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MANILA, Philippines—Robbie Goco’s done it again.
After the Boracay hit Greek restaurant Cyma and carwash cheese steak joint Charlie’s, both known for their quality food and unpretentious settings, comes Ristras (pronounced rees-trah; long ‘e,’ silent ’s’), a Mexican fast-food restaurant in San Juan City.
Like Charlie’s, if you don’t know the area, you may get lost in the hunt for the Goco go-to. The San Juan roads, after all, are partial to residents and familiar faces. (San Juan inside roads curve like a crazy 8!) But if you are familiar with Wilson, just turn right on Alex III and you will find Ristras just a few corners down the road.
When you get there, don’t expect to be served. You will have to work for your food, so to speak. Goco has gotten into the business of the “interactive dining experience.” This means you will have to point to the man behind the counter which items among those laid out you would like with your burrito or tacos. Just the way you would create a sandwich at, say, Oliver’s or Subway. This may hold up the line a bit, especially if you come after a fickle-minded man, but at least you get the satisfaction of having your burrito just the way you want it.
This is how it goes: You will tell the dude behind the counter whether you want a burrito or a taco. Then you will decide between cilantro lime rice or chorizo brown rice. Next, you can choose to add black beans and/or chili. Then you get to choose what ulam (viand) you want inside: chicken, “carnitas” or pork, “barbacoa” or beef, steak, or simply vegetarian. (Whew!)
It doesn’t end there. You will be asked if you want to add guacamole or sour cream, or both. Plus maybe jalapeno and their “pico de gallo,” a mixture of diced onions and tomatoes with lime. If you don’t want to think but just to eat, you can go to the barbecue joint across. Here at Ristras, there are choices, choices, choices.
What you will not have to decide on are the number of tacos in your taco order and the size of the burrito. An order of tacos has three pieces, while the burritos come in only one size: huge. It’s almost eight inches long and maybe four inches in diameter. If you finish an entire piece ... you must be a football player or something.
They are big in taste, too. The ingredients do not include salsa (this comes separately) but taste as if they were dancing to salsa—very much alive and kicking. Of course, it’s Mexican cooking—so if it’s bland, you must be doing something terribly wrong.
On the topic of salsa, what I very much appreciated instead of salsa was their signature white garlic sauce in the Corona beer bottle. You’ll have to ask the waiter for that.
On the matter of taste, this here is not attributed only to the inherent flavors of the ingredients but the process used in preparing them. The menu boasts that Ristras offers “slow food, done right, served fast!”
I had to find Robbie Goco’s number (thank you, Manny) to ask him to break this statement down. (“Slow food na fast food, ano yun, oxymoron?!”) Our two-minute phone interview revealed that slow food literally means that the food was cooked slowly, not in a rushed, cheated manner. “It means the steak that is before you had been marinating for the past 12 hours; the braised beef was cooked for at least eight hours; the carnitas also for at least eight hours,” Goco explained. But it is served to you counter-style and therefore ... fast!
Then he slammed fast foods everywhere: “Nowadays, where fast-food joints are patterned after car manufacturing companies where everything is processed, where even the meat was done six months ago, we present real slow food. Nothing was processed and we don’t even use MSG.” Naks, slow food advocate.
Goco’s advocacy is seen (and tasted) not only in the tacos and burritos but also in the Albondigas soup whose stock bursts with flavor. So while you won’t find plates at this joint (you can eat out of the basket they serve the food in), you can nevertheless expect principle-centered cooking. That translates to a really good soup and a really good burrito! •
Ristras. Jose Abad Santos cor. Lopez Jaena St., San Juan.
