Jollibee and Red Ribbon is slated to open sometime in late august from what I read on the Seafood City FB fan page, i'm headed down to the states for the weekend with my family and we've made plans to hit up chow king especially since my mom likes their halo halo. I just want jollibee to open so I can have my chicken joy!

There's one at No.5 and Cambie in Richmond called Little Ongpin. Never tried it though. I heard there is one on No.3 Road in the complex where Staples and TD is, don't know name though sorry.

edit: oops, didn't see that Little Ongpin was mentioned already

one opened up in richmond called manila toscana across from bobs subs

Jollibee is already open according to my aunt. It's been open since like July or something.

The problem I find with Filipino food here is that, unlike Chinese restaurants, 99% of the time the food made at home is way better than eating Filipino out. Like someone mentioned earlier, until they open more made-to-order restaurants and less fast-food-like (i.e. steamers) it's never going to get better selection wise. It's even worse to see how bad Goldilocks is and how they just premake everything and stick them in plastic containers in the cooler. I've tried PinPins and like someone else said, you're better off making friends with Filipinos if you want better food.

As an aside, has anyone tried the Red Ribbon yet? If it's anything like the Philippines, I prefer the majority of their pastries to Goldilocks. And for you bread lovers, Aling Mary has dopeeee pan de sal. WAY better than anything here, especially when you order them fresh. mmmm:thumbsup:

I live literally 3 minutes walking distance from the Surrey Aling Mary's. If the family wants a dozen, I just pop by. Beats the hell out of bread for sandwiches any day, but we go through a dozen in nothing flat.

Home-cooking will almost never top restaurant Filipino food regardless of where you go. However, there's a place in Surrey called Cheeky Cheeky Cafe that does a made to order meals and all-day silog.

waaaait, a dozen what?

Interesting fact about home cooking vs restaurants.
I guess it's the same with Chinese food as well.
Not sure if this is generally true for other cultures though.

I'm a bit of a food, so I know that when it comes to home cooked garlic bread, spaghetti, steak, caesar salad and gado gado, no restaurants compare to what my friends/families can whip up at home.

I still haven't ventured into flip food yet though, an suggestions?

Really? Nothing beats home made Filipino food vs. the Filipino restaurants in my books.

Like going to the palenke? Best part is by the time you get back, the corned beef and/or longanisa is already cooked.

Sorry, a dozen pandesal, filipino sweet bread.

If you want to start venturing into Filipino food, ask your Filipino friends if you have any. They can fill you in on what's good to them. Personally, I'm a sucker for nilaga (beef stew), and kare kare (beef/oxtail stew using peanut sauce).

@iRomey: 98% of the time, home-cooked can't beat restaurant, but when there's no filipino food to be made at home, and there's no ingredients anywhere in the house, restaurant is always a nice alternative.

ooh filipinos love this place

they rave about it all the time
hope they do
i ll go try it out

I was just there last monday. Jollibee is still closed. Opening august 2010. Chowking and Tokyotokyo is open with 1 hour line up. Seafood City also has a mini fast food serves filipino food.
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so this seafood city is like a filipino market with fast food joints?

Seafood city is a filipino grocery. Just that they added 1 fast food stall. I guess their own fastfood. Kinda like walmart have mcdonalds inside.
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really? are you talking about here in vancouver or in general? because pretty much every filipino i know (family included) go to a filipino restaurant as a last resort if they're really lazy to cook at home.

different story in the philippines, as there were some killer restaurants that i went to.

however i do agree with you in that kare kare is very good- tbh it's a very neutral taste, and oh man is it good. I'm actually having some right now :thumbsup:

There aren't that many Filipino restaurants here in Surrey outside Cheeky Cheeky, so the odd time we went to a restaurant, it was just to try it. We'd go back with the right conditions though.

Which reminds me, I gotta restock my fridge with longaniza and tocino. I'm tired of eating bagoong with rice when I need a quick fix of food and there's nothing in the fridge.

When I went to The Philippines for the first time 10 years ago (I was born in Toronto), the food cooked at home was amazing, even though my family back home are in a rural area. On-site animals meant the freshest chicken and pork. On that note, anyone remember the 5AM pandesal bike whenever they want back?

nope never saw that in Batangas, but there was tons of TA-HO! :rofl:

my parents are from a rural town in quezon province, when we were there 5am would be people walking around the town puto and yeah the food is really fresh especially if u live in a coastal town, fresh fish and shrimps being brought door to door in a bucket to sell usually by the children or wives of the fishermen of the town.

I had dinner at Kulinarya the other night and it was decent! Good prices, good food :)

Looking forward to going back and having some tapsilog!

Kulinarya is in Coquitlam on Glen Drive and Pacific. So glad there's a Filipino restaurant in the Tri-Cities :D

I haven't seen it being mentioned but my favourites are:

* Lumpiang Shangai
* Menudo

They may not exactly be Filipino in origin but when they're available in Filipino Restaurants, or in parties, they're freakin' :drool

Oh, and +1 to the mentioned: Nilaga & Sinigang. Also, it's a pretty simple food but I'm also a big fan of Tapsilog.