Tapsilog Bistro — Restaurant in Campbell

It's sad for me to just give 2 starts to my fellow kababayan. But it's mainly on the food and price. The service and friendliness, the atmosphere and cleanliness are great. I did not mind the setup looking like bahay kubo when you first come in but then a american pub when you start looking around. Maybe they are trying to mimic those kakanin in the Philippines 🇵🇭 by the american military bases. I don't know...

Now for the food... it's fast and came in almost the same time. We tried the Chicken Pancit, Lumpia, Kare-Kare with Beef and Bangus Sisig. I know that's alot but that's what happened when you passed your meal time for few hours. Anyways...

First that came Lumpia... first look store bought, not hand made. It's cut in half, cooked in high heat but still very, very bit cold 🥶 inside. Taste store bought...

Second that came Chicken Pancit... looks good with some Canton noodles very fine chopped bits of chicken and typical Filipino Pancit ingredients. Taste good enough...

Third that came Bangus Sisig... wife looking forward to have for a long while. But on a first looked it's very, very, very oily. Good portion of the Milk Fish and again typical Filipino ingredients which is not bad, it's how it is. Precooked fish that was crumble and fried in oily and ingredients. Lacking in flavor of Sisig. Milk Fish is a very mild tasting fish and usually needs more flavor to help with the taste. No Taste at all...

Fourth that came Kare-Kare... this is my wife's favorite dish and keep in mind it's not easy to prepare such a dish. So all the ingredients are pre-made. Vegetables and Meat are cooked ahead. That's okay but the problem specially with the meat it dries up. The beef is tender and not hard to chew but no flavor and judging on looks, it's been sitting out of the water for a while so it will not overcooke, I know coz I've done it myself. Not all are coated with the Peanut sauce and tasting the beef by itself is just like its been boiled in water without salt. The vegetables are great. The Peanut sauce is okay. Overall taste 2 stars...

Okay, you don't have to take what I've said above and you can taste for yourself. By the way, all our orders are a la carte. We paid over $80 + tip.

Conclusion... for two very, very hungry 😋 people all food should taste good 👍 right? Well, that is usually the case but not in our experience. Will we go back, NO 👎👎👎

One more thing... come early and bring a snack coz you will spend 15 minutes to find parking.

Stop the press... I almost forgot the Turon. Wow, wow, wow... deep fried banana wrap in a spring roll wrapper. Frozen, frozen, frozen 👎👎👎inside warm...

I had the Kare Kare with fried pork. You can see it in the photo. It was tasty and unique and awesome. A little too fattening with the peanut sauce plus the all the fried pork.

The fried pork is something I havent had much. Tough on the outside and soft on the inside. You can see it in the photo. I would definitely recommend it because it’s so unique.

Overall just a really well done meal. Delicious and unique.

Carla, Chad’s girlfriend, is from the Phillipines and likes the bangsilog. She said I need to try the tapsilog because that’s what the restaurant is named for.

The Tapsilog was good overall. Cutting into the egg and eating the yolk that poured over the rice was delicious. The rice is garlic rice but tastes similar to regular rice. My favorite part was the beef, which had a unique taste. The best way to describe the meat is it had a taste and texture like beef jerky, but more juicy than beef jerky.

We had the Lumpia Shangai appetizer and they tasted like you expect: egg rolls with meat inside and sweet sauce on the side. My friend liked them but tbh I thought they were too unhealthy… I mean just fried bread and meat. Not my thing. However I ate a lot of them so that also tells you something 😆

Also my friend and me added a lot of vinegar on the tapsilog. He really loved it but I found the vinegar made the meal too salty (it’s not just vinegar it also has garlic and other things, probably salt, in it). This is just a side note for me personally… most people may like the vinegar on the tapsilog, especially on their meat, and it’s worth trying once.

I had the sauteed veggies with mussels. Personally I didn’t like it. I was looking for something low salt and healthy, but it felt like it has a ton of salt on it, and it only tasted okay. It’s a weaker item on their menu...

I wasn't in the mood to drive all the way to Fremont, so I figured I'd travel to Campbell instead. Was it a good choice? Let me break it down for you.

Starting Line-Up: [[Chicken Lumpia]] Cooked perfectly and better than the pre-packaged Shanghai Lumpia that you can get from any Asian market. [[Pansit Guisado]] A little bland with a gang load of sodium :) [[Crispy Kare Kare]] The sauce was a little too heavy on the peanut butter, however, my main gripe was the 4 pieces of pork belly. At $13.95 I was expecting at least 4.5 pieces :) [[Chicken Adobosilog]] Two healthy portions of chicken, but unfortunately, they were very dry :( Not your traditional adobo flavor/sauce, but the flavor wasn't bad. [[Tocilog & Longsilog]] Sunnyside up eggs were cooked perfectly and the garlic rice was on point. The sweet pork and sweet Filipino sausage were decent, but they were just lacking that distinctive flavor that I'm used to.

The atmosphere was nice and inviting, but it was a bit stuffy inside. Not sure if they were trying to mimic the humidity in the Philipines? Service was great, but I just can't say the same for the food. I would definitely give them another shot in the future, but for now, I will make the...