Offbeat serves nostalgia and discovery on a plate 

Angelo Comsti and Don Baldosano have two big things in common: their deep love for food and cooking, and their passion for researching Filipino cuisine.

Comsti, food writer, cookbook author, and chef told Lifestyle, “Ever since I got into food, I really wanted to champion Filipino food. That’s why I did all those cookbooks, which feature all Filipino dishes. For my last cookbook, the fifth one, I went regional. I wanted to expose more people to stuff they don’t know about. Here in Manila, it’s always been kare-kare, sinigang … but there are so many more dishes that we don’t know of. That has been my advocacy.”

Baldosano, the chef-owner of Linamnam, which offers a modern Filipino tasting menu, and Bombvinos Bodega, which also serves Pinoy food, said, “When I started cooking, I actually loved Italian and French food because it was my background and training. But one of my friends told me, ‘If you want to be the best and be really good at what you do, Filipino food is something you need to learn, because it’s your own culture.’ When I started traveling, that’s when I saw the depth and the beauty of our cuisine. I thought, maybe I should start a restaurant—Linamnam—and focus on that … Now it’s really about discovering the unsung dishes and ingredients of the Philippines and showing it off in everything that I do.”

It’s no surprise they became friends. “We’ve been hanging out in his place every Sunday, we have get-togethers, inuman,” Comsti said.

It was during those weekly gatherings with their friends that the idea to work together on a restaurant was born.

“I think it was the fruit of drinking too much,” Baldosano said, laughing. “We were drinking and we were like, why not? We do the same thing, we research old-school Filipino food. So why not focus on that and present it in a more modern fashion?”

The two joined forces and, along with two other partners, put up a bistro where they can share what they’ve learned about Filipino cuisine. They called it Offbeat.

Two years

“Why not Offbeat? We’re offbeat as people, we think very differently, and the food that we’re going to be doing would represent offbeat as well,” Baldosano said.

They’ve been working on it for almost two years and, on Monday, Offbeat opened its doors at The Shops at Ayala Triangle Gardens, a beautiful space tucked away from the rest of the mall, with a great outdoor area. Comsti said, “The place is very accessible but at the same time, it feels intimate because we’re the only establishment outside.”

Baldosano said, “It feels like a brick and mortar [establishment], it feels like our own thing.”

There are stairs on Paseo De Roxas that will take you straight to Offbeat, but you can also choose to get there by going through the mall.

We love Offbeat’s red walls which, according to Comsti, “were inspired by those Paete papier-mâché crafts with very bold colors.”

“We wanted something different, something fresh for the eyes. Another inspiration was the old-school cinemas. That’s why it’s very deep red in color,” said Baldosano.

Offbeat serves modern retro Filipino food with a lot of nostalgia. And the nostalgia and retro vibe can also been seen in touches around the restaurant—in the colorful papier-mâché horses and the giant spoon and fork that hang in many Filipino homes, except theirs is a vivid blue.

And of course, nostalgia is served on plates and in glasses at Offbeat. But it’s more than just nostalgia—a meal at Offbeat is also a time for discovery. Baldosano said, “I think it’s nice that we’re highlighting dishes and flavors that nobody has highlighted before, but should be highlighted. I think this will open eyes that there’s actually a different side to Filipino food.”

Comsti shared that friends have told him that many of the dishes on the menu were unfamiliar to them and that they were eager to experience them.

Pure collaboration

Baldosano calls their menu “a pure collaboration.”

Comsti said, “I did some of the recipes, he did some of the recipes, we presented them to each other and then we talked—how else can we improve this presentation-wise, texture-wise, flavor-wise? That’s how it worked. It’s beneficial that you have two minds working on one dish.”

“It was so smooth,” Baldosano added. “We’ve never argued or anything. We were critical because we know the goal is to make the food good so we listened to each other rather than butting heads.”

Comsti said, “Something we realized while we were doing the menu is we both love coconut milk. Ma-gata kami pareho. Coconut appears in a lot of our dishes. Different forms—coconut milk, coconut cream, burnt coconut.”

The menu is divided into small plates and big plates. One of Comsti’s favorites? The Bibingka. But it’s a bibingka you haven’t seen before. Comsti said, “I love sweet-savory flavors … It’s a traditional rice cake with a shrimp salad on top, grated cured egg, and salted egg sauce.”

It may sound strange on paper, but it’s absolutely delicious.

Meanwhile, Baldosano loves the Lumpiang Kulawo. Yes, they turned the salad from Quezon into a spring roll. “We wanted to highlight the regional Filipino dish kulawo—it’s like an eggplant salad that’s smoked. We wanted to serve it in the form of a lumpia to give you that texture and we added a dipping sauce that would mimic the flavor of kulawo.”

Char-grilled eggplant, sayote, and bean sprouts are swathed in shredded lumpia wrapper for an extra-satisfying crunch. It goes so well with the coconut vinegar emulsion.

The Lumpiang Kulawo has quickly become one of Offbeat’s hits. Another fast favorite is the Monghe.

Comsti ate a lot of monghe when he was growing up. The embotido-like dish actually comes from Rizal, but was also a staple in Pasig where he’s from. “Every time we have reunions, it would get served. Apparently, not a lot of people know about it so, yeah, we’re carrying it here. It’s gotten good reviews.”

Baldosano said, “I didn’t even know about monghe until Angelo told me about it.”

Offbeat’s Monghe are hefty cubes of breaded and deep-fried minced pork with cheese topped with egg jam, sitting on a bed of toyomansi cream.

We love the Pimiento Dip—roasted bell pepper, onion, sour cream, and cream cheese served with double-fried sliced baby potatoes (they look like the tiniest “mojos” you’ve ever seen). The dip tasted like our childhood favorite—but elevated. The cream makes the dish more indulgent. A tip from our lovely server was to try dipping the monghe in the pimiento dip. It was divine.

Next we had the Pesang Baboy. Baldosano said, “It’s an old-school dish usually using fish cooked in ginger but we decided to make it a little bit more rich by using pork. It’s braised pork that we seared like lechon kawali. You have a ginger broth underneath, and then there’s caramelized miso. We wanted to use miso na Pinoy.”

The broth was so flavorful and we love the contrast in textures. Another great dish.

Inihaw na Baboy rice

What Filipino restaurant would be complete without rice? Offbeat has three: plain, Tutong na Bringhe (Kapampangan paella), and our new obsession, the Inihaw na Baboy Rice.

“I love rice, all my restaurants have rice… This is like inihaw na baboy but on steroids,” said Baldosano. “We wanted to give you the sensation of having kanin, inihaw na baboy, and sawsawan together.”

“Oh my god,” we said after our first bite. They really did capture the essence of inihaw na baboy in the fried rice. It was so good we had to ask, “That smokiness–how did you do that?”

Comsti loves the Inihaw na Baboy Rice as well, telling us he can eat it on its own. The Inihaw na Baboy Rice alone is reason enough for us to return to Offbeat again and again.

But there’s more. We enjoyed the Fish Piaparan—seared white snapper, piaparan purée, white palapa, and ginger scallion sauce. “With this, we wanted to pay respect to Mindanao. It’s not as spicy as they do it, but the whole idea still there,” Baldosano said.

For dessert, we had the Lemon Square served with lemongrass ice and patis caramel. They also have a tres leches made with mamon and a milk ice cream inspired by the candy powder Mik-Mik. There’s a ginumis-coffee jelly hybrid too.

When you go to Offbeat, make sure order a cocktail or two. Comsti said, “The cocktails are also nostalgic.”

Baldosano added, “When you drink it, it’s boozy and would evoke memories.”

His favorite cocktail is the Creamsicle, a delightful mix of gin, pandan syrup, coconut cream, and fresh orange juice. Comsti loves Root Beer: rootbeer rum, lime juice, hoja santa syrup, egg white.

We really enjoyed Icy Gems. They transformed the icing-topped biscuits that were an ‘80s favorite into a fun drink. “It looks like an Iced Gem, right? It’s brown underneath, pink on top. The base was made with Marie biscuits. It’s nostalgic on nostalgic. It’s biscuit-infused gin and the foam is vanilla and beetroot,” said Baldosano.

He added, “When we were doing cocktails, we were telling each other, let’s just make it fun.”

Offbeat is a great place not only for enjoying a full meal, but also for grabbing a drink.

According to Baldosano, when they saw the space, “We said, ‘Parang ang sarap tumambay dito.’ After work, people can just come here, have a drink, a snack or two.”

Comsti says they will also have DJs on some evenings.

At Offbeat, they use a lot of local ingredients. Baldosano said, “We wanted to work directly with the producers to make sure that we’re not just trying to push for Filipino food and the ideology of it, we’re actually helping Filipinos.”

Their dairy is from Norzagaray in Bulacan, eggs from a farm in Batangas, seafood from Palawan. “We get a lot of stuff from Bacolod as well. The idea is to know where everything comes from, so you can actually help and support people.”

Offbeat Bistro is open from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays at the 2nd floor of The Shops at Ayala Triangle Gardens.