Magna Kusina — Restaurant in Portland

This is the best Filipino Restaurant I've been to in the States. I would say that Filipinos or people with experience with Filipino food might find smaller portions and more modern interpretations of their dishes then they might otherwise expect. For the Kanos(foreigners), welcome to the world of amazing Filipino food. Magna would stand out among any Modern Filipino restaurant in Makati, BGC, etc. Filipinos use a spoon and fork to eat. Use the spoon in your main hand and the fork in your off as a cutting implement and shovel! We tried several dishes this time. The Lumpia are a stand out star. You could taste the freshness that came from the Chef's Momita hand rolling them that morning! The Sisig, a famous dish of fried pork n egg and a favorite of Anthony Bourdain, was very very good. Better than most you could even find in the Philippines. The only thing it was missing was a beer tower of Red Horse. A, not to be missed, appetizer! The Ensaladang Barrio salad was a wonderful combination of raw and cooked vegetables complimented by a divine dressing. Try this! The chicken inasaal was great. My only minor complaint was that we didn't order two servings. We're used to inasaal back in Pinas and didn't want to share! Don't forget to add the Atsara, the pickled mango relish on the side, to your spoonfuls! Adobo is the national dish of the Philippines. Every region has their own style and every family has their own interpretation of that style! It's the perfect training wheels dish to Filipino food. Think of something like a teriyaki dish. Magna's modern interpretation of Adobo is amazing and while I still love and crave the multitude of classical recipes, this might be my favorite I've ever had. Best dish I tried tonight, even better than the sisig! For desert, we had the Pandan Cheesecake! Wow. It was very good. Just a hint of pandan, but I could have eaten the entire cake given the chance! The only dish I found disappointing was the Suman. It's traditionally a sweet snack or dessert item. Magna's was a savory arroz caldo or congee. As a arroz caldo it was very tasty, but my heart was missing the sweet traditional suman flavors and the heart break was too much to enjoy the dish properly. All in all, I highly recommend Magna! I'd suggest making a reservation though. My Filipino wife rated Magna only a 4 star. She found the portions to be to small for her, they were almost tasting portions for her and she sometimes had a harder time looking past the classical recipes of her childhood to fully enjoy the modern interpretations. As an example, she loved the flavor of their Adobo, but it wasn't "Adobo" to her. We'll be...

I'll start with the positives. Drinks and service were excellent. Everyone was super friendly and took the time to explain menu items. I had the Pinot daiquiri which has a lovely pandan taste, and the ube grasshopper. Now for the food. We ordered skewers, sisig, lumpia, Laing, and garlic rice. The skewers tasted nothing like authentic Filipino bbq. I grew up in the Philippines so I thought the skewers would have that sweet and salty balance of flavors to them which they did not. Just average bbq. The sauce was also lacking. There was no real vinegar flavor to it at all. Next was the sisig. I went with two Mexican friends and we all laughed when we tried it because it was more like carnitas than sisig. It's hard to explain the texture but it was basically like a a casserole? And creamy? Sisig traditionally is crispy pork bits that come out sizzling and a little crispy, and this was just not it. And the Laing... I asked beforehand if it was made with taro leaves and was told no. Apparently the chef said it wouldn't taste good with taro leaves that aren't fresh so they used kale instead. Listen, I've had plenty of Laing dishes in the States and they were all made with taro leaves. Kale is just disrespectful to the dish. The garlic rice was good, although I wish there was more of a garlic taste to it. Also our skewers came out about 5-7 minutes before any of our other food. We were sitting outside so it got cold fast. Now if you're Filipino, you're gonna want to eat your protein with rice so it was a disappointment to have that come out without the rice. Overall, this restaurant really misses the mark on true, authentic, and flavorful Filipino food. The flavors are lacking, and the weird substitutions for certain dishes just did not work. It's sad to know this is Portland's standard of Filipino food because it's just way off. So if you are reading this and wondering what authentic Filipino food is, please go elsewhere. This probably means you have to leave the city though. I was excited to bring my Filipino mom here someday but I'm glad I went first because she would be nothing short of horrified by the dishes served here. I really think Magna has the potential- just please stop catering to the white palette and work with the Filipino flavors and ingredients we natives...

--- food --- Kabute (king oyster mushroom) ⭐⭐⭐⭐ exactly what you'd expect if you've had king oyster mushrooms good but not something I'd reorder unless it was to fill me up was well cooked

Lumpia ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ what you'd expect as lumpia but better juicy and perfectly crispy the pork didn't have any gritty texture to it, was perfect

Steelhead kinilaw ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ really good for raw fish I don't know if I'd reorder it was just amazing and perfect to try was essentially sashimi with a curry sort of sauce to it

❌ Mom's crab fat noodles ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (edit: ⭐⭐✨ as of August 2025, it really doesn't taste the same, the seafood taste is too heavy now, we tried it twice in a row) surprisingly the squid ink noodles worked was a light seafood taste, not overly seafoody which I loved it was so tender and soft and perfectly cooked the corn made it perfect

❤️ Sisig ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ tender and flavorful, the pork was really well executed, just so soft love the lemony taste the egg was perfect tastes good with garlic rice served in a skillet

Sweet and spicy hipon ⭐⭐⭐✨ good but not my favorite was super fun to eat with my hands though love shrimp the bok choy was perfectly cooked

Chicharon ⭐⭐⭐⭐ little salty, needs rice for sure airy puffy chicken skin

Sisig ⭐⭐⭐⭐✨ really good for what it is well executed

❤️Pancit ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ this tasted better than usual Pancit it had all the things I don't like removed

Adobo ribs ⭐⭐⭐⭐ pretty good not for me, but my boyfriend loved it not exactly fall off the bone but it does pull off flavorful

Halo halo ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ really soft delicious ube loved the jello and coconut meat the lychee was amazing

--- drinks --- Ppp ⭐⭐⭐✨ too ginny for me loved it as a whole with the spice on the rim though

The pv ⭐⭐⭐⭐ the pandan taste is strong not overly sweet

Bobbie sangria ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ on the sweet side for sure, so you have to be in the mood for it creamy and delicious don't even taste the rum

Tam-ina ⭐⭐ had a little bit of a strong citrus and cinnamon taste to it that I wasn't 100 percent ready for imagine a Mexican candy the savory sort...