Beef Lumpia from Isla. (Photo: Yelp, Maria L.)
Downtown Detroit restaurant accelerator Fort Street Galley recently turned three months old, which means the ephemeral eateries inside are officially subject to critique.
For its weekly restaurant review, Metro Times zeros in on Isla, a Filipino-French restaurant by chef JP Garcia and his wife, pastry chef Jacqueline Diño.
Critic Jane Slaughter calls the restaurant a "winner" for its seafood and pork belly offerings.
In the latter category is lechon kawali, which is different from lechon as a whole roast pig. Here Garcia preboils pork belly and then air-dries it in the cooler. When he drops it in the deep fryer, it crisps beautifully. It's served with dinuguan, a pungent, vinegary pork blood stew. It includes sweet little bready pillows of puto, steamed fermented rice cakes.
Kinilaw is raw hamachi, sashimi style, "cured" with vinegar just at the last minute before plating and delectably light; it's served with a bit of coconut cream infused with dashi, Japanese fish stock. Milkfish is used to make three small, crunchy croquettes that melt in the mouth, atop a smear of sweet purple yam purée with a vanilla lilt.
In pancit palabok, a noodle dish, Garcia does a good job of mixing shrimp and crab with crisp chicharrones and slices of hard-boiled egg, though I always think rice noodles are too soft (Garcia's are as firm as rice noodles ever are).
Isla is to remain in the upscale food court for one year, as is typical in the food accelerator format. A full menu and hours are here.
