lifebsideben

About a week ago we were headed home down El Camino from doing errands, passing through San Bruno, and I spied on the other side of E.C.R. a restaurant that said “Filipino-Spanish cuisine”. Now, I had no idea what that might entail, but it sounded intriguing! We promptly decided to give it a shot. This isn’t a part of the my “walking distance” restaurant reviews, but hey, thought I’d spread the word anyhow.

Inside Patio Filipino (which yes, actually has a rather large, nice-looking Patio, but it was too cold for that), it’s tastefully decorated and cozy. It seems the specialties of the house are paella (unfortunately, all shellfish, which means the wife and I couldn’t share–so that’ll have to wait until next time), and various other fusion dishes. Yes, they really are Filipino/Spanish. It’s odd, but it works!

We started off with calamari, which was simple but tasty. Nothing particularly special about it, but good. We’d probably try one of the pork appetizers next time, they sounded more exotic (well, certainly more Filipino). All along, the kid was enjoying himself, and as the tables around us filled up, the atmosphere got quite neighborhood-friendly, which was unexpected and nice.

Our main dishes arrived, Kare-Kare (oxtail cooked in peanut sauce with mixed vegetables), and sizzling sisig (pork, chopped with onion and jalapeno pepper with egg and served on a sizzling plate). To complement both we ordered the garlic rice. First came the rice, and wow, that could be a meal in itself, flavorwise. Really tasty, and definitely not just plain rice to go underneath something! The sizzling sisig was really great too: it’s like small strips of pork, lightly breaded(?) and fried, then put on rice with veggies and an egg broken into it at the table, then fried up more on the sizzling plate. It smelled, and tasted, great. Val’s dish came in a large bowl, and she really liked it–personally, the peanut sauce was a bit much for me (I’m not a huge fan), but I did think it was good. The oxtail had a nice flavor to it, and there was a surprising amount of meat in the dish. There were some tasty veggies floating around in there too, as well as some (glad I didn’t see it until the end of the meal), tripe. But hey, flavor is flavor! And it definitely had a nice taste, even if I personally couldn’t eat an entire entree with that sauce. Val ordered an iced tea as well, and boy, it was great. I’m not sure what went into it (it was definitely not just normal iced tea,) but it was super. The kid loved it too!

We were pretty full by the time that was all done, but had to try the desserts. We got a Mango Supreme (mango cake w/scoop of mango ice cream topped w/mango puree and sansrival wafer), and a Chocolate Matador (layers of chocolate cake and scoop of ice cream in a bed of raspberry sauce topped with buttercrunch). Both were great; the chocolate was a little overcomplicated, and the cake was crazy rich, but we managed to eat most of it The mango dish was, well, mango-y delicious. Definitely fit in with the scheme, and had a great flavor… that one won the kid’s approval.

The staff was really friendly and reasonably attentive, especially since it was so busy, and the prices are very reasonable (entrees $9-$15). The bathroom was clean although basic, and of course, they happily provided a highchair. We’ll definitely go back sometime, I’m thinking when some non-shellfish-allergic folks are with us; I want to try the $40 Paella Valenciana!