Kuya Oliver's Gotohan: The Viral Gotong Batangas Spot at San Juan (Batangas)

Thanks to social media, news travels faster. When there’s a good food spot, it can easily go viral nowadays. The only question is: Is it worth the hype? To find out, I’ll be visiting these trending places and share my experiences in a new series—Eats Gone Viral! I first visited Jolli Dada’s Eatery, the viral pancit palabok spot at Quiapo, Manila (read my review here). Today, I will post about Kuya Oliver’s Gotohan.

Gotong Batangas is unlike the usual Goto, a rice porridge with ox tripe. Rather, it’s a soup dish composed of beef and cow innards, and eaten with rice. While this dish is widely available in Batangas, a province south of Metro Manila, some of the best ones can be found in the city of Lipa.

But Kuya (big brother) Oliver’s Gotohan (goto spot) of San Juan, a municipality in Batangas, has been going viral in social media. It’s made popular by food vloggers/channels such as Jayzar Recinto, a content creator from Batangas, and TikimTV.

We went on a holiday. My fear is that the queue would be long so we tried to be there as early as possible. We arrived at 7AM and got seated at past 8AM. It wasn’t that bad!

They boil the beef and innards using woodfire:

The proprietor and chief cook, Oliver Marasigan, is still very involved with the preparations. We saw him taking out the innards and meat from the pots and later chopped it.

The crowd watching Oliver take out the good stuff!

So let’s talk about their Gotong Batangas, which they call as “Overload”. I started with the broth, which is beefy and flavorful. If you finish the hearty broth right away, don’t worry because you can get a refill for free!

The innards are soft and the beef is melt-in-the-mouth. My only comment is the lack of variety of innards in my bowl. I find it odd because I saw Kuya (big brother) Oliver take out different kinds of innards from the pots. Maybe you have to request it, or maybe it ran out during the first batch. I don’t know!

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If you’re adventurous, you can also order their Bat and Balls, which is made of cow penis and testicles. Honestly, there’s nothing special about it. The parts were a bit chewy for me.

To compliment the dish, they provide calamansi, which add acidity, and deep-fried garlic, which is crunchy and spicy. These condiments definitely elevates the soup dish.

The only thing I’m missing in their Gotong Batangas is the chopped raw onions. That would give the dish crunch and freshness.

Is the Gotong Batangas of Kuya Oliver’s Gotohan live up to the hype? It certainly does! But will I travel to San Juan and queue for more than hour again? Probably in a long time! (We happen to be staying in Tiaong, Quezon, which is just an hour away. So we thought of visiting Kuya Oliver’s Gotohan since we’re near anyway. We took a longer route because the bridge connecting the two municipalities was under repair. But with the shorter route, it’s just a 30-minute drive from Tiaong.)

If you’re near the area or the viral gotohan is on the way, then I suggest that you make a visit. Otherwise, postpone it (gas prices are still high!). Anyway, I recommend Kuya Oliver’s Gotohan to you.

Address: Sitio 6, Brgy. Mabalanoy (Silangan) , San Juan, Batangas , Philippines | Operating Hours: Daily, 6AM-5PM | Contact No.: 0915-7859479 | Facebook