Serai is a modern Filipino restaurant in Melbourne, re-imagining traditional food over a wood-fired grill. We had high hopes for this because it’s very rare to see Filipino restaurant but alas, an average visit (even our Filo friend gave it a 6/10). We dined a la carte as a group of 5 on a Tuesday.
Cold & Snack bar
We started with a Sydney oyster each. Simple and straightforward.
Our first dish was kinilaw for $30. Traditionally this is raw fish cooked with acidic ingredients and fresh vegetables. For this, we had wild kingfish, smoked green apple and chicken chicharron. This was a good balance of textures, where the tender fish was complemented well by the smokey sweetness of the green apple and savoury crunchiness of the chicharron.
Next was selat lumpia, for $12 each. This is a popular snack that is essentially a spring roll. At Serai, they mixed it up by using the spring roll as a tart base, filling it with smoked pineapple, spiced coconut and caviar. This was delicious and one of the best dishes of the night.
Crispy Things
This was inasal, a type of grilled marinated chicken for $24. This was woodfired flatbread, chicken skin, annatto and duck yolk. The chicken skin was crunchy and addictive, having retained a bit of the tangy marinade, but it was not enough to see why it was an inasal. The gooey fattiness of the yolk elevated the bite.
This was kare kare, a modern twist of a stew. It was 2 for $26. This was a crispy hash brown with creamy peanut sauce, fresh herbs, and a rich salted duck egg. It was quite bland. Overall decent, but average.
From the wood fire
The Gippsland lamb ribs was served with sticky ‘abodo’ sauce for $32. The lamb was a tad chewy, but still fell off the bone. The sauce was a sticky sweet soy sauce. It was another average dish.
These wood-roasted pig’s head ‘sisig’ tacos were served with a crispy, savory filling, topped with velvety egg butter for a rich texture. A squeeze of tangy calamansi added the perfect citrusy punch. It had a moist, soft mouthfeel. It was $13 each.
Larger plates from the fire
The Western Plains roast pork shoulder, paired with earthy ‘munggo’ and a tangy hot mustard jus was a satisfying combination of flavors, although it could have used a bit more seasoning to elevate the dish. And the pork was a tady chew. $58 for this.
Sides
Finally, the tosilog garlic claypot rice with smoked pork tocino, duck yolk for $28 was a decent dish, but the flavours didn’t quite pop as expected.
Service
The service was good to start, but between the entrees and the mains, there was a long gap.
Review
It might have been due to our high hopes but we left disappointed with the meal. It was still an overall good meal, it just did not do Filipino food justice as it felt like the flavours catered to white people. We would not return.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
Thanks for reading. Happy eating.
This was incredibly useful and well written.