The trouble with Vancouver’s sprinkling of Filipino restaurants is that none of them deliver. It’s especially inconvenient when organizing a massive potluck, which Filipino families have almost weekly. Party staples such as lumpia, empanada, pancit, and palabok are so tedious to make for a crowd that almost everyone will get a restaurant to do it for them.  With the exception of lumpia, which is made fairly well in all the Pinoy eateries I patronize, your typical restaurant excels in the making of just one of these banquet-style dishes. My family either winds up ordering from the closest location–and in the process tolerates some mediocrity–or gets a volunteer to run all over the city for the good stuff.

Next time, I’m going to suggest that we get Foodsters to do all the running around.

Josephine’s: best palabok

My cousin was one of my bridesmaids in 2006, and she knew that food from Josephine’s Restaurant on Main & 10th was the fare I’d be craving on my wedding day. Her favourite item to order is palabok, a dish of rice noodles smothered in a shrimp-based sauce. Done right, the noodles are thick and have absorbed the essence of the tangerine-coloured sauce, and toppings are varied and generous: tiny shrimp, slices of hard boiled egg, tofu cubes, scallions, roasted garlic, chicharron crumble, and a hint of anchovy. I hardly ever see this served outside of a special occasion, and when that occasion arises, she and I trust Josephine’s to make it best.

Cucina Manila: best empanada

I may be critical about the in-store service of Collingwood’s Cucina Manila, but I cannot fault the quality of their catering division. This is the place my aunts go for empanada when they’d rather not make it themselves. The addition of raisin, egg, carrot, and peas to the traditional pork filling makes their version of these small, deep-fried meat pies rank above the rest.

PinPin: best pancit sotanghon

Fraser Street’s PinPin is my top pick for Filipino eating in the city, so it’s not surprising that they make a mean pancit. The regular menu offers a greater selection of pancit styles than do the rest of the pack. Pancit Sotanghon, whose star ingredient is the delicate, broth-infused strands of glass noodles, is the one sought after for a more auspicious meal.

Where does your family frequent for additions to their Filipino potlucks?

From December 10-22nd, I’m a media sponsor for Foodsters’ 12 Days of Christmas Food Drive. Follow along as I share what my top 12 food and restaurant cravings are this season (with some poetic license to boot).

The third establishment on my Filipino dining wishlist was Cucina Manila, a turo-turo restaurant by Joyce Station.  It was highly praised by a colleague and a salsa dancing acquaintance, both of whom make their respective commutes from New Westminster and the West End to partake in its culinary offerings.

It was hyped to be much better than Sandy’s Cuisine, the restaurant that has recently trumped Josephine’s Restaurant as my Filipino restaurant of choice.  Last weekend, my husband and I made the trip over to Cucina Manila to see just what was so extraordinary about this place.

Let’s start with the menudo, the pork stew that was once my favourite at Josephine’s and whose degradation I have been lamenting ever since.

While the quality was indeed better than the recipe currently being dished out at Josephine’s, it still doesn’t compare to my mom’s recipe, nor the one that I’ve secretly loved more than my mother’s by former Josephine’s chef, Mang Rene.

The other dishes we ordered were decent at best.  Both of us were let down that we had travelled all this way for food that we could have made better at home.  We also weren’t thrilled that there was no posted menu to speak of.  It quite intimidated my husband, who felt very conscious of his lack of Filipino vocabulary and his unfamilarity with the dishes that were on display.

Hoping that our dining experience was just an off day, I took home an order of daing and kutsina to try out over the next few days.

Daing is butterflied milkfish that’s been marinated in vinegar and garlic and fried till crispy.  It’s one of my favourite Filipino breakfast dishes, but cooking something this pungent at home would induce the wrath of all of our neighbours (not to mention my husband).  The daing from Cucina Manila did a good job of satisfying my breakfast craving, and was probably the best tasting item out of the ones we had sampled.

The kutsinta was passable.  It was by no means as good as the stuff my aunts have served us at the monthly Filipino potlucks we attend, but it was better than anything I could have made myself.

Would we come back and see if we’d like other dishes at Cucina Manila?  Probably not.  Perhaps I’m so used to how my family makes certain dishes that the style of cooking at Cucina Manila is simply not to my taste.  Perhaps my husband’s discomfort at feeling out of place and unwelcome as a non-Filipino was an impression I’ll have a hard time overcoming.  At any rate, Josephine’s and Sandy’s are much closer to our downtown abode and will likely continue to be our go-to places until I complete my tour of the other Filipino restaurants in the Lower Mainland.

Want to convince me otherwise?  Leave me a comment and let’s see if I can be persuaded to try Cucina Manila once more.

Cucina Manila
5179 Joyce Street | Vancouver
(604) 435-4508

Other blog reviews of Cucina Manila:

• Van Eats: First visit: Cucina Manila

Filipino Restaurant Series to date:

• Josephine’s Restaurant
• Sandy’s Cuisine
• Cucina Manila
• Pinpin