Kaldero: Irish-Filipino cooking in Dublin city centre

Kaldero is a basement restaurant on South King Street where Wagamama used to be, at the side of Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre. When it first opened late last year it was billed as an Asian fusion style spot, exploring Filipino, south-east Asian and Indian flavours. Richie Castillo from Bahay was involved as consultant chef along with others, under the ownership of Press Up.

Hospitality empires such as Press Up, which recently rebranded as Eclective, tend to get a bad rap. It’s unsurprising, in a field that values authenticity and singular chef creativity, that restaurants that seem to have been cynically conceived by suits don’t go down well with the food critics.

Kaldero received some terrible reviews when it first opened; with Corinna Hardgrave stating it was “a dining experience that feels more like being fed by an accountant” and All The Food giving it an equally scathing pan.

But now the restaurant has had a reboot, and it seems to be winning the critics over on its second iteration. After a brief closure earlier this year, Kaldero has reopened more definitively under the helm of Bahay, whose strong identity is key to the restaurant’s redemption.

Bahay is the much-loved and multifaceted food project run by Irish-Filipino chef Richie Castillo and his partner Alex O’Neill. From food pop-ups, bespoke events, cookbooks, products and media appearances, Richie and Alex have been busy and people love what they do. Their aim across all their projects is to introduce people to unique Filipino flavours using the very best Irish ingredients.

I first sampled Bahay’s food this June at Open Ear festival on Sherkin island. Richie and Alex have been on the receiving end of clamorous acclaim for years now so I don’t know why I dilly-dallied. On Sherkin, I had one of Bahay’s legendary longanisa sausages, a sweet, spiced, garlicky banger made with organic, free-range pork by Offaly’s Pigs on the Green. Pigs on the Green products are always fantastic, so I wasn’t surprised that the longanisa lived up to the reputation it has in Dublin’s food circles.

My other main encounter with Filipino cuisine thus far was with the invigorating condiment pinakurat, a potent, acetic liquid made from vinegary fermented coconut sap, chillies and other aromatics. I bought it blindly on a whim in the Asia Market beside Jervis and became quickly obsessed. I had never tasted anything like it. So I was really happy to be invited to try the menu at Kaldero 2.0 and brought along my pal Jane.

Neither of us had been in the building since Wagamama many years ago. It feels different. The room is dark with a scattering of overhead lamps and colourful textile art on the walls. The menu is a nice length, just one page, so our tired post-work brains were able to digest it fairly easily. There’s a good variety though, with different sections loosely along the lines of snacks, small plates, main courses and desserts. It’s ideal for sharing and is inspired by how Filipino families eat.

First off we had the panedesal, a soft, crusted bread roll which we used to scoop up fluffy, salty yeast butter. I could have eaten ten. We then shared the deep fried okoy – crisp baby leek fritters with spiced sugarcane vinegar, the tupa – lamb ribs, meltingly soft in a rich black bean sauce, served with crunchy kohlrabi, and what I think was my personal favourite, sinigang – tempura oyster mushrooms with a tangy tamarindy whipped tofu dip. To finish us off, we had the pyanggang, a whole chicken marinated in burnt coconut, with annato oil and atchara.

 

The kitchen is home to a bespoke Smokin’ Soul grill and it did a great job on the chicken, which was juicy, delicious and perfectly charred. By that point we were very full, but we managed to squeeze in an ube soft serve – ube is a kind of yam used to make ice cream in the Philippines. It’s bright purple and was a fun end to the meal.

Drinks here are also super, the cocktail menu is short but enticing: I had the pineapple siling labuyo margarita (just sweet, spicy, and salty enough) and my friend had the mangga’t alat, a rum-based mixture with mango, lime and fish sauce. You can even get a pinakurat bloody maria (next time).

 I really enjoyed our meal at the revamped Kaldero. It’s a great spot for casual eating in the city centre. The singular focus on the bold flavours of Irish-made Filipino food makes for a more genuine dining experience than the original Kaldero. I would have liked to see some more intensity in some of the flavours, in line with my pinakurat obsession, but we may have inadvertently ordered the more subtle dishes on the menu.

Get in to Kaldero soon for some real open-fire cooked food with a big heart. 

 

Bio: Caitríona Devery is a writer from Offaly but based in Dublin, with interests in food, art, heritage and the environment. She is a member of the Irish Food Writers’ Guild and has written for the UK-based Feast Journal, Dublin’s Rabble magazine as well as District magazine and its offshoot Char.