Sunday lunch at Pavia Seafood Place

At the crossroads of Iloilo city and the Iloilo airport, the town of Pavia is now fast developing not only in terms of residential-commercial-industrial but also in gastronomy. But for a small town that has no access to the sea, it seems to be unlikely to hold seafood restaurants. The past few years saw the mushrooming of this type food stops along the highway and yesterday during a birthday celebration I got to taste test the newest of them all - Pavia Seafood Place.

Big! That's how I see the place the many times I passed by the restaurant located in Brgy. Mali-ao. And big it is in the inside with native tables and benches that can accommodate more than a hundred. It's almost "al fresco" as walls are made with screen materials to to let the air and light in while the insects out (but they found other ways in -lol).

Adding a more native flair and a casual ambiance is the pebbled flooring and the turo-turo display where the "eats of the days" are there for the eyes to feast on. That time aside from the grilled specialties like locus (squid), bangus and pork chops they had saucy meat dishes and vegetables plus kinilaw na tangigue? and seaweeds. But what caught my attention was the delectable display of plated lechon - looks really appetizing compared to the ones display at Breakthrough (the last three time I was there) that looks like a day or two old.

Looking at the big menu board on top of the counter I noted their other specialties. It's a seafood galore just like the what its name promises - popular fishes like pantat, blue marlin, tangigue, managat and bulgan come either grilled or sinabawan (add adobado and with tausi for pantat Also coming in grilled, in soup or baked are shellfishes like diwal, scallops, nylon shells and oysters - the latter being reminding me of the famous baked talaba of Allan's Talabahan in Oton.
Completing the seafood galore are crabs, prawns and shrimps that are steamed or cooked sweet and spicy. They also have native litsong manok, crispy pata, kalderetang kambing, binakol na manok, beef bulalo, pork sisig and a lot more.

After all the rundown of the menu, I got a chance to talk to one of the persons in charge. Pavia Seafood House is just 3 months old and is owned by Eugene Chan (of the Kusina Tsina). So that explains the more professional service orientation and food that basically is quite at part with the other seafood restaurants. In the course of the casual talk, my eyes fell on a sort of out-of-this-world item on the menu - Starbucks brewed coffee. A what! (lol)

They also have a live seafood display - pantat and crabs, that time. An airconditioned area that can seat around 40, or so, can also be found within the restaurant for meetings or for big groups. As the place is just new, it was not full that time but from patrons kept coming in and out while we were there. Cabanas lined the outside for a more alfresco dining experience.

All in all, that Sunday birthday party lunch left a good first impression - the place, the ambiance and the food (I'll have a separate blog entry for this). And surely Pavia Seafood House will become a foodie pitstop as soon as this place picks up more and more patrons.

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FLAVOURS OF ILOILO

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