Photograph by Martha Williams
The first Filipino restaurant in Atlanta, the long-gone Ms. Honeybear, hid at the back of a crummy strip mall on Memorial Drive near Stone Mountain. It was there that I developed a fondness for lumpia (fried spring rolls) and halo-halo (a shaved-ice dessert akin to an extravagant parfait) as well as the amazing ube—a purple tuber much in use in the cuisine of the Philippines. In subsequent decades, the only representations locally were the marvelous Mabuhay grocery on Jonesboro Road and a few other short-lived holes in the wall.
Then came Estrellita, which opened in Grant Park in 2020—and Kamayan ATL, the magical pop-up enterprise launched by Mia Orino and her partner in cooking and in life, Carlo Gan. Born and raised in Manila, Orino came to the U.S. to attend college at Georgetown University, where she majored in political science. Her hopes to become a lawyer eventually morphed into a passion for community activism; she still owns a business in Washington, D.C., that helps survivors of domestic violence find employment. In Atlanta, she and Gan began throwing feasts the way Southerners throw cookouts. The communal meal known as kamayan—usually served on banana leaves, without utensils—tied her to her heritage in a place where people have been eating together by hand since the precolonial era.
I never attended the pop-ups, which took the form of prepaid kamayan feasts in venues around town, but always meant to. Then came the pandemic, which made me a bit anxious at the prospect of eating at a table with a bunch of strangers. But there’s nothing to worry about at the brick-and-mortar restaurant Orino and Gan recently opened in Asian Square on Buford Highway, a place now adored by me and a zillion other food obsessives (in Atlanta and beyond: Last year, even before the restaurant opened, Orino and Gan were James Beard Award semifinalists in the Emerging Chef category). There, they serve a regular a la carte menu most nights of the week, in addition to hosting regular kamayan-style meals.
Photograph by Martha Williams
At one recent such event, individual tables of various sizes—for two, four, six, eight diners each—occupied the relaxed, faintly beachy dining room. Cut-up tropical fruit (like star fruit and dragon fruit), cute ube muffins, two different kinds of rice (including a fried garlicky one presented in half of a fresh pineapple), sauteed pancit noodles, shrimp crackers, cubes of crisp pork belly, riblets—all and more were already laid out on each table. As soon as everyone was seated, a parade of grilled skewers, huge prawns, fried pompano, pork rolls, and various lumpias made its way around the room. Of the almost incapacitating two-hour meal, I especially remember a wonderful mess of blistered green beans seasoned with what tasted like citric acid and, toward the end, an entrancing eggplant and coconut curry served in a clay pot. Diners are welcome to take home their leftovers. (Follow @kamayan_atl on Instagram to find out about upcoming dates.)
The regular menu is just about as exciting, with many of the aforementioned dishes served in individual portions. Lechon, the roasted suckling pig frequently outsourced by restaurants, is cooked in-house at Kamayan, appearing in guises such as a succulent leg, a rolled-up belly cooked in the style of porchetta, even crunchy slices of pig ear on a plate of sizzling sisig with organ meats and a fried egg. Kare-kare (creamy beef and peanut stew) and a rotation of other comfort dishes alternate on a menu that changes often. “I like to keep things interesting,” Orino told me.
Photograph by Martha Williams
The restaurant doesn’t serve alcohol yet—a liquor license is in the works—but canned sodas, including a Filipino one flavored with calamansi, are available; so is housemade ginger tea, usually kept in a big percolator by the door. Friendly staff bring the food to your table after you place your order at the counter, and retrieve cutlery and sauces from a small table set aside for that purpose. Always ask for Orino’s ube flan or her halo-halo—with layers of ice cream, shaved ice, fresh fruit, sweetened red beans, and sticky sauces.
This article appears in our April 2023 issue.
