Filipino Food: Dishes to Know and Where to Eat Them

The best-scored Filipino place in each of 12 cities.

Regional variations

Luzon (Manila, Pampanga, Ilocos, Bicol)

Pampanga is considered the country's culinary heart: kare-kare, sisig (the pork-cheek-and-jowl dish from Pampanga, now a global Filipino signature), tocino (cured pork). Ilocos for bagnet (twice-fried pork belly), pinakbet (Ilocano vegetable stew), empanada. Bicol for the coconut-cream-and-chile dishes (laing, Bicol Express), the spiciest regional cuisine.

Visayas (Cebu, Iloilo, Negros)

Lechon Cebu (the Cebu suckling pig, considered the apex of Filipino lechon, with herbs in the cavity and no dipping sauce needed), batchoy (the Iloilo noodle soup with pork offal), Negros sugar-tradition desserts (silvanas, sansrival), kinilaw (Cebu raw-fish in vinegar).

Mindanao (Davao, Zamboanga, Cotabato)

The most Malay and Muslim-influenced cooking. Halal traditions, beef rendang-adjacent dishes, satti (Filipino satay from Zamboanga), pyanggang (Tausug grilled chicken with charred coconut), pastil (rice in banana leaf). Chavacano-Spanish-Malay crossover in Zamboanga.

Pampanga

Called the culinary capital of the Philippines. Kare-kare, sisig (invented in Angeles City in the 1970s), tocino, longganisa, betute (stuffed frog), camaru (mole crickets). The deepest regional tradition; Pampangan cooks staffed the Spanish colonial kitchens in Manila.

Defining Filipino dishes

Adobo

Meat (pork, chicken, or both) braised in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, peppercorn, and bay leaf, reduced until the meat is tender and the sauce glossy. The national dish. Every family has its own version: with coconut milk (adobo sa gata), with annatto (Cavite style), dry-finished or wet, chicken-only or pork-only.

Sinigang

Sour soup with pork, fish, or shrimp, soured with tamarind (the most common), calamansi, kamias (bilimbi), guava, or unripe mango. Vegetables (kangkong, sitaw, eggplant, radish) are added near the end. UNESCO listed sinigang in 2023 as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Philippines.

Lechon

Whole spit-roasted pig, the centerpiece of every celebration. The Cebu version (with lemongrass, garlic, and herbs stuffed in the cavity, no dipping sauce needed because the meat is seasoned through) is considered the apex; Anthony Bourdain called it the best pig he had ever eaten.

Kare-Kare

Oxtail (or beef tripe, or both) stewed with bagong-thickened peanut sauce, served with bok choy, eggplant, banana heart, and bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) on the side as a salty counterpoint. The Pampanga regional specialty that became a national favorite.

Sisig

Chopped pork (cheek, ear, jowl, sometimes liver), grilled then sauteed with onion, chile, calamansi, and often a cracked egg on top, served sizzling on a hot iron plate. Invented in Angeles City, Pampanga in the 1970s. The defining Filipino bar food, globally exported.

Pancit

Filipino noodles, with regional variants: pancit canton (egg noodles, stir-fried), pancit bihon (rice vermicelli), pancit Malabon (thick rice noodles with seafood), pancit palabok (rice noodles with shrimp sauce). Chinese-Filipino heritage; eaten at birthdays for long life.

Halo-Halo

Shaved ice with sweet beans, ube (purple yam) jam, leche flan, jackfruit, sago pearls, kaong, macapuno, sweet corn, evaporated milk, and a scoop of ube ice cream on top. The summer dessert; literal translation 'mix-mix'. Pulled from Japanese kakigori via the early-20th-century Japanese-Filipino exchange.

Lumpia

Filipino spring rolls. Lumpia Shanghai is the fried meat-filled version (small, finger-sized, the party staple); fresh lumpia (lumpiang sariwa, lumpiang ubod) is the unfried version with peanut-garlic sauce and a soft crepe wrapper.

Pinakbet

Ilocano vegetable stew with bitter melon, eggplant, okra, squash, sitaw, and tomato, seasoned with bagoong (fermented fish or shrimp paste). The vegetable-forward Ilocos regional dish.

Kakanin (Bibingka, Puto, Suman)

Rice cakes, the deep merienda tradition. Bibingka (banana-leaf-baked rice flour cake with salted egg and grated coconut, eaten at Christmas), puto (steamed rice cakes), suman (rice in banana leaf, sweet), kutsinta (sticky rice flour cakes with palm sugar).

How to order

At a Filipino restaurant, order family-style: one or two soups (sinigang, tinola, bulalo), one or two ulam (the meat-and-rice main: adobo, kare-kare, lechon kawali, crispy pata), one vegetable (pinakbet, laing), and a kakanin or halo-halo at the end. Rice is the universal starch and comes free with most main courses (puti, the plain white rice). The Filipino table is not paced by Western courses; everything arrives together, you mix and match. Bagoong (fermented shrimp paste) is a condiment for kare-kare and grilled meats; calamansi (the local citrus) for sinigang and grilled fish.

The rookie mistakes: expecting Filipino food to be spicy (it is rarely chile-hot; the Bicol region is the exception with its coconut-cream-and-chile dishes), asking for a fork only (the Filipino way is fork-and-spoon, with the spoon as the cutting tool against the fork, then scooping; no knives needed for most dishes), confusing pancit and chow mein (pancit is the Filipino noodle, with its own regional variants and meaning), confusing Filipino lumpia with Vietnamese spring rolls (different wrappers, different fillings, different sauces), and ordering only mains (the kakanin and halo-halo are the soul of Filipino sweets and not optional). Tipping in Manila is 10 percent; tipping in Filipino-American restaurants follows the US norm.

What to drink with it

Filipino beer is the universal pour: San Miguel Pale Pilsen, Red Horse (the stronger one), San Mig Light. Local rum (Tanduay) is the spirit; coconut wine (lambanog), basi (sugarcane wine), and tuba (palm wine) are the regional drinks. Calamansi juice is the universal non-alcoholic option. Filipino chocolate (tablea, from native cacao) is used in tsokolate, the thick hot chocolate drunk with puto and bibingka. Coffee is local-strong: barako (the Liberica variety, regional to Batangas), kapeng tagalog. Wine pairing is challenging but possible; the sour-savory profile of sinigang and adobo pairs with off-dry German Riesling, while richer lechon and kare-kare work with medium-bodied reds (Tempranillo, Garnacha).

Where to eat it

Manila is the densest Filipino-food city, with Toyo Eatery (the modern Filipino flagship, Asia's 50 Best), Hapag (one Michelin star), Metiz, Hapag Manila, Sarsa, Mesa, and the Binondo (Manila Chinatown) Filipino-Chinese restaurants. Cebu for lechon at Rico's, House of Lechon, and CnT. Iloilo for batchoy and lapaz batchoy at Ted's. Davao for Mindanao cooking and the Roxas Night Market. The Filipino-American restaurant scene has grown fast: Kasama in Chicago became the first Filipino restaurant with a Michelin star, in 2022. London has Romulo Cafe and Sarap. Singapore has Lawless. Madrid hosts the deepest European Filipino diaspora dining.

A short history

Filipino cuisine took its modern shape across many layers: pre-colonial indigenous Austronesian cooking (rice cultivation 3,500 years old, kinilaw vinegar-curing predating Spanish ceviche), Chinese trade (Hokkien noodle and dumpling traditions, the basis of pancit and siopao), 333 years of Spanish colonization 1565 to 1898 (adobo, leche flan, the merienda culture), 48 years of American rule 1898 to 1946 (canned-meat traditions, sandwiches, ice cream). UNESCO listed sinigang as Intangible Cultural Heritage of the Philippines in 2023.

Frequently asked

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