Taste of Manila

This place was great while it lasted. I took a bunch of coworkers there, and to my surprised it was the restaurant’s last day. Due to our large crowd (12), the staff (of 3) was overwhelmed and a few of us went to another place. Those who stayed had good food. I had adobo and this lentil mix and garlic rice, and some bone marrow soup. HOWEVER, the pork marrow skin was not hair-​free, and so I had that attractive patch of stubble sitting in the bowl of soup in front of me. oh well, more power to authenticity I suppose. The owner hooked it up with some bomb fried chicken, we killed it.
As I mentioned, the place was great during its short run. The owner is going back to her nursing career, and the place won’t have enough manpower to operate. My two prior visits were always filling, with yummy food and friendly service. The prices were pretty good as well, and the literally hole-​in-​the-​wall aspect added even more charm.
This was my first filipino food experience that didn’t have the ubiquitous lumpia/​pancit, and it was definitely welcomed. Godspeed and thank you for the afternoon food comas!

FYI: Going out of business. This review is for my husband, who went there today, which was to be the restaurant’s last day in business. Too bad, because it’s a good place.

There used to a be a Singaporean asian mom and pop spot in the same place that served a good chicken dish. Now replacing it is another asian mom and pop, this time it’s Filipino.
Taste of Manila situated in a sketchy residential area where people have gotten stabbed or sexually assaulted (my friend used to live here… no he didn’t die). There’s a vacant parking lot so you don’t have to worry about residential street parking. And this place is never full so that’s a plus. The interior has a couple of tables but everyone does takeout.
When we visited there was the owner in the front and one guy in the kitchen. The owner seemed a little overwhelmed because she usually has at least one more person in the front to help out. Even though she had her hands full she was very sweet and was gracious enough to give us explanations of all the dishes accompanied with samples. This is why mom and pops rocks. There are trays of food behind a glass window so you can choose your plate combo.
I saw the chef in the kitchen frying up some fish so I pointed with delight. She asked if I wanted a big one, I said «yes, of course». With the fish you can add seasonings or dressings. I chose some tomatoes to go with it since it looked good as is. And it was very good. Fresh and crispy. It’s nothing to write home about but when you want something comforting a simply fried fish will do the trick.
My coworkers had brought me a soup the last time they visited. It was the same quality as the fish. Just okay, but nice and good.
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Swell mom and pop with simple Filipino food. It ain’t gonna win any awards but it’s not looking to.

This place is amazing! The food is really good and the people who work there are very sweet. The portions are generous and reasonably priced. Their hours aren’t the best so I can only really go on Saturday. Otherwise this is an amazing place! Highly recommend it.

My wife and I enjoyed the food. The people are very friendly and made us feel at home. We wouldn’t hesitate to go back when in the area.

Super nice lady working the front. The definition of a mom and pop restaurant. Very reasonable prices and delicious food.

The halo halo is legit… and huge! The halo halo is legit… and huge! The halo halo is legit… and huge! The halo halo is legit… and huge!

tiny plates for filipino brekky? why o why?? lol
but dont get me wrong, servings were huge. its just that they forced to fit the entire dish into this one tiny plate making it really uncomfortable to eat your food. hard to eat it without the rice going all over the place.
its cool. ;)
Went here for breakfast and I shared a plate of tapsilog and sisilog with my husband. the sisilog was blunt and lacking some flavor. i added some fish sauce but all it really did was, well, made it salty. the tapsilog was good though. the meat was crunchy and it did taste like the filipino tapa that we were craving.(salty, peperry, sweet).
what i like about this fili resto: the place is clean, feels like homey, friendly service (mom and pops), and that theyve got tons of food to choose from.
i will give them another shot. probably will have to come back late after lunch. felt like the food prep and cook time was rushed thats why the food wasnt that tasty.
the halo halo looks delish. will try that next time too.:)

Been wanting to try this place for a very long time. Can never get a to go dinner because I commute home from SF and they closed once I get into Hayward. But today I was able to drop by. Had the tocilog for breakfast and it was very good. Ordered to go Turon, Daeng na bangus, and house special plate pork bbq with rice. All was very good. I dont eat Filipino food as often as I would like. But I think this place may change that. Elizabeth possibly the owner was very nice. Key things I look for when eating out is if the place is clean, fresh quality of food, owner operated, and nice staff. This place has it. Very reasonable prices. Having lived in Hawaii I appreciate amd support local businesses amd trying to do the same here in Hayward. I will be back to try their Halo Halo.

*Environment: Small place, music in the background, pretty quiet but I personally like it, few tables (seats around 4 per), safe neighborhood, a bit hidden though, and small parking lot.
*Food: If you want authentic Filipino food, live nearby, and don’t wanna go too far, I highly suggest going here. The food is great. It honestly feels like home again. It’s genuine Filipino «comfort food». Though the ulams/​dishes they have, that differs depending on the day, are pre-​made, it still has the flavor and quality of real Filipino cooking. The other items they have are freshly cooked when ordered which is great. From 1 – 10, I would give it a solid 9.
*Price: I do admit it is not the cheapest place ever but it’s pretty freaking cheap. Most or even all of the meals are below your regular meal at any other fast food restaurant. If you can pay that much for unhealthy fast food, then you can definitely afford to go to this restaurant that serves home cooked meals. The refreshments are pretty limited considering they only have Coca-​Cola, but they do serve you water for free. The price you pay is definitely worth the money you spend.
*Service: FANTASTIC! The second I walked in, they greeted me and my cousin with the friendliest hellos possible. They made sure that the customer was treated properly and nicely. They have small talks that made you smile and feel amazingly comfortable in the place. You could tell that owners were genuinely happy that they had customers and it showed. They kept asking if we needed anything every 5 – 7 minutes to reassure us that we were having a great experience both with the food and service. Best little family-​owned business ever I tell you.

Hands down like Lola’s cooking! Reminds me of going to Grandmas and eating there! This place is clean, and the service is great and the prices can’t be beat! I had 15 dollars to my name and my entire meal plus a side order of lumpia and drink was 11 something rather! Now that it’s only around I’ll come back for sure and bring the kids!!! They’ll be so excited that it’s just a hop skip and a step away and did I say it tasted like Lola’s cooking!!!

We went Tuesday afternoon before their closing time. We had some tinolang manok, beef mechado, chicken adobo, and halo-​halo. Food was good although it’s not freshly cooked, but it’s a fast food joint so it’s understandable. Service is friendly and halo-​halo is good, a must have!

I come here a lot with my boyfriend to meet up for a quick lunch. Since the food is pre made it’s fast and convenient for me to eat and go back to work. The menu changes every day but I need to try their silogs one time! The owner is very nice and she some times asks if I want more rice or soup on the side. I’m more than willing to support a local business with great people running it. Prices are very good.

I ate here today and I decided that from now I’ll support local businesses as much as I can. I was intending to go to Goodah in Union City but it’s raining really hard and it’s a Saturday meaning taking a bus would take forever This place is actually about a block away from our house and I used to ate here when it was owned by a very mean old Filipina lady who didn’t give a crap on if you like what you ate in her restaurant. Now it’s owned by a young nice lady and she was great as a host! I ate here and I was starving and i knew that their menu has changed by from what I understand that their signature Halo-​Halo w/​premium ice cream and generous helpings of Ube with it. their menu is super simple, about 5 different «Ulams» or side dishes a different one served daily and they serve the Filipino Breakfast all day likeTtapsilogs Tocilogs.
The ambiance is OK and it’s a bit quiet. A very simple place to eat Filipnio food with only about 5 tables and it’s very small in comparison with Goodah in Union City. If you want Non-​flashy stuff and want to eat a quiet meal… you go here. A no nonsense eatery and just take your time eating. Decent Filipino food cooked and homemade which it doesn’t really get better than this. They have daily specials and they have a few soda selection. Their halo-​Halo is phenomenal that going to this place just by that reason is definitely worth it. If you’re looking for anything fancy then you need to go somewhere else but for the simple eatin good tasting Filipino food then this is your place. I would go here every time that I had no time and I’m really starving looking for food tat would fill me up quick. Definitely & highly recommended if you like No nonsense straight up pinoy food!

Back in high school I use to eat here almost every day after school. And when my mother was still alive she’d always ask me to go here to get food she referred to the old lady that worked there «manang sungit» lol My favorite back then was their BBQ chicken it was bomb no other restaurant can recreate. But when I came back after a few years I was not aware they changed management. I ordered my usual and I was surprised and disappointed of how different it was. Like bad different. That BBQ chicken was the only thing separating them from any another filipino restaurants. Smh but I still believe in this place. I’m coming in today to check it out. maybe I’ll fall In love with this place again :)

This is a cute little place, neighborhood is a little sketch and the location is super small, but the owners are so cute and friendly and nice and the halo halo was authentic and so good.

This place really does feel like P.I.
The halo halo, which piqued my curiosity did not disappoint. At all. They do not skimp on ingredients. It is around $ 5 and had:
Ice. milk. three ice cream mini scoops. Ube. Flan. Coconut. Banana. Garbanzo. Corn. gelatin cocogels. popped rice.
I did not get to try the items from the steam trays. If you don’t know Filipino food, many dishes take a very long time to cook. I did order palabok to go. It was tasty, made to order. It had a whole sliced egg green onions chicarrone shrimp and ample good sauce (I hate dry or oily palabok) but what delighted me was the calamansi that came with it.
The restaurant is no frills, decorated like a real fIlipino restaurant. It has TFC on a tv in the corner and some Filipino dvds for rent. I’ll have to come back and try the other items.

4 stars for the Halo-​Halo, which is a mixture of ice & condensed milk & corn & jellies, topped with 3 scoops of ube, mango and avocado (?) ice cream all housed in a large milkshake glass (see picture). YUM.
I’m not too familiar with filipino dishes, so I just pointed to the beef & potato/​veggie dishes that were displayed buffet style behind the counter. It was good, but not the best I’ve had (hence 3 stars).
This place is tucked away in a neighborhood and the restaurant is tiny. I recommend getting the halo-​halo here!

Another mom and pop that just fails.
Let’s start off with the pro’s: Yes the Halo-​halo lives up to the hype. One of the best I’ve had. They don’t skimp on the ube (taro). The ice-​cream is the bomb and the ratio of all the ingredients is perfect, making it amazing!
Then everything goes down hill: The food is so-​so. I love it when a shop brings quality with a home-​cooked taste/​feel; unfortunately they forgot the quality part. I tried the adobo, the BBQ chicken and pancit. All the dishes weren’t bad per-​se but just tasted very low quality. Maybe I had my hopes too high when i heard people say the food was as good as they had back in Philippines…
Even worse than the food is the service. The staff treated us like they didn’t want us to be there. Yet the table next to ours got decent (still sub-​par if you ask me) but blatantly better service.
I’d go back for the halo-​halo (to go) and that’s about it.
sori po talaga but I’m not a fan…

ok so I’m around San Leandro, had some time to kill and was craving for Filipino food. I Unilocaled and found 2 places in Hayward, one I’ve already tried and wasn’t too impressed so I tried this place out.
The place was really small. They had a buffet table with maybe 4 items in it.
The guy in the counter was very nice and helpful.
He explained the item combo and I ended up getting their chicken tinola, pinakbet, fried tilapia with rice and halohalo.
I noticed that there was 1 cook in the kitchen so my halohalo took forever which didn’t quite bother me since I wasn’t in a hurry. Unilocal reviews for the halohalo were great so I was willing to wait.
Ok, so the ulams I got was okay. I’ve had better. The price were good tho.
The halohalo togo was a disappointment. The ricecrispy in it wasn’t crispy, not much stuff inside and it needed more milk.
Although I got great service, I was disappointed with the food. It didn’t satisfy my fil food craving at all. Maybe if I’m in the area, I’ll give them another chance.