Manila Groove

Delicious food! I have a lot of Filipino friends but have never been to a Filipino restaurant before. We always go to Vietnamese ones! But I am so glad that I decided to try out this place because it was SOOOOO GOOD. It was LITERALLY FALL-​OFF-​THE-​BONE GOOD! I was very pleasantly surprised!
You know the feeling of eating good food that truly lifts your spirits?! That’s what happened to me! This food was able to make me happy and I was even bouncing in my chair a little eating it!
I definitely recommend anyone and everyone to try Manila Groove’s food! There are types of food for the more adventurous, but there are also dishes that most anyone else could eat too (and it is ridiculously tasty!). Check it out, you won’t regret it :)

I was surprised to see that there was a Filipino restaurant in Tustin. This place is tucked in the very back of a strip center. I guess the local Filipinos have kept this place in business because there was a small line when I walked in. Nothing pops out when you walk in to make this restaurant special to me.
I got the the two entrée lunch with Chicken Adobo and a bbq stick. the entrees come with rice and Sinigang (sour soup).
If you are watching your carbs, you can ask for 1 scoop of rice instead of 2, but don’t expect a discount for less rice. That’s on you.
Better Filipino restaurants will skim the oil/​fat from the Adobo sauce. This place didn’t.
I wasn’t sure what kind of meat the bbq stick was, but I’m assuming it was pork because it was kind of fatty.
I wish the soup had more vegetables so i wouldn’t feel so bad about eating all that meat. However, the soup did help wash the grease down my system.
I’m glad I went here so that I could scratch it off my list, but I’m not coming back.

If you’re looking for Filipino food in the Tustin area, you can come here. They have fast food here and the food is pretty delicious. I had the chicken adobo, and it tasted pretty authentic.

Manila Grove is one of those Filipino restaurant/​micro-​markets that has a potential for greater success but prices itself out of competition. They usually offer a good variety of choice of Filipino food, the restaurant is clean & roomy and the staff is usually friendly. However, I don’t understand how their 1-​item combo w/​rice and soup can cost $ 4 but a 2-​item combo is $ 7?! From the two-​item combos I seen customers purchase, there isn’t much of a difference in the portion of the second item from the first item. And then if you choose an item that is classified a «special» item, you have to pay even more! Huh? I can go to any Chinese fast food place in the area & get 3 items for the same price or go to Aloha Hawaiian BBQ at the District & get a 1-​item mini meal for about $ 6 and end up with more food that tastes better than what you get at Manila Groove.
I’ve been to Manila Grove twice and just purchased a 1-​item combo each time. The food was good… not excellent but good enough to come back. But the $ 3 differential for an additional item doesn’t yield a good enough return for my money… in this economy, I don’t think I’m alone in this. I strongly believe that if Manila Grove would just develop a better pricing model, more people would eat there. Otherwise, Manila Groove will probably go the way of places like Asiana Ranch Market in El Toro that sold over-​priced Filipino fast food… closed.

Filipino food in Panda Express style — That’s Manila Groove.
I looooove me some Pancit and and Chicken Adobo so I was desperately hoping Manila Groove will be my new go to spot. Sadly, I had really bad stomach aches after eating here and I don’t think I will return. If you’ve been to this place, you know why this place might be bad for your stomach. I mean, they use the cheapest cuts of meat (the «spare ribs» were more like half ribs, half chunks of fat) drenched in SOO much grease. The food also looks to be sitting there for a long time.
Honestly, the taste was pretty good but I don’t think I could ever stomach Manila Groove again. So sad, so sad.

My co-​worker brought me here last week to try some FIlipino food.
FOOD QUALITY:
Tasty, hot and affordable. I forget the exact names of the items I got now… but it was a platter of rice with beef and chicken. The beef was super tasty! Total for me came out to be around $ 8.
SERVICE:
Service is good, the guy behind the counter was patiently answering all my 101+ questions on what each platter had.hehehe.
OVERALL:
Good food, close to my work… I would come back for seconds!

The closest thing I’ve had to authentic Filipino food is a giant platter full of lumpia at my girlfriend’s house. It’s probably not that big of a indicator of my knowledge of Filipino food and how it’s supposed to taste, so bear with me with this review.
I’ve been wanting to try this place because it’s so close to my house and I heard it was good and cheap. The first time I tried looking for it, I failed. I FAILED! It’s not easy to find. It’s in the same plaza as Cream Pan and that one karaōke place. It’s deep deep in the corner where the theatre used to be. You’ll see an organic dog food store (no joke).
I didn’t know what to get so I told the nice dude I don’t know what to get. I’m pretty straight forward like that haha. He said the chicken adobo and pork adobo is really good. I went ahead and ordered that to share with Joe. I wish I got more rice because we just shared a 2 item combo because I wanted to get a funnel cake after… The rice was really good! I was shocked when I took a sip of the sinigang because I’ve never had that before but it went perfect with the meat! The sourness is perfect with the saltiness.
The only complaint I have is that everything is SO OILY and I left feeling gross. I probably can’t eat this food again for a good while, but I really liked it. I’m going back to try the other stuff.

O YEAH I LOOOOOOVVVEEE this spot. ANG SARAP!!!
Maybe im a little bias because im Filipino, and have no family in socal but I have taken my non filipino friends here and they loved it too. Basically its a hole in the wall place in the corner of a plaza next to a bar lol. Ive been here a few times so far and when I do I have a feast.
The place is really cheap but when I go there I spend about 20 bucks because I want my snacks and pastries too. I usually get the breakfast tapsulog. Meat with fried egg and garlic fried rice and usually like to top it off with a halo-​halo dessert. Theyre food is very homie just like grandmas cooking on a weekend afternoon and I love it. Food is very greasy but what is filipino food if it isnt greasy right?
Ive also tried the adobo and longonisa but not really a fan of the longonisa… I feel like I can make better.
The cooks are hilarious if you can figure out what they are saying, and some of the nicest people ever.
Only bad thing is that if you dont come by a certain time the meat is left out for a little bit and it gets cold.
Im going to keep coming back here because I love it. Dont really know any other places that serve this type of food around OC.
GO EAT IT!!! like now GOOOOO!!!
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Jordan

Ordered from their catering menu for a party… very authentic tasting Filipino food and prices were very fair and reasonable (i.e, 50 pieces of shanghai lumpia was only $ 19.95!!). I phoned in my order 3 days prior to pick up day and went in right when they opened and my ordere was hot and waiting. Excellent! Will definitely continue getting my Filipino food fix and catered foods from here.

I started this review 3 weeks ago and didn’t have time to post it until now.
This is my go-​to Filipino place. I’ve been going here well over a year. Sadly, it seems like they have gotten more shallow to-​go containers since I was last here!
I got the breakfast special with two scoops of rice and longanisa/​chicken tocino. but-​everything seemed subpar. Perhaps it is because I came after the lunch rush hour (1:30pm) but the fried rice was hard and lacked any real seasoning. The longanisa was okay. The lady refused to mix my tocino order (½ chicken, ½ beef-​they always used to let me mix it). I asked for pork guisantes and a got strange stare. I asked for palabok and got a no. So I ended up with a side of what looks and beef and green peas?
I’ve had better from Manila Groove and hope it was just an off-​day.

— Locale destination —
It’s located far left corner of big shopping mall. It’s in the same mall as Cream Pan. The place is decently clean, the sign at bathroom says «Don’t flush the toilet paper»… They better fix that problem.
They sell pastries and snacks on the side as well. Pastries looked great. I wanna try those Philippine stuff. I tried a purple yam cake. It was light and soft with beautiful lavender color — pretty good.
— Gluttony expedition —
Sinigang: vinegary soup. I’ve never tried so I was a bit surprised at first that it was sour. I guess it compliments all the greasy foods… Not bad.
Chicken Adobo: Chicken cooked with vinegar and soy sauce. It’s good and surprising combination with vinegar. Vinegar really enhances the dish. Chicken was very tender.
Pork: Pork was a little stinky. But eggplants were really well complimented with the pork.
Chicken: Chicken cooked with tomato paste. A little bland but decent. It’s great with bunch of vegetables. It’s a little greasy but decent.
* I’m sorry I didn’t remember the name of the foods. It was too difficult to remember…:(So I just called the chicken and pork: p
— Conqueror’s deduction —
Philippine foods are very homie and oily. They don’t look so great but good foods. I’m not so big fan of fish sauce (stinky!) I do like some of the dishes that my Philippine friend made for his daughter’s birthday. If you know what the basic flavors of Philippine foods, you’ll like here. If you want quick Philippine homie foods, come here.

ICK! I’m getting chills and goosebumps from thinking about what I just experienced. This place has definitely cleaned up a bit so it doesn’t feel so cluttered inside. They’ve moved a lot of their baked goods in the dining room section. I’m not sure how I feel about some of the food laying out there with no protection from foreign insects that may choose to hover on/​around.
So why the ICK? I ordered the beef caldereta and a sunny side egg with some rice to go. Had I ate there I would’ve been able to return the food. I finally sat down after a long afternoon of grueling errands and dug in to what I thought was going to be pure ecstasy. Boy was I in for a treat. A long, thick, black treat in fact. As I was about to take my first bite of the caldereta I noticed a piece of hair. Okay, I initially thought it was mine but that hair was really IN the meat and it was so long and black there is NO way that it was mine. I literally barfed in my mouth a little. Liquids actually because I hadn’t eaten all day. I dug through the meat and noticed that they changed the sauce. It wasn’t that thick tomato paste consistency it use to be and the flavor was lacking. As I dug further, I could see that all the meat was more of the FAT than meat. I’d say 70% fat and 30% meat.
What the heck happened? I use to love this place!

I am going to drop a flat 3 on this place. In a nutshell it was pretty good for a place that advertises themselves as «fast food». We tried all types of stuff here this go and most all of it taste pretty good. I am really not complaining.
The Chicken Adobo was REALLY good and pretty authentic. Having married a Pinay at one point in my life, I can vouch for that. Also, the sinigang was just right — not too sour and not too bland. A good mix and very enjoyable, especially with your left over rice.
The place was clean and had all kinds of legit bread and pastries from the Philippines. Oh and their prices are damn good, especially for the bread and pastries like that purple yam cake and whatever that cake is with the yellow cheese and white stuff on the top… OH EM GEE style.
The guy who helped us was very cool. He hooked it up with samples and even told us all about each of the dishes that they were offering today. Helped us later decide on sauces to use and was just pretty damn chill overall.
Place was rocking a Unilocal sticker on the front window and but was a little hard to spot. If you find «Cream Pan» (dream reader do yourself a favor and go there ASAP) then go into that parking lot and head to the far back corner. You will spot this little place there and the entrance is on the right hand side.
I guess my only reasons to not rate this joint any higher than a 3 is because: The food was «hot and fresh». It’s been sitting all day in those heater things… not cool. Also, while they did have Banana Ketchup, they didn’t have that sweet sauce for the Lumpia… fail. :(I was heart broken.
All in all, cool little Pinoy fast food joint and semi locate to an area I hangout in a lot. Props, I might be back!

Comfort food is different for everyone, and since I’m part Chamorro and part Filipino, comfort food sometimes means some simple island food. If you are trying to eat healthy and get lots of veggies this is probably not the place for you. But if you want some simple meat and rice, pansit, or something like that it’s worth a try — especially since their aren’t a lot of Filipino places in the Irvine/​Tustin area.
Manila Groove is located in a international strip mall type place near a Kosher market, an Indian shop, and various other non-​American food places. In addition to cooked food (served like a Chinese fast-​food place with the food in heated metal trays behind a glass divider), you can buy money orders, t-​shirts, snacks, and various other things.
I ordered a plate of pork adobo ($ 3.99) and a can of soda ($ 1.10). They asked if I wanted some free soup, and of course I said yes.
The soup came with a giant jalapeño, which added some heat to what would otherwise be a fairly ordinary (but still good) broth.
The adobo came with two giant scoops of rice. The adobo was pretty tender, and had a good flavor profile — the right amount of vinegar and the spices were pretty good. Mixing the adobo sauce with my rice made for a very good dish — maybe I didn’t need the pork itself. The one downer on the food was that the pork was fattier than I expected. I didn’t expect the leanest piece of meat, but I wasn’t expecting that much fat either.

Dinner, Money and a Movie!
5 Star Turon! The star of the restaurant!
This place is far in back of the plaza where Cream Pan is. The restaurant is also kind of a store. You can also opt to do some money transfers via express mail and ground air. While you are at it… Rent a movie!
The menu changes everyday. I asked for a sisig, which was posted on the wall, and they didn’t have it. How about crispy pata. nope! They have a website where you can check what food is available for that day.
Meat stew was too fatty. Tocino was actually pretty darn yummy. Pansit was the best. Not too salty at all. The desserts are pretty good, turon being the 5 Star dessert.
Overall I thought this place was AOK. I still think the best Filipino food I have ever had was at the Kaiser potlucks. So for now. I think I am sticking to Tacos and Adobo in Orange.
This place still makes a good alternative. just not great. I guess if you want to make a money transfer or pick up a movie rental. you can add a star to this for convenience.
Manila Groove. Another reason the OC is the best place to live.

Went here with several co-​workers, one of which is Filipino, and he enjoyed it almost as much as the rest of us. «Not bad for a restaurant», was his take. Moms is better I’m thinking.
I had Beef Mechado which is kinda like a beef stew, with big chunks of carrots and potatoes. I have only been to a couple of Filipino restaurants, but what I have had I would term it as hearty comfort food. Nothing too spicy, chicken, beef, pork, or fish, usually paired with rice, and sometimes both rice and potatoes on the same plate.
I tried a bite from some of my dining companions and I liked it all. One was, I believe, pork tocino, sort of a ham/​bacon type preparation, very tasty. Forget the name of the other pork dish but it also was very flavorful and very tender. As in some of the other Unilocal they do like to leave a lot of the fat on their meat. Gerard said that is very common with his motherlands food.
The ambience is very spartan and you line up at the glassed in steam tables and point to what looks good. The young server dudes are very friendly, and were patient while we asked many annoying questions.
It’s very cheap; my beef dish was the special of the day and was a lot of food for $ 3.69. They also gave us some broth/​soup on the house. Nice ppl!
This place is tough to see, even from several yards away, in fact I have been to Kitajima next door many times and never noticed it, mainly cuz it is very small and there is a tree obscuring their sign. As you pull into the sizable strip center just head for the far left corner.
Give it a try for something different. We liked

This is (almost) the only place in South Orange County for a Filipino food fix. You can find all the typical dishes here and they are done well.
This is a small place so get your lunch or dinner to go. They serve breakfast too but it’s a bit pricey for what you get. If they opened on Sundays too I would give them 5 stars because sometimes I’m too lazy to pick up to go on Saturdays.
Just a side note, is the name really suppose to be Manila Groove? I always catch myself calling it Manila Grove. :P

The wife found this place a couple of years back, well before we discovered Unilocal.
always a friendly group of people to help you. I’m not too into Filipino food, tho i’ve tried… but the wife wanted to come here, since we happened to be in the neighborhood.
The adobo is pretty good. so is the soup (if you like that kind of thing). occasionally, they have those candied bananas — and i’ll usually have one of those (though, using western bananas doesn’t BEGIN to compare with the bananas i’ve tasted in the Philippines… those are MUCH more tasty !).
Noticed that business must be good for these owners… cuz they’ve expanded the restaurant into the next room. More tables to eat at AND in the back is some kind of DVD rental thing going on.

Manila Groove is a great place to go for lunch! For the price it’s a great place to either dine in for lunch or do take out.
The costumer service was good!
The place itself is a hole in the walk, however it felt cozy and clean.

Randomly I found myself here before devoting another evening to the Dodgers postseason effort and Ladies Night martinis at Tustin Brewing, I decided to detour towards this little Filipino hole in the wall that I’d Unilocal searched a while back. I decided to stop by for a little ‘merienda’ after dropping Mom off at the airport and realizing that I wouldn’t have home cooked Filipino grub for a week and a half…
Perusing the hot table food items, there wasn’t any one particular dish that looked appetizing. Couple traditional chicken dishes, some little knick knacks, a fried-​food warmer, and pretty decent prices (unless you count beverages, but that is pretty much the standard at Filipino restaurants). I was immediately drawn to the dinuguan (blood stew… I won’t describe it any further for fear of grossing you out) and rice. They kindly offered me free soup (beef sinigang, which is sour and DELICIOUS soup) and the total cost me a little under $ 4… which is an absolute STEAL for this much food.
But the best part of my experience was the actual taste of the food. It is very difficult to find an actually passable Filipino food place when your mom, your brother, AND your grandmother (R.I.P.) are just about the best damn cooks of Filipino cuisine outside of the borders of the South China Sea. But I really wouldn’t mind coming back to this place — although I had to add a little salt (patis) and vinegar to the dishes, I really liked the basic flavor everything had.
–2 stars for the little effing crapbags running around everywhere, and a little shaky selection of food at best. Although the restaurant was clean and comfy, there just seems to be something shady about a place that won’t allow you to substitute an entrée (or an ‘entry’ as they put it) as one of their world famous breakfast meats. Prices are reasonable, but anything that has me pouring my own seasonings into the food just isn’t worth the extra stars to me. What Kapit Bahay lacks in flavor and food, Manila Groove makes up for in the really kind service and acceptable Filipino dishes.