April 8, 2025
MANILA – If you want to learn more about Filipino food, you not only read all about it in books but you also savor it in all its various forms.
At Don Baldosano and Angelo Comsti’s modern Filipino bistro that just opened at Ayala Triangle Gardens, each bite from their menu covers the nuances of reading and tasting and everything in between.
Their depiction of Filipino cuisine is, after all, steeped in research, which makes for a visit to Offbeat Bistro both an enriching experience and an experimental exploration—one that sparks a firm curiosity about lifting the veil on the linamnam found in the 29 signature dishes and drinks many may not have had growing up.
“Actually, a lot of people told me that they’re not familiar with many of these things, especially the young ones,” reveals chef, co-owner, and cookbook author Angelo Comsti. “Even the pimiento, they’re not familiar with. Pero once they taste it, [they say] I’ve tasted something like this before.”
Amid the obvious energy on display in the luminous interiors that reference the pirate red takas of Paete in Laguna, undulating waves that support the acoustics of the place, and the mirrored blocks on the ceiling seemingly creating an optical illusion, Offbeat Bistro is as unusual and unconventional as you can get to a modern Filipino restaurant.
While modern in design, Filipino elements are found in the bistro, such as this iconic wooden utensils common in Filipino households. PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
But its origins, as Comsti explains, is as distinctly Filipino as the blindingly bright blue wooden utensils hanging on one side of the bistro. “The way it started was we just hang out in Don’s place every Sunday over food and drinks and then we said to each other, ‘Why not turn it into something like a profitable habit?’”
“This is it,” Comsti laughs. “At least we’re including more people [into our get-togethers] and letting other people try our food.”
National flavors at Offbeat Bistro
Offbeat Bistro is decidedly casual, a stark contrast from Baldosano’s tasting menu that expresses the possibilities of Filipino food. But while its menu marches to the beat of a different drum, there are breakthrough moments to be found in the details, particularly in how they employ nostalgia and play with classics and lesser-known ingredients.
Monghe (minced pork, cheese, egg jam, toyomansi cream). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
There’s a gooey, coconutty, char-grilled eggplant kulawo in lumpia form served with a gata dipping sauce that delivers a thrilling feel in the mouth. The monghe races from Rizal to Pasig, where Comsti grew up with eating the dish, and transforms it into crisp, hefty blocks of minced pork, cheese, and egg jam that sit grandly on a toyomansi cream bed.
From these two dishes alone, the principles of Baldosano and Comsti come through. They create triumphant dishes that are quiet in nature as well as recipes that hum and simmer. Plates with tasty notes that are in the right pitch for Filipino palates, such as the pesang baboy and its gingery sensuality or the textural feat of their inasal, breaded then fried instead of grilled over an open flame.
Isda con mayonesa (crudo, patis mayo, grated egg, raw and cooked vegetables). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
“Our approach is very regional and nostalgic,” explains Comsti. “It doesn’t look Filipino sometimes at all but once you taste it, the flavor is very familiar.”
Regional flair
Elsewhere, the duo and their lean team spectacularly demonstrate the fruits of the Philippines through vignettes that push the limits of what casual Filipino fare could be.
The Palawan pompano pinangat wrapped in hoja santos leaves from Bacolod instead of the usual taro leaves gives the Bicolano dish a slightly herbal, even medicinal, sensation, while the lechon de carajay—a recipe you’ll see in old cookbooks, according to Comsti—cranks up the deep-fried pork belly with a mushroom-like sauce.
Lechon de carajay (carajay sauce mushroom, papaya atchara, toyo gastrique). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
There’s also Mindanao representation with a fish piaparan (“like a dry grated coconut with spices but we turned it into a purée”) and a flank steak with pumpkin satti sauce.
Fish piaparan (seared white snapper, piaparan purée, white palapa, ginger scallion sauce). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Even the cocktails and desserts are nostalgic: an orange creamsicle, a gin-based “icy gems” cocktail that references the little biscuit buttons with iced sugar on top millennials and Generation X snacked on, lemon squares with patis caramel, mamon tres leches, and a barako jelly ginumis.
The fresh beats go on
Experimentation is also very much alive here. A two-toned ginataang pansit made with pancit bato, fresh burnt coconut noodles, and clams feels somewhere between a springy vongole and a richly creamy salad but the climactic highlight is without a doubt the bibingka.
Bibingka (rice cake, shrimp, smoked queso de bola, puffed rice, cured yolk, salted egg). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
Baldosano and Comsti’s version of the traditional rice cake shapeshifts into a savory dish, slick with cured yolk and a salted egg sauce at the bottom and turned up with shrimp salad and smoked queso de bola on top. On paper, it might not sound much but the composition is so harmonious, the texture so refined that it could probably be that one dish that might put Offbeat Bistro in the consciousness of customers.
“Surprisingly, a lot of people get, well, surprised with bibingka,” says Comsti. “They’re used to eating it for dessert, so to have it as a savory dish with shrimp salad, salted egg sauce, and cured egg yolk… it’s a welcome surprise. They end up liking it.”
Mamon tres leches (coconut-corn-kaffir soak, cereal crumble, patis caramel). PHOTO: PHILIPPINE DAILY INQUIRER
After taking the time to digest the luscious rice cake, it’s easy to understand this sentiment. Their bibingka doesn’t just beguile, it also embodies a yearning to propel yourself deeper into Filipino cuisine beyond the surface.
As it is, Offbeat Bistro’s emergence is just the tip of the iceberg. “We’re going to make it into a destination by doing tasting menus—not anytime soon but eventually, that’s really the plan.
Without missing a beat, I feel like people are going to like that, too.