Kyle W.
Yelp
Wow! Finally some authentic (vouched by 4 Filipinos in our group) Filipino food, something that is super hard to find in the neighboring regions near downtown Seattle where I live. The other big Filipino restaurants I tried here are either modernized or fusion. A friend made a reservation for 10 people, for opening time on Sunday, in case it gets busy (it was surprisingly not busy today). It was a nice touch that they called to confirm our order and prep the food before opening and have it ready shortly after we arrived at 10am! We tried the following:
Pinakbet: vegetable dish that contains bitter melon, okra, long beans, kabocha squash, eggplant and pork. This was the first time trying bitter melon, and I am not a fan haha, but it was a good experience. The other vegetables are pretty good.
Ginisang monggo - sauteed mung beans. I really enjoyed this dish and while it is not the go-to dish to try in a Filipino restaurant like pancit and lechon kawali, I recommend getting this dish. The dish tastes substantially better than what it looks.
Pancit (mixed) - the typical dish, but something with the seasoning and preparation make this taste much better than I remembered. Other variations are a bit too salty or too saucy, but this was just right.
Pompano (fried) - served with mango salad and some shrimp paste. The frying did not yield a crispy texture, but it brings out the flavor of the fish. The fish otherwise did not have too much flavor, but the fixings gave it the flavor.
Bicol Express - another dish that I would not really have gotten if I went with non-Filipino people. I never heard of this, but this was also one of my favorite dishes here. It is chicken with coconut milk, so it is very creamy. It goes super well with rice.
Kare Kare - beef oxtail and shank in peanut sauce. The last time I had kare kare in a different restaurant, they used too much vinegar that I thought I would not enjoy it this time. However, this has a milder preparation so I greatly enjoyed it. Beef is very tender and fall off the bone type of texture.
Pork lumpia - the standard - prepared thinly. This is probably one that was not as good as the other dishes. It is a good appetizer for a good price, but the filling is a little bit on the drier side.
Lechon kawali - very crispy, and given that it is pork belly, it was great that there was not an insane amount of fat. It has the right meat to fat ratio, so there were no parts of this dish where I had to spit out extra fat. While very crispy, it was also not too tough to chew. The pork belly within is very tender and juicy.
Turon - fried banana and other fruit (jackfruit?) with brown sugar sauce. One piece is already filling enough as dessert. Similar to the lumpia, the filling is a bit dry.
Halo Halo - the classic - with condensed milk, ube, and jelly in the shaved ice. It is fairly basic halo halo, not the most aesthetic, but it was also pretty solid. Sometimes making things simple is more delicious, and this is an example.
Given that almost everyone here is super stuffed and almost food coma, with some leftover enough for a meal for 2-3 of us, for under $25 per person after tax and tip, the value is amazing. We wanted to get some porketta but it was too early for them to make it, but it was a good call as we definitely over-ordered, as we got all these dishes family sized.