John L.
Yelp
This is a small grocery store with lots of specialty Filipino items and a cafe serving Filipino food. A friend suggested this place. Found it on Yelp with only 4 reviews with an average of 3.25 stars within the last 12 months. This was our first visit and we hoped for the best.
The grocery store had fresh produce, pastries, sauces, seasonings, snacks, frozen products, refrigerated products, noodles, rice, etc. All tailored to help you make your favorite Filipino food. My wife and I bought yellow bean cakes, Crema de Ube, Suman sa Ligia and frozen Manila's Ihawan steamed pork buns. The yellow bean cakes tasted just like the chinese version with the same name. The filling was mildly sweet with a ground bean texture. The crust was flakely with a waxy texture on the surface. It was good tasting to me only because I grew up eating food like this. My wife thought it was OK.
The Crema de Ube was Ube in mashed potato form with milk, egg, butter and a small amount of sugar. If you love Ube, this is for you.
The Suman sa Ligia was sweet rice with a tiny amount of sugar wrapped in a banana leaf. Tasted like plain sweet rice. The surface areas that were green, had a hint of smokiness from the leaf. We've had better versions of sweet rice wrapped in banana leaves.
The Manila's Ihawan steamed pork buns were soft and slightly sweet with a taste of powdered milk. The addition of powdered milk in a pork bun dough makes it much more tastier than not adding it. The filling was minced pork with a slightly sweet oyster sauce flavor. This was very good in flavor and texture.
The cafe had ready-made food in warming pans like a buffet table. So this rating is based on a comparison of buffet like food, not made-to-order food. We've had the privilege of eating great Filipino food at friend's and relative's homes. They were born in the Philippines and one relative was a chef. So, our standards are a little high. We ordered tungi tungi and 2 combination platters. Each platter came with white rice and 3 choices.
The tungi tungi was chewy and not crispy. It was pretty dense, plain and not sweet except for a light amount of caramel on the outside. It tasted like a plain sweet rice dough, no powdered milk or coconut milk. This should be eaten immediately after it is made, while it is crispy. They really shouldn't sell this.
Our platters had chicken curry, pancit, lumpia, barbeque pork and longganisa. The chicken curry had white meat that was tender and only slightly dry. The sauce was made with a mildly spicy yellow curry. The curry was thick, but there was some oil that was separated from the sauce. It would probably help the flavor if the oil could be blended into the sauce. Overall, it was OK.
The pancit vegetables and noodles were cooked right, but the sauce was missing some flavor. There was no noticeable sesame oil, or chicken broth. The liquid seasoning was a little weak. Overall, it wasn't the worst we've had. Let's call it so-so, needs improvement.
The lumpia was crispy with a good tasting wrap. The filling was finely shredded vegetables that were seasoned decently. We got 3 pieces and the size was larger than some other places. Overall, it was good.
The barbeque pork was tender and grilled just right. It had a great combination of flavors from the charring, the pork and the sweet marinade. This was excellent and easily the best dish here.
The longganisa was a sweet pork sausage. We got 3 pieces. It was encased and oily on the outside. It was sweet with a good fried flavor and a balanced amount of seasoning. Overall, it was good because I love chinese sausage and this was similiar.
The store and cafe are old looking and in need of renovation. The restroom was also dated, but relatively clean. The service was quick in both areas. There was plenty of space in the cafe for ordering, but only 4 tables for dine-in. Many tables were not allowed to be used. The grocery store checkout area was too small for covid spacing because people were entering, looking at food items, waiting in line, checking out and leaving in one area. There was a lot of people traffic in that one modest size area. It cleared out pretty quickly though. We would definitely come back to this place for specialty items and meals.
