Kamias Restaurant: Tahao Road, Legazpi City

Kamias Restaurant 
Tahao Road, Legazpi City 

We decided to escape the chaos brought about
by the Penafrancia Fiesta in Naga City so we
decided to drive to Legazpi City for lunch.



We ended up dining in Kamias, the very first
restaurant that caught our attention while on
Tahao Road, on our way to the city center.



There were no other costumers in Kamias 
and we had the restaurant all for ourselves.
That was perfect though as we wanted
peace and quiet and that was what we got.

The restaurant had simple and banal interiors,
devoid of any elaborate decorations except for
 the several round mirrors adorning the walls.

The intricate patterns on the back chairs
compensate for the otherwise docile design.



We started our lunch with an appetizer called 
Chicken Sisig Cigars, which appeared like
like ordinary spring rolls stuffed with chicken,
mushrooms, bean sprouts rolled in a rice wafers,
dipped in flour and fried to crispy perfection.



It was very delicious and the dish was a good
initiation on our first outing in this restaurant.



The Pork Tamarind Soup or Sinigang na  Baboy
sa Sampalok was however intolerably very sour.
It was so sour that no one really ate it. I would say
that this was the most unpalatably caustic sinigang
that we have ever tasted in our lives. I would not
recommend this dish especially when dining with kids.



The Laing was served with a bits and pieces of very
tender pork,  topped with creamy coconut milk and
had a subtle hint of bagoong, native sili and ginger.
This was so far the most delicious version of this very
popular and iconic Bicolano dish that we have tasted.



We also loved their Pinakbet, as the vegetables
were fresh and not overcooked. It wasn’t salty
and was topped by crunchy pork chicharon.



The Grilled Pork Spare Ribs was okay.
It was very tender as the flesh falls off from
the bones but it is not something that I would
rave. We found it too sweet, tasting like a meat
candy very similar to most uber sweet Pinoy
meat dishes like most longanizas and tocinos.



It was served with Atchara, which just like
like Pork Sinigang was unpalatably sour. 

 

Sinanglay na Tilapia is the dish that really stood
out in this restaurant. The best thing about this dish is-
 they used a headless, boneless tilapia fish fillets, layered
with chopped onions and tomatoes, wrapped with
Pechay leaves, tied with lemon grass and simmered
with coconut milk. It was heavenly delicious. 



We concluded our lunch with a dessert called 
Turones de Legazpi, a banana fritter where the
rice wafer wrapper was glazed with caramel and
served in shot glasses dipped in rich dark chocolate.



The dish looked attractive and tasted good but
the chewy caramel glazing on the turon made
it very hard to chew as it is gristly rubbery. It was
also tough to swallow as it sticks on your teeth and
palate and could cause choking to small  children.

We also ordered Maja Blanca Cheesecake,
 a delightful re- invention of a popular Pinoy   
‘kakanin’ fused with the western New York style
cheesecake and was topped with toasted coconut.



It tasted divine. 



Kamias appears to specialize on conventional Bicolano dishes 
cooked in coconut milk, but I wish it would not live up to its name, 
which is a Tagalog word  for Bicolano's 'Iba' also known as the 
pickle fruit, used as a popular souring agent in some Asian dishes.



They should tone down a bit on the sweetness and sourness of 
 their dishes to be generally acceptable to non- Bicolano diners. 
Price- wise, this is a very affordable and inexpensive restaurant.