Manilenian’s Restaurant

I’m sad to see this place go. They offered good, affordable, and fast Filipino food. I’ve never dined in and have always ordered from the turo-​turo area.

If you want to take people somewhere nice, this isn’t the place.
I came in on an invite from one of the people who worked there and sat down for a drink and it took them forever to get it for me. The wait staff even COMPLETELY ignored me when I wanted to settle my bill and didn’t even know how much it cost right away. They even kept the change as tip. Definitely not going back there again even for a quick order of food. It might take them an hour and I’d have to pay them for the rudeness.

I wanted to bring filipino food to the office for a post-​holiday treat to my non-​Asian co-​workers and my sister recommended this place. I have tasted their lumpia shanghai before & it was really good. nice & crispy & no food extenders, it’s all-​meat. the lumpia is wrapped thinly so you can really taste the flavor of the meat, unlike other filipino restaurants; overly-​wrapped to make it bigger. i suggested to my co-​worker that I will have him taste the real pinoy adobo and not the fusion-​flavored dish he orders from the food truck in the city. so i ordered the lumpia shanghai and the popular chicken/​pork adobo. i asked the lady not to smother it with fatty meat so it won’t be a turn-​off for them. surely, it was a HIT! yes, maybe their service before was unacceptable but my experience 2 weeks ago was a pleasure. my orders were ready as promised and the lady who took the call was very courteous & knowledgeable. i still have to try other dishes. they cater my sister’s small parties and we always enjoy their miki bihon, binagoongan & «pinakbet».

Came here about a week ago, after bowling with my family. We wanted to try something different. So we went into the restaurant and no one was in there we sat down and ordered our food. I ordered some kind of noodle hoping its kind of like the one I had before, my family ordered rice plates. Well it took about 15– 20 minutes to serve my family, I waited an additional 15 minutes for my noodles. My family had already finished their food when my dish came out, not to mention the noodles tasted bland and has a weird fish oil taste. I don’t know if that dish is suppose to taste like that, but my brother said he wanted to throw up after he tried my noodles. Basically after a couple bites we left, no point in gaining additional calories I don’t need. In addition, they decided to give us water after we finish eating, seriously slow. If I do come here again I will only order the beef rice places my family had ordered that was good. The beef tasted like the Chinese fruit beef jerky. I don’t understand how they can put such a nasty noodle item on the menu. Bottom line — Poor service and MEH food, I’ve had better for the price.

This review is for their service or well. lack of.
There are two components that I find very important when running a restaurant: (1) Service and (2) Quality of the food.
Although Manilenian’s has cheap and delicious food, their service wanes.
My sister and I decided to call in for a pick-​up order because we walked in before and waited almost 30 minutes for two silog breakfasts.
The phone rang for a while and someone finally picked up, this is how the conversation went:
Woman: «…Uh, hello?»
Me: «Hi, I’d like to place an order for pick-​up.»
Woman: «…What?»
Me: «Uhh. I’d like to place an order for pick up.»
Woman: «Oh! Uh yes, what do you want.»
Me: «One tocilog and one sisig silog.»
Woman: «What?»
Me: «One tocilog and one sisig silog…»
[The woman hands the phone over because I assume she couldn’t understand what I was saying]
Man: «Hello?»
Me: *sigh* «I’d like to place an order for pick-​up.»
Man: «What do you want?»
Me: «One tocilog and one sisig silog.»
Man: «Okay, when do you want to pick it up?»
Me: «Uhh. whenever it’s ready.»
Man: «So you want me to call you back when it’s ready?»
Me: «No, you can just give me a time, like 10 for 15 minutes. You guys are going to make it right now aren’t you?»
Man: «Well, we’re doing a lot of things…»
Me: «Okaaaay. well, 15 minutes?»
Man: «Okay, 15 minutes.»
Me: «How much will it be?
*he hangs up*
My sister and I get there 16 minutes after our conversation. Upon walking in, the woman (who I assume was speaking to at first) glances at us and continues to do what she was doing. A man walks through the hot food area and past us. No one acknowledges us for about a minute.
When someone finally did, they told us that our order was ready.
15 minutes later, we’re still sitting there waiting for our order.
That is exactly why we called ahead so we didn’t have to wait.
Manilenian’s food is great, but, there service needs MAJOR work. They need more knowledgable/​attentive people working in the front.
I’ll probably come back to try out another silog breakfast, but, if the service is still unpleasant, I’d much rather find another Filipino restaurant to frequent.

My folks were hungry and we were craving filipino food. We opted to go to Manilenian because it was close to us, and because our Aunt recommended it. The place has been around for about 9 months, and it is located in front of Classic.
Fresh Ube — very good… 2 bucks for a pretty big slice. Not overly sweet. The ube flavor was nice, and it was very filling
Fried Bangus — hands down the best fried bangus. I don’t even like bangus… hell, i hardly ate it as a kid because it tasted too fishy. Their bangus is marinated perfectly and the fish taste isn’t there. It has a more vineagry taste, which I love. The fish meat and skin were fried so perfectly, it almost tasted like chicharon. The belly was full of fat and added to the flavor. The bones in the one we got were so soft you could eat them.
Fried Chicken Silog– Pretty standard fried chicken dish. You really cant go wrong with fried chicken, and I’d say they give you maybe a little more than other places. This (along with i think 80% of their Silog dishes) is 4.99… thats CRAZY cheap. Their garlic fried rice is really really good. They use a lot of fresh garlic… and their fried egg is perfectly over easy.
Sisig– Again, freshly made and really good. I feel that this place’s sisig is fairly equal to Ongpin’s overall. What I like about Manilenian’s sisig is that its chopped slightly larger so you have a good meaty texture and chew. Also, they can grill it with chili peppers to add spice… and you can spice it to taste (none to hot).
Diniguan — Very good diniguan, but I still prefer my grandma and aunties. Still, this one is good… though not as saucy as I like, the flavor was still nice and not irony at all.
This in addition to the combo plate my dad got equated to around 25 bucks… which is really good, considering I ate till I almost couldn’t walk. Aside from the combo plate specials, everything is cooked to order, and unlike most Filipino restaurants, the food comes out REALLY fast, so you don’t wait long at all. Next time, I’m going to try the Crispy Binagoongan and their house made Longanisa, which I hear is also really good. If you are looking for cheap and good filipino food that you don’t have to wait a long time for, got o Manilenean’s. Come here and get the Bangus… seriously.

the best bang for your buck for filipino foods…

I was a fan of their food especially the Menudo, Sisig, and Giniling, but the last time I ordered the giniling, it smelled ODD. And what do you know? It tasted odd as well like it was about to rot. But my lola is such a big fan of their sisig. One time, my lolo wanted to get halo-​halo from here but they had to return it cos it was SALTY. Weird right? So they replaced it, but it was still SALTY! It had something to do with their ice.

If you like the food @ Philippine Grocery, and wished they had tables, then go here. The main cook/​chef opened her own restaurant in front of Classic Bowl. Aside from the ready-​to-​serve (turo-​turo) food they also have Ala Carte menu, where you’ll find more selection.
Likes:
Beef Asado *****- really tasty
Shrimp Pop *****- crispy, meaty, d’lish
Menudo
Lumpia (Shanghai)
Garlic (fried)Chicken
Crispy Binagoongan
Leche Flan
Kare-​Kare
Just got their #: 650−763−1209