Alyanna C.
Yelp
Big Boy's serves up some big appetites with its big portions. It's in an inconspicuous plaza with graffiti'd walls (on purpose by fans) and little seating / service. But the food is so good for the price, how can I not give it 5 stars? Originally a food truck, they've opened up a restaurant in the last year... and despite being all the way in Kent (WHY), it's starting to become a foodie destination when you're south of Seattle.
Bear in mind, if you're not familiar with Filipino food... know that we normally like our food filling, savory/salty, and most things fried. If you're looking for healthy greens or non-greasy food, I'd suggest turning around.
- Pork Belly Sisig Fries: Chopped up pork belly atop crispy fries, with nacho fixings. If you've ever had carne asada fries, this is the Filipino version with pork belly and a fried egg on top. SO DELICIOUS... the pork wasn't even that fatty, and had great flavor and was super moist. I loved how generous they were on the guac and other toppings, this could easily be a meal in itself. Sisig fries is becoming popular on the west coast, but I can confidently say their sisig fries are one of the best I've had, blowing out some places in NorCal and SoCal.
- Sinigang Bang Wings: As a fried chicken, this is really good, but it's also not your typical taste. It has a bit of acidity, like a lemon. It's quite tasty and I recommend it for something different. For those who aren't familiar with the sinigang, it's a sour-ish stew made with dried tamarind. This gives it a sweet, acidic flavor... it's hard to describe. Most Filipinos use a seasoning mix to make sinigang... and I suspect they seasoned the batter with this, giving it that initial sour bite. Worth a try for a unique twist to fried chicken!
- Calamansi Ginger Chicken (grilled): This dish surprised me, as it was much better than I expected. It's a twist on the typical lemon/orange chicken you see in Chinese cuisine... they use the better citrus fruit known as calamansi to flavor their chicken. Calamansi is somewhere between a lime and an orange with a sweet, sour, and tangy flavor. That said, I couldn't really taste much of the ginger, but the calamansi was definitely there. I'm not sure how this would looked on the fried chicken, but on the grilled chicken it worked out really well. Totally recommend getting the garlic fried rice instead of steamed rice, and eating each scoop with a little bit of the sliced tomatoes (that's how we traditionally eat rice dishes).
- Ube Waffle w/ Garlic Fried Chicken: Nevermind your regular comfort food of chicken and waffles... this is the Filipino dream! Ube waffle was crispy and had the distinct ube flavor I was looking for. It was crispy enough to withstand the syrup I poured on it, yet it was very moist inside. Paired with their very garlicky fried chicken, it was a match of sweet and salty. The chicken was fried and battered like the sinigang bang wings, except for the sweet/sour/salty flavor, you only got a very garlicky flavor. Really good!
I was pretty impressed with their fried chicken dishes - the batter is really crunchy and airy, yet the chicken is really moist. If you've ever had mochiko chicken from Hawaiian BBQ in U-District, it's very similar to that. I suspect they use a mix of some kind of starch (corn or potato) with some mochiko flour.
I'm so happy Filipino food is starting to make its mark in the PNW... moreover, I love how Filipino fusion is becoming a thing lately. Will report later about their other items... I'm particularly interested in the longanisa burger