Gostoso Piri Piri Chicken

A quarter piece of herb-infused Piri Piri Chicken!

It was the start of the long Eid Mubarak’ holiday. As is customary for me during holidays, I skipped breakfast because I was too lazy to get out of bed. I had already cleared my stash of emergency food – mostly candies and chips – before I found the motivation to finally get out of bed and feed myself real food. I know, I know… so healthy, right? So like the modern day hunter-gatherer that I am without any more supplies, I got up and walked over to Kapitolyo to find something to eat…

Location

Gostoso Piri Piri Chicken is located along East Capitol Drive in Brgy Kapitolyo. I discovered this place while attempting to walk the length of East Capitol Drive to find something to eat, starting from Charlie’s Grind and Grill until (hopefully) somewhere past Cilantro. My walk was going well for the first 100 meters… under the hot sun… with grumbling sounds coming from my stomach… before I decided I didn’t need to make a pilgrimage for food. Gostoso Piri Piri Chicken was the closest restaurant to where I gave up. Having only really known four kinds of chicken in my life – fried, roasted, curry, or adobo – I decided to see what “Piri Piri” was all about.

Ambiance

The graffiti on the wall was the first thing I noticed when I entered the restaurant. It was very vibrant and festive in colors. I felt like I was in a Mexican Dr Seuss book about spicy chicken – oh, the chickens I will eat! The graffiti complemented the Bob Marley tunes playing in the background very well. If they had played Latin jazz, then it would have sounded a lot like a Starbucks coffee shop… which isn’t necessarily a bad thing because I tend to focus really well when I cannot understand the music.

Taken from the Facebook page of Gostoso Piri Piri Chicken

The interiors were very spacious with a section clearly laid out for couples and groups, and another for solo diners. The solo dining section was a row of bar seats facing the wall. The great thing about this part was that it had wall outlets!! I like setting up a temporary office in a restaurant or cafe and just work there for a reaaallly long time… or until my butt gets sore. So I think I’ll be visiting this place again for the sole reason of working outside of the office. Perhaps the only thing lacking for me was in-house WiFi.

The group dining section

bar seats!! yay!! you cannot imagine how excited I was to see this… yes, I was excited for bar seats.

Service

I always find myself eating in places that are not packed. Gostoso was no different. After ordering my food, the staff served the food fairly quick. It was like suddenly…chicken! And it was still quite hot and tender. The waiters were on ninja mode most of the time. But they were easy enough to call even from the obscure solo dining corner of the restaurant.

Food

The chicken was superb. I tried it out with four of Gostoso‘s signature sauces – known only as mild, garlic lemon, barbecue, and hot. I didn’t have any particular favorites, but I found that it was best to combine “mild” with a little bit of “hot” to get the right balance of spiciness in the chicken. “Garlic lemon” was a bit overpowering for me, and “barbecue” was really tasty but a bit reminiscent of baby back ribs. In all the chicken was really delicious and worth every peso spent on it!

The price tag for a quarter chicken with rice may be a bit pricey (P180 + P55 for olive rice) for a single person…baka sakto lang kung sobra kang patay gutom. But the serving size was large enough to get me through the rest of the day without needing to eat another large meal for dinner – sulit din!

They also served a range of beverages that I never got to try. I was particularly interested in trying their red wine, which was a 250-ml bottle of wine. Parang Coke sakto lang pero for getting a buzz. They also served three variants of Superbock beer – stout, lager, and lemon. I imagine the stout – a type of dark beer – goes really well with all the spices and herbs in the chicken. I was tempted to try it but maybe next time.

Look at that chicken glistening in the light…

I left this restaurant feeling really satisfied with what I had eaten. It definitely made up for all that junk I ate earlier in the day! I don’t know if Gostoso serves authentic Piri Piri chicken. But it was affordable and sulit enough given that there were provisions like wall outlets for people to really bunk down and stay for the long haul. I’m really recommending this place for solo diners.

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Gostoso Piri Piri Chicken
51-B East Capitol Drive,Kapitolyo, Pasig City
Phone No.: (02) 477-7330
For the menu, check out their Zomato page here:

Nori – Yakitori and Sushi Burrito

It was one of those nights after a long and tiring day at work. Two hours sitting in a bus and getting crammed into a tiny tin can of a jeep during rush hour is not a pleasant night cap. I needed something to give me some good vibes before sleeping. I felt like treating myself out to dinner so I walked over to Kapitolyo for a quick food trip.

Location

I stumbled across Nori by accident. I wanted to check out Kanto Freestyle Breakfast since its been on my bucket list for a while now. Both restaurants are located within walking distance from Shaw Boulevard but you can definitely take a car here if you have one. Kanto Freestyle Breakfast place was packed and full of those rowdy after office types, smoking and drinking up the place like it’s a Friday night. I didn’t want to deal with that kind of ambiance. I saw Nori was right across the street in a tiny space with obscure signage from my vantage point. So I walk over and see the signboard, which reads “sushi burritos and yakitori”

– WAIT, what? SUSHI burritos? This I gotta try!

Ambience

Nori didn’t have much people inside it. After I stepped into the restaurant, a party of four stood up and left, which was good because I needed the space and quiet to relax and unwind. The interiors are fairly cozy as long as it doesn’t get packed. There are no bar seats for one, but they have tables for two that seated me and my dear backpack comfortably. It was rather chill with music that wasn’t really blaring out of the speakers – just enough to hear yourself think. There was an option to sit on the second floor where there is a veranda for spillovers from the first floor or perhaps a cozier dining experience for groups. But it was closed and I didn’t want the staff to open up a section just for me. The whole place really strikes me as a chill and hang out kind of place. There are no wall sockets so it’s definitely not a place where you can work outside of home.

Service

As I’m picking what to eat, I notice the waiters are just standing within earshot behind the cashier’s booth because the restaurant is really tiny. Sometimes I could feel their glances landing on me and overhear some of their conversations, which isn’t necessarily bad but just enough to make me feel aware that I was eating alone. On the plus side, having the waiters within reach made for really quick service. Or maybe because I was the only one in the restaurant at the time…

Food

I was a little skeptical at first because fusion food tends to straddle a thin line between “unimaginably delicious” and “disappointingly pilit (forced)”. Tex-Mex burritos and Japanese sushi are two of my favorite foods but putting both together didn’t cross my mind as a terribly good idea. However, at the affordable price of P159 for an Umami Chicken sushi burrito, I decided to set aside my reservations and give it a try.

After a few minutes of waiting, the waiter serves a cream colored roll made of a soy-based wrapper around a layer of rice and chicken, much like how many Japanese restaurants wrap sushi in nori (or seaweed). It’s served with some potato chips that are a bit soggy but I really didn’t mind. My initial reaction about the meal was that the servings looked small. A roll can just fit in my palm and it didn’t look like there was much wrapped inside. But taking the first bite convinces me that it’s a decent dish that goes beyond appearances. There’s a lot of tenderly cooked chicken inside –  not one of those rolls that are more balat than laman. 

As I’m going through the first roll, the waiter suggests that I try it with some Sriracha sauce. I try it and it’s even better! I finish the dish rather quickly and find myself very stuffed for some reason. Later on, the waiter tells me that it’s actually a dish for two. Wew.

Bigat sa tiyan (Filling)? Definitely. Sulit sa wallet (Affordable)? The thought of splitting P159 with another person and still being full just makes me tear up in joy and disbelief. As I leave the restaurant, I feel better about my night and sign off feeling a slight buzz that’s enough to get me to sleep. I might visit this place again soon to try the other offerings. I recommend it if you’re alone and looking for a chill place to unwind on your own in the evening.

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Nori – Sushi Burrito x Yakitori
1st Street, Bro Building, Brgy. Kapitolyo
Mobile No. +63 9175161153
For the menu, check out their Zomato page here: