What can I tell you about Filipino cuisine?
Well, I guess I could do the usual blogger thing and look up Filipino Cuisine on Wikipedia, paraphrase some of it and pretend that I'm an expert.
Or I could come clean and tell you that I've been to Jollibee once (it was underwhelming), have had a corker of a lunch at Panadera Bakery in Camden Town, and I gather that roast pork is kind of a big deal.
Which brings me to Donia, a sister restaurant to Panadera, which is located on the top floor of Kingly Court near London's Carnaby Street. Since opening in late 2023, it’s been getting a lot of love. Jimi Famurewa called it “London’s best new restaurant” and Tim Hayward proclaimed it a “delightful revelation.”
Donia describes itself as serving contemporary Filipino cuisine that combines traditional flavours with seasonal British produce and different culinary techniques. So, chicken inasal, lechon, and adobo sit alongside choux buns, pithiviers and pomme Anna.
Dishes at Donia are designed to be shared, but I wouldn’t judge anyone for wanting to keep their food all to themselves. We were a group of four, so the friendly waiter kindly supplemented a couple of the dishes so that the portions were suitable for a quartet of mouthfuls.
We kicked things off with a light soft, salty and sweet pandesal bread roll (£4.50) that we thickly slathered with whipped chive butter.
Donia’s adobo takes the form of mushroom croquetas (£7.50). A coarse wild mushroom mix was spiked with the deep umami hit of soy and tanginess of vinegar and coated in the crispest of crumbs.
Plump prawn and pork dumplings (£15 + £5 supplement) were topped with sweet white crab meat and sat in a pool of luxurious brown butter and lime sauce with a thrum of chilli and pearls of salty fish roe. This was the first indication of just how good Donia is at saucing – each example was distinct yet brilliant.
A quartet of gigantic sweet-fleshed prawns (£28 + £3 supplement) were treated with the care they deserved. Kissed with smoke from the grill, they were served with their heads on to retain all that extra flavour and accompanied by a fermented plum broth that was addictively sweet, salty, fragrant and sour.
Lechon (£27) lived up to its fame. With hyper crisp and light crackling and juicy fat-rendered flesh, it was some of the best roast pork I've ever eaten. But the kicker was an immensely rich sauce which combined the decadence of chicken liver pate and the punch of peppercorn. Woof.
Chicken inasal (£28), marinated for 48 hours in coconut, vinegar, lemongrass and calamansi, before a good char on the grill was every bit as crisp and juicy as you could hope for. Topped with zingy pickles, it was accompanied by another corker of a rich, spicy and tangy sauce that was made with the butter enriched marinade.
Finally, a lamb shoulder caldereta pie (£35) was a pithivier-esque pastry palace that combined light golden pastry filled with shreds of tender meat, peppers and potatoes. I'm sounding like a broken record now but the accompanying sauce, enriched with tomato and chicken liver, was another bobby dazzler.
Bowls of jasmine rice (£5) were essential for mopping up all those sauces. A spoon also earned its keep that night, scraping up every last drop.
Dessert, so often an assembly of tasty things in even the best restaurants, took the form of a skilled piece of patisserie. A crisp and light craquelin coated choux bun (£14) was filled with vibrant purple ube ice cream, whose earthy vanilla and coconut flavour oddly reminds me of Nice biscuits. Whilst it’s a dessert which is probably designed to be shared, I’ll be ordering my own next time.
We had a belter of a meal at Donia with their whopping flavoured, technically accomplished and fairly priced cooking. Whilst I might be an ignoramus when it comes to Filipino cooking, our meal at Donia was an enlightening experience and I’ll be seeking out those rich, tangy and meaty flavours closer to home.
The Details:
Address - Donia, Top Floor Kingly Court, Carnaby Street, London W1B 5PW
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