R & B Filipino Cuisine — Restaurant in San Diego

This is the best and cheapest (~$13) Filipino food spot nearest to the UCSD area. I'm a Mexican from the South of the city and my go to place is down in Chula Vista, but I attend college up here and have been looking for a good spot up here. The Filipinos at school would swear by this spot and I'd tried Manila Food but didn't love it so todays the day I finally gave this place the chance.

I absolutely loved the food especially considering that I'd only ever had mediocre Filipino food in the area. I got the 1 item Plate with all Pancit, and my entree as the BBQ Pork. I'm personally a bigger fan of BBQ chicken but this spot didn't offer it; I'm just glad it came on the stick. I also got some lumpia and paired everything with a diet pepsi.

The sauce they accompanied with the lumpia was unique and I'd never tried anything like that. It was definitely a sweet and sour sauce but it was like infused with a tamarind something. However I will have to say, the lumpia were not my favorite. They're okay and I will be coming back but I'll be sticking to the bbq pork and the pancit.

The place is not huge, but you can definitely eat comfortably although it's all kind of catered for togo. Everything is fresh and it's just a real authentic Filipino ran food spot which I can absolutely appreciate. This is the kinda place that feeds a community and I'm glad to have been able to come find it and support this business.

They took some time to address me and I think the ladies were a little thrown off by my presence considering that I don't look Filipino and definitely do not speak Tagalog. Either way, they got my order in and served it properly so that's all I really have to say about the service. They served me and catered to my requests and I'm appreciative of that.

Give it a try if you've never had it cause you might've just discovered one of your newest and cheapest favorite food spots.

Overall,...

A FOODIE’S FIND🤩🤩. It’s all about tempered flavor of AUTHENTIC FILIPINO cooking without any hint of adulteration. None of that “fusion” stuff. FLAVORFUL street-food style service.👍👍

The eatery is very unassuming, tucked in strip mall. It’s a small, likely family-owned business that seems to be very popular to ethnic Philippine emigres and Filipino-Americans as well other locals.

It’s a serving counter of freshly cooked food.👍👍👍The menu is on the board, but prices on the board are catering sizes. It very inexpensive: pricing is based on the size of the container (S, M, L, XL) that food is packed in.

It’s street food style service. No frills.

My most flavorful recommendations: Fried fish: Fresh crispy fried without any greasiness. Simple salt/pepper seasoning 👏👏 Pinakbet: Classic Filipino dish of mixed tropical vegetables. The surprise was variety of Acorn squash has exquisite nutty flavor 🤩🤩 Kare kare: Classic stewed beef in peanut sauce. What was a pleasant surprise was the meat: it was a mixture of tripe, little bit of muscle and what I think was sweetbreads (thymus/spleen). It was superb. 🤩🤩🤩Feast with you palate! Stewed taro leaf: another surprise 👏 The lowly young shoots/buds of taro stewed in coconut milk. It’s rich and delicate flavor😎 Eggplant torta: More like and omelet using an entire length of a Japanese eggplant.

There others in the menu to try, perhaps when on another...

First time here, came at 11:30am on a Thursday, two other customers in the store. Ordered the combo, with BBQ Pork, Pancit, and Lechon Kawali (Fried Pork Belly). Staff there was pretty pleasant, and after ordering, she made it into a combo. Price was about $19.38 or so, and I just paid $20. None of the food was going bad, but generally a bit overcooked. BBQ Pork had a good taste, but was tough and chewy, and seems overcooked. The Lechon was better, and while the skin was crispy and the meat was flavorful, it seemed a bit overcooked. The pork fat was perfect though, literally melt in your mouth. The noodles were okay, not particularly bad or good. If they could shorten the cooking times, it could be really good. The meat wasn't going bad, and the flavors are good, just overcooked. I finished the noodles, fried pork belly, but only ate half of the BBQ pork. I give it 3.5 stars out of 5, although I...