Mineral placed a bit higher on our list of to-try places after Estufarian commented favourably on it awhile back. Then an event nearby provided a convenient excuse to finally give it a try. We were impressed by the rich and complex flavours of the food and the great cocktails. The servers didn’t quite know the dishes, giving us incorrect or incomplete info a number of times.
We tried four cocktails:
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Calamansi Papi: dark rum, Banane du Brésil, Benedictine, calamansi, mango, and bitters - sweet, but not too sweet.
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Manila Nights: tequila, calamansi, lime, agave, orange Curaçao, mango passionfruit foam - basically an orangey margarita with some tropical notes.
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Siargao Shmoke: mezcal, Aperol, pineapple, lychee, lime, agave - smokey, nice lychee flavour, and a little bitter.
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Halo-Halo from the Other Side: rum, coconut milk, condensed milk, shiso bitter, fruit punch and mango jellies, and crispy rice - basically a wondeful alcoholic dessert.
They started us off with a lovely amuse of butternut squash and coconut soup, with truffle and something crunchy.
Our server told us that the Tuna Kinilaw featured albacore tuna (generally sustainable), but when it arrived its red-pink hue said otherwise (turned out to be the less likely to be sustainable yellowfin). Too bad, as otherwise it was enhanced beautifully with passionfruit and calamansi marinade, ikura, avocado mousse, watermelon radish, and came with crab chips.
An order of Ensaymada brought brioche-like, cheddar-y bread, served with fragrant porcini butter and hojicha honey, to which we added supple housemade duck prosciutto with cantaloupe.
Charred Cauliflower was decorated with a flavourful combo of asiago, crispy shallot, calamansi, sweet soy, and Sichuan pepper.
Ibérico Pork Collar had a Pinoy BBQ glaze and came with pineapple, chicharrón, black garlic aioli, atchara, carrot and daikon pickles, and shiso, all to throw into lettuce leaves for eating - yummy and fun.
The best dish was the Oxtail Kare Kare: meltingly tender meat and collagen, with pungent shrimp caramel, sweet eggplant, burnt coconut, shishito peppers, peanut annatto jus, and Tamaki Gold Rice.
We had space for one dessert and tried the Miso + Mascarpone Bibingka, a dense and not-to-sweet cake, served with a coconut pandan sorbet, and rum dulce de leche. Good but not essential. The Halo Halo cocktail was better.
