LAGuide
The Best Filipino Restaurants In Los Angeles
photo credit: Jakob Layman
While LA might be better known for our excellent Mexican food, top-notch Thai, and endless sushi options, our Filipino restaurants are way better than we get credit for. And this guide is here to prove it. From a Filipino rotisserie where the natural wine flows like tap water to a strip mall spot serving bottomless kare kare under long chandeliers, these are the very best Filipino restaurants in LA.
THE SPOTS
From the moment you walk into Lasita, you’re at the center of the party. That might sound intimidating on paper, but this colorful, Filipino rotisserie/wine bar in Chinatown has created a space where everyone is allowed to have fun, eat great food, and hang out for hours. The menu focuses primarily on brined meat like pork belly lechon, but the star of the show is without question the inasal. This juicy rotisserie chicken is stuffed with lemongrass and garlic, giving it sweet and citrusy notes, with a slight acidic bite at the end. Lasita usually gets slammed during prime dinner hours, so although you can probably snag a walk-in spot on the 25-seat patio, you should book a reservation ahead of time for a sexy booth table.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Kuya Lord began as a pandemic-era pop-up, but is now a full brick-and-mortar in East Hollywood. The tiny, order-at-the-counter cafe only has about four tables inside, but if you roll in with family or friends, there will definitely be enough room. The menu consists mainly of rice bowls with garlicky java rice and your choice of protein (the prawns drenched in garlic sauce are a standout), but don't leave without the pancit chami. It’s a savory-sweet, decadent stir fry made with fish cakes, pork belly, and plump, chewy wheat noodles. If you’re here with two to three people, share the longtapsilog tray, which comes with grilled sweet sausage and short ribs, pancit, garlic rice, salad, pickled papaya, and several dipping sauces for $45. Leftovers will be a given.
Half-convenient store, half-restaurant, this Pasadena market is your one-stop-shop for hand-rolled pork lumpia, Filipino snacks and candies, and a large variety of dishes like juicy, vinegary pork adobo, eggplant cooked with shrimp paste. Plus, there’s a particularly excellent turon here—a sweet, sticky version of lumpia that’s been deep-fried, dusted with brown sugar, and filled with mashed bananas that are sold in boxes of five. Get two (or three) of them.
photo credit: Nikko Duren
Serving American barbecue classics with a Filipino twist, Park’s Finest in Echo Park sticks out not just on this list, but from pretty much anywhere in the city. The smoked meats, like slow-roasted pulled pork, roasted chicken with a candy-like crust, or longanisa hot links, are all fantastic. But nothing compares to their coconut beef adobo, made from 16-hour smoked chuck stewed in coconut cream and fish sauce until it falls apart. The best way to sample the greatest hits at Park’s Finest is their Worker Plate, a Wednesday special that includes a medley of barbecue and sweet cornbread bibingka for less than $20. It’s such a great deal, we immediately imagined ourselves hanging out here weekly in one of their leather booths watching ESPN on the big screens in the dining room.
A dollar bill no longer goes as far as it used to, but at Dollar Hits, a Filipino street food truck turned grab-and-go restaurant, it still puts in serious work. Most items here are $1.50 and a meat skewer, which you can finish charring on a couple of charcoal grills set up in the parking lot. The more recognizable meats are great, but it’s the other traditional sticks where things get fun. The grilled isaw, or large pork intestine, is thick and creamy, and the enrile (fried chicken head) and betamax (congealed pig’s blood) are full of flavor, especially after being dunked in the vinegary house barbecue sauce. Once you’ve secured your skewers (plus drinks and other sides), head out to the parking lot where you’ll join large groups of families congregating at one of the best street food parties in town.
photo credit: Nikko Duren
Arko Foods is a decades-old Filipino grocery store in Glendale that’s a great place to pick up a bottle of patis or banana ketchup. That said, it’s their gigantic turo-turo hot food counter that’s a sight to behold. Around lunch and dinner, big crowds line up and grab a number to choose from dozens of trays of Filipino food served cafeteria-style. The takeout selection rotates daily, sometimes hourly, but we always keep an eye out for the bistek smothered in caramelized onions, fried milkfish marinated in garlicky vinegar, fresh lumpia, and BBQ pork skewers with a side of atchara. Drop by for a quick lunch, grab a seat on the front patio, and lay out your Arko Foods bounty.
The food from this Panorama City restaurant is the equivalent of finding your old Nintendo DS in the back of your closet and playing for hours straight: super comforting, and something we all need a little bit more of nowadays. From extra crispy pork pata to a rich and thick kare-kare, dishes here taste like they could have been made by a friend’s mom, or could be found laid out at a birthday party. If you don’t live in the Valley, the journey out here can seem far, but we’d commit to that drive any day, just for a cup of their bulalo: a traditional soup made with beef shank, potatoes, and cabbage that delivers major comfort.
If you’ve never had a crush on a baked good, you will after trying anything at this cafe and bakery in Long Beach, whether it's sugar-coated Spanish bread oozing buttery cheese filling or a soft ensaymada stuffed with pandan and ube. Gemmae’s original location opened in 1979 just outside of Manila, but the family moved the business to LA over a decade later. These days, this counter-service place is run by a mother-daughter duo who usually stands behind the long glass case waiting to ring you up. Gemmae’s front counter is lined with packaged baked goods, plus they’ve got a hot bar in the back with a solid menu of rotating Filipino fast food—pick up some pork adobo and a whole ube cheesecake in one go.
Spoon & Pork treats pork like Bowen Yang treats his airtime on Saturday Night Live: unafraid to experiment with it, and having the end result probably blow your mind. This Silver Lake spot serves all sorts of dishes honoring the all-sacred pig, including adobo pork belly, lechon kawali, sisig and more. But the star of the show here, is the patita: a tender, sweet, spicy, and very garlic-heavy pork shank dish that’s slow-roasted then deep-fried. Could it last you three meals? Maybe. Will you finish it in one? Probably.
photo credit: Jessie Clapp
This all-day cafe in East Hollywood has been operating in the same space on Fountain Avenue for more than 40 years. So naturally, it’s run by a man with some great stories—like the one the time he catered the Playboy Mansion. He’s also got a great taste in fine china, which lines the walls of the cozy dining room alongside framed photos of famous people. You can stop by for a classic American breakfast or a BLT at lunch, but most come here for the Filipino classics like chicken inasal and BBQ pork tocino. We especially love the pancit palabok topped with a mound of jumbo shrimp, juicy pork chunks, and crunchy saltfish chicharron. LA Rose Cafe also offers kamayan-style “Boodle Fight” dinners that can be reserved on their website for parties of six or more.
photo credit: Matt Gendal
This strip mall banquet space in Eagle Rock has the atmosphere of a divey comedy club. And while coming here for karaoke night may be the initial draw, you’ve not truly experienced Kusina until you’ve sampled their food. From menu staples like pancit and crunchy pork sisig drizzled with calamansi juice to larger dishes like chicken adobo and a super crispy pata that smells like pounded peppercorns, Kusina’s menu is full of hits. Whether you come to Kusina on your birthday or just a random Monday, get their halo-halo. It comes out overflowing from a big sundae bowl with more than enough ube ice cream and leche flan to share.
photo credit: Neri's Restaurant
This counter-service Koreatown spot is our go-to spot for a Filipino meal with a big group. Parking in the strip mall is a breeze, the portions are massive, and the dining room has more than enough room for all seven of your first cousins. Aside from nutty kare kare and golden-crusted crispy pata, Neri's is home to the best kamayan dinners in LA. For $25 per person—with a minimum of six people—these gigantic feasts are served on a never-ending bed of rice with nearly a dozen dishes you can eat with your hands. If you take that route, Neri’s lets you choose between two different set menus—options range from pork skewers and grilled pork belly to garlic shrimp and boneless bangus grilled until golden brown.
photo credit: Matt Gendal
Whoever said that breakfast is the most important meal of the day was almost certainly talking about silog, a hearty Filipino breakfast combo of garlic rice, fried egg, and sizzling proteins like sweet-salty tocino or corned beef. As the name suggests, Goto At Silog in Panorama City doesn’t miss in the silog department—the garlic rice is potent, the egg yolk is runny, and the longanisa pops with flavor—but the main reason we’d send you way up in the Valley is their silky, umami-bomb rice porridge (a.k.a. goto or arroz caldo). Get a bowl alonside marinated fried tofu with pork and/or fried lumpia for a power breakfast that’ll have you feeling like you could lift a compact sedan afterward.
photo credit: Mekeni Pinoy's Pride
Mekeni’s in Artesia is famous for its weekly Filipino buffet, or more accurately, the long lines of people waiting to get into said buffet. There’s a breakfast buffet on weekends for $20 per person, as well as a Wednesday dinner buffet for $35, both of which feature around two dozen dishes plus drinks. Unless you want to wait for an hour-plus, plan on making reservations in advance. The good news is that Mekeni’s offers a la carte service the rest of the week, and the food is special enough that even your most bargain-minded uncle won’t mind it's not AYCE. Get the oxtail kare-kare, pork belly abodo, and the seafood sinigang brimming with vegetables—all of which come in huge, shareable portions.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
This casual rice bowl joint on Beverly Blvd. is packed with vegetable sisig, chicken adobo-stuffed tacos, fries topped with ground beef chili and bell peppers, plus some of the best retro ’70s and ’80s memorabilia you’ll find in a building made in this century. Everything tends to hover around the $15 mark, so enjoy making your way down their menu, with their crispy chicken wings marinated in their signature inasal chili oil, or talib kawali—a marinated pork belly bowl, that, much like a certain Muppets relationship, focuses primarily on the pig.
photo credit: Kim Fox
The name of this small strip mall spot in Carson might leave you with questions. Such as, who is Ethan and why does he want to boink my belly? Belly Boink—a reference to the cute piggy mascot on the store’s sign—is the fast-casual sibling of Ethan’s, a very good Filipino spot two doors down. The specialty here is rotisserie meats, and though the menu is short, the chicken and pork belly dishes are nothing short of incredible. The juicy chicken is shot through with soy and pepper, and the spice-stuffed lechon has crunchy bronze skin that shatters like glass. Skip the bagged salad that comes with the combo plates and double up on their yellow Java-style rice. And, if you somehow have room for more pig, get the crispy sisig, made with lots of snappy, meaty bits and a puckery vinegar dressing.
