What Filipinos Order at a Filipino Restaurant
Filipino tables order by contrast, not by courses: something crisp, something saucy with rice, a noodle, something sharp. How that works, what it costs, and what we do not have.
Barrios Restaurant & Bar
10/4/20265 min read
What Filipinos Actually Order at a Filipino Restaurant
Ask a Filipino what to order and you get a list. Watch a Filipino table order and you see a system.
Here is the system, and how it maps onto a Filipino menu in Halifax.
One person orders for the table
Nobody orders their own main. One person takes the menu, asks the table two or three questions that nobody answers properly, and orders for everybody. It all lands in the middle.
Copy that if you are new. Four people sharing five dishes eat better than four people sitting behind one main each.
The dishes are built around rice
The salty and sour dishes are seasoned to be eaten with plain rice rather than on their own. That is the design.
Most of the plates already arrive with rice: kare-kare, beef caldereta, sisig, lechon kawali, beef tapa, chicken inasal and bangsilog. The noodles do not, and neither does crispy pata.
Work out which of your dishes bring rice with them before you order, and fill the gap from the sides: steamed rice is $2.50 and garlic rice is $2.75.
The shape of a Filipino order
Filipino tables do not order in courses. They order for contrast, and a good table has four things going on.
Something crisp. Spring rolls at $9, the pork barbecue skewers at $15, lechon kawali at $19, crispy pata at $27.
Something saucy with rice under it. Kare-kare at $22, which comes with the bagoong so you salt it yourself, or beef caldereta at $24.
A noodle in the middle. Pancit bihon or pancit guisado at $17, palabok at $20.
Something sharp to cut the fat. The soy vinegar dipping sauce that comes with the crispy pata and the chicken inasal, or the pickled daikon and carrots on the inasal and the bangsilog.
Get those four on the table and you have a Filipino meal, whatever else you add.
One thing nobody tells you about the noodles
Every noodle dish here comes with a choice of grilled chicken, crispy pork belly or shrimp. Pancit bihon, pancit guisado, palabok, all of them.
Decide before the server asks, or the table will spend a minute working it out loud.
Pancit turns up at every birthday
Long noodles, long life. That is why pancit is on the table at Filipino birthdays whether or not anybody came for noodles, and it is why the old rule says do not cut the noodles.
Pancit bihon is thin rice vermicelli with vegetables. Pancit guisado mixes vermicelli with chow mein noodles. Palabok is the one that comes out when the occasion is bigger: rice noodles in a rich sauce, topped with boiled egg, shrimp and crispy pork belly.
Sisig is what gets ordered with the beer
Pulutan is the word for what you eat while you are drinking, and sisig sits at the top of that list.
Ours is chopped roasted pork seasoned with soy sauce and chili, sizzling on cast iron with an egg on top and steamed rice, at $20. Mix the egg through while the plate is still going.
What is not on the regular menu, since you are going to ask
Adobo and sinigang are the first two dishes most Filipinos think of. Neither is on our regular menu, but both are part of our Sunday brunch rotation, so they turn up on some Sundays, never guaranteed.
From Tuesday to Saturday, if you came in for adobo, the caldereta is the braise on the menu: beef brisket in a tomato-based sauce with carrots, baby potatoes and beans, with rice, $24. If you came in for sinigang, there is no sour soup on the regular menu, and the sour lives in the soy vinegar dips instead.
Better to know that now than to find out with the menu already in your hands.
The dishes first-timers walk straight past
Pinakbet, $14. Squash, beans, okra, eggplant and crispy tofu. Vegetables treated as a dish rather than a side, and our menu lists it as vegetarian and vegan-friendly.
Torta, $12. The Filipino eggplant omelette, with pico de gallo, crispy onions and banana ketchup. If you have never had banana ketchup, that is where to meet it.
Bangsilog, $17. Pan-fried milkfish, garlic fried rice, a sunny side egg, pickled daikon and carrots. Breakfast food eaten at any hour.
Halo-halo to finish, when the chef has it on. It is an occasional special rather than a menu item. Shaved ice with sweet fruits, beans and jellies, evaporated milk, ube halaya and house-made leche flan. Mix it before you eat it. That is what the name means.
The ones everybody orders
Spring rolls and the pork barbecue skewers go first at Filipino tables, and they will go first at yours.
Crispy pata when there are four or more of you.
Popular is not the same as beginner.
Sunday is a different restaurant
The weekday menu and the Sunday brunch barely overlap.
Brunch is a spread rather than a plate: tocino, longganisa, pandesal, siomai, bacon and eggs, hash browns, a soup that changes every week, Filipino lunch mains with two new dishes each Sunday, dessert, and bottomless sago gulaman with coffee and tea. Lechon belly turns up on special Sundays. Twenty-nine dollars for adults and fifteen for children, 10:30 AM to 4 PM, and the bar is open.
The soup rotation is the part to watch. Arroz caldo and lugaw come around, and those are the ones people grew up on.
Nobody leaves food
The meal ends with containers. That is the intention rather than an afterthought.
Caldereta is better the next day, once the sauce has had time to sit. Pancit comes back fine in a pan with a splash of water. Spring rolls reheat in an oven or an air fryer, never a microwave, and crispy pata is the same, skin side up and given longer than you think.
What to order on your first visit to a Filipino restaurant in Halifax
Two people: spring rolls, one dish that comes with rice, and share both.
Four: add a pancit in the middle and the crispy pata.
Six or more: crispy pata in the middle, two dishes with rice, a pancit, and the pinakbet so there is something green on the table.
Tell your server it is your first time and let them steer you. It is a better system than guessing.
Quick answers
What do Filipinos order at a Filipino restaurant?
Not one dish each. A table shares several: something crisp, something saucy with rice under it, a noodle, and something sharp to cut the fat.
What should I order on a first visit to a Filipino restaurant?
Spring rolls or pork barbecue skewers to start, then one dish that comes with rice, such as sisig or kare-kare. Add a pancit if there are more than two of you.
Why do Filipinos always order pancit?
Long noodles stand for long life, so pancit turns up at every birthday. The old rule is not to cut the noodles.
What is pulutan?
Food eaten while you are drinking. Sisig is the one most people name first.
Do you serve adobo or sinigang?
Not on the regular menu. Both are part of our Sunday brunch rotation, but neither is guaranteed on a given Sunday. From Tuesday to Saturday, the beef caldereta is the braise if you came in for adobo.
Where can I eat Filipino food in Halifax?
Barrios Kitchen & Bar, 1571 Barrington Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 1Z7. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 11:30 AM, until 9 PM Tuesday to Thursday and 11 PM Friday and Saturday. Sunday brunch 10:30 AM to 4 PM. Closed Mondays. Call 902-444-2515 or book a table.