Where to eat in Laguna: Exotik Restaurant
Monday, August 19, 2013Being a Laguna resident since I was born, I have to be proud of original restaurants found only in our province. One of the restaurants that I wanted to go to because of its unique offering - exotic food - was Exotik Restaurant located in Kalayaan, Laguna. This restaurant caters exotic food that Bizarre Foods host Andrew Zimmern will love.
Exotik restaurant is located along the National Highway of Kalayaan, Laguna. As we were riding in a car, I only remember the journey taking an hour - I think - from Los Banos, Laguna. Coming from Manila, I'd say it would take you 3-4 hours maximum.
A bridge to the main dining area / Area in front of the restaurant
The restaurant is made up of several pavilions and huts merged with huge trees. Instead of a sprawling property, the restaurant was built upwards - so you have to climb a number of stairs to get to the top. The place seemed empty though and looks a bit unused, especially the large pavilions.
As we were exploring, a couple of snakes greeted us. Why, hello there!
The bigger snake I think is the owner's prized lucky snake and the other one - I forgot. I'm not a fan of snakes - especially when they look dangerous so I end my post about them here. :))
There was even a cave bar, complete with stalactites, which seemed to be unused as well. Stacks of chairs were on the location of the bar, indicating that it has been a while since the area was touched.
Being an exotic restaurant, there's another creepy and exotic decoration near our table...
...the head of a wild boar. It reminded me of Princess Mononoke. My sister seems to be having a conversation with the boar. Haha.
So, going to the food. We ordered the usual fare, grilled pusit, sinigang na bangus, and fried daing na... I forgot the fish. And then we picked the exotic dishes - frog legs in gata or coconut milk and shark meat in oyster sauce.
Grilled squid and sinigang na bangus
Fried daing na... some fish
Shark meat in oyster sauce
Frog legs in coconut milk/gata
First off, I have to validate that frog legs do taste like chicken. At first I was hesitant to eat it, but when I tasted some of the meat - yes, it tastes like chicken. While for the shark meat... malansa - it seemed like it wasn't that fresh. The oyster sauce wasn't able to calm down the weird taste of the meat so I didn't enjoy the dish that much.
Another observation from the dishes is that the serving is too small. Looking back at how much I shelled out for that meal, each dish was too expensive for the serving they gave us. The taste was not that great - maybe the frog legs stood out but the rest was ordinary. Clearly, you go to Exotik Restaurant to enjoy the restaurant itself but not the food.
Well, we charge eating in the restaurant to experience. After all, when we dined in there, it was my birthday! It was a memorable experience, especially after eating the infamous frog legs.
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