The term pala-pala was first used due to the market nearby. The market today is called "old pala-pala" due to their being a "new pala-pala" restaurant behind L' Fisher Hotel.
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| Ading's Pala-Pala location |
If you don't know the term, basically, you choose the fish you want and the restaurant will cook it for you. The fish is usually laid out across a long table (or in old pala-pala's case, you buy it at the market and bring it to them) and then the waitress will come and bring it to the chef whom prepares it.
At Ading's Pala-Pala, located at the corner of San Juan and North Capitol streets, you have the pala-pala option and a more common sit down restaurant option. Essentially, it's a more upscale turo-turo than we're used to, so prices are higher as well.
My wife and I love kare-kare, so you can already guess that seafood kare-kare was our first choice.
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| Seafood Kare-Kare and Frozen Iced Tea from Ading's |
Personally, I thought the kare-kare was fantastic. My wife thought it was good, but not the best in Bacolod (that prize goes to Imay's).
We paid 180 pesos for the soup, so my wife figured it would be gigantic. Not so. It was actually about the same size as Chinky's, only with seafood instead of pork. It is also quite a bit more expensive than Chinky's option.
However, the guinamos (bagoong in Tagolog and shrimp paste in English), was made fresh and not dry like what you'd find elsewhere. The seafood was without shell and bones, so you could eat quickly. Who doesn't love that?
Overall, I'd give Ading's 3 out of 5 stars.
Taste: 4 out of 5
Price: 2 out of 5
Presentation: 3 out of 5
Customer service: 2 out of 5
The serving size was a bit small but delicious.
