Via Mare of America

My wife and I visited Via Mare in the Philippines and we were excited to discover that there's a VM in the Bay Area! The experience was the same if not better! The table service was fairly quick. The staff were friendly and helpful. The food was fresh, delicious and prepared perfectly. Mind you there were only four of us and we ordered for at six! We ordered crispy pata, beef nilaga, pancit bihon, V M bbq pork, fried chicken and Shanghai lumpia! Everyone really enjoyed their choices. We'll definitely be back to try the rest of the menu.

The best Filipino cuisine around San Francisco. They offer the best authentic dishes that uses fresh ingredients that ultimately pleased your palette. You cannot go wrong with anything in their menu. I strongly suggest the crispy dilis fried rice to start then the rest will follow

You can be mad at me for my love of Jollibees, Chow King, and Goldilocks- " That's not Filipino food Donny!"😜 Love the influence and impact of the culture in this Ube BayArea! Filipino American History month! Via Mare is a hidden Filipino restaurant near top of the hill Daly City. Masarap😋 The fried fish will have you dreaming of a vacation in beaches and waters of Palawan or Boracay! Have not had one bad dish here yet!

Took my wife to lunch at Via Mare in Daly City. We wanted to try their Bangus Sisig and XL Crispy Pata. The dishes were delicious and the service were great. Bangus and sisig, what a great combination. Crispy pata was tender inside and crunchy skin outside. Served on white rice. It was a perfect lunch combo.

This is one of my favorite locations if I don’t want to go far and eat Filipino food. I usually order: Kare Kare, lechon Kawale ( need to ask first), Kalabaza with white sauce and their Pancit Canton. All their food is very yummy. We have also ordered their pork sisig, and also their fish with sweet and sour sauce. But we have learned not to order too much, otherwise we won’t have room for their dessert. Halo halo. They put different ice cream and corn flakes. It is the OMG. So good. Also, since we come so often, their service is the best. And there is plenty of parking in front. Street parking of course.

I ordered chicken sisig through doordash, expecting that it was good as before, but it wasn't. The meat is not fresh and it's hard to chew. I hope that quality of the food will improved.

3.25 Yes, being Filipino makes me a tough rater of Filipino cuisine. Do not get me wrong, Via Mare of America does serve some good enough Filipino food that would satisfy my craving. This establishment is a pretty good size and I like how you can have easy parking access in the small parking garage. I came here with a few of my relatives in the area and was ready to feast! To start off, we had the popular lumpia shanghai appetizer and fried calamari. Their lumpia shanghai are larger pieces which I did not mind and the both dishes were good. The fried lumpia was not too greasy which I have had issues with at other Filipino establishments in the past. For the main course of this meal, we shared Pansit, Crispy Pata (deep fried pork), Kare-Kare, and Bangus (Milkfish)Sisig. The pansit (similar to a Chinese style Lo Mein) was not bad, though it tasted pretty average. Of course, with pansit I recommend to squeeze the lemon or lime in it for extra flavor. The Crispy Pata was my favorite dish here! That fried pork goodness was awesome and I really enjoyed munching on this. The Bangus Sisig and Kare-Kare were not anything special in my opinion. I am a tough rater of Kare-Kare (oxtail stew with vegetables in a peanut-type sauce) and I was a little disappointed in my Kare-Kare. It was not very warm when it came to the table and some of the sauce was already starting to thicken right when I got the dish. The service was good here, and I would not mind coming back here to check out some of their other dishes.

I had the Pinkabet and garlic rice. Both very delicious and tasty. I was told that I could have substituted the bitter melon with other veggies next time. Friendly service.

This place is awesome and very reasonable price Their food is delicious Staff is very accommodating and polite

I had the unfortunate experience of dining at this restaurant, and it's safe to say it won't be a repeat visit. The crispy pata I ordered lacked the essential crispy skin, and when I raised this concern, the server had the audacity to claim they don't serve it with skin. Later, they attempted to pass off the fat as skin, which was incredibly disappointing and frankly, insulting. To add insult to injury, the ginataan langka, palabok, and binagoongan were all excessively salty, leaving a bad taste in my mouth. The panga was equally disappointing, lacking any discernible flavor, overcooked, and appearing completely unseasoned. If this is your first experience eating Filipino food, I can guarantee that you'll never want to eat it again. In summary, this establishment served the worst Filipino food I've ever had, and the gaslighting from the server only made the experience more unpleasant. Save your time and money, and dine elsewhere.

My wife and I visited Via Mare in the Philippines and we were excited to discover that there's a VM in the Bay Area! The experience was the same if not better! The table service was fairly quick. The staff were friendly and helpful. The food was fresh, delicious and prepared perfectly. Mind you there were only four of us and we ordered for at six! We ordered crispy pata, beef nilaga, pancit bihon, V M bbq pork, fried chicken and Shanghai lumpia! Everyone really enjoyed their choices. We'll definitely be back to try the rest of the menu.

Via Mare is been my GO TO Filipino restaurant. I've been coming here for more than 5 years now! Staff are so nice and helfpul! They are very welcoming! There sinigang, pinakbet, and sisig is my favorite! It's authentic filipino food! It might be a bit pricy compare to other filipino restaurant but IT'S WORTH IT! I cannot compare this to other filipino restaurant. In my opinion .

Pretty good food but really just average. We were a big party so that may have influenced it. We had Laing, Palabok, Lechon Kawali, Bangus and Chicken Sisig, Pinakbet and Halo Halo for dessert. The Laing was really, really good. The Lechon Kawali was a little over done (hard). Everything else was good but nothing that comes out as exciting. The service was really good and the staff was great. All in all, a good experience. OK to try and even go back to but not spectacular. Marami pa rin na ibang Filipino restaurant na puede subukan.

Arrived at the restaurant around 11:30am. Not much people yet but we were told waiting time for food is about 45 mins. We ordered fried chicken, not available... ordered beef kare-kare still not available... ordered laing and the server came back said not available again! Was very frustrated so we ordered lumpiang shanghai instead which arrived after 25 mins. The shanghai is disappointing coz its not crispy. The pancit bihon arrived after 45 mins. Wasn't able to eat it because the bihon were still hard. Rice and pork binagoongan arrived after 1hr and 10 mins. The description of the server it's a lechon kawali mixed with bagoong so i was expecting that it was crispy but it was soggy. Lastly, we waited for the beef nilaga which my kids ordered. Waited for 1hr and 35mins and No beef nilaga arrived. We cancelled the order and did not bring any of the left overs to go. This is the only Filipino restaurant in bay area that i would never come back. We wasted our money for the quality of food, for the effort of going to Daly city, and for the time wasted from waiting for food. It was a disappointing experience on a sunday morning of mother's day celebration.

Being Filipino with a mom that is an amazing cook, I rarely eat out for Filipino food. I find many restaurants only make a few things that make me go 'wow' and the rest of the menu tends to be somewhat mediocre. Friend of mine recommended this place so treated my parents out for lunch. Bummed that the crispy alimango fried rice was unavailable. The bangus sisig was a surprisingly large portion. Perfect mix of crispy bits and moist fish. Probably the best I've had in the area. The toasted pork adobo was perfect. Lomi was very good too but could do w less thickening of the soup. Needless to say was not disappointed. Need to come back and try a few more things

This place is pretty good. Hella easy to miss driving by and all but stop in one of these days and check them out. For what I order and a dessert, 2 of them actually. It came up to around $85.00. Yeah a little pricey huh. lol. But other than that the food was good. I would come back but it wouldn't be my first choice?

The family splurged on Filipino food today. You best prepare yourself for some amazing home hooked meals. The flavors were amazing, my favorite dish was the pork belly and the bitter Melon curry dish. Def will be coming back to this spot. So close to home and Def need to be more cultured in how amazing Filipino food is. They also have live performances, some locals, and some who even fly all the way from the Philippines! Def a mabuhay spot!

I loved Via Mare! We ordered the fried calamari appetizer, tortang talong (eggplant with egg), nilaga (beef short ribs with vegetables, potato, and saba), crispy pata, steamed rice and halo halo dessert for our Father's Day celebration and feast! We have been to all of the local pilipino restaurants on the peninsula and really enjoyed the quality and the quantity of the food served here. Although moderately priced, we thoroughly enjoyed the cuisine! The service was friendly and prompt. Atmosphere is quiet and cozy. The other restaurants do not compare to Via Mare! It is a hidden gem because you really can't see the signs or the restaurant from the street. We hope that you have the opportunity to enjoy their delicious food! One word to describe their cuisine: Excellence!

We came in at 0828 PM and we were turned away saying you are closed for dine in when your signs say clearly that you close at 9pm. If that is the case, please update your hours because it causes confusion. Thank you.

This filipino restaurant is the hidden spot at Daly City!!! It's so good. All their food come out fresh, nice spot to celebrate big birthdays, etc. All food come out almost at the same time. My family's favorite is the fried rice with dilis. (pls excuse my photos, i took them when we first started eating). The prices of their food is just a tad bit pricier than other small restaurants, but it's fancier than majority of the filipino places around daly city. So good.

For a 3.5 star restaurant, you would expect them to try their best to reach to 4. But no, I guess they want to go down to two instead. UPDATE your hours on Yelp or on your website. Not everyone has time to wait or go back when you do decide to open. Wanted to eat here even with just 3.5 stars but with so many restaurants around with higher ratings, why would I go back???

My family and I (a group of 20) visited Via Mare on Mother's Day. I had made the reservation a week in advance. One day prior, I was contacted by one of the staff via text asking me to provide my pre-order. I responded by noting the list of menu items we wanted to order (along with the quantity). On the day of, we were immediately seated at our table. Since not all of our guests had arrived, I had approached one of the staff asking if it would be possible to wait until a majority of the guests had arrived before they started serving. The first of our dishes, two calamari appetizers, arrived a little before 1:00 p.m. (which was fine). The next dish(es), the Via Mare BBQ pork, did not arrive until about 15 minutes later. When my guests and I tried it, we all noticed that it was COLD -- not even slightly warm. We immediately brought this to the attention of one of the servers, and they said that they would take it back to "reheat it". I would also like to point out that the reheated BBQ pork was not returned to our table until after we followed up with them inquiring about it. It also took forever for our order of rice to arrive. From that point on, it was one big chaotic mess. When it was taking too long for dishes to arrive, we kept having to follow up with the servers - and multiple times, we saw that portions of our order were left sitting on a table (behind the hostess stand). Not only did they start confusing my order with someone else's, but some of our items were also being delivered to the wrong tables. I had to clarify our order with one of the servers multiple times. At the same time, we noticed guests were even serving themselves water! To add to everything else, when we received our bill, we noticed we were being incorrectly charged for two orders of a dish we hadn't even received! Truly disappointed.

Great food, excellent and friendly service. We ordered 4 dishes and they were all delicious. Our server was the sweetest. We will definitely come back again.

Service was very very slow. Burnt Calderetta and the Cashier asked for a mandatory tip in CASH.

Long wait for a table and for us to order. A family who came in after us were able to order first and we weren't served until asked. Multiple dishes we wanted were unavailable too.

The restaurant was clean, spacious and had this sort of traditional, casual / comfy ambiance with simple craftsman style furniture. The food was very flavorful! The lumpia Shanghai was very good! Our little toddler enjoyed them so much he was doing the happy lumpia dance!!! The bangus sisig and lechon kawali were good too. The rating was because of the waiting time for my takeout order. I was told that the order would be ready in 15-20 minutes but I waited for almost 45 minutes instead. The staff were friendly and were engaging in casual conversation to help pass the time.

Food was delicious don't get me wrong. The service did however take forever which I understand can happen but it was almost 45 minutes before we were served and they forgot one of our dishes in the back, only giving it to us when we were about to leave and complained about not getting it. The ambiance is nice, feels like a slightly bigger family restaurant.

Beef Nilaga is always good, soup is perfectly flavored, but they may tan out fast. Beef Kaldereta was a bit too salty.

Probably the best Filipino restaurant in the bay. The bang is sisig and crispy pata were amazing. You won't regret trying this place. One reviewer gave a low rating because he thought the place was hard to find. That sounds like a personal issue. If you can use google maps and have eyes you won't have a problem. Thank me later!

Very generous portion and all entrees were cooked well. I recommend the pork sinigang, sautéed ampalaya (my favorite) and pancit bihon were all so good! I would pass on halo halo. I wasn't a big fan of too much ube. I wish they had more stuff like nata de coco, leche flan, maybe tapioca. This place is spacious and good for parties.

I love love love this place! Everything is good. My go-to's are: Calamari (super good + fresh, the dipping sauce is bomb) Beef sinigang Kare-kare They're great for big parties :) The staff are always nice and welcoming

Food is good, but really slow service had to wait for Nilaga and Lomi for an hr. They need to do better with their service. They need to hire more kitchen staff.

We were looking for a Filipino restaurant when we went to SO. SFO. We looked at yelp. This was actually our second choice because we were going by the restaurant closest to where we were at. The first one we went to had a long line and so we decided to try Via Mare that had a five star rating on yelp. We haven't heard of the place before. It was a good find for us to go to this Filipino place. We liked the ambience, the food was great. We had bangus sisig, pakbet and lechon kawali. The serving portion was more than enough for 3 adults. We googled this place while waiting for our food. Much to our surprise it is one of the best restaurants in the Philippines established decades ago. If you are not familiar with this restaurant Google it. It's very interesting. This is a gem. We will surely dine here with family again. My siblings back home are familiar with this place.

Delicious Filipino food. Find and inviting atmosphere. Service was good on a Friday night. The guests were having a great time even across parties/tables during karaoke. Def coming back!

I came by after many moons of wanting to try this restaurant. I know of Via Mare in Manila so it was time to try. Lumpia was good and great portion. Pancit it was nicely done just needs a little more salt or something.. there menu is meant for family style. My next visit I will need to be in a group. Ambiance is good staff is nice and attentive. The restaurant was too cold for me to take of my jacket. It would have been nicer if there was some warmth in the restaurant.

I can't believe I've never heard of this place. My husband and I had lunch here for the very first time and I was impressed! First the restaurant is very easy to get to. Private parking is available through the censored gate. Very classy ambiance! The staff are very nice and provided friendly, expedient service. I'm a water drinker and my cup was continuously filled! The food was delightfully delicious and great presentation! I ordered the crispy catfish and wow was that so good! Everything we ordered was very good! I have decided to hold my next party here which is coming up this coming Saturday. I hope this place stays open and they continuously provide top-notch service and food. We will definitely refer this to other fellow Filipinos and non-Filipinos.

I wanted to have some Filipino food and from searching online, it seemed like Via Mare would at least have a few vegetarian options, which I confirmed from talking to a worker at the restaurant. I ordered the ginataang langka which can be made vegetarian; it's a jackfruit and coconut milk-based dish. It has a sweet and sour flavor to it. The portion was decent for the price, especially given they were offering a 20% off discount for checking in via Yelp. It was about a 15 minute wait to get the food. The restaurant itself seems like a good space to have a gathering or celebratory dinner as well.

The best Filipino food in the Bay Area. Hands down! The best dishes are the bangus sisig, pancit bami, dilis fried rice and can't go wrong with nilaga. So grateful to have a business like this close to home whenever I'm craving Filipino food.

I was soo craving Grilled pompano and even Fresh lumpia. But it wasn't available for the meantime moment. BOOHOO! I did however still order cuz I'm just too lazy to cook (yeah, right like I can cook). Comfort food was needed....I ordered beef nilaga together with other items that fam wanted. It really hit the spot especially on such a cold day. Until then I'll still be wanting my grilled pompano(I like their version) HINT HINT

First time in Via Mare of America and YOU have to go! It's the spot with amazing food. The sisig bangus is to die for. IT WAS FIRE!! The service we received was so amazing and we will definitely be back again. They made us feel welcomed and gave us an amazing experience.

If there was a zero rating that's what I'd give this place. Service is poor. They'd rather pay more attention to the karaoke entertainment than serve there paying customers food. WTF!? Where's my food? Waiting and not one server comes to check on our table. Can't rate the food because still waiting for it for over 45 mins++ If you're ever in Daly City, Top of the Hill, this place is not worth the pricey food. Don't waste your money. Find another Filipino restaurant that cares about customers and not karaoke! And turn down the volume. You blast the speakers as if you're in a big concert venue, which this place is "not". We couldn't even hear each other without screaming let alone ask the server (when we can get one) where our order was...I know Filipino's like their karaoke, I'm not one of those Filipinos, but your a restaurant first, not a karaoke bar!

I was visiting Daly City trying to find a sit down filipino food restaurant. I'm glad I came! We tried the bicol express, the ampalaya, and the bangus sisig. The best thing by far was the bangus sisig. Order that! The bicol express was good but not spicy enough for me. It didn't taste spicy at all but was still good. The ampalaya took me back to my childhood so I had more of a nostalgic attachment to it. It was more like, "this tastes like my grandmas" than an awe of fine food. If you don't like ampalaya in general, I wouldn't get it. Highly highy recommend bangus sisig

Very hard to see driving and trying to find it, under a big apartment complex.... good tasty food, very over priced, $24.99 for beef caldereta a la carte, pancit $17.99.... very slow service as well

Food was so-so, but we waited an hour for our first dish to arrive (the restaurant was empty). Service was non-existent. We'd ask for the check and even that was forgotten, so we just paid up at the front. Even after periods of long non-engagement and forgetting stuff, one of the waitresses requested we tip them with cash instead of credit card. Huh?

Via Mare is now my favorite Filipino resto. The first time I dined here, everything we ordered was happenin'! Meaning it was perfect for my palate. The roasted adobo was heaven, the sitaw la kalabasa also heaven, lechon kawali heaven, and the rice plate with tomatoes and small shrimp or small fish ... HEAVEN. The third time we visited was as a back up to Chibog (which was a 45 min wait) when our friends were in town. She is Filipina from the midwest and since most Filipinos throw down with big tray of foods for parties, and her hubby wasn't very excited about coming here... let's just say, everyone was WOW'd by the food. In addition, we ordered the kare kare and fresh spring rolls (so there is a healthy option!) The décor is also welcoming. Another one of those businesses nestled in a strip of businesses on Mission in Daly City and easily missed. Follow your GPS.

I had heard from several people in the area that this place is their go to so I decided to take my wife on Saturday to check it out. The place was very clean, professional looking, and smelled great. We got seated, took a look at the menu, and made our selections. We were one of four tables and the other tables were already eating what they had ordered. We waited, and waited, and waited. It took an hour for us to get our two dishes and garlic rice to be brought to us. Never during that hour wait were we checked in on or water refilled. The food was alright but that garlic rice? It was just steamed rice with garlic seasoning sprinkled on it. Wont be coming back.

Delicious food for our private party! It was the perfect space, timing (1-4pm) and setup for our family party. I love how everything was so simple to book and they took care of everything, from setup to clean up. We just brought extra cans of soda and bottled water, as well as our simple dessert table and decorations. We were able to take all of the leftover food home as well. The staff was friendly, which I always appreciate.

LEGIT, worth the drive. We're from the Philippines and this restaurant reminded us of home. Order everything down to the Mais Con Yelo. 10/10.

way better than a few years ago ... love their dilis garlic fried rice with diced tomatoes and their bicol express. Just did not like their ube ice cream lack ube flavor n so pale and did not like putting chocolate sauce in it. not a match ... liked also their lechon kawali.

So far I've had their: Pancit Malabon Pancit Bihon Pinakbet Laing Adobong Manok Chicken Sisig Garlic Fried rice I want to try their: Kare Kare Diniguan Kaldareta Sinigang Baboy Crispy Pata And I have to see if they have adobong pusit because I'd order that as well. I'm not sure if they use msg - I didn't eat enough to notice. It's tricky to find nice restaurants that serve Filipino food. Usually it's that steamer tray setup. What I had so far was ok. I'd try more to see if I land a dish that reminds me of mom (grandma).

Great and tasty Filipino foods I have eaten ever there at Via Mare Of America in Daly City! Very authentic food! They remind me of my home country food exactly!!! I ordered many food with my friends. We were like "ahhh taste exactly like our real Filipino foooood!" We miss Filipino food!!! Omg, very damn good food! Halo halo--- best dessert! I'd highly recommend you to try this restaurant if you are craving for the best Filipino food!

We ordered the grilled panga ng tuna and all 10 of us had diarrhea and vomiting the night after the lunch. The tuna meat was brown/black and dont seem to be the same quality as before we used to get it. Not as i expected a good experience. We'll not go back again after the grueling feeling of food poisoning.

There is a good amount of street parking (make sure to check the parking meters for hours of operation). The restaurant was clean, the food was okay, but the service left us wanting. The server wasn't very attentive and not friendly. We had dinner around 6:30PM on a Saturday night, and it was not very busy at all. For appetizers, we shared the calamari (many enjoyed the green dipping sauce that came with it) and pork lumpia (20 bite-sized pieces). Our entrees were sweet and sour fish (pretty good), bahon sisig (a little fishy), and pancit bihon. Everything was pretty solid, nothing particularly inedible, nothing particularly delicious. Bonus - location allows for many parking spots and an overhang to protect you on a rainy San Francisco day.

Loved the food. Ordered kare kare and bicol express. Tastes like if you were in the Philippines. Great service too. They were attentive of what the table needed and was very friendly

One of my moms favorites. I came to the city to attend my grandfather's 94 bday celebration (you read my Jewish home review) and my mom had to pay the catering bill. It was lunchtime so we decided we should eat here. My history with this place: 1. The dishes do remind me of home cooking. 2. I've always dined in and it seems like we're the only people there. I guess we always come at a non busy time. 3. People have always been friendly. The restaurant is located on the bottom floor of an apartment building. You can't miss the building but you can miss the restaurant since signage is hidden. The place is absolutely beautiful. The wood decor and use of floor space maximums usage. And I like that fact that at every table is missing one set of plates leaving more room for the entrees. We got the Shanghai lumpia, caldereta, and fresh lumpia. There are two kinds of Shanghai lumpia on the menu, pork with shrimp and just pork. I know what I ordered. I don't know what I got. The lumpia reminded me of Goldie Locks. (I know you read that review). They look like they came from the bulk bags you get at Costco. I didn't taste anything at all. The caldereta was good. It was a combination of beef roast and short ribs I believe. I just know it's two different cuts of beef. One was soft and melt in your mouth. The other tuff and chewy. But I have never had it with the veggies deep fried. That is genius. This is a delicious dish. The fresh lumpia as ok. Nothing to write home about. And the serving was big. I expected one fat lumpia but got two large instead. Overall four stars. That place is clean and the service very good. Food is good and worth coming again and again. Now excuse me, I'm eyeing the halo halo. M

this place is suuupper yummy! like momma's cookin. I've literally ordered almost everything on the menu for delivery and it's always good portions, delicious food, packaged nicely and made with love! I usually have a hard time finding tortang talong for delivery, but these guys always deliver

Their sinigang bangus belly as well as their nilaga beef is delicious and highly recommended. They also serve generous portions so you get your money's worth. The halo halo is also refreshing and well presented.

The food was good but the service was really slow. Not sure if they were under staffed the night my family and I dined at the restaurant. The staff was quite friendly. But the place wasn't crowded at all. Anyway, I would eat there again and would recommend this place to my friends. Just make sure you give enough time for the slow service just in case you're in a rush.