My son and I met up here with one of his good friends and her 2 kids. She is Filipina and guided us…read morethrough the food. We let her order for us since we are not too familiar with Filipino cuisine and were down for anything! Of course, we know the standard dishes like adobo, lumpia, and pan cit, but this was a whole new world for us.
We walked in on the 12th of this month at 4:30pm and were greeted by Roxanne behind the counter. The way this place works is that you can see the hot food in the case as if it were a cafeteria and you tell the employee which ones you want. There are many types of dishes to choose, ranging from seafood to stews, lumpia, rice/garlic rice, and street food style skewers. We tried a little bit of everything!
For drinks we tried the Melon drink. They make it in-house and it was FANTASTIC! SO refreshing and really hits the spot on a hot day. We also shared the Calamansi Lemonade (not made in-house) and it was a bit too tangy for my palate. I preferred the Melon drink.
For our food, I don't even know where to start. We had a vast variety of items on the table, including: Lumpia, Fried Fish, Garlic Rice, Chicken Adobo, veggie small egg rolls, Sinigang, Pork Dinuguan, Bitter Melon, and Longanisa Sausage. For the street food skewers, we tried a bunch of different ones including Fish Cake, Lobster, Pig Ears, and even Chicken Intestine.
This was definitely an adventurous experience and we enjoyed it. Some items more than others, but overall it was a good experience. Some of the food was hot and some of it was just lukewarm.
One thing that really disappointed me was that they didn't sell any pan cit. It's my favorite Filipino food and I love noodles in general. I was really looking forward to eating some, but oh well.
For dessert, we tried their Buko Pandan drink along with their Halo Halo. They were very delicious and refreshing! Also well balanced and not overwhelmingly sweet.
The restaurant is super clean and decently sized. For some reason, the music is louder than usual. They were playing some nice '80s jams when we got there, then they switched to some live Filipino bands, then a DJ Megamix of 2010s pop hits. We could hardly hear our thoughts. That's how loud the music was.
So actually, they share this space between two different restaurants. On one end you have Kusina ni Kuya but they are also partnered with the Seafood Boil restaurant next door. They both share the dining area. They have one restroom for men and one for women. Both were clean, but the trash in the women's restroom needed to be emptied.
They also offer catering. Parking lot is shared with other businesses.
We had a great time catching up with each other and if you're looking for some authentic Filipino food in Northridge, you should check this place out!