Sarap! Filipino Restaurant — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

RAW & HONEST REVIEW We came here for their grand soft opening the evening of Saturday, March 29th. We’ve actually been coming to this spot since it was You-Ka Cafe. As fellow Filipinos trying to support local and small businesses, we decided to give it another shot.

This place has changed hands a few times, but what caught our attention this time was that they were bringing in the people from Sizzling Manila and offering traditional Filipino breakfast in the mornings.

We brought our bonus daughter to join us for dinner and planned to return another time for breakfast.

When we arrived, a lot of the dishes we originally wanted were already sold out (see attached photos), so we ended up ordering the oxtail and tripe kare-kare, sisig, chicken inasal, and chicken pancit.

The pancit was not the same as in past reviewers' photos. It was a mix of bihon and canton, which would usually be fine pero napaka-lata (too soft, like it was overcooked or sitting too long). It looked off—either not fresh or made with too much sauce. Definitely not traditional. I wouldn’t order it again,

The kare-kare was okay, but the portion of bagoong was tiny—barely even a sample. My husband had to ask for more. And the meat portion was not very generous considering the price. Also, if those are supposed to be two scoops of rice, they were the smallest I’ve ever seen. He upgraded to pancit and rice for an additional $1.99, but had to ask for it because it was not included in the order.

I wanted to give my chicken inasal a fair shot, but it was super bland—not even close to the flavor chicken inasal should have. Makunat pa (tough to chew) and really dry. I tried to power through it—pasang-awa na lang (barely passing). You can see in the photo it almost looked burnt. Maybe it sat too long or was cooked while still frozen. Either way, I won’t be ordering it again.

The best dish out of the four was the sisig—it was flavorful and delicious. So one out of four... that’s 25%. (Hence a 1 star review)

There were no signs saying desserts were sold out, but there was almost nothing in the display case.

As for the setup and seating—it was busy, and while there was seating, some people still did not have a place to sit. Because of the layout, a party of two ended up sitting at a table meant for six, which made it harder for bigger groups to find spots. It felt a bit unorganized in that regard.

One customer came in with her family and seemed to know the crew. While still in line, she was shouting out asking if they had halo-halo and basically announcing she was going to order it—while others were waiting their turn. It is great that she felt comfortable and knew the staff, but it came across like her order was more important than everyone else’s. She kept speaking to the crew directly instead of waiting in line like the rest of us. The sense of entitlement was real, and it definitely affected the energy in the room.

I really wanted to love this place. Maybe it’s just early growing pains from the soft opening and getting a new team up to speed. But right now, it takes a lot of patience—and a lot of money—to eat here. Our total was $80 for four meals (we did tip), three waters, and one fountain drink (which was $2.99 for a cup only slightly larger than a water cup).

Sadly, I left feeling disappointed—with a hole in my pocket and a lack of flavor in my stomach. Maybe we’ll try again for breakfast. I mean, you can’t really mess up breakfast, right? Hopefully they get it all worked out soon and can get back to the authenticity without feeling like it's fellow Filipinos ripping off fellow Filipinos only...

Edit: I am revising my review from 2 stars to 3. We returned 9 months after the original review, and the owners seemed to have taken all the feedback seriously and really improved their product. The portions are better. I failed to take pictures, but I ordered the same sisig, and it seemed to be almost double the portion this time. Excellent.

The problem is the dining area is left dirty. We were there today we had to try and choose the least dirtiest table, because there were no clean ones at all. We sat down, the table next to us had a pile of garbage and dirty dishes on it. Kid at the counter is scrolling on the phone. It remained dirty the entire time we were there which was about an hour.

It was an hour because it takes a while for this place to get food out to people. Its like they don't have things setup so that they can drop food quickly. We ordered in and then ordered something to-go and it just takes way too long. The to-go order was sinigang and it leaked inside the bag before we even got in the car, so we had to walk back in and get it redone. The guy just didn't seal the container all the way around.

I came another time and ordered and clocked the time from the counter to getting food at 35 minutes. It's really disappointing because it tastes so good.

Old review: The food at Sarap tastes good. My wife had the BBQ pork, and I had the Sisig. The BBQ pork was flavorful as well as the Sisig.

Now, the problems: Prices, speed, and portions.

I paid almost $18 after tax for Sisig with a single over easy egg (it was served over hard). My wife's was about $14 after tax. The $18 for an entree wouldn't have been that bad if the portions were better.

We waited about 25 minutes for our food. The workers were friendly and diligent, but there were only 2! One guy cooking and one gal taking orders and doing desserts. The guy cooking constantly had to break his cooking flow to box every dish and bring it out to customers. He forgot to include lumpia in one of our dishes. When we told them about it, they were friendly and fixed it and even gave us a few extra.

They need a person working the rice and bagging station and let the cook manage the grill. There was a 3rd employee there, but they were hiding in the back. We saw him once come out to put something away and then returned to the back with a full restaurant of people waiting for food. The restaurant was full, but only a fraction of them were actually eating. I would guess there were about 15 people in the restaurant, and 4 of them were eating. Most were waiting for their orders.

Once we got our food, I was pleased with the taste, not so pleased with the portions. I included pictures of them. The BBQ pork slices were small. The lumpia was good and portioned about what anyone would expect. The rice portion was fine. The sisig ran out before the rice.

I want this place to do well. My wife and I love Filipino food and used to frequent You-ka Cafe at least once a week. Even when they raised their prices, we would still continue to go because the food was delicious and the portions were fair. Their speed was on the slow side, but we forgave it because the product was worth the wait. I hope this feedback helps the...

I’m local and lived here in Springs way before the great Blizzard of ‘97. When the other Filipino restaurant opened in 2016 and was replaced by another, it was a sad day for many people. Unfortunately the second restaurant that opened in the same place before Sarap restaurant came, wasn’t up to par… at all. When I saw the sign for Sarap I had high hopes. We stopped by and saw that the menu was amazing and looked delicious. I ordered Sisig with beef lumpia and extra rice. My husband ordered lechon kawali with ensaladang pipino, a side order of atchara and curry empanadas. First impression, the presentation was already not great, the container they put in the food is a bento-like box, the rice was all over the side and on the cover as well. They put the lumpia on top of the rice so when I opened the container the lumpia was smashed on the rice and when I lift it up to eat it the lumpia the rice was stuck all over it; they did the same thing with my husband’s order with the cucumber salad drenched right next to his lechon, no biggie. Although there’s a lot of different ways in making Sisig in the Philippines there is one universal ingredient when making this; crispy pork belly and its citrus. Though I understand that they also cater for the mass, there is something to be said when making this specific recipe. The pork was cooked well, however, it was super oily that the I couldn’t taste the flavor, I am not exaggerating when I say dripping oil; I did asked for spicy and the food wasn’t close to have any heat at all. To top it off there was no citrus flavor either. They did include a small wedge of lime, which I used but unfortunately it wasn’t enough. They have spiced vinegar available and so that’s what I used to spice it up and had the citrus-y I was looking for (although vinegar is not ideal it was the only thing I can use to not throw away my food). Sisig is one of the many Filipino food that is rich in flavor. Unfortunately for this one, that’s not the case. The beef lumpia that came with it was bland, I think they forgot to put salt in it. I ordered a side of Atchara, now that was delicious. My husband ordered lechon kawali; now, you can’t really mess this one up because it’s a deep fried pork belly, my only complaint on this one was again, bland, no salt. The ensaladang pipino (cucumber salad) was soggy (cucumber wasn’t bright green anymore). Now, the biggest disappointment was the curry empanadas, it had a curry flavor but once again it was very bland, I’m not sure if they don’t like to use salt at all. The place is clean and they were playing tagalog music in the background. However the staff that took our order and the cook was cold; neither of them was smiling at all. We came in during Sunday lunch hour, the place wasn’t busy. Although we only had water to drink I noticed that in their fountain drink area they have quite a few choices of drinks. I was glad to see coconut water in one of the fountain machines. We love our local businesses and continued to support them. I hope that Sarap restaurant will take this review as a constructive...