Filipino Restaurant Series: Sandy’s Cuisine
23 Comments
Karen Hamilton
June 11, 2008
Update, January 27, 2009 – The Main Street location of Sandy’s Cuisine is closed. Sandy Daza is currently scouting for a new venue. I’ll update this post with any news.
Do you ever watch the Multicultural Channel? If so, you may already know of Sandy Daza, the man behind Cooking with Sandy Daza. I’ve enjoyed many an episode of his Filipino cooking show, although I prefer not to be told 3 times in a row that the recipe needs a clove of bawang.
The show has been on for years but it was only since our recent patronage of Pho Tan that I stumbled upon Daza’s nearby turo-turo (literally “point-point”) restaurant. [For the uninitiated, turo-turo is a buffet or cafeteria style of offering pre-cooked Filipino food, since most Filipino dishes take several hours to prepare. Almost all the Filipino restaurants in Vancouver offer their food in this manner.]
So it was thusly, fueled by my recent disappointment with Josephine’s, that we finally decided to give Sandy’s Cuisine a try.
To my delight, Sandy Daza was the first person to greet us as we entered the restaurant. I hid my fangirldom enough to order a round of dishes for the family. It’s amazing how almost every dish we ordered had pork in it. It’s not the restaurant’s fault; Filipinos just have an obsession with pig.
My brother wanted the paksiw, which is roasted pork braised in a sweet gravy that many people simply refer to as lechon sauce. I’ve seen this dish homemade using bottled lechon sauce before (and to great result). I’m sure this restaurant did not take this shortcut. It looked spectacularly indulgent and tasted much like that. It was way too sweet for me but my brother enjoyed it.
The adobo was the highlight of my meal. I’d been craving it ever since [eatingclub] Vancouver teased me with their home recipe.
The dish is similar in concept to gai lan in oyster sauce. Instead of gai lan, you get kangkong (water spinach) with its hollow, crunchy stems; instead of oyster sauce, you get tangy adobo sauce, which is usually made with soy, vinegar, and loads of garlic. The dish wasn’t on display as they preferred to cook it to order. Sandy had to mention that the kitchen could make it for us. I was fine with that…fresh food for all! They also had a huge array of choices, much of them more adventurous than what you’d see at a typical Filipino turo-turo, and for that my tummy was grateful.
Their kare-kare, or oxtail stew in a peanut sauce, was better than what most Filipino restaurants offer in Vancouver. No blandness to be found. Actually tastes like it was made with roasted peanut rather than a jar of peanut butter. But it still doesn’t come close to my mother’s home concoction. And even she cheats with peanut butter.
We also ordered the dinakdakan. Somehow, I neglected to photograph it! Bad Karen. Maybe it was because it didn’t look appetizing to me: it was one monotonous pasty colour, kinda like chicken salad. Not at all like the Flickr photo in the link above. It tasted tart and sort of citrusy, with a lot of bursts of onion. Again, not to my taste but enjoyed by my brother and husband.
I was sad that the 4 dishes we chose meant that we had to pass on the lechon kawali (boiled and deep-fried pork belly…can you say yum?!) and the Bicol Express, which I had never tried before. I mentioned as much to Sandy, who was kind enough to give us a small sample of the Bicol Express along with our meal. I regretted not ordering a full serving as soon as the spicy coconut curry made contact with my tongue. If my kangkong craving hadn’t been so extreme, I’d rate this dish as the best of the bunch.
Ah well…that just gives me reason to return to Sandy’s Cuisine and trawl through more of the dishes they have to offer.
Sandy’s Cuisine
4186 Main St | Vancouver
(604) 677-4807
Filipino Restaurant Series to date:
Categories: Food, mount pleasant, Restaurants
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I’ve never had the urge to try Sandy’s restaurant until now. I have to admit that the descriptions of the food that you present (especially the kare kare) has piqued my interest.
Hi Ritchie,
I was mildly curious about Sandy’s only because of the cooking show. My current beef with Josephine’s spurred me to venture away from the familiar. I hear that Cucina Manila on Joyce is another place to check out.
Kare-kare rocks! It’s also one of the nicknames that my husband has bestowed on me. Except he likes to drive me up the wall by pronouncing it “care-care”.
[...] was hyped to be much better than Sandy’s Cuisine, the restaurant that has recently trumped Josephine’s Restaurant as my Filipino restaurant of [...]
[...] Sandy’s Cuisine [...]
Last time I was over at Sandy’s, I didn’t like the place that much. It’s rundown and doesn’t look like a restaurant at all, aside from the bathroom stink that permeates the dining area. The food may be good but if the place look yucky then my appetite is gone.
tried several time this sandy’s restaurant…
very dissapointed with the food & the place….
the food display is not appetizing
taste is just so so…
& they dont have combo…
& why they made its also as a sari sari store?
could anyone please tell me Sandy’s cuisine’s phone number? I tried the one listed above many times but it’s not working. thank you!!
Sandy mentioned that they may be changing venue / format in the next little while so perhaps this has begun while we were out of town. I’ve contacted Sandy for you, Vee, and hope to get an update soon. Stay tuned.
Hi Vee,
Sandy confirmed that the location on Main Street has closed. He’s currently seeking an alternate venue.
[...] Sandy’s Cuisine [...]
Me and my husband always try to eat in different filipino restaurants, and I would say Sandy cooked the real meaning of filipino dishes. Even with the very simple dish like lechon paksiw, I never forget the comment I mentioned the first time I tasted his dish….”eto yung hinahanap kong lechon paksiw.” And even my co workers and friends are asking me how the I cook my dinakdakan and sisig, when I actually ordered them in Sandy’s restaurant.
Hope to see you again in buisness.
[...] restaurant (Something Chilli House?) that replaced the longime Sandy’s Filipino restaurant (chef Sandy Daza is currently looking for a new locale to bring Sandy’s back) and I havent even covered them all in those few blocks…oh, and not to mention a handful of [...]
how’s the new restaruant coming,try to google it but didn’t seem to find any info, any update yet ??
Hi there! I will be taking a trip to Vancouver, and it would love to take my boyfriend to a filipino restaurant and have him discover good, authentic filipino food. Please keep us updated on Sandy’s restaurant. Thanks!
Glad this place is close. You have an owner who is a sick idiot.
We have known Sandy Daza all for many years. He is a verbally abusive and promotes fear to everyone including to his own family. Without his mother’s name, he is just another cook. He is a total failure, a failed parent and a failed businessman. His past is littered with lies, abuse and drug use. His family is the most dysfunctional we’ve ever seen. He is a self-serving and self-promoting bastard whose life is going downhill for sure.
Here are some comments from Sandy Daza about 20 years ago and don’t be surprise if he says it again:
“Ang mga Muslims sa Mindanao na iyan walang kwenta. Pababayaan nalang natin silang mamatay sa gutom. Wala naman silang naitutulong.”
Palagay ko mga dating landlord sa puesto ng restaurant ni Sandy Daza ang mga ito. Hindi pa ata nagbayad ng monthly payment kaya galit lahat.
Mga empleyado ni Sandy Daza ang mga iyan. Hindi pa binabayaran for several months bago na bangrupt ang restaurant niya. Maraming utang.
Lagot iyan si Sandy Daza sa mga Muslims dahil sa masakit niyang sinabi. Abusadong magsalita kasi kaya balitang blitang ang loko loko. Nagkalahat sa tweeter at facebook ang mga kagaguhan mga ginawa niya noong nag-shabu pa siya angang ata ngayon. Pati sa youtube iyong mga sinabi masasama sa kapwa niya nakuha na-ivideo.
Sandy Daza,
Maski na mga Muslim kami wala naman kaming gigawang masama sa inyo. Kung mayroon kang problema sa buhay or kaya naman sa mga anak mo or sa asawa mo, huwag mong idamay kaming mga Muslim. Porque balita kang drug addict, walang kang karapatan sabihin na mabuti pang mamatay na nalang lahat ang mga Muslim.
Maski saan makarating si Sandy Daza, he lives a trail of dirt. He is a verbally abusive bastard. Masakit magasalita kasi kaya maraming galit sa kanya. Even his own daughter said, “My father spends so much time to promote himself a cook, he forgot that he also needs to spend time to be a father.” Sobrang paninira nang tao. Sobrang pagkasama.
I don’t Sandy Daza but whoever he is, I think he must have done something terribly wrong to make all these people bitterly angry with him. It is obvious that his life is forever ruined. It looks to me he has to go in hiding for good to get away from all the shame and accusation being thrown to him. I sure don’t want to be him.