How Naks Blasts the Volume on Filipino Flavors
“Naks is a dream of mine,” says Eric Valdez, the restaurant’s executive chef-partner. “But if you had asked [me] to do it five years ago, I would have said no.”
That’s because, before he opened Naks in late 2023 with Unapologetic Foods — the hospitality group behind hits like Dhamaka, Adda, and Semma — Valdez wasn’t sure New Yorkers were ready for a Filipino menu serving flavors with assertive authority.
But in 2021, when he was already a part of the Unapologetic Foods team and helped open Dhamaka, he saw that there was a craving among New York’s most discerning diners for the type of food he wants to cook. Watching locals and visitors battling for reservations to eat regional Indian fare unlike anything that’s been served in the city before convinced Valdez, who was born and raised in the Philippine city of Makati, that he could have the same success with the food of his homeland.
“Joining the Unapologetic Foods team, and seeing them push for authentic Indian food, that inspired me to fully explore what my own roots are,” he shares.
When Naks debuted, the restaurant was split between à la carte service in the front room and their kamayan experience, a traditional family-style meal in the Philippines that Valdez transformed into a fine-dining tasting menu, in the back room. But in early 2024, the restaurant shifted to an all à la carte menu to allow guests the opportunity to try a wider range of offerings. Regardless of which menu he’s serving, Valdez has stood firm on his ambitions: to champion unknown dishes from the Philippines without having to tone down the flavors.
In Valdez’s own words, here are the five dishes you need to order at Naks.
The Resy Rundown
Naks
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Why We Like It
We’d trust the Dhamaka team with just about anything, and that includes Naks, their personal ode to the Philippines care of Manila-born-and-raised chef Eric Valdez, who champions the country’s unknown dishes without having to tone down the flavor. You can’t go wrong with whatever you order, but be advised: Don’t sleep on the cocktails. -
Essential Dishes
Ginataang alimango with chunks of Dungeness crab; pork barbecue with banana ketchup; adobo rice inspired by Valdez’s mom and grandmother; KFC (kanto fried chicken) with a street-food edge; and the lechon platter. -
Must-Order Drinks
The Puto Bumbong with margarine-washed coconut tequila; the Parusang Hapon with white miso-infused Japanese whisky; and the zero-proof Taco with tapioca pearls.
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Who and What It’s For
Diners looking for Filipino dishes unlike anywhere else in New York, and large parties for the popular Kamayan Feast, a traditional dining style for group gatherings to eat a multi-course meal with your hands. -
How to Get In
Reservations are available 15 days in advance starting at 9 a.m. -
High Praise
One of the most memorable honors Valdez has ever received was when a tita (auntie) complimented his adobo and told him, “This is adobo, this is what adobo is supposed to taste like.”
1. Ginataang Alimango
In Filipino cooking, a ginataang dish is essentially anything cooked in coconut milk. It could be savory or it could be sweet, but there will be a broth of coconut milk. With his ginataang alimango, Valdez stews chunks of Dungeness crab (alimango is crab in Tagalog) in coconut milk that’s spiked with chile, ginger, and shrimp paste for some bold, umami flavors that’ll cut through the creamy richness. Once cooked, everything is ladled back into the crab shell for a touch of whimsy. And then, it’s drizzled with a sauce made from aligue, or crab fat, that’s been sautéed with annatto oil.
According to Valdez, this is “a little spicier and creamier” than what a typical iteration of this dish might taste like — thanks to one of his chefs, who is from the Bicol region of the Philippines. While as a whole, Filipino food isn’t known for its heat, Bicol is where you’ll find some of the country’s spiciest dishes, and Naks’ ginataang alimango is the perfect reflection of that.
2. Pork BBQ
“When they barbecue pork back home, what they do is leave a layer of fat. About 10% of the cut of meat is fat,” Valdez explains. “And my favorite part is the fat.”
In an attempt to deliver that same experience at Naks, he uses pork jowl so that every bite comes with both a meaty and fatty section. And for added texture, these skewered chunks of pork are given a wonderfully charred exterior, which anyone who has ever had Filipino-style barbecue before, will tell you is the best part of the dish.
But equally important to texture is the marinade that the meat is soaked in before it’s grilled. At Naks, Valdez rests his pork jowl for 24 hours in a medley of soy sauce, garlic, and lemon-lime soda. Then, the meat is finely sliced, glazed with a homemade banana ketchup, and then grilled over charcoal.
Valdez admits that his take on the banana ketchup (one of the most beloved condiments in the Filipino culinary canon) is a little sweet. To balance it out, the pork barbecue is served with a dipping sauce of housemade coconut vinegar intensified with ginger, onion, and some chile.
“This is one of our top appetizers,” Valdez reveals. “It’s very relatable. Everyone loves barbecue.”
3. Adobo Rice
There may not be a more popular Filipino dish than the adobo. Like the barbecue dish above, there’s something very relatable about meat braised in a flavorful sauce. For his iteration on this iconic dish, Valdez sticks pretty close to a classic preparation.
“It’s a combination of bone-in chicken leg, chicken thigh, and pork belly that we marinate for 24 hours (in a clay pot) in soy sauce, bay leaves, vinegar, and lots of garlic. And then we braise it for up to five hours until the meat is tender,” Valdez explains, adding that tableside, a server will mix the meat in the clay pot with white rice, boiled egg, and pork chicharrón for more flavor and a nice crunch.
“This is a mixture of pork and chicken, which we call adobong matanda. This is how I experienced the adobo back home; this is how my mom and grandmother made it.
“People are loving it, but one of the best comments I ever received about it came from a tita, who told me, ‘This is adobo, this is what adobo is supposed to taste like.’ Our adobo is very strong, very vinegary. I think people really love the strong flavor.”
4. KFC (Kanto Fried Chicken)
“This is a classic fried chicken. Back home, I loved eating it after work. This is my mom’s recipe, which she used to prepare whenever there’s an occasion to celebrate like a birthday. Here, we use chicken thigh, marinated in some calamansi and a little bit of evaporated milk. Our batter is a combination of all-purpose flour and cornstarch — and we add siling labuyo (chile) dust to give it a little kick. Then, we make a dipping sauce out of chile garlic and mayo. It’s very simple stuff, but it’s comforting.”
Valdez explains that using evaporated milk is a lot like using buttermilk to tenderize the chicken here in the U.S. “But for some reason, my mom loves using evaporated milk so I use evaporated milk,” he adds. “I think it gives our KFC a rich, umami quality, too.” (Kanto translates to “street corner” in Tagalog, by the way, giving this fried chicken a street-food quality to it.)
But in addition to his mom’s recipe, Valdez says that Jollibee’s spicy fried chicken was also an inspiration. “I love Jollibee’s spicy fried chicken!”
5. Lechon Platter
Things only get more iconically Pinoy when we get to the lechon, the star of any celebratory gathering among Filipinos.
“When we first started Naks, we didn’t serve lechon in the à la carte menu. We only served it as part of our kamayan,” Valdez explains. “It’s a lot of work. For 24 hours, we brine the pork with garlic, soy sauce, vinegar, and lemongrass. After that, we air dry it for a whole day. It’s a two-day process before you can even start cooking. Then, we slow cook the pork in the oven on two different temperatures, first low for 90 minutes before we pump it up for two more hours. So it takes close to three hours to cook the lechon, depending on the size of the meat.”
Valdez’s lechon platter is served with a variety of vegetables on the side, usually steamed okra, grilled peppers, and grilled eggplant. And this is all accompanied with two sauces: fermented fish sauce and a homemade Mang Tomas, the liver sauce traditionally served with lechon. (Lechon just wouldn’t work without it!) The Naks recipe purees a mixture of roasted pork and chicken liver, which is further flavored with aromatics, fish sauce, and some pepper.
“Before we added it to our à la carte menu, guests who weren’t doing the kamayan would ask about it, and I could only give them a small piece. But I couldn’t let them place a full order,” Valdez says. “So when we expanded the à la carte menu, we realized that we needed to include the lechon. But only in limited quantities, because it’s cooked fresh every day. On a weekday, we serve about 10 of them. And we’re almost always sold out. A large group may order two or three of them.”
