Steven T.
Yelp
There are definitely some menu items that stand out, but alas, there are equal counterparts. Service, however, was super solid. The gentleman working the register answered our questions confidently and did not shy with giving his personal suggestions.
I will admit, out of all the southeastern asian foods, Filipino food is probably what I eat the least, so I know very little about their cuisine. In fact, I'm rather surprised that they use pickled vegetables. It had a very "new american" flare about it. Anyway, we only tried a few items so I'll go into detail of each dish as this review will be somewhat short.
For drinks, I wanted to get to know what locals like so we grabbed what appeared to be canned nectars.
The (slightly lemongrassy) skewered chicken rice plate was rather plain. Even the rice, as rich as it looked with sauce and fried onions/garlic, it just didn't really have much flavor or depth. The acidic, limey sauce that came with seemed misplaced. We already have pickled cabbage so the dish was poorly balanced as a whole.
The bbq pork pancit, though? Oh my goodness. That is a proper dish. Nice sweet and salty cuts of pork cooked with dark soy sauce-- easily can say is their best protein option. Seasoned glass noodles with stir fried vegetables? Yum. Oh, its rich with mushroom flavor, and their spicy chili oil condiment is quite good, too.
Their tapioca, coconut milk dessert was delicious and not overly sweet, but at a price point of $9 for a small cup, it's a bit extreme. I'll be honest and say I'd rather hike a few steps to the icecream parlor for a couple large, high quality scoops for a smaller price tag.
Their lumpia dish comes with shrimp crackers that are seasoned with, once again, some kind of lemon salt of sorts... lemon zest, perhaps? It's crazy overpowering and hides the subtle salty umaminess of the cracker. As someone who grew up in a Vietnamese household, I'm no stranger to shrimp crackers, and I can say with a lot of confidence that it can be done "better." Lumpia is served with what tastes like a homemade banana ketchup.
A bit expensive for what its worth to me, but there was definitely a shining light in the pancit and tapioca dessert.
I'd love to try most Filipino restaurants, so if you guys have any suggestions, hmu!