DUMAGUETE CITY – Food tripping is one of the best ways of savoring a place. The locale’s ambience or charm is usually part of the delectable experience. This bucolic and historical city in Southern Visayas takes pride in its grilled and barbecued specialties.
Jo’s Inato, a fast-rising nationwide restaurant, is one best spot here where one can get the best chicken barbecue there is. We stumbled upon this enroute to Manila from Siquijor, where we had a great beach-weekend, recently.
Dr. Ed Apolinar, owner of Bulakna Beach Resort where we stayed, is a close friend of the siblings who run and own the Jo’s Inato Restaurant.
Before going back to Manila, the three of us – Melanie Dompor-Foz of RFM’s Philtown Inc., travel writer Joanna Castro and myself – had a simple yet unforgettably sumptuous lunch at the rest house of Mrs. Josephine Bejar Ng, Inato’s proprietress.
Together with the Ng family and other guests, we feasted on home cooked dishes, but the "all-thumbs-up" star of the meal was a hefty cut of chicken leg barbecue marinated overnight with Mrs. Ng’s secret native spices, and it went so well with their perfectly pickled achara.
We savored our al fresco lunch at Ng’s porch overlooking Sibulan’s Cangmating Beach. Good company, great food and a terrific view made us forget to keep a tab on how much we were eating.
Inato, a Visayan word, connotes a welcoming homey atmosphere and homecooked dishes that one will look forward to eating again and again. "Something of the host’s very own meant to be shared with guests," said Melanie, cousin of Dr. Apolinar and a true-blooded Visayan from Nasipit, Agusan del Norte.
True enough, it was love at first bite. At once, we asked whether Jo’s Inato has branches in Metro Manila which we could hunt down. To our surprise, the restaurant has such a huge following and the business keeps thriving that the Ng couple decided to tap other outlets.
From the original restaurant in Dumaguete, the Ng family has branched out to Bacolod, Iloilo, Roxas City, Palawan, Cagayan de Oro, General Santos, Tagbilaran, Ormoc, Tacloban and yes, near our place in Fairview along Commonwealth Ave., Quezon City.
Ephraim Bejar, Mrs. Ng’s brother, said that business is brisk so they put up 14 branches. Judging from the scores of guests each outlet serves daily, more restaurants will soon be put up.
Theirs was a classic story of kids growing up into their parents’ restaurant business and loving what they do best – cooking, eating and serving home-cooked food. Aside from the trade acumen the siblings honed while learning the ropes from their elders, they developed their own panache to weave a successful business story of their own.
Open at 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., Jo’s Inato’s two-floor restaurant can accommodate around 100 at a time. Next to the chicken barbecue, its "halo-halo" is the second bestseller.
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