To be honest, I forget that Mt. Pleasant even exists. Which is sad because walking around last night, I kind of wished I lived there. There’s a great variety of restaurants that all seem like nobody outside the neighborhood knows about them. Purple Patch is like that.
At our table, we were greeted with a little sign welcoming us by name. I know it got lifted straight off of OpenTable and actually took minimal effort but it still made me feel like a princess. It’s kind of sad how little it takes to impress me. My husband and I started off with some drinks–the spicy calamansi margarita for me and a Founders beer for him. Both so delicious–the margarita was spicy, sour, and a little too quaffable (I just learned this word on Friday night–how’d I do?)
Purple Patch makes a strong push for their lumpia appetizer that borders on obsession. No joke, in their reservation confirmation, they insisted that we get it, their website pushes it, and when I asked our server for a pro-tip, he also gave it a thumbs-up. Ordinarily, I’d probably just assume skipping a glorified spring roll but they serve it with banana ketchup. Banana. Ketchup.
Not accurately represented in this picture: banana ketchup. Which is really just slightly sweeter, slightly banana-y ketchup. Don’t know what I was expecting. The lumpia were delicious though–filled with very flavorful ground meat and perfectly crispy on the outside. Not sure it warrants the cult following they’re apparently trying to curate for it, but it was good.
I got the laing entree with chicken. I was very curious what taro leaves are like. I was a big fan of this dish in general. The shredded chicken was soaked with the coconut milk stew liquid, there were whole julienned ginger sticks, the broth was rich and spicy, there was a serious kick from the chilies, and I liked the bitter vegetal flavor of the taro leaves. The dish isn’t as big as it appears here, so it was actually a very reasonable amount of food too, and I fucking destroyed it. I was very hungry, but I think it would have been super delicious anyway.
My husband was waffling between several entrees, but on the server’s (again) very strong insistence, he ordered the sizzling sisig. It was served steaming on a hot cast iron, Applebee’s style. I lost a little respect for them during this process because spritzing the hot plate with water before bringing it out is such a cheap trick. I also lost some lung function because the steam rising off all the plates of sisig around the restaurant causes the capsaicin from the hot chilies to float up into the air and lodge itself into every cranny of your respiratory tract.
But lame gimmick or no lame gimmick, welcome to probably the most delicious hash you’ve ever had. This plate is alllllllll pork belly, onions, and heat. It had a good balance of salt and acid, and the meat was smoky and crispy. There was definite redemption in this dish.
They had some delicious-looking desserts but I skipped because I’m trying to limit my sugar consumption, which is very, very sad. Don’t be like me. Get their tasty-looking desserts.
Price: $30 per person.
Bottom line: Purple Patch made me like and respect Filipino food in a way that other restaurants haven’t done. Will return for sure.
Ward Five Foodie 