Isla Manila Bar & Grill

Found this place while I was in the area for work. Being Filipino and not having too many Filipino restaurants out there, I figure I’d give this place a try. I’m glad that I did.
They offer «Flip Sum» which is food served in a cart like Dim Sum. You pick out what Filipino dishes you want. Did I mention its all you can eat Filipino food?
Key points for me is:
–Doesn’t break the bank. For all you can eat Filipino food, the price per head is decent.
–The food is decent if not great.
–The service is good, friendly staff.
–You get soup at the start, eat all you can Filipino food, then dessert.
Been here twice by myself on a weekday when its not busy. Came back yesterday, the 24^th of January and it was decently packed and service was still good. There was 5 of us in our party and they break the checks up as well. For my wife and I, our bill together was 39 $ and some change. That included tip, and 1 drink. Not bad at all. Definitely will come back.

Great food and great price! Usually don’t like to eat Filipino food outside of the home. but this place has some tasty dishes. Love the concept of all you can eat Filipino dim sum. With my appetite. definitely a great bargain.

Great food! I ate there, not knowing that it was ever there! Went with mom who is full Filipino! PINOY PARTY! Excellent quality… I’m craving their adobo. I love the fact you don’t have a huge menu that is so annoying, just a tiny cart that goes around with food. Recommend this to any pinoys out there and people who love authentic food.

Great Filipino food. In a small strip mall tucked in between shops. You enter and you get seated right away. No menu needed because they bring out the food to you in carts like dim sum.
It was a great idea, I’ve never experienced filipino dim sum before. So I was curious, the food cart came by and Jack was very helpful in explaining the menu. So if you have never tried filipino food before this is a great experience to try different dishes.
Chef Carlos came out and introduced himself which was great. We got a chance to talk to him and told him the food was delicious. He explained our dishes our fresh and cooked fresh that day. They never keep left overs, if they have any. They toss it out and they cook a fresh batch each time. Which is reassuring when it comes to filipino food.
You want to make sure everything is fresh. And Chef Carlos said everything is fresh and we only use the best ingredients! He also went to explain he does not use msg for flavoring. Which again is great!
The reason why I did not give them five star was because they were limited in drinks. With great food you need great drinks. So no Calamansi, Mango juice or Halo Halo. I hope the next time I visit they will have these drinks hint, hint
If you are in the area and never experienced eating filipino food, or you have experienced great filipino food before, you’re in luck. This place is great! You won’t be disappointed.

Awesome service here! I can’t wait to tell all my friends about filipino dimsum, flipsum!
This is ayce dimsum, the dimsum changes everyday and the amount of dimsum served isn’t set, 5 – 12 different dimsums per day. The dessert is also included in the ayce price. The day I went, they had freshly made cassava cake topped with toasted coconut. It was served warm, soft, and really good. The toasted coconut shreds reminded me of eating a coconut tart /​macaroon.
The dimsum is basically small versions of filipino signature entrees and appetizers. There is something for everyone here and it is worth visiting since it’s so unique. They have noodles, curry, braised meat, lumpia, fried fish, fried chicken, and more!
The server was very friendly and described every dish being served to me. Amazing service.

lunch
food: various items similar to chinese dim sum. they have some relatively exotic stuff here. pork blood, tripes. i think they have a set menu then change up with specials. there are items i dont see on pictures here. the classics are great. lumpia, adobo, stew. as nasty as it looks, the pork blood thing is great. just try it. ***3/​5
service: its never super busy whenever im there. but it can take awhile for food to get to you. i dont know if they wait to see how everybody is doing before they start pushing carts around. unlike chinese dim sum, where they push the cart to you even though youre already eating whatever theyre selling you. ***3/​5
value: it’s all you can eat. not bad if you like the kinds of food they serve. some of the foods were hit and miss, but overall decent. if you dont know if you like filipino foods, this is a great outlet to try some of everything before you venture out. ***4/​5

Arrived on the night that power went out in Seattle due to the stormy weather.
We walked in at around 8:20…about 45 minutes before they closed.
One of the employees told us to sit at a table in the middle of the restaurant. Instead, I requested one of the empty booths near the window.
His reply was something like, «No, we can’t sit you there, because we are closing soon.»
The table had yet to be cleaned, so I assumed that he either meant nobody wanted to clean it or… I have no idea.
It was just a stupid thing to say to first-​time patrons who will never return to this restaurant due to some moron who made us feel like Isla Manila Bar & Grill did not appreciate or want our business.
After he said that, we turned around, walked out the door, and went across the street to Chaiyo Thai Cuisine.
They had excellent service and cleaned off the table next to the window after I requested it.
Skip Isla Manila and go somewhere where you are appreciated and treated well.

I like how the food here is a dim sum style buffet! There are so many choices to choose from but also a lot of pork dishes so we couldn’t eat those. But the other ones were still pretty good. There was a few dishes that we weren’t really fond of so we couldn’t finish them, like the eggplant.
They started us off with some yummy soup and ended us off with some Filipino dessert. It was like sweet thick glutinous rice with corn and coconut flakes. Pretty interesting. The workers there were super friendly!
The price was like $ 13.99 per person, I believe. I can’t remember.

Really good taste！affordable lunch buffet for $ 12. These dishes are small size and you can try as many as you want. Open for lunch and dinner time through Tuesday to Saturday， Sunday only open until 4pm. Price will be higher for dinner and weekend.

Loved the lumpia and pumpkin squash dish. The café was out of a lot of items. Panciit and one other noodle dish was disappointing. I tried the pork liver dish! The beef stew was delicious

Great food. Great people.
Growing up, I only had the opportunity to enjoy home cooked Filipino food a few times per year when we paid Grandma a visit.
This place brought me right back to her dining room table.
If you’re ever within a 50 mile radius of this place, it will be worth the trip.

We had called on the phone on a Sunday morning asking if we could order crispy pata to go. They said yes, just come on in and we can pay for one order of crispy pata. When we got in, boss lady said there was no way they could do that. We would have to pay the price to sit down and do the Sunday AYCE. The boss lady seemed to be reprimanding the person who told us on the phone that we could just buy the dish to go. We spent more than 10 minutes trying to work this out and you know what, if customer service is important to you, you would have told us that this usually is not allowed, but for this one time, it would be OK. After all, it was your employee who told us it was OK and that was why we made the trip to your restaurant.
We did end up sitting down and eating and we regretted it. Most of the food was not good and way too salty. Some stuff was OK. Crispy pata was hard as a rock and barely edible.
Never again.

I’m a big fan of finding Filipino restaurants that are not turo-​turo style (where the food is pre-​prepared and you just pick and choose what you want — a typical style for Filipino restaurants in Los Angeles, where I am from). When husband and I discovered Isla Manila Bar & Grill, we were pleasantly surprised with the set up! The first ever Filipino dim sum place I’ve been to. Technically, food is pre-​prepared ahead, but the dim sum style presentation makes it all the more appealing.
Walked in and we were served a bowl of arroz caldo (yum!) and fried lumpia. Then a cart came by and we picked pork adobo, kare-​kare, dinuguan, and pancit. For dessert we have buko pandan and cassava cake. The servings were just right. I love the small portions because it gives you the opportunity to try a few dishes without having to order a full meal. My most favorite of all is the pork adobo. Yum!
It was a good experience overall, giving it 4 stars though because I would be a better experience if there was more than one cart going around, like how it is for Chinese dim sum plates for more options of food. What about a cart with Filipino «street» foods such as isaw, fish ball, kikiam, etc? Then a cart with all sorts of dessert such as turon, ube, etc? I just think it would have a more appetizing feel to have wider range of dim sum options.
But overall… I salute this Filipino restaurant for coming up with a new concept to serve Filipino food. Flipsum, yay!

The kiddo and I stopped by on 6÷13÷15 for a late lunch. There were two other two tops at the beginning of our visit, but soon ramped up with other tables filling up.
Delicious soup of the day, garlicky and chockfull of ginger arroz caldo.
Flavorful and served piping hot were miniature lumpia as the appetizer.
We selected the following dishes to have with our steamed rice: pork adobo (which tasted more like paksiw), roasted pork slices, kare kare, dinuguan, and shrimp pancit.
Thankfully, the dessert was tiny and we both selected cassava cake.
The service and tasty food has remained consistent. Eyes bigger than the stomach and we left the restaurant extremely full and satisfied.
When you’re craving some Filipino home cooking and a variety of regional dishes, you can’t go wrong with a visit to Isla Manila Bar and Grill.

Flip-​sum = Dim sum with Filipino food.
My deep hatred for the word «Flip» aside (don’t get me started), what a genius idea! For a cuisine that isn’t as mainstream in Seattle as Thai or Vietnamese or other Asian food, this is a great way to introduce the uninitiated.
I came here with a friend who wanted to use me as a guide (heyyy Lucy) and I happily complied. They start you off with a soup, brought over the dim sum cart to let you pick whatever your heart desires. When you’re wrapping up, they bring you dessert.
The pros of this is, again, it makes it a great way to taste Filipino food. However, for people like myself who already know what Filipino food is, I’m discouraged by the all-​you-​can-​eat fixed price to come here more frequently. I used to live down the street but have still only been here once. It also didn’t help much that it didn’t feel like an all-​you-​can-​eat place. Just like how Chinese restaurants give you a fortune cookie to let you know «game over,» the dessert came as if to discourage us from truly exercising our all-​you-​can-​eat rights.
The food itself was made with the genuine effort to be good. I thought it was decent but it missed the mark a little bit. Some things were overcooked, some bland, some overly salty. For the most part though, I loved that their offerings were still familiar. The adobo was salty and tangy. The mongo soup was traditionally prepared. They even serve dinuguan (pork blood stew) which Filipinos shy away from serving to non-​Filipinos. For that alone, they get a high five from me.
Service is very friendly and sweet and the food is decent. I’d recommend this place for those who haven’t had Filipino food. They’re happy to explain what everything is and steer you away from things that are a little bit too adventurous for beginners.

A group of 12 dined here for our monthly dinner meets.
Reservations were easily placed via phone. Free parking can be found in the parking lot. Discover is an accepted form of payment. Tabs are easily split. Payment is made at the counter.
Beer and wine are the only options here. We all met across the street at Pinehurst Pub for a couple pre-​dinner drinks. A few of us did order a couple bottles of Red Horse beer (filipino beer) to accompany our dinner for $ 4.50 a bottle.
The inside décor reminded me of a teriyaki joint. The tables are four tops so our group needed three tables. We were seated in a group of 8 and a group of 4. Since I did have reservations I was disappointed with the seating arrangements. I wanted our whole group to be seated together. I was told due to the rolling cart of food, total group seating wasn’t possible.
There isn’t a menu since dining here is dim sum style: small bite-​sized or individual portions of food traditionally served in small steamer baskets or on small plates. Each person was charged $ 14.99 + tax for all you can eat.
The food that was served was quite tasty but the staff was inept to deal with a large group. Food was extremely slow in coming and the food that was placed on the table wasn’t even enough for each person to sample. Many of us left hungry.
Thank you Isla Manila for your hospitality. Next time I dine here I will be sure to have a lot less people with me in the hopes to sample all that is offered.

Very excited to try this place and was super de duper pleased with it! The people there were very friendly, taking the time to explain what each item was and just the overall service was amazing!
The variety of food was awesome. Things I had never tried before and a few that I had. Everything was full of flavor and the right size for sampling. I enjoyed the $ 14.99 weekend buffet (you WILL be full). It comes with soup, dim sum and dessert. YUM YUM. I will be back!

WOW! Such a brilliant concept! Filipino food + dim sum = FLIP SUM! AND it’s all you can eat, too!!! Sign me up! The restaurant is located in the Pinehurst neighborhood, off 15^th Ave NE, between 117^th and 120^th. There is no menu, mostly everything is presented on the cart or from the kitchen.
We came for weekday lunch to check it out, plus we’ve heard that weekends are crazy busy! The appetizers consisted of sinigang (a popular sour Filipino soup) and lumpiang shanghai (a skinny eggroll, perfectly fried). The cart offered a plethora of Filipino food, but we opted for the kare kare (beef and tripe with veggies cooked in peanut sauce, best eaten with bagoong, fermented shrimp), dinuguan (pork cooked in pork blood), pork adobo (pork cooked in vinegar, soysauce and garlic), pancit bihon (vermicelli noodle dish with veggies and meat), pancit canton (egg noodle dish with veggies and meat), lemon chicken (similar to chicken adobo, but with lemon), and pinakbet (mixed veggie dish cooked in shrimp paste). The kare kare and dinuguan were in the kitchen, not on the cart so they offered it, but had to plate it first. The lemon chicken is not a Filipino dish, which was explained to us. All the dishes were pretty good, with the exception of the pancit canton, it was a bit overcooked. And just when you think you’re done, they offer you dessert! We had maja blanca, a coconut pudding with corn speckled throughout and topped with toasted coconut.
Service was fast and friendly. And just like typical Filipino hospitality, they encourage you to eat and eat some more!
Here’s the breakdown for prices:
Weekday lunch: $ 11.99
Weekday dinner and Saturday: $ 14.99
Sunday: $ 15.99
Closed Mondays
As of 10-​07-​2014
Isla Manila is a great way to introduce non-​Filipinos to our cuisine. Plus you’re not committed to an entire entrée, but a great sampling of dishes! We shall return!
Ang Sarap, Isla Manila!

There’s not enough words to describe my love of this joint.
Luckly for you, I’m full of hot hair and bull shit, so I can fill this page to the max with overthought words.
In my life long quest to educate my non Filipino peeps with the food of my people, I have always believed to do so would require them to taste everything! Lets face it, a tapas/​dim sum type of concept is the way to go when experiencing new cuisine for the first time. One or two dishes will never accurately let your taste buds know if you like an ethnic cuisine. And if it goes bad the first time, one tends to wait a long time before trying a cuisine again, if ever. Well, THIS joint is where a first timer SHOULD visit to experience the islands.
The concept here is simple: all you can eat small plates. Just like dim sum, the food comes out in carts that you pick from. The cart is a lil gimmicky, but it totally works for both newbies and old school Flips like me. In a perfect world, I’d love for this small plates concept to just be «to order» and it come out when ready vs. it coming out on a covered cart. Then again, the visual and the interaction with the server is part of the experience.
Isla Manila Bar & Grill takes you on a trip around the islands of the Philippines. They serve the core Filipino food that will let a first timer’s taste buds into the heart of the culture. Each item, is cooked in the traditional style every Filipino will be familiar with. Staples like adobo, pansit and lumpia are well flavored and each bite transports me back to my parents table for dinner.
Most items are hits. The menudo was tender and even better then what my mom made (although, that’s not hard to do since she was a horrible cook). The lumpia that’s served at the beginning before even the cart came out, and can be ordered again, was very good. Word of advice, wait for it to cool down (ten min) because it’s made to order and very hot when it hits the table. We ordered it twice. The fried milk fish (bangus) is very good (make sure you ask for the spicy vinegar to go with). Pinakbet, bomb. Curry chicken, yes please. It goes on and on…
The service is super friendly and on point. Our guy, Jack, who was originally from Jersey City and thus a fellow east coaster was hysterical, as well as attentive and knowledgable about the grub. They do a real great job of making you feel at home and comfortable. The chef owner even came out to talk to all the tables. He felt like a Tito (uncle) and was extremely warm and passionate about his place. You gotta love THAT!
If this place was in NYC, I’d be coming here at least once a week. For now, I’ll have to deal with only eating here twice a year on my visits to Seattle.

What’s better than a dim sum? All you can eat flip-​sum!
Growing up on the island means growing up eating fair share of Filipino grubs. And I happened to love some of them a lot! Pancit being my absolute favorite. Lemon chicken is yumm! I like them all.
Finding this place made me super happy. It’s almost paleo-​ish. I was craving something different. And viola! Found this!
Came in for lunch on a weekend before they close. They were all smiles! The place is located in a tiny strip mall. They have plenty of parking! Restaurant itself is small and cozy. Our server (Jack I believe) made sure we were served every single item even though my friends showed up way later! We even managed to get seconds and thirds on some of their dishes.
Love–
**Kare kare, pancit, lumpia, lemon chicken, eggplant with shrimps, adobo, bbq pokr, shrimp with shrimp paste!
I can’t recall everything but for $ 12.99, we had way too many dishes. And they weren’t premade all day waiting for you. They were made to order! We even had to wait for some of them because they were making them for us Escabeche was super tasty too! kare kare being my favorite of course. Four of us wait and ate our heart out! Literally!
Ended the meal with the scrumptious flan (part of the all you can eat)! Even ordered their Halo Halo and it did not disappoint! I tend to stay away from almost all the «all you can eat» places for quality. I’ve been to places where they premade everything and reheat as you order. Or things that have been sitting on the hot plates way too long. But not here! Their food is fantastic. Came out fresh as you order! And the staff makes you feel comfortable and welcome at all time! Fresh made to order all you can eat with great service? You got my vote! Yummm yumm.