Cafe De Manila

We took a vacation to the Reno-​Tahoe area from Hawaii and were craving rice and other feel-​at-​home foods. We journeyed all around the Reno area only to find all of the other Filipino restaurants had shut down (Alm Kainin and I forget the name of the others), and then we came across this one. We ordered Lechon Kewali, Fried Chicken, and Pancit Canton with two sides of white rice. First and foremost, this definitely hit the spot and satisfied our craving. Although there was about a 20 – 25 minute wait for our food, each dish was cooked appropriately and tasted like cuisine from a typical Filipino restaurant. We dined at 4pm and were one of three parties at this restaurant, so we enjoyed our food in a quiet, intimate atmosphere. If we had found this place sooner, we probably would have revisited and tried the other dishes.

Went here for lunch last week and ordered sisig, kare kare, and pancit canton. The kare kare had a watery consistency and it lacked flavor. I expected the sauce to be thick and to have a somewhat peanut taste to it. It is, after all, supposed to be made with peanuts. I thought the sisig was good at first, but after a while it became too sweet for my taste. Weird, I know. I’ve never had sisig that was sweet before. The pancit canton was ok. Nothing spectacular.
Overall, the food was ok. Will I be back? Sure. I’ll try out the other dishes and maybe update my review. But based on the dishes I tried that day, I can only give 2 stars.
If I can recommend one thing, it would be to please not hover over your customer while they’re signing and filling out the credit card invoice. My husband and I were discussing about how much to tip, while you just stood closely next to him and listened in on our conversation. It was very uncomfortable.

When we visit Reno we seek out the food we can’t get back in Boise. Today we tried Café de Manila to scratch my husband’s itch for Filipino food. Since I am Filipino and cook Filipino food, it’s difficult to impress me; especially because when you are Filipino and you go out to eat, you are constantly comparing your meal to your mom’s cooking. We were pleasantly surprised by the Lumpiang Shanghai and the pork adobo, which was full of melt-​in-​your mouth fatty bits of pork, included savory chunks of potatoes and stewed green bell peppers, and wasn’t overly acidic.
The two ladies who served us were nice but only checked on us once. My aunt’s pancit didn’t come out with the rest of our meal and we had to follow up after two large parties came in for lunch. The pancit, for me, was my least favorite part of the meal because it only used pancit noodles (it’s not served with glass noodles) and it was too wet. My aunt really liked it, though.
My husband also had the diniguan (goat stewed in goat’s blood) and I had a small taste. It was flavorful and not gamey at all. I had the longsilog and the garlic rice was really yummy.
I had to go up to the counter to ask for take away containers and to order dessert to go. The lecheflan and the puto were good, but didn’t knock my socks off. Reports from other family members say that their bathrooms are very clean and nice.
Finally, when the bill came, my husband showed the woman our Unilocal check-​in deal for 5% off our bill. She balked and said that they were no longer «members of Unilocal» and not honoring the check-​in offer because they were under new ownership, etc, etc. Honestly, the explanation was so jumbled that it really felt like she pulled it out of nowhere — and regardless, it was only 5% and we spent a good amount of money there but she wouldn’t honor the check-​in offer. So beware.
Another note: I’ve never been to a Filipino restaurant that was fast. A slow, leisurely kitchen is part of many cultures. Go before you are too hungry or you will be very grouchy by the time your food comes. Café de Manila’s service wasn’t super slow (I’ve been in Filipino restaurants that are slower), but it wasn’t blazing fast either. The servers were nice and the food, for the most part, was good, but with other Filipino food options in the area, we probably won’t be back.

I’m a Filipino who grew up with authentic delicious food made by My mom. I’m pregnant and got cravings for Filipino food, but I moved to Reno away from mom so mom wasn’t there to help fulfill these cravings.
Café De Manila popped up on Unilocal and though it only got three stars, I decided to try it out for myself, esp since Filipino isn’t mainstream and lots of people don’t understand that lots of our dishes could be on the heavy side with fatty pieces of meats (people’s main complaint). It’s all about what you order and how to balance everything out. Usually I order a fish dish, one meat, one appetizer and one soup dish. If you order all deep fried dishes, of course, that can easily become overwhelming. If you’re unsure of the dishes, ask the workers or quickly Google them.
–Bangus (marinated boneless fried milkfish) my favorite fish of all time. I loved that they don’t just provide the fillet. They include the whole fish with nice crispy heads, skin and buttery fatty stomach. The meat was nice and tender and there were lots of crispy flavorful parts. Dip the fish in vinegar to cut fat and eat with rice (During breakfast time order Bangsilog which includes Bangus, garlic fried rice and two eggs, Yummy!!)
–chicken tinola (ginger base soup with chicken pieces an chayote vegetables) eaten with rice. Nice flavorful soup with tender chicken drumsticks.
–sinigang (tangy pork rib tamarind soup with vegetables) my favorite filipino dish. Though not the best I’ve had, I still enjoyed the refreshing soup and loved that they included so many vegetables.
I have yet to try their other dishes, but based on these dishes I think it’s safe assume that they will not disappoint.
Loida, a lady who seems to be the manager, is just the nicest. She was very welcoming during my first time. I will definitely be back for more.
Location-​nice open area with the Filipino channel playing in the background. The décor can easily be made more custom with Filipino accents, but that’s not important. I’m so glad that the food is good. Also, they don’t load their food with msg. I can tell because my lips didn’t get swollen hahhaa.
Everything was nice and fresh. Of course when you’re given fresh food, expect to wait a bit for it.

Foodventure by myself and ordered three entries which included the longsilog, tokwat baboy, and leche flan for dessert. Food is exactly how I like my Filipino food and I love Filipino food. It reminded me a lot of childhood and the people working are really nice. Would only give it a 5 star if it didn’t take around 38 minutes for my food to arrive. Everything else was good though. Honestly I was getting pissed off cause my food was taking forever BUT the food and service was so good that I give this place a 4 star.

This place does have delicious food BUT it takes forever!!! First off we ordered appetizers tonight, asked for water and iced tea. Well the iced tea is the powered mix that’s super tea, so they don’t brew it, and I never got my water. After our food came, (the rest of the tables food came) I asked again for my water and finally. After waiting for an hour, my plate came. It was ridiculous. A total time of two hours just to get everything! Do not recommend if your in a hurry or starving.

We came in with a party of 6. Ordered basic Filipino dishes. After an hour and a half wait the waitress told us they forgot our order! How the heck is that even possible?! And there were only 3 other parties in there! Are you freaking serious!!! If I could give this place a 0 star I would! PS. Their band sucked as well. God Bless.

I ate at Café de Manila last night with a friend and had an absolutely delightful meal with very good friendly service.
For an appetizer, we had lumpia — six Filipino
oversize egg rolls with three different sauces; an excellent item and lots of food.
I can’t remember the names of our main courses — which, in the Filipino fashion, we shared. They were also large servings and came with double rice.
One was a pork cube light stew with bits of potato-​like taro and pineapples — delicious! Another was a beef stew in a heavy dark gravy along with green beans, whole baby okra pods, a few jalapeño-​looking peppers (but much smaller and milder), and a couple of other vegetables — it’s mouth-​watering to write about it!
Most Filipino food is great… But if you haven’t tried an item and it sounds weird you may want to avoid it.
I understand Café de Manila has a reasonably-​priced buffet on Sundays so we’re going to try it out to sample some of the more unusual dishes.
Two PROBLEMS:
1). It was Karaōke night and the one singer did song after song missing ALL the high notes — this normally wouldn’t have bothered me that much but the volume was enormously high on gigantic speakers… And I’m talking about «rock concert» loud!
2). Our server didn’t speak much English, making it hard to get explanations of the dishes.
RESOLUTIONS:
1). After repeated efforts to get the volume down — which changed it from eardrum-​damaging to just being totally unable to hear each other — we explained that we were going to have to leave without ordering; at that point, they moved us into a private dining room (where we were the only ones) and we had a peaceful meal.
2). Fortunately, the menu does a good job of explaining the items even though our very nice server couldn’t. As it turned out, we were quite pleased with our selections.
As mentioned, I’ll definitely be going back — this Sunday, in fact. I would rate the food at FIVE stars… With the two problems dropping it to four.

Ever since my husband and I decided to move Reno back in December I’ve been doing research on all the Filipino restaurants available. I was very eager to try Café December Manila since it was very close to our hotel and I am glad it did not disappoint. Even though the restaurant looks more like a Mexican cantina, the flavor is all Filipino. Since it was just my husband and I we only ordered 3 things: lumpia, adobo and embutido (Filipino meat loaf). Everything was delicious! The Adobo was rich with the perfect level of sourness. I did find it a bit odd to have potatoes in the adobo but it was still good. The meat could stand to be a little more tender, but really what matters to me is the flavor. I will be turning our adobo leftovers into fried rice! As for the lumpia and embutido they were just like my auntie would have made. Very authentic and homemade. Loved it!
Service was also very good; if just a touch slow (but I can’t really blame them. When I make adobo at home it usually takes me an hour of just simmering time.)
I will definitely be back and hopefully with a bigger party so we can order more dishes!

We decided to eat here while staying in Reno for the week — we got tired of the buffets and room service.
Location: The restaurant is located in a quiet strip mall not far from Costco and the airport. When we got there, there was probably about 12 people. By the time we left, there was only 3 left. It felt a bit dark and empty.
Service: There must have been a total of 2 servers in the entire restaurant (mainly because it was the holidays). Our server was friendly. She even gave us the remote to the TV if we wanted to flip through the channels since nobody else was watching. But the food delivery was a bit inconsistent. Half of our orders came out quickly, while the other half took forever. Most restaurants bring out everything within a couple of minutes from each other, not 15 – 20 mins apart. Then again it was the holidays and they had a limited staff (it seems).
Food: There are many different ways to cook Filipino food. So their take on some dishes was good. Others — like the Fish Sisig — received an «A» for effort. The best was probably their take on fried chicken and pancit.
If you’re in Reno and craving some Filipino food, this place is worth a try.

Im from California and visited Reno. I’m Filipino and was craving for some Filipino food. My wife and I decided to check this place out.
Service– not that good
The food took a while to get in. We watched a whole tv show and started the next tv show up when we got our food. The lady that was serving was bad at serving. She didn’t know how to place water glass, place the food, and place the plates and utensils. It was bad. I had to rearrange everything. I’m not very picky and meticulous but that was just bad.
Place– eh. It was empty and a little awkward. It didn’t give us a family atmosphere or a restaurant feel. I’m not sure what they are trying to do. There’s a stage and a seems to be a karaōke place, then there are booths for couples, then there’s a conference room or another room for some kind of parties. The place had huge speakers not being used. Then there’s Filipino channel playing.
Food– poor
We ordered tokwat baboy for appetizer. This came in with our main dish. I didn’t mind that at all since most Filipinos probably won’t consider this meal an appetizer. But they used lechon kawali for pork not pig ears. This was just bad. Terrible!
Kare-​kare and bangus (milk fish)
Kare kare was good! It was good enough but I’ve had better. They filled it with fats which I was not happy about. But I was fine with it. It didn’t have tripes. Few meat. And they didn’t use oxtail. But the taste was good.
Bangus– disappointing
Dry. Can’t even eat the the skin. Not crispy enough. It wasn’t marinated enough.
Price– eh… Not worth mentioning.
Overall experience. Bad.

To the uninitiated diner, Filipino food will be extremely daunting. There’s nothing recognizable in the names, the ingredients are very foreign, and though the cuisine is heavily influenced by Asian, Latin, and American flavors, it will be tough to find dishes that are familiar in any way.
As an adventurous eater, I love a good challenge, and had the pleasure of dining with a friend who’d spent some time living in the Philippines. It was great to have him there because the menu was about 10 pages long, filled with all sorts of items that were without a doubt, authentic! We started with an order of their homemade lumpia, crispy eggrolls filled with a minced pork stuffing. These were a bit salty on their own, but dipped in the sweet chili sauce, they are perfection!
For entrees we ordered pancit (noodle) palabok; glass noodles topped with shrimp, smoked fish flakes (dashi), hard boiled egg, crispy chiccharones, and an orange (color, not flavor) sauce; and Crispy Pata, which I recognized as the Spanish word for leg, a pork shank boiled until tender and then fried and served with a sour spicy soy dipping sauce and a sweet peppery one as well! I’ve got to say that all of it was fantastic. The Pata was the perfect food to pick at, with bits of crunchy skin and fat mixed with tender pieces of meat. The soy sauce was the perfect thing to cut through the richness here. The pancit, while not totally complimentary of the pata, was rich and complex and I really enjoyed the play of textures.
This lunch was an eye opener for me and it inspired Unilocal’s International Supper Club, an event that brought together 30 people to try this formerly unknown cuisine. I tend to agree with all of them, in that it’s not food I’m going out of my way for, but if lechon kawali, lumpia, or crispy pata cross my path again, I won’t hesitate to take a bite!

With its combination of Polynesian, Spanish, American, Chinese (and other Asian influences), Filipino food can be a challenge to the uninitiated. My wife and I recently joined a group of perhaps 30 Unilocalers for dinner at Café de Manila, providing a great opportunity to try a variety of flavors. Although it took a while to get the first orders out, the friendly staff did a pretty good job under the circumstances.
First up, Lumpia ($ 7.95), thin and crispy pork egg rolls served with a spicy-​sweet chili sauce. I’ve enjoyed lumpia many times, and these did not disappoint. Following was Tokwa’t Baboy ($ 9.95), bite-​sized pork belly and tofu chunks stacked together and deep-​fried, served with a mixture of soy sauce and vinegar. If you love both bacon and Asian food, you’ll want this for breakfast. And lunch. And, well, you get the idea.
Next was something I just couldn’t abide, Mangga at Bagoong ($ 5.95), a paste of mashed mango and salted, fermented shrimp. No, no, no. Even the smell was bad enough that I had to move that bowl to an adjacent, empty table. An acquired taste, I presume.
Thankfully, the next item was Laing ($ 7.95), a delicious mess of shredded taro leaves cooked with coconut milk and ginger, akin to Indian Saag. The leaves were a little tougher than most cooked greens, but the dish was one I’d order again. Even better was Chicken Adobo ($ 8.95), featuring chunks of chicken cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, bay leaf, garlic, and whole peppercorns. My wife and I probably enjoyed this stew the best of all items sampled.
The menu described Pork Menudo ($ 8.95) as pork meat stew with liver cubes, chickpeas, potatoes, and tomato sauce. My wife took the leftovers for lunch and reported, «This was similar in flavor to the adobo, though I couldn’t detect any liver. Under bright office lighting I realized the meat was actually chunks of hot dog, and there were raisins as well. Very different from the description.» Maybe they weren’t prepared for our large group and had to improvise.
Pancit (noodle) dishes are a mainstay and Pancit Palabok ($ 7.95) sounded amazing, with rice noodles, prawn, smoked fish flake, shrimp, sliced hard-​boiled egg, crunchy chicharon, and orange sauce. Yet, I couldn’t detect much – if any – shrimp or prawn, though there was plenty of fish flake, egg, chicharon (fried pork rind) and orange sauce. Not something I’d want every day (or week), but good enough I’d like to try it from a different restaurant for comparison.
Kare Kare ($ 10.95), a stew of oxtail with mixed vegetables cooked in peanut sauce is something I’ve had better tastes of in the past. The texture of the veggies was odd, and the peanut sauce seemed «off». Not terrible, but just not as good as I know it can be. Last of the entrees, Dinuguan ($ 8.95), the pork meat stew basted in pork blood and serrano chiles colloquially known as «Chocolate Meat». My wife found this to be «tasty, but rich. A few bites is enough, more would be too much.» To my eyes it looked like chunky, dark chocolate pudding (hence the nickname), with a livery smell. Folks who like organ meats enjoyed it, but I can’t say I’m a fan.
Finally dessert, beginning with Ube Halaya ($ 4.99), a cake of mashed ube root (purple yam) cooked with brown sugar, and condensed/​evaporated milks. My wife and I agreed it’s a pretty shade of purple, but it looks like Play-​Doh® and doesn’t taste much better. However, the Leche Flan ($ 4.99) was really outstanding. As with the Mexican variety, this custard is made of egg yolks and milk topped with caramel syrup, but we found Café de Manila’s rendition to be superior in both flavor and texture. A perfect end to this gastronomic adventure.

I have been really debating on this one but let me give my reasons for an A-​OK review.
First of all, I think we sometimes suffer from star inflation. A three star review means it was OK, not bad not great but OK.
So why was it just OK and not Yay or WooHoo? Some of the dishes were very good. I am taking into account my personal tastes here. I am not a fan of anything with guts, slimey stuff, entrails in boiled blood or dishes with salty dried fish. Not marking them down for the Bopis (beef lungs and heart sauteed in tomato paste), or Dinuguan (pork stew basted in pork blood). I just didn’t particularly like them.
I really liked the Kare-​kare (ox tail with mixed vegetables cooked in peanut sauce), the Laing (taro leaves cooked with coconut milk and ginger) and both the chicken and beef adobo. Those three were the stand-​out dishes for me — I would come back and have those again.
The staff were friendly and welcoming, but the service was a bit uneven. We were a very large group and they seemed a bit overwhelmed by having to serve so many. I know they have a buffet on Sunday. That may have been a better option for our large group. There were people at my table who had some dietary restrictions (no pork, and vegetarian) and I did not see a lot of effort to accommodate them.
I will probably come back and give it another try. It was fun to experience a different cuisine and I now have an idea of what things I will be happier with.

First time in here and trying Filipino food. I would like to try another place sometime to make a comparison. There were 33 of us and I don’t know how prepared they were for us– didn’t seem like they were. Dishes were slow to come out. But our waitress Lisa was very friendly She didn’t even get upset about splitting the tickets 20 different ways Our table ordered about 10 different items for a variety of foods to try. We just passed them around. I wished Lisa would have explained more about the dishes so I could have appreciated them more
The meal seemed greasy– a lot of pork belly dishes. Heavy foods. Dessert was total opposite. The flan had great flavor and so smooth creamy. Sorry we shared only one
The place isn’t a real stellar place to look at. Still remnants of previous Mexican restaurant in place. It needed its own identity Maybe what grandmas kitchen in the Philippines would look like
Probably won’t return there but still try another spot

For a while I was beginning to think all Filipino food is served cafeteria style with a buffet of dishes served to you while you stand in line. Perhaps for the first time in Reno, you now have a legit restaurant with table cloth where you can sit down and a waitress will come over and take your order and bring out your dishes. I’m just not fond of the cafeteria style. You have to figure, some food has been sitting out for a while and may not be up to healthy temperature. And seriously, would you take a date to a cafeteria-​style restaurant??? You can take your date to this restaurant.
It’s a big place and always has been for whatever Mexican incarnation. One area near the bar was always open and now it is filled with tables. I think they have to keep it open and maybe cover it with curtains and use it for say parties, dancing, karaōke, whatever. It’s just too big especially when you only have one other set of customers in the place. I ordered the spareribs and pork menudo. The pork menudo was an under-​cooked stew. The meat, potatoes, and carrots were all a bit hard and undercooked. They say they use pork, hotdog, and liver instead of tripe (as do the Mexicans) but I couldn’t find any hot dog or liver. I would have given the place a bad review had it not been for the spare ribs. I’ve never had Filipino spare ribs. I’ve had Chinese spare ribs which are often old, hard, and glazed with that red sugary coating which does tastes good but the meat is often rough. From now on, any new Filipino restaurant, I’m ordering the spare ribs. They were some of the best bbq ribs I’ve ever tasted and that includes all the shacks at the Sparks Rib Cook-​off and in town. You have to at least come here for the spare ribs. Usually, Asian restaurants think of spare ribs as meaningless appetizers, but you could literally just order the spare ribs and a side of rice, and you’d be full as I was. I couldn’t finish the pork menudo and didn’t want to and threw them out. The final treat was the house special salad which was rich with vinegary sauce, onions, and cilantro. Hello. I love cilantro. It was more like salsa and salad. I have to say this place has a good start. Cook the menudo longer and you’ll be fine. A tip to stewing is browning the meat and carrots and then stewing them to improve their flavor as well as the stew and use bones, but perhaps that wouldn’t be authentic. They do have an oxtail soup. As usual, Filipino food is not real spicy and tends to be a little pungent, but not overwhelming. They also play Filipino TV which I personally think is cool and adds to the authentic atmosphere. Mostly they speak English and tend to be very upbeat and cheery as I have found most Filipinos (hope that doesn’t sound nationalist).

Really a 3.5. Hard to judge because when I walked in on a mid-​Saturday afternoon, the place was surprisingly packed. I’m talking like wall to wall Filipinos, with the occasional white boyfriend lurking on the sidelines. «Wow, you’re doing great!» I said to the cashier. «Oh, it’s for a life celebration for a dead person,» she said blithely. I paid my $ 12 and shuffled slowly towards the buffet line. There were about 10 people in front of me and wouldn’t you know, I got the last clean plate but the steam table trays were completely emptied out. We had to wait about 15 minutes for more food to slowly trickle in, so I only got to try a few dishes.
As usual, none of the dishes were labeled. Apparently, there’s an unwritten rule in EVERY FRIGGING FILIPINO RESTAURANT to have unlabeled food items which assumes 1) you’re Filipino or know some and automatically can identify the dishes just by sight or smell and 2) your restaurant staff enjoy being asked 987 times a day, «What is that?»
Here are the dishes I was able to try:
Lechon — sliced pork belly fried to a crisp. Nicely proportioned with not too much fat. Crunchy and delicious.
Kare kare — this is a Filipino stew that is a staple. It’s got peanut butter in it and the universal standard is using oxtail as the main meat, but here they chintzed out and used thinly sliced steak. Veggies included eggplant and baby bok choy. Tasty but a bit too much peanut flavor than what my mom usually uses.
Flan — A simple custard. Flavorful.
Jasmine rice — fresh, hot and moist. I hate dry rice.
I did see that others had on their plates pancit and lumpia, but I didn’t feel like waiting around for the food to come back on the steam trays.
Overall, good decent Filipino food. I just need to come back on a «normal» day.

Went for a quick lunch and realized I just didn’t have the time. He seemed fine with changing my order to go.
As I sat there waiting, I noticed that they have a Buffet on Sundays. Great way to get to know Filipino food! I think she said it was 12 or 13 dollars.
My egg roll (lumpia?) order was good. And my pancit was the best I’ve ever had. Not saying much because I’ve only had it maybe 4 times. But it was tasty. And the value was spot on for quality and quantity.
The atmosphere was nicer than I expected. And the place seems to be set up for large party capability. They did have some booths too.
Looking forward to returning on a Sunday to really get a feel for Filipino food.