Nato & Helen Native & Seafoods Restaurant

Dinner time last night was alone again, as usual. I asked the 2 friendly Injap front desk girls where would be a nearby restaurant that is a "pride of Iloilo" (there are a lot, btw!).

That question seemed easy, and they alternately started blurting a litany, almost all of them inside the mall, some of them not even originally from Iloilo! So I said, those that are not inside SM City, preferably those that are walking distance from this hotel and "kahit turo-turo, basta Iloilo original.

It took some seconds and the "aha moment" finally came (they accidentally said like duet!) - Nato and Helen! I asked "ano yan"? And they told me its a native pinoy restaurant but they have the best seafood dishes. They asked "do you like seafoods sir"? I jokingly said "no, I don't like, I LOVE seafood". And they said "go now sir, palaging puno yan sila"! I said "teka, I need to change", and they were quick to say "you can go in your shorts sir, its okay, go now, dali baka mag-waiting ka pa"! Hmm...

So I walked as instructed, to the side of the hotel and down Jalandoni street.

Sus, ang lapit lang pala. Something like just two blocks away from the hotel.


Ah, this place is mainly turo-turo style. Raw or cooked food are displayed at a counter

but they also have a menu card, then dictate what you want to the waiters. You can even call to reserve, if you need to! They have staff to assist you (while still choosing your food at the counter), who, automatically becomes your wait-staff cum butler. Masaya!

Probably due to their word-of-mouth popularity, this place is almost always full that you might need to wait for a table to be available during peak lunch and dinner hours. Oh, due to this restaurant's popularity, other food products (pasalubongs mainly) are also all over the place that the restaurant's food counter now looks like a grocery store shelf!

What did I have? Grilled Boneless Bangus and Grilled Liempo - not that I did not have an issue (about my self, not the restaurant), but I will tell you after these pics of my food

Grilled Boneless Bangus. Yummy! It looks a bit too orangy in color, but I guess that is the "secret whatever" they use when grilling the fish. Turmeric? or Atsuete? Secret nga eh!

The other yummy dish was... no, NOT Rowena hahaha...

Grilled Liempo! On the left edge of the photo, that is! I forgot to take a full picture of the dish, so I just showed this pic where Rowena is at center hehe! Why did I take a pic of that Rowena plastic cup? Because its another lesson! Aside from being primarily a tissue holder, it also sports the name of your wait staff. She was Rowena in my case. Ganun!

Okay now, as I said above I had issues. Not tissues, issues! Here they are and take note:

1) I wanted to taste other things - like the squid, kinilaw, chicken and oysters. How could that be, eh I only have one small stomach :( And the serving portions of anything here, looks like all are good for two! Eh nag-iisa nga ako! Solution: don't come back alone - dahil mamamatay ka sa inggit hahaha! Bring a whole gang and splurge!

2) My second issue, I think I already said this in another blog entry - being alone made me feel so "kawawa naman ako"! Hahaha, imagine a restaurant full of people - they are usually in groups and at least two people dining together. Everybody happy, and lively, even boisterous. Biglang you see me alone on a table. Parang sawi. Sawimpalad hahaha!

Yun ang issues ko, otherwise, pagpapawisan ka sa sarap! This is a very good find!

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