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Cucina Manila
Category: Restaurants Filipino Filipino [Edit]
5179 Joyce StVancouver, BC V5R 4G8
Neighbourhood: Renfrew-Collingwood
(604) 435-4508
- Price Range:
-
$
- Attire:
- Casual
3 reviews for Cucina Manila
3 reviews in English
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Review from Stephene C.
Vancouver, BC
5/18/2011
Whenever I feel the need to satisfy my ancestral cravings, I go to Cucina Manila where they have great Filipino food!
This particular Filipino restaurant is what we call "toro-toro", which translates to "point-point". It's basically like a cafeteria type setting here in the west, where you see pre-made dishes behind a window and you point at the foods you want, hence "toro-toro" or "point-point". I'm not sure why most Filipino restaurants in Vancouver are toro-toro types, but I'm guessing it has to do with the fact that it takes a long time to make Filipino dishes. So if you had a regular sit down Filipino restaurant where they cook the food for you when you order it, you would be waiting a really long time to get your food! The dishes are kept warm enticing you with their aroma's, waiting to be consumed.
Their Kare Kare is good. It is an ox tale dish with a peanut sauce/ soup base and various vegetables, but it definitely doesn't compare to my mom's Kare Kare. Their Menudo dish is awesome! Sorry to say it's better than my mom's (shhhhhh don't tell her I said that). Menudo uses pork (my mom uses beef) and a tomato based sauce with various other things that make it mouth watering. Their pork Sinigang is really delicious, although a little too greasy I find. It's basically a broth based dish with pork or fish or whatever protein you want to put in it with vegetables and it is sour and savory. The best thing I think they make is their Palabok. I can't really explain it or what the taste is, it's just really good. It's a noodle dish that has eggs, pork rinds and various other ingredients that make it a whole body experience to eat from mouth to stomach. You can just Google it to get a better idea of what it is, or better yet, just go out and try it! Palabok is my all time favorite Filipino dish next to Chicken Adobo.
Filipino food is hearty food, it is soul food, food that I grew up with!
St3Fin -
Review from Kara B.
10/19/2011
Terrible service. One server in particular was quite inattentive, and was incredibly rude besides. True that the food is better than other places of the turo turo variety, but not enough to overcome their staff's shortcomings.
I'd recommend taking your business to Pin Pin instead. The food is immensely better, and the servers are neither snitty nor likely to antagonize patrons. -
Review from Mousee A.
Vancouver, BC
10/20/2011
Customer Service is an alien concept to this restaurant. Never have I seen a server who was turning her back and talking to 2 other people at the back (kitchen) and refusing to make eye contact with me while taking my order! To top it all, she was aggressive and pointed a finger at me when I complained about her screwing up my order! To add insult to injury, the "supervisor" yelled at me to stop while I was at mid-sentence. Super rude! It may be a "turo-turo" but that does not excuse rudeness.
I agree with Kara B, take your business to Pin Pin instead. THEY understand customer service.
