Filipino food had no noticeable representation within Ireland’s eating out landscape before Richie Castillo and Alex O’Neill’s Bahay came along. After doing phenomenal pop ups and appearing at some of Ireland’s most prized food festivals, it was groundbreaking news that they had been given control of the Kaldero kitchen. 

Since it first opened, Kaldero failed to excite Dublin crowds with its triple-edged (Chinese, Filipino and Indian) approach to food. However, Castillo being given the reins of the kitchen is likely to catapult the restaurant to success; a recent meal there was testament to this.

The room remains similar from when Wagamama operated it, except for a new, pleasant buzz with people eager to try the Irish-Filipino offerings. Both the cocktail and the food menu are a satisfying length, with variety that’s enough for one visit and also reason to return for more. 

The pineapple siling labuyo margarita is tart and crisp, with the sourness from the pineapple and calamansi coming through. It comes with a Tajin rim that adds a nice kick along with the use of labuyo chilli.

Pandesal, a pillowy bread roll served with roasted yeast butter, is a comforting place to start with the food. Biting into the pandesal is like what biting into clouds might feel like, the yeast butter serving as an appropriate accompaniment. The okoy, fritters made by deep-frying julienned and battered leek, kamote (sweet potato) and watercress, are served with sawsawan, a vinegar-based dipping sauce. It’s a starter that makes for audible crunching as you break off bits, dip them into the sawsawan and taste satisfying mouthfuls. 

Inihaw na manok are chicken thigh skewers marinated in Bahay’s signature banana ketchup and grilled. As you slide piece after piece off the skewer, a distinct smoky flavour forms the majority of every bite. Sinigang, oyster mushroom tempura, is lighter than other tempura I’ve eaten. It’s a little bland on its own but achieves the right flavour with the accompanying salty, whipped tofu.

The squid adobo was my favourite dish among everything we tried: a salty, peppery sauce coated the well-cooked squid and worked like a charm with some garlic fried rice. Tortang talong, an omelette stuffed with aubergine and topped with impossibly thin, crisp shreds of spring onion, comes with tomato, sliced gordal olives and whipped goat’s cheese. All the ingredients merge well together, with the aubergine making it meaty and the olives and the goat’s cheese adding a slight saltiness. It’s emblematic of what Bahay stands for: Filipino staples and Irish ingredients. Atchara, pickled carrots and cabbage, worked like a palate cleanser between both mains.

A well-rounded meal deserved to be closed with dessert and we got the donat: donuts with toasted coconut sugar, resting on kalamansi curd. Soft and spongy, the donuts were complemented by the sweet kalamansi curd that had a slight tartness, and the coconut sugar added another layer of flavour. 

Kaldero’s new promise is honest and rooted in tradition: “We’re not here to introduce, elevate or repackage the food of The Philippines. We’re here to celebrate it. To honour it,” the website says. With Castillo and O’Neill at its helm, and as long as Bahay reigns supreme in the kitchen, the restaurant can only move upwards from here.