Via Mare of America — Restaurant in Daly City

3.25

Yes, being Filipino makes me a tough rater of Filipino cuisine. Do not get me wrong, Via Mare of America does serve some good enough Filipino food that would satisfy my craving.

This establishment is a pretty good size and I like how you can have easy parking access in the small parking garage. I came here with a few of my relatives in the area and was ready to feast!

To start off, we had the popular lumpia shanghai appetizer and fried calamari. Their lumpia shanghai are larger pieces which I did not mind and the both dishes were good. The fried lumpia was not too greasy which I have had issues with at other Filipino establishments in the past.

For the main course of this meal, we shared Pansit, Crispy Pata (deep fried pork), Kare-Kare, and Bangus (Milkfish)Sisig. The pansit (similar to a Chinese style Lo Mein) was not bad, though it tasted pretty average. Of course, with pansit I recommend to squeeze the lemon or lime in it for extra flavor. The Crispy Pata was my favorite dish here! That fried pork goodness was awesome and I really enjoyed munching on this. The Bangus Sisig and Kare-Kare were not anything special in my opinion. I am a tough rater of Kare-Kare (oxtail stew with vegetables in a peanut-type sauce) and I was a little disappointed in my Kare-Kare. It was not very warm when it came to the table and some of the sauce was already starting to thicken right when I got the dish.

The service was good here, and I would not mind coming back here to check out some of their...

I very rarely leave restaurant reviews but needed to let others know about this horrendous experience from September 2023.

I was excited to try Via Mare as an out of state visitor. My Filipino friend took me here on a weekday evening. The restaurant wasn’t busy but the waitstaff hardly ever came around (no water refills, no checking in on us). I asked the waitstaff to charge a certain amount on my credit card. I was traveling for work and had to stay under a certain amount. They came back and charged my card the wrong amount. Then they went back and supposedly refunded my card and charged the correct amount. Unfortunately, they never refunded my card for the incorrect amount and kept the money. It appeared on my business card statement and we couldn’t dispute the amount. I called my credit card issuer and they were not able to resolve it. So Via Mare charged me twice for this meal! So...

So far, I haven't ordered a dish from this place that I didn't like.

Here's what I have tried so far:

-chicken sisig -bulalo -pancit bam-i -inihaw na panga na tuna -kare-kare -dilis rice -bibingka

I especially like the bibingka, it is one of their bestsellers in their restaurant chains in the Philippines and it seems like they were able to make their bibingkas here taste the same.

The service though is not consistent, there were a few times when it was slow and there were times it was ok.

Plenty of parking in the garage since Via Mare is located at the ground floor of the what seems to be still unoccupied condo building next to the Daly City library. There's also street parking in front of the restaurant.

I also want to mention that the signage is small so if it's your first time to go, it's...