Inigo's Kitchen Filipino Restaurant, Bakery, Catering — Restaurant in Sydney

I'm not a person who gives credit to mere luck but I salute CAPABILITY and proven PERFORMANCE. For restaurants, what matters most are QUALITY & CONSISTENCY among all other criteria.

We tried Iñigo’s Kitchen last January 23, 2021 and in each of the following we ordered we were greatly impressed with their 100% capturing the Pinoy cooking consistency it made us feel we were at home in the Philippines:

Sizzling Pork Sisig, Pork Barbecue, Chicken Inasal, Lechon Kawali, Chopsuey, Bangus ala Pobre, Inihaw na Bangus, Java Rice, Leche Flan, Halo-halo, Achara. (See pics).

And the ambience of their Bexley restaurant is very very decent, well-ventilated and clean. You can compare their restaurant with any decent (i.e. A/B market) Filipino restaurant in any Philippine city “na dinadayo at binabalik-balikan” (i.e. a go-to restaurant where people come back over and over). Again, not only the quality and taste of their food but the ambience also makes one feel at home.

We chatted with their affable store manager, Joy, and learned that from catering services beginnings, they just opened up this flagship restaurant in November of 2019. They were forced to close down for a few weeks at the height of Sydney COVID lock down, operated on a take-away only restaurant for a few months, and lately, approaching “back to normal” wherein people can dine in again. What’s notable with that scenario is, unlike some restaurants who never made it past the COVID lock down, they survived due to the fact that people continued to patronize their food despite the lock downs – a key indicator of the QUALITY AND CONSISTENCY of their cuisine. She also informed us that they’re opening up their second restaurant branch in the West soon.

We also learned that the Iñigo couple founder [from Quezon province] of this restaurant were former head chefs of Pinoy restaurants in Sydney. That explains how they successfully served first with ease the Sizzling Crispy Pork Sisig as we requested (i.e. to serve as our appetizer); before the rest of the main menu items. That is simple indicator that their kitchen is manned by pros.

While we were taking our time dining, we noticed the store manager was also busy answering the phone for inquiries and bookings. Loyal and/or new customers are seeking them out – indicator of a thriving and growing restaurant.

One thing to note is the parking situation. Their flagship restaurant is along Forest Road so one cannot expect front parking. There is a free public parking at the next block, though, and at the back of the establishment row is a residential area so one can also find parking spaces (i.e. with luck).

So to sum up, here are the key points on why I spent time writing this for Iñigo’s Kitchen Restaurant:

1. AUTHENTIC PINOY RAW MATERIALS (i.e. boneless bangus menus, ‘right ripeness’ papaya for Achara)
2. QUALITY (i.e. they capture 100% the texture, taste, presentation, “perfect salinity-sourness mix” of their sauces, color of authentic Pinoy cuisine)
3. PRESENTATION (i.e. subtle use of appropriate-sized and shaped serving plates)
4. CONSISTENCY (i.e. public patronized them despite the COVID lock downs)
5. CLEAN & DECENT physical store
6. AT HOME FACTOR (i.e. store manager speaks fluent Tagalog)
7. Manned by PROFESSIONALS (i.e. “business end” kitchen manned by capable and proven Sydney Pinoy chefs)
8. PRICING (i.e. all our order plus drinks and desserts [SEE PICS] only cost us $150 – worth every buck)

They also offer BOODLE FIGHT (i.e. booking ahead required) and that’s our next mission when we visit them again soon. See pic of their Boodle Fight brochure.

Bon...

One of the few filipino restaurants in Sydney that has quite a variety in their menu. Been back here quite a few times and so far we've been happy with our food, and their prices are reasonable as well for their serving size.

We've ordered the pinadapang inasal, spicy laing, crispy dinuguan, bangus ala pobre and sisig taco. The chicken (pinadapang inasal) was a bit dry tonight, we've tried their chicken inasal in a meal set and that tasted somewhat better from memory than the chicken we've had tonight. The laing and the sisig taco had always stayed consistent, they are by far the best among the food we've ordered tonight. The crispy dinuguan didn't quite hit the spot and the bangus ala pobre was just okay. We've enjoyed previous orders better than this visit, but still this restaurant has always been good with their service.

Serving time was a bit long, from the time we've ordered till we've had our full order set on the table, it was roughly on the 30 mins wait mark considering we were there around 6 pm.

Overall, the service is good and the wait staff are really nice and courteous. There's option to buy filipino delicacies such as pichi pichi and sapin sapin all day long. Will always come back when filipino food craving hits. Will definitely recommend ordering their crispy kare kare and the chicken...

The experience was not the best. When I booked for this Groupon voucher with a confirmed date and time, I was expecting the boodle fight to be ready once we get there. The moment we got there, the restaurant did not even know we had a booking. Therefore, we had to wait for 30 minutes till the boodle fight was ready.

Once they were plating the food for the boodle fight, we were expecting some prawns and steamed vegetables as mentioned on the fine print of this voucher. The waitress just told me "your boodle fight is ready". I immediately asked them why is there no prawns and she just said sorry, that they don't have prawns and that they replaced it with "more squid and fish" --- but I didn't really see more fish. The owner just gave us steamed rice cakes dessert to apologize. To be honest, it didn't change the way how it felt it terms of their level of service.

Overall, please don't waste your money here as there are better Filipino restaurants to try. I am very disappointed with the service and the taste of their food was average. If you look at the photo of the boodle fight, it didn't even have steamed...