Turo Turo - Filipino Bar & Grill — Restaurant in London

Date: 12th January 2025 Cost: £55pp

A relaxed, Sunday night meal at a restaurant named for an indigenous gastronomic tradition (Turo Turo means “point point” in Tagalog after the fashion in which hungry market diners in the Philippines make their choices known) proudly serving a cuisine I’d never even consider otherwise served up in a way I’ve never seen before? Sign me up - this is what Nibblers is all about!

The big decision we made unanimously beforehand was to try Turo Turo’s boodle fight experience rather than ordering a la carte; my basic understanding was that a surplus of food was to make up for a deficit in cutlery. We stood around slightly awkwardly while our chirpy waiter covered a long table in banana leaves and then laid out six cute little individual combinations of accoutrements: homemade dipping sauces, a slice of mango, some fairly uninspiring-looking raw salad and a teaspoonful each of something called atchara - a carrot and papaya-based pickle that would not have been out of place rubbing shoulders with your kimchis, your sauerkrauts, your sunomono or any of your other big-hitters from the wider pickleverse. Sadly our requests for more were met with warnings regarding the quantity of food to come. These guys clearly hadn’t heard about our trip to Lao Dao.

We watched, atcharaless, as a mound of rice maybe four feet long was built in front of us. On top of this were laid grilled green pepper segments so large Roo and I wondered whether there was some special slicing technique involved, mini corn on the cobs, green beans, fried aubergine, spring rolls, enough whitebait and shrimp to satisfy a baleen whale, a chicken and pork skewer each and some ginger bagoong chicken wings, and we all set to trying to eat as much of it as we could with only our hands.

Strangely it felt to me when we’d got through as much as we could as though, despite being quite full I was ready for a main. It was like we’d only ordered starters, but way too many of them, with the rice, of which we finished less than half, there only to fill space rather than compliment a dish. I was grateful that bagoong being a shrimp paste meant I got way more than my fair share of wings, but I always felt I was snacking rather than eating a proper meal, like having crisps for tea.

It probably didn’t help that a lot of the food was quite plain: the dipping sauces were a bit of a saviour - without them there’d not have been loads of flavour to most of the evening, so it’s good they were nice, but you kind of want the food to be standalone delicious and elevated by a sauce, not reliant on it. The skewers and peppers were the best bits for me but still nothing to write home about in the scheme of things (again, see Lao Dao). Even the garlic butter drizzled over the rice was unremarkable; I wanted to crack a load of sea salt over the whole table. I actually came across and cooked an adapted adobo recipe a couple of weeks later, which “re-imagined the dish as though Filipino cuisine had embraced the spice trade”, and that explained a lot.

By the end I was stuck in a seemingly endless loop, chasing the satisfaction you get after a really good meal through eating more of the leftovers, hoping that the far end of the rice mound would somehow be nicer than the near, or a second bite of the corn would somehow be less cold and soggy than the first, but the more I ate the less satisfied I became. Frank’s view, with that knack for pithy wisdom she has, was that the famous and popular cuisines are famous and popular for a reason. We had a great time, and the boodle fight was a 10/10 Nibblers experience, but she’s...

Unfortunately, this has to be one of the worst Filipino dining experiences I’ve had in London. From start to finish, the visit was riddled with problems—both in service and in the quality of the food.

We were running slightly late for our reservation and tried calling the restaurant several times to let them know. The first three calls went unanswered, which was already frustrating. On the fourth try, someone finally picked up and assured us that we were still good to come in. That small courtesy was the only moment of reassurance we had.

When we arrived, we didn’t get much of a welcome. The staff seemed disengaged, and the atmosphere felt cold. We were shown to a table that was clearly broken—wobbly and imbalanced due to uneven legs. Their first fix? Shoving some tissue paper under one side. That didn’t last long, so the waiter came back with more tissue. Eventually, they brought a small block of wood, which also didn’t help. After all that, I ended up crawling under the table myself to stabilize it. What made it worse was that there were plenty of empty tables available, yet we were still seated at the one that clearly wasn’t fit for use.

It’s frustrating to think that the staff must have known the table was an issue, yet chose to seat us there anyway. That level of carelessness set the tone for the rest of the evening.

The food, sadly, didn’t make up for it. The rice was overly wet—almost sticky like mochi. The “crispy” sisig wasn’t crispy at all and was mostly just pork fat with very little actual meat. We also ordered kare-kare, which had decent flavor but came in an underwhelming portion. The meat portion was tiny (maybe six inches by three), and there wasn’t nearly enough sauce or vegetables. At over £18, the value just wasn’t there, especially considering that other Filipino spots in London offer far better quality and quantity at the same price point.

Service throughout the meal was lukewarm. The waiter couldn’t resolve the table issue and didn’t seem especially concerned. The restaurant was also loud—not just from other diners, but from the music, which felt like it was intentionally cranked up to match the volume of the rowdiest tables. It made the whole environment feel chaotic rather than vibrant.

All things considered, I can’t recommend this place to anyone. A 1 out of 5 rating feels fair, if not generous. This restaurant is in serious need of better management, proper staff training, and a basic level of care for both the space and the customers. At this point, an intervention like Kitchen Nightmares wouldn’t be too...

An honest review:

1.Food- 3 of the foods that we wanted to order were not available (okoy, pork bbq, boneless chicken inasal) considering it’s Father’s day. No san miguel beer as well, only Red horse.:(

Pancit canton and Karekare were good. Veggie lumpia was good and i feel like the price was just about right. I didnt like the sisig as it has an aftertaste of something and too oily. Halo halo was the biggest dissapointment of all. It just tastes like crushed ice and evaporated milk- barely enough ingredients in it and definitely not worth £9. My French husband had to ask for extra ube which they have kindly accommodated and asked the waitress why it was not served with ube ice cream. She said ube ice cream has extra charge but it was not stated on the menu that we can request for ube ice cream. Its weird considering Halo halo is not halo halo without ube ice cream.

Service- Food service was slow and initially I feel like they were prioitising all the people who opted for boodle fight. Our drinks came quickly which was good but our drinks were packed with ice and there’s hardly enough liquid to drink. Staff were friendly but not too concerned about client’s experience.

Atmosphere- The music was too loud we can barely hear each other. I feel like the ambience is not good for Families with younger children as the loud music was agitating my baby. Nothing special with the aesthetics- just standard seat and tables.

Overall, I think food-wise this restaurant has good potential but needs improvement on several things. Will I come back? Probably not. Maybe the target market of this restaurant is not the Filipinos.

Reply to Imin:

This is in fact the most honest review in here. So if you are offended for constructive criticism like this, then you should not be in customer service.

Never have we ever said something positive to any of your staff during our visit. We did actually complain about the halo halo and the very loud music— so this should not be a surprise to you and your staff.

Nobody asked how our experience were. Not even you, as apparently you were too busy “managing” in your little corner of the restaurant. Not even 1 staff had the courage to ask about feedback at the time.

I hope you learn how to be humble, focus on customer experience and help your staff during busy times instead of just hiding behind the bar.

Good luck and all the...