Gabriela: Filipina Kantina — Restaurant in Norwood

My Filipino husband and I come to Ohio to visit my family a couple times a year and each time we are so disappointed in the lack of Filipino options in the area. We were so excited to try this place once we saw it open up and made it the top of our list for our next visit. Needless to say it did not disappoint and we are hopeful for its future. I had the tofu and loved it - the Chef has to be a magician to get the tofu as delightfully crispy as it is! The chicken adobo was good, not as much vinegar/soy sauce as we are used to, but they have these amazing vinegar and soy sauces that you can add to it. All the familiar flavors were there. The sides of garlic rice and corn are delicious. The Ensaymada was perfect and we were so happy to see Pandesal! The locals probably have no idea what they’re missing so please hear me when I say this - don’t sleep on the pandesal! Where we are from we have to wake up extra early to line up for the fresh pandesal from our Filipino bakery before it sells out 😅 Would love in the future to see lumpia and siopao added to the menu (not sure if the menu is rotating so maybe sometimes you have these?). All in all, really delicious and I truly applaud the Chef for opening up in the Cincinnati area - you are a trailblazer and we are grateful for you. So excited we get to have the familiar flavors of home brought to my old home so we can now share with our friends and...

I love this place! I ordered chicken adobo, garlic rice, and the corn with garlic aioli. All of it was delicious, especially with the sawsawan sauce for the chicken. The ube sugar cookie is maybe one of the best sugar cookies I’ve ever had. The service was friendly and quick. The atmosphere is in a beautiful food hall with lots of other great merchants. I will definitely be going back. My favorite thing about this place is actually the fact that it is named after Gabriela Silang, a Filipina revolutionary who bravely fought for emancipation from Spanish colonizers in the late 1700s. I love seeing Filipino history honored and to see the sharing of culture going beyond the food...

Updated 7/14/24 -BAD REVIEW We have the Bistek with garlic rice and corn as side dish. The flavor was too SALTY; like it's been warmed up too many times. The garlic rice was HARD. The mussels were tasteless and rubbery. The service took 15 minutes for non busy time/day. There were 3 workers (normal).

Original: First of all, this is not an authentic Filipino food. It's asian fusion place. Their chicken adobo is good; closer taste; again, not authentic. The steak tapa is also good, but little bit on the drier side. The garlic rice was good too, plus added the corn side dish. Also tried the malasadas. This is better if...