First Visit: Cucina Manila

Barb and I visited Cucina Manila today.  It's a bright but spartan room.  There is no table service.  Instead you order at the front, cafeteria style.  The staff is friendly and were very patient dealing with my bad Filipino and numerous questions.

We ordered pancit guisado (very similar to my pancit except with pork, shrimp and other veggies; they were out of palabok), pinakbet (bitter melon, green beans, red pepper and bits of pork), two ground ground beef filled empanadas (in a sweet dough, delicious) , Bicol Express (pork stewed with bagoong which is Filipino shrimp paste; an excellent savoury dish for winter), an order of steamed rice and one piece of cassava cake (great texture and flavour and nice young coconut topping).

Prices are inexpensive, most of the mains are between $5-7.  Our total bill was just over $21.  Enough food for supper for two and a couple of lunches! We'll be back to try the palabok and the $6 combos of two items with rice that one of our readers told us about.