Bale Kapampangan serves traditional, authentic dishes that are specialties of Pampanga (a province…read morein Central Luzon in the Philippines, widely known as the culinary capital of the Philippines and famous for inventing iconic dishes such as sisig and creating breakfast staples such as tocino). The menu is extensive and contains dishes that are not commonly seen in other Filipino restaurants in the GTA, including unique dishes such as Tamales Bobotu (Kapampangan delicacy made of ground rice, coconut milk, and savoury filling, wrapped in banana leaf), Champorado (warm chocolate rice porridge with milk and dried fish), Buro (fermented rice with grilled fish), Seafood Gambas, Bringhe (Kapampangan paella), Tinolang Tugak (frogs soup), Tinoloang Suso (snails soup), and more.
There is free parking in the plaza shared with other Filipino businesses (right next door to a other Filipino restaurants (including Kabalen), a Filipino grocery store, and bakery), but it tends to get busy, especially on weekends.
The interior was nice, bright, clean, and modern-looking. Service was very friendly and all servers seemed very jolly, helpful, courteous, and all-round great.
There were fresh fish and seafood on ice for display and selecting if you choose to get market fish/seafood, and you could choose the cooking style: inahaw (grilled), baked, ginataang (with coconut milk), kinilaw (ceviche), escabeche (with tangy vinegar-based sauce), or sinigang (sour soup). Fish and seafood selection included salmon, tuna, pompano, red snapper, lobster, and oysters.
They did say that most of the dishes would come out in about 30 minutes, except for the Buro Platter which would take 45 minutes to cook (because it included a whole grilled catfish). We were ok with the wait as everything was made fresh to order. They gave complimentary boiled peanuts to every table while we were waiting for the food to cook.
Review of all the dishes we tried:
1) Tinolang Tugak (frogs soup cooked with bok choy, chayote, ginger, garlic, onion) - This came in a huge pot where the server poured the broth into the pot on the table. There were a TON of frogs in this soup. I really liked the soup broth - very gingery and comforting, which would be perfect on a cold winter day. I loved the vegetables it came with (bok choy, chayote, and visible pieces of ginger).
2) Buro Platter (popular dish in Pampanga - whole grilled catfish with buro (fermented rice), lettuce wraps, and assorted blanched vegetables) - This was the star of the meal. It was a huge portion, perfect for sharing with 3-4 people. The catfish was grilled to perfection, and went really well with the buro. I liked the taste of the fermented rice, and the soft texture made it taste like comfort food. I loved the assortment of blanched vegetables that came with the platter: okra, eggplant, sponge gourd, and bitter melon. This wholesome dish was definitely worth the long wait.
3) Bringhe / "Kapampangan Paella" - Inspired by the Spanish paella, the Kapampangan version had a unique twist in that it used glutinous rice mixed with coconut milk and turmeric (which gave its yellow colour), simmered in rich annatto broth, and topped with various seafood (large prawns, mussels, squid, whole crab legs, sliced boiled egg, and bell peppers). It was flavourful and I liked the seafood that it was topped with, but I preferred the rice in the traditional Spanish / Valencia-style paella more. It was good to try the Kapampangan version / their unique take on paella though.
4) Sapsuey - My usual go-to vegetables dish every time I come to any Filipino restaurant. Here, they were able to separate the thick gravy sauce from the vegetables (by request). I loved the assorted blanched vegetables (asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, snow peas, bell peppers, long beans, cabbage, corn) with fish balls, shrimps, and quail eggs - perfect without any sauce.
5) Lobster a la Pobre (steamed lobster sautéed with sliced mushrooms, onions, and spices) - They gave us seafood claw crackers and plastic gloves for this dish, which we appreciated. There wasn't much lobster meat though... there were 2 claws and a lobster head but we barely found any lobster meat. It was 90% mushrooms. I found this dish to be VERY salty; it was my least favourite dish out of everything that we ordered.
6) Raw Oysters - 6 small raw oysters as appetizer. They were okay - as expected for raw oysters. They came served with optional vinegar and Tabasco sauce.
Overall, this was a five-stars restaurant serving unique dishes that were Kapampangan specialties that we could not find in other Filipino restaurants in the area. Great quality, awesome and friendly service, and large variety of menu items to choose from. I loved that every dish contained some sort of vegetables (I love my veggies!). Everything was colourful and plated beautifully. I'd come back again to try their other dishes that we didn't have room for in the first round.
