more pronounced — Toyo is all about a modern approach to what is local and ours. The restaurant gives a nod to its Filipino roots with their name: toyo (soy sauce) is one of the quintessential, humble sauces in every household, yet making this condiment takes a lot of technique, and adding toyo into one's dish can heighten complexities in flavor.
While food here is a proud appreciation of our local produce and flavors, the Filipino approach is also an aesthetic that carries on to the restaurant's interior design; their tables of acacia wood, chairs made of rattan, and light fixtures with capiz shells are all created by different Filipino craftsmen. Move your eyes to the cashier counter, and you'll see a wall decor typically hung on our dining rooms and kitchens–a giant wooden fork and spoon, adding more Filipino touch.
Two dining options for customers await at Toyo Eatery: the currently offer set menus or you can order a la carte. Tasting Menu (P2,900 per person, seven courses) is recommended for first timers, the dinner including oysters, sticks and skewers, soup, a vegetable dish/salad, beef and rice, and a couple of desserts. A Set menu (P1,000 per person, three courses) is also available. After our tomato amuse-bouche, we begin our evening fresh, relishing the flavors of the sea with Oysters with Cucumber, Lime and Basi, a local sugarcane wine brewed in Ilocos. We followed it with the chef's signature vegetable salad, Garden Vegetables, popular for its delicious efforts to include each and every vegetable mentioned in the folk song Bahay Kubo. Served like a pot of soil with a tiny sprout, it reveals much more when you dig deeper with your spoon, and it's a medley of different textures and flavors so pleasant and unforgettable.
singkamas, talong, sigarilyas, mani, sitaw, bataw, patani, kundol, patola, upo, kalabasa, labanos, mustasa, sibuyas, kamatis, bawang, luya, linga
Our next tasting was an incredible soup that has changed me as a person–or let's just tone it down a notch and say it has spoiled my tastebuds so much, as pumpkin soup is a personal favorite and I am constantly on the hunt for the greater ones. The Burnt Kalabaza with Sea Urchin and Orange Kamote is available in both their set menus and a la carte, and is definitely a must-order to make your Toyo Eatery experience extra happy. Roasted squash, succulent and slippery uni, and crisp sweet potato are all showing off their different flavors and textures in this soup; everything is just amazingly seamless and every component a joy to relish in every spoonful.
Our next dishes for tasting came in skewers with their respective dipping sauces, all made from scratch. Espada with Semi-Ripe Guava and Kamias Broth had tender pieces of the fish meet a delicate broth that reminds me of a warm bowl of homemade sinigang (which made me crave for more of the broth), while the Toyo Eatery Three-Cut Pork BBQ is a delicious elevated rendition of the Pinoy barbecue, our favorite street food. Navarra skewers three different cuts of pork (pigue/ham, kasim/shoulder, and liempo/belly), and grills the tender meat until rightfully charred; it comes with coconut cider vinegar.
From pork sticks, we move on to juicy beef. Our full-flavored and tender Mayura Onglet (hanger steak) gets more oomph with a drizzle of soy steak jus. The full-on appeal of this succulent meat begs for rice, just how a proper Filipino meal must be consumed, so do the right thing and have the Toyo Eatery Silog with it, and you'll definitely be having a party in your mouth. The sticky rice is incredibly addicting, each spoonful a burst of umami on your palate, thanks to the dried tuna roe and the raw free-range egg that you mix in well to coat each grain of rice.
Desserts at Toyo Eatery are only a few, for now. Their Cassava Cake comes in rectangular blocks, charred skin from the grilling, giving this faintly sweet treat a smokey finish and a light crunch. Their Chocolate Truffle is popular and it's easy to understand why — it manages to combine bonbons of chocolate and caramel with homemade patis (fish sauce) with enough restraint for every bite to be delightfully sweet and salty, a 'fishy' pull from the sauce without being offensive to your sweet tooth. For a refreshing palate cleanser, they offer a lighter version of a halo-halo which mixes in bits of pastillas with fresh coconut meat, coconut milk, lychee, dragon fruit, and local raspberries.
The restaurant is new, and for now, is only open five days a week for dinner; its menu is in progress. There's nothing but positive anticipation on my end to see what other deliciousness unfolds at Toyo Eatery. Inside the mind of Chef Jordy Navarra are yet even more permutations of Filipino food we are fond of and familiar with, waiting to be unlocked and refined, until deemed worthy of a place on the menu. This, I eagerly look forward to, but for now, I greedily anticipate my next encounter with the new pumpkin soup I love.
Toyo Eatery is located at The Alley at Karrivin Plaza, 2316 Chino Roces Avenue, Makati. They are currently open for dinner from Tuesdays to Saturdays, 6:00pm to 11:30pm. Reservations recommended, call 0917-7208630 or e-mail may@toyoeatery.com. Follow on Facebook ("Toyo Eatery") and Instagram (@toyoeatery).
