Locavore I Valero — Restaurant in Makati

Locavore is one of the standout restaurants that elevates traditional Filipino cuisine into a more premium dining experience. However, during our first visit, the experience was a bit of a mixed bag—though, for the most part, it was a hit.

Salted Egg Gabi Chips – These were absolutely delicious! Once you start, it’s hard to stop. The crispy texture paired with the salted egg flavor is quite addictive. This was definitely a HIT for me.

Sizzling Sinigang – I’ve seen many vloggers rave about this dish, but sadly, it didn’t quite live up to the hype for me. The sinigang broth was overly sour (even for a sinigang) and too salty. While this may be to some people’s liking, it didn’t work for me. This was a MISS.

Garlic Baby Squid – Another fantastic dish from Locavore. The umami flavor was well-balanced—neither too strong nor too subtle. The squid was perfectly cooked, tender and not at all rubbery or chewy. This was a definite HIT for me.

Sugpo Con Mayonesa – I’m on the fence with this one. While it’s flavorful, I found the mayonnaise to be a bit too overpowering. After a few spoonfuls, it became a bit too rich and “nakaka-umay” (a term for feeling overwhelmed by the taste). I’d call this dish neither a HIT nor a MISS—it’s somewhere in between for me.

Overall, Locavore offers a fantastic upscale dining experience, albeit a bit on the pricier side. If you’re looking for Filipino food with a modern twist, this is the place to go. However, while I can see myself and my family occasionally visiting Locavore to explore more of their creative dishes, I would still gravitate toward more traditionally cooked and affordable Filipino meals at places like Kuya J, Gerry’s Grill, Aling Sosing’s, or Tapsi ni Vivian...

Our orders were completely served around 8p.m. Shortly after, the waiter returned to ask if we have final orders and if we could settle our bill early because the kitchen and cashier were about to close. We complied, but to be honest, it was disruptive as we were still in the middle of our meal.

During our meal, the waiter came back to take one of our empty plate. We requested that he leave it, as we planned to use it for chicken bones. So we placed the pot of tinola on top of the plate to prevent its removal, but the waiter returned again shortly after, lifted the pot, and tried to take the plate. This led us to raise our voices in frustration, asking your staff to leave us alone and let us finish our meal first.

It's common courtesy to let people finish their meal before clearing the table. It's frustrating to feel rushed, as if they wanted us to leave. We weren't difficult customers—no complaints, no excessive requests. And mind you, all of this happened before 8:30 p.m. There were still plenty of people dining inside. I would understand if we were the last customers and it was past your closing time, but that wasn’t the case.

We lost our appetite and didn’t bother finishing our food. This experience, despite the great food, was disappointing, and we are not planning to eat in any of your restaurants again.

Photo below shows our table situation. Andami pa pagkain, gusto nyo na ligpitin. Wala ba OT pay ang workers nyo kaya...

Price: can be a bit pricey. Prices range from 250 to 900+. Personally, I dont think it's bad because the serving sizes are huge.

Service: kind of meh. The server wasn't even looking at us when he asked for our order. Seemed completely disinterested. We were not given any water when we came which I've found to be a standard practice among restaurants of the same price range.

Food: we ordered the porksilog (twice fried porkchop with 2 egs and garlic rice) and lechon oyster sisig. The serving sizes were quite big. I'd say it can be easily split among 2. As for the food, it was good but nothing amazing. The rice for my porksilog felt really mushy. I think it was overcooked. The porkchop was bone dry but then again, it was twice fried so there's that. The eggs were very bland, it could use some salt. Overall, it was ok but I probably won't order it again. They also serve alcohol if you're into that.

Overall, if you're hankering for Filipino food, this is probably a good second place if you can't find...