Isla Restaurant — Restaurant in San Bruno

Never noticed this place until we were invited to a birthday dinner here. We are definitely coming back. The food was, to put it mildly, great!! How come I never noticed this place before? Maybe it jas something to do with the fact that I live across the bay from here now. 😉 So, if you are looking for a good recommendation of a Filipino place on the Peninsula, this will be my first suggestion from now on.

Update: Our group are mostly from the East Bay. Some of us live on the Peninsula. We sing at church every 1st and 4th Sunday of the month. We all eagerly meet up at church to sing for the morning mass. It's something we all look forward to because we don't get to see each other as often especially with our current situations. We not only look forward to our service at church but also make sure to share a meal before parting ways until the next time. This has been our tradition which makes us look forward to each time we get together. We usually go out for breakfast,but since today's mass ended a bit late, we decided on a place that would also serve lunch. So, brunch it was... I looked forward to a tapsilog but was out voted because of the time. Sao, for the 6 of us to share, we had the bilao #4. It easily had everything we would have ordered for breakfast, but also had our favorites for lunch! Things like Crispy Pata, Daing na Bangus (fried milk fish marinated in white vinegar) which I had not had for quite some time, green mango salad, chicharon, wings, etc. For 6 people, we really had our fill. Only thing was, because we are all Pinoy, we had to have the obligatory "extra rice." We really have a choice of good Filipino restaurants in the bay area, but bar none, this is definitely one of the very best places for Filipino food. I always recommend this place to friends looking for good Filipino food. They also have another location in the East Bay, which means that you can have the best of the best Filipino food anywhere in the Bay Area. We have even celebrated our birthdays here and still end up taking food home because the servings are enormous. The prices are so well worth the quality and quantity you can never go wrong. The staff are all friendly except when it is busy. And they do get quite busy. You really can't fault them for that. So plan on coming early and enjoying a great meal...'til...

Have not been to the new place since it relocated.

This place is a lot bigger and nicer. Seems very inviting.

Service is lacking. We had to stop people to take our order because they never checked on us. We thought once the food arrived, the service would be better, we ordered the bilao #4- it comes with drinks and dessert. Had to ask for drinks, and they didn't give us the cups until we were done eating.

The food was good. We ordered:

Calamari - crunchy and not rubbery. I say this because they are calamar rings, not the kind from other places.

Lumpia shanghai - surprising meaty and flavorful. Other places can be almost empty inside, and you're just eating wrapper.

Chicharon - super crunchy

Popcorn shrimp - crunchy and flavorful. Not all batter.

Sisig kapampangan - tasty but not that crunchy. It was kinda like eating baby food, you don't really need to chew.

Bilao #4 - most everything in it was good, longanisa, prawn crackers etc. Didn't care too much for the crispy pata - looks like we got the end of it, just bone no crispy skin. Fried chicken was salty.

Tinila combination - think it was good didn't really get much feedback.

Sinigang na bangus - this one was good and perfect asim.

Nilaga baka

Pancit bihon - I thought it was good. I only care about noodles and don't really like vegetables, but my family said the noodles weren't even bigon. It was sotanghon a thinner noodle mostly used for soup.

Kare kare - it should've been ox tail but what we received were meat strips, and the portion was so small. It's definitely not worth it for that price.

Service was horrible. They never checked on us or when they provided us with containers to go. They would disappear and never come back. I'm not sure if they did this because our party was a table of 10, and the tip was automatic. 18% of the bill. We literally ended up getting our own containers because they didn't help us. We could've left with not paying our bill. They literally didn't seem to care. I had to go up to 2 people at the register. One was just on his phone. The other one I asked at the other register was like ah OK.

Food is good, service sucks. They weren't...

Came here with a party of 4 on a Friday around 6:30pm for dinner. Super spacious restaurant with lots of seating. The place filled up at 7pm so we are glad we came a bit earlier than their dinner rush. Their waiters are friendly and work fast, but they’re a bit understaffed for all the tables. We had a feast and ordered a ton of stuff for 4 since their menu was so expansive!

Lumpiang Shanghai: easy appetizer and made in cute bite sizes to easily munch on throughout dinner. Sizzling bangus sisig: solid dish and goes well with plain rice or another rice dish Binagoongan rice: I liked the mango and tomato bits that added flavor to the rice. The fried pork in this was also very tasty and balanced the salt and fried was of it with the rice and tomato and mango. Crispy pata: massive thing and we took it home at the end but very crispy and a popular dish since it’s not easy to make at home. Also goes well with rice or noodles since it’s just meat. Pancit bihun guisadu: I love my noodles and this was a solid dish. Loved the seafood and quail eggs added to it too. Bicol pakbit: added a veggie dish cus we need a balanced meal :p I love the coconut flavor and reminds me of Thai dishes but lots of veggies in it, even bittermelon!

Drinks: Black gulaman: love the little bits of grass jelly and coconut pandan — reminds me a lot of Che (Vietnamese desserts). Let the ice melt so it’s not so sweet too. Red horse (2): 8% beer, one of their stronger ones but it’s a their local Philippines beer so try it if youre a beer fan. San Miguel pilsener: their lighter local Philippines beer, also worth a try if you’re into beers.

Overall we left super full and satisfied! Family-style is the way to go. All this was around $40 a person including tips. Also, don’t forget to like them on their social media page for a free scoop of ice cream. I got ube and it was such nice cherry on top...