Eva M.
Yelp
We went to Otium for the Salo Salo Filipino food pop-up. We were greatly looking forward to this meal as hubby is Filipino, and we both enjoy his family's homecooking. We left disappointed and irritated.
We made a reservation, arrived slightly early, and were seated promptly. Our order was placed by 7:35pm. Our food did not appear until almost 8:10pm. In the 30+ minutes wait, no one came by to say sorry for the wait, the food is coming soon, nothing. We even ordered an appetizer - but silence... When the food arrived, we were so surprised to see it was my main course and my husband's restaurant week (RW) appetizer plus main course on a single plate. We have not ordered from a RW menu for many years, and we were puzzled looking at his plate. I asked the waiter where is my appetizer? He mumbled they had to re-fire the something something and walked away. I HAD TO ASK before he told us, barely told us. It was brought to us in 10 more minutes. Much later, we heard the hostess seating new guests that the RW menu is served as sample size. She didn't tell us that. Our waiter didn't tell us that. Throughout our entire meal, no one checked-in on us, either. We have never experienced such negligence in a full-service restaurant that is otherwise a seemingly quality restaurant. They were standing around talking to each other. Minus 1 star for the lack of service.
Perhaps the above would not be so grating if the food was good. It was not.
The Food:
RW Sizzling Tofu Sisig - 1 Star
Menu: Marinated Tofu, Bell Peppers, Red Onions, Garlic Thai Chili Ponzu, Micro Cilantro, Chili Lime Aioli, Sizzling Fried Egg
The tiny fried tofu cubes are hard and have no taste except. Tofu can't be cut so small AND fried; the texture just doesn't work and doesn't absorb flavor in that size. The origin of the sisig dish is typically a pork sisig, for that matter, misc parts of the pig (look it up), and it is to be served on a sizzling platter, like a fajita, hence the name. These cubes of tofu are not prepared or served "sisig" style. If we had known this will be served sample size, part of a plate, we would not have ordered this. That is enough to tell me it won't be true sisig. The only reason this has 1 Star is because the fried egg is good.
RW Stuffed Chicken Tinola - 2 Stars
Menu: Stuffed Chicken Roulade, Chicken Consommé, Sautéed Spinach Shitake Mushrooms, Pea Vines Chayote Ginger, Moringa Leaves
A traditional chicken tinola is a soup with bone-in chicken cooked in ginger broth, slow cook for a long time to maximize the chicken flavor in the broth and to tenderize the chicken. Most of the preparations appear to be reasonable, except the chicken turned out dry - very dry, as in smash it into the broth to make it more edible kind of dry. They used chicken breast to stuff, which I understand, but they weren't able to tenderize the chicken in the process. I really wanted this dish to work, but it failed.
The RW combo plate included a scoop of rice. The garlic rice and fried egg were the two best bites on the RW plate. Disappointed.
Grilled Baja Prawn Sinigang, $32 - 2 Stars
Menu: 3 Jumbo Grilled Baja Prawns, Grilled Eggplant, Daikon, Okra, Baby Bok Choi, Tangy Tamarind Glaze
When I saw a photo of this dish, I thought it looked promising. What I should have also looked up is --what exactly is the Baja prawn. In short, the edible tail part is about the size of my short, stubby pinkie. It was three bites of protein. Sigh. The veggies were reasonable, especially the okra. The tamarind didn't come through, so the tangy tasted sour, not tangy. A touch more sugar is needed to balance the flavor.
Sticky Adobo Wings, $18 - 0 Stars
Menu: Soy Braised Chicken Wings, Crispy Garlic, Sticky Adobo Glaze, Scallions
The late-arriving appetizer. We were so looking forward to this dish. We both love adobo dishes. The idea of turning the sauce into glazed wings sounded amazing. This execution was a horrendous failure. The flavor was incredibly sour without the savory from the soy sauce. There should be a balance between savory vs sour, soy vs vinegar. All we can taste was the vinegar. Did the chef confuse the soy sauce and vinegar bottles? Other than the uncharacteristically sour taste (which we ate cuz we hate wasting food), the last bite in the drumstick revealed it wasn't fully cooked through with the gummy pink membrane. Gross. See photo. I contemplated saying something at this point, but I just wanted to leave this place by now.
RW Bibingka Corn Bread - 4 Stars
Menu: Warm Corn Bread, House Made Coconut Ice Cream, Banana Leaf
The server offered the bibingka to my husband while I was still eating the last adobo wing. He seemed to want us gone as much as we wanted to leave. Bibingka comes in two main variants - bread or rice. A sticky rice version is phenomenon. This corn bread version is quite good, too. Of all the dishes we ordered, this is the only dish that met expectations.