Gallery VASK

Aprilannetigue

5.0

Gallery Vask's Lakbay menu takes you to a culinary journey of the Philippines. I am so happy that we have this kind of dining showcasing local flavors. The 10 course meal is a proud way of telling a story of what the Filipino culture is. And I'd say the best part are the desserts. Amazing conceptualization and execution! I will be back to try the other menus! If they have a more adventurous dining ware and if they pushed more on plating, it would've been perfect. Clearly their discipline in food preparation is truly world class.

Jas G Tan

4.0

When my best friend was here in Manila, I was super close to eating in Gallery Vask. I’ve been hearing about the gastronomical experience the restaurant gives to its customers that is why this has been in my mind since. Sadly, our dinner didn’t push through since there weren’t enough seats to accommodate my siblings who joined us last minute. I told myself that I would come back for it if time and money permit.J and I would always have our annual Christmas dinner which always falls on the 23rd, our monthsary. I think he does this on purpose so he won’t have to spend twice haha just kidding! :P of course, I had to ask him where we were going to eat and he would always tell me, “surprise!” or “secret”. I like surprises but I’m a very impatient person and not knowing where we were going to eat, drives me crazy. We were already on our way to the restaurant and even though it will take less than an hour for me to know where we were going to eat, I never stopped bugging him and throwing out restaurants to which he would answer with “I don’t know” or “maybe”. When we arrived at the building, the guard asked us where we were going to and just when J was about to answer, my dad called. Great, just great. The surprise was driving me crazy. I had ideas where we were going to eat but I didn’t want to expect. We rode the elevator to the main lobby and transferred to another elevator. The elevator ride took FOREVER! Finally, when we reached the 5th floor, my heart was beating fast and I thought to myself, “could this be it (Gallery Vask)?!”. I stepped out and saw that I was right!!! The moment I saw the sign, tears of joy were starting to build up and I couldn’t contain my excitement!!You see, J knows that my love for food is incredibly insane and I super duper want to try Gallery Vask ever since. I kind of accepted already that it is impossible to dine with him in places like this because of our current situation. So him surprising me with this, it really just felt surreal. The moment we sat on our table, I couldn’t control my tears anymore. He saw my reaction and he started tearing up. It was really such an emotional moment. When I finally calmed down, I felt really really excited and I just couldn’t wait to start this gastronomical journey!Cold SalabatA refreshing, well-balanced welcome drink made with calamansi liquor, calamansi juice, ginger juice and Don Papa rum. Looks like we’re off to a great start! :)Our server handed us a brown paper bag, with a service bread, each, accompanied by coconut butter and coconut salt. It was an interesting twist to the usual yellow butter served in restaurants. A mini grater was placed on our table, for us to grate the coconut salt, which looks like one huge rock. It was very entertaining! Now, if only I could take that mini grater home! :DAnother complimentary bread but definitely far from the usual. This one mimics a famous Filipino pulutan, chicharon. Made with Parmesan cheese and glutinous rice, this light and crispy pandesal is filled with adobo mousse. When bitten, the mousse explodes in your mouth. It was surprisingly good, if only I could ask for more!“Binondo” – amuse boucheBinondo is an area in Manila where you can find a lot of street foods hence, the title of this amuse bouche.The cuttlefish, topped with soy gel and calamansi, resembles a Chinese dish, siomai. It was tasty and fresh!On the right are two mini empanadas, filled with pork longganisa, salted egg, paprika, seasoned with vinegar. I never liked salted eggs and hearing that these empanadas consist of salted eggs, I felt a bit hesitant to try it. As I took my first bite, I could barely taste the pork longganisa and salted egg. Maybe there were not much of these two ingredients or the size of these empanadas was too small. Nevertheless, it was good.Is Vask really serving isaw (made of chicken intestine)?! Of course not! The “isaw” is made of shrimp and flavored with some mild shrimp paste with egg white and then torched to perfection. Turned out to be delicious!“Lutong Bahay”Lutong bahay means homemade. Imitating home-cooked meals, Vask has its own version.The baby sayote, was marinated with vinegar and topped with chicharo chips. The latter is composed of pickled sayote and snow peas, juiced, and then put into a dehydrator to make it crisp. It had a sharp taste, full of piquancy.The cherry tomatoes, on the left, were mixed with cashew nuts or cashew paste. It was quite interesting but not my favorite.The cream of corn was infused with cilantro root and coconut cream and topped with alamang, or also called crispy baby shrimps. Among all, this was my favorite! It was addicting and very enjoyable to eat! Can I have more of this please? :DBeer UrchinIt is a classic combination of foie gras and black beer foam. Underneath these two ingredients is sea urchin. One of the ingredients also happens to be orange; who would have thought orange would go so well with sea urchin?! Mindblown! It was my first time to try such thing, I found it unusual at first but as I continue to eat it, it turns out to be surprisingly good. Ravine“What the heck is this?!”, my thought bubble the moment I saw this. J’s face was blank haha! Consists of aligue, coconut meat, pumpkin pebbles with liquid nitrogen and coconut juice. The green one is made with avocado and cilantro. It was, well… unique. It wasn’t bad nor was it that good. SorsogonThe sautéed liver prawn lobster was succulent and mouthwatering. The sauce is made of green monggo and lobster heads. The mango cashews, infused with some spicy vinegar, were tender as they were pickled in spicy coconut. SteakOne thing I like about dégustation is how the servers would always describe how your dish is prepared. For this course, there was some element of surprise since our server told us that she would tell us more about this dish AFTER we finish it. Written on the menu, it said, steak. Of course, both of us were excited. The ‘steak’ was really tender and flavorful. Spectacular would be the best word for it. As promised, our server told us more about the dish. It wasn’t steak after all! Those were slices of seared tuna cheeks! Chef put some beef jaw for it to taste like beef! Amazing!! The greens on top are talinum, kangkong and native basil. If I can cook some fish that tastes like steak, I wouldn’t mind having it everyday! :) Buro Buro, is a Filipino dish made from fermented rice. It is usually complemented with fish and in this case, the Maya-maya fish was torched and then steamed with banana leaves. On the side are two mustard leaves; fresh and torched. In between are pickled red onions, which gave out an extra zing when eaten altogether. I loved the crispiness and tenderness of the fish. To me, buro is like a Filipino version of risotto. I prefer dinorado or Japanese rice over the regular ones like Jasmine; so I definitely approved the buro! Earth Looking at this dish, the colors resemble nature; hence, the name of this dish. The steak, was cooked in charcoal to impart the flavor then transferred on the pan, and was garnished with the tiny stems which happens to be cleaned and dehydrated cilantro roots.You can never go wrong with steak. It was succulent and tender. It was a great pair with the beetroots sauce while the ginger confit, on the middle, was a great breaker. Taho Among all of the dishes, I feel like this has the best presentation I guess it also gives that familiar feeling like how we used to buy taho on the streets since we were kids. Instead of soy, chef used goat’s milk. In that pipette contain ginger oil and ginger essence to remove that “goaty” taste from the milk. It was a different take on taho since vendors would usually change the syrup and not the milk. It was “okay”, something different, but I still prefer the classic one which is made with soy milk. Pingol Bato Named after a leaf of Aetas, Pingol Bato, tasted a lot like sour green apples. I never knew this exists! This dessert is made with pili nuts, dalandan mousse, and dalandan meringue. I loved the zing and citrus taste when each and every ingredient is combined.3/11 One of the dishes I am truly amazed at. By its title, 3/11, the dish includes three kinds of milk, goat, cow and carabao’s milk, and 11 textures, which are dulce de leche, citrus/coffee mousse, sponge cake that is soaked into milk mix, tibok-tibok which is a Kapampangan’s version of maja blanca, milk chips which came from dehydrated milk skin, milk foam, cistrus/coffee parfait, smoked ice cream and broken milk dome. J and I had to choose between citrus or coffee flavor. Of course, I chose coffee while he got the citrus. I never thought milk could be processed in a lot of ways. It was a delightful dish! As we were eating it, we were looking for all the 11 textures and trying them one by one. Sungka We were already full by the time we reached the last course. This used to be my favorite game when I was still a kid and it was nice to see this again with on another take and my favorite thing to do right now, eat. Each hole contain different kinds of Filipino finger food, or pika-pika, such as, candied kamias, green mangoes dipped in dark chocolate, jelly tamarind, peanut brittle, bucayo which is a young coconut cooked in brown sugar, coffee polvoron, coconut macarons, pastillas, chocnut, kaong with calamansi zest, pili nuts and squash. To be honest, I couldn’t remember which is which anymore since J and I were a bit creative into trying each. We each picked one and have the other taste it. It was really cool! :) Even after we finished eating (for 3 hours), I still cannot believe that we are here, together. Our tummies were satisfied with the splendid dishes we had. It was really a gastronomical experience and I recommend this for those people who love to try new things. Even until now, remembering that we dined here still gives me butterflies and makes me tear up. Seems like only a restaurant to some, but to me, J bringing me here is definitely one for the books.I hope to go back again soon and try the more casual Vask restaurant beside it! Kudos to Chef Chele Gonzales! :)Thank you, J, for this gastronomical night! :)

Chie Locsin

2.0

Having been to a few starred restaurants, this is not really up to my expectationoverall the sour taste is too overpoweringwe had the 17 course tasting menu, and left half wayit was either too sour or too saltythe elephant clam is overcooked and too fishyoyster - gosh i had stomach upset that night. too fishy as well.I won;t recommend the current menu. But service is really good as they realized I didn't like it and let us leave half way without charge.I would try it again if the menu changes