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Askal offers a first-rate lesson in the playful-delicious nexus.

Classic cocktails are reinvigorated by tropical ingredients, and riffs on Filipino dishes colour outside the lines. Sinuglaw, a jumble of cured tuna and pork belly, is made with lap cheong for sweetness and chew and cleverly scaled to snack-size. Salmon sinigang – the sour soup usually made with pork – is downright ethereal in its broth of tamarind dashi.

Portions are big, all the better to serve the large groups who flock here, and flavours don’t hold back either. But there’s lightness in guava aguachile dressing the raw tuna that headlines kinilaw. Ditto the salted durian margarita, which has just a whisper of funk.

Dark interiors, sculptural oyster shell light fittings, and the team’s obvious pride in what they’re serving make visits feel special on many levels.