Charlton A.
Yelp
I'll give it a two starts because of the effort they are trying to put in to get Filipino food out there....however, they fall for the same pitfalls every Filipino restaurant in the bay fall into. Trust me, I tried hard to like every Filipino place, as a chef I want to support them and help them grow however time and again I get reminded as to why Filipino food is not quite there yet.
1. PRICE: both these dishes are above the $15 price range for ONE entree and a garlic rice. Just inexcusable when we have similar food (ie: Vietnamese com tam, Chinese rice plates) that cost less and gives you much more. The value just isn't there, who in this world would want to play an easy $40 just two entrees with rice?
2.QUALITY: Filipino food is known best for using cheap cuts of meat, cooking then for a long time (braising or boiling) then making them as savory as possible. To put it simply, beefsteak used sirloin and was cooked to oblivion, it was literally jerky. It also had very few pieces of red onions, which defines the dish and also....no fried potatoes of any kind. Absurd beefsteak is a Filipino version of a Peruvian lomo saltado which with all the bells and whistles usually cost $20 this one was $18. The dinuguan was filled with big pieces of fat from what seems to be a combo of pork shoulder and butt. It was sour beyond belief , didn't have a piece of chili for the kick and the green, sauce
was thin...almost like it didn't have enough blood there to thicken it and worst of all ...meat was tough. Just abhorrent.
3 SERVICE: I ordered to go prior to arriving as I knew they come in those cute brown to go boxes, it was taped on a paper bag that had their socials in it (in which they over focus for obvious reasons) I asked nicely if it had utensils. Lady said yes....I opened it and there was none. Asked for utensils from the same lady, no apology no nothing as if that whole conversation never happened a second ago.
The verdict
This social media hype machine ain't worth the hype, I know they're all over tiktok and appear in a lot of Filipino festivals , as much as I want to support it, I just can't with what's being offered. I left the place hungrier and $40 lighter in the bank account. I recommend to try it atleast once for your own verdict and then you can find out for yourself if it's your jam.