Cirilo Filipino Kainan — Restaurant in London

04/09/25; £40 pp

You know when you’ve spent a significant amount of time in a place and are therefore expected to be able to provide solid recommendations to visitors, and for whatever reason all the places you can think of come with a caveat, even if you’ve really enjoyed them? So much about that enjoyment is personal taste preference and individual, irreplicable experience of the time itself: the company, the mood, the atmosphere, the occasion; often it’s “well you could try here but it’s not great for vegetarians”, or “the food was amazing but I hadn’t had lunch that day”.

Cirilo suffers from none of that. Because I wouldn’t recommend it to anybody.

It’s a small space but it was easily less than half full when we went at 7pm on a Thursday night; we bustled in in good spirits and immediately raised the decibel readings about fourfold before (mostly) consciously toning ourselves down a bit. This required no effort from me, as I was instantly sad about having to scan a QR code to see the menu. “Ooh - I bet that’s going on the review!” Yes Amy, it absolutely is: all of a sudden the group transforms as phones are whipped out and notifications spotted; conversations become distracted, disjointed. I recognise I’m a grumpy old man about anything popularised after about 2011 (AI chatbots, VAR, “vibes”), but being a grumpy old man I’m set in my ways and QR code menus will forever remain a bugbear of mine.

But after the bang-averageness of the last Filipino we Nibbled at I was determined not to pre-judge Cirilo. The most interesting thing on the starters list was a seabass kinilaw, marinated overnight in lime, so I imagined a ceviche-style freshness. And they delivered! Flavoured with soy (like everything else on the menu), ginger and wasabi it was light and delicate with cucumber and sticks of crispy skin providing texture contrast. But that was as good as things got.

Frank and I also shared some duck pancakes, which were about as tasty as those you’d get from your local Chinese only colder and with runnier sauce. The others had their usual pastry-y, deep fried faves: spring rolls, crispy bean curd puffs etc all served with a sweet chilli sauce. I dipped my knife into Amy’s; a VERY sweet chilli sauce.

We ordered a nice cross-section of mains and none of the others I tried were as bad as mine so I don’t want to cast aspersions on the skills of the chef too generally, but… it was awful. I’d gone for a lechon paksiw - pork belly in a sweet soy, chicken liver and wine gravy, which reading back now makes me question my decision-making - but that gravy wouldn’t have been out of place over a warm sponge cake. Luckily it was served in a bowl on a plate, so I was able to extract and eat the meat less saucily, which improved things, but only just. Initially I was annoyed they’d bulked it out with potato, but the pork was so tough I didn’t really mind (or even finish it!), and if you can’t manage an egg fried rice that doesn’t taste of oily porridge you shouldn’t be expecting to make a living long term from cooking.

Like I say, most of the others seemed happier, although there was a bit of an odd feel to the whole place. We couldn’t order the pak choi as a side as they’d run out, but then loads of the mains had raw leaves sprinkled over the top, like they’d found some at the back of the fridge just as they were serving. Amy had left some bell peppers in her veggie noodles for me to try and I could see why: they were raw too, and not really chopped up. The chicken in the adobo was okay but I’d back myself to make a better version at home. Both wines we tried as a group were undrinkable for anyone less alcohol-dependent. It just felt nothing was done with any care - apart from Jeremy’s kare-kare, which was served with (I think I overheard this correctly) an explanation as to how the salt of the anchovies balances out the sweet of the peanut sauce. The whole eating experience was summed up by the fact we had a long discussion afterwards… about the merits of crumpets vs hot cross buns.

Coming to London? Sorry mate,...

Very Bad Experience - Food poisoning I went with a friend for dinner to Cirilo's Noodle Bar and Grill in 4 Cable St‎reet London E1 8JG after I checked the reviews and I was expecting a lovely dinner based on what I read and the food hygiene rating 5. Also, on their website they say that they offer fresh and healthy authentic dishes. Instead I have been very disappointed and ill because after one hour we left the place I starded feeling sick I had stomach cramps then during the all night I had these symptoms vomiting repeatedly, diarrhoea with blood and fever. I still have weakness, loss of appetite. I have seen my GP for advice and he said it was food poisoning, an illness caused by eating contaminated food. I did not have any other food or drinks after what I had at the restaurant. I ordered a starter that I shared with my friend and a main for me Noodles with chicken and prawns and I think an ingredient of my main course was not handled, stored or cooked properly. Maybe the chicken was not properly cooked or the prawns were not fresh. My friend had some stomach cramps as well. They should provide food prepared with reasonable skill and care. That dinner was a special occasion and it has been completely ruined by poor quality food or service. After all it happened I have complained and asked for my money back at the very least. The result was I have been sick for days still feeling tired, and then to add insult to injury, I did not get my refund. I suggest you to don't take a...

I only put 5 stars on Service and Atmosphere because I ordered on Ubereats last night. The meals I ordered was supposed to be an 11 Year Anniversary with my Boyfriend celebration dinner. I was so disappointed with the Pinakbet, Caldereta, Kare-Kare, Chicken and Pork Spring Rolls. The Caldereta sauce was so runny, it looked like it did not have liver spread and cheese in it. There were BEANS and MUSHROOMS in it! And the carrots (2 pieces) was still hard. The Pinakbet did not taste like Pinakbet. It had Broccoli and the sauce was bland! Kare-kare's beef pieces were still chewy. The pancit Canton was nice but why was there too much sauce? I thought I ordered a noodle soup. No wonder there were no pictures of the meals in every selection of the dish. I would never order again. When I searched for 'Filipino' on Ubereats, I got excited to see there were Filipino restaurants available. I chose Cirilo because they have the dishes I love, but when I opened the food containers, I was a bit embarrassed to serve it to my Boyfriend. He's been to a lot of Filipino gatherings, Filipino Restaurants and Carenderia in the Philippines, and has eaten the dishes I ordered, and kept asking me why the taste was so different and the vegetables and meat were still hard and chewy. I just told him that I won't order from them again. I am not sure where and how they got all the 5...