First Visit: Galing-Galing

My Dad (who was visiting all too briefly) and I tried out Galing-Galing yesterday and really enjoyed it.

It is a large, cafeteria style restaurant, that serves home-style Filipino food.

Dad chatted briefly with the staff in Filipino. We learned that "Galing-Galing" is slang for "magaling" which means good or excellent which the food is! And business must be good because they are expanding.

The food isn't overly pretentious or sophisticated but it works because it is tasty, the portions are ample and the prices while not cheap are fair.

Each of the dishes is about $6-8 dollars each. We shared pancit palabok (rice noodles with egg, pork rind, onions, garlic, shrimp and lots of other tasty bits in gravy), sinigang na baka (tamarind stew with beef and vegetables, hopefully made from scratch and not using a packaged tamarind soup base), pinakbet (bitter melon and eggplant stew), milkfish marinated in vinegar and garlic, two bowls of rice and a Sprite for $27.

I really enjoyed the sinigang: it was almost as sour as I make it at home. And I love pancit (Filipino for noodles) of any kind.

The only thing I wish is that I could get this kind of food at a sit-down restaurant. It's nice to be served :-) ! And I think a Filipino restaurant where the food was more refined and sophisticated in presentation would also do well in Vancouver.

We'll be back to try the kare-kare and my other Filipino favourites that I don't normally cook at home!.

Galing-Galing, 1537 West Broadway, 604 736-8877