Like piñatas, bodies must be filled with quality ingredients to effectively satisfy the demands of screaming children. Summon the strength to endure a baseball batting from a blindfolded child: for $15, you get $30 worth of Filipino-Spanish fushion fare at Patio Filipino, located in San Bruno.
Since 2005, Patio Filipino has lifted downtrodden taste buds with its inviting atmosphere and menu of Spanish and Filipino flavors. Spark sputtering stomach engines with a round of tokwa't baboy, which smothers diced tofu and pork cutlets in vingery spice ($11.95), or set hunger fangs loose on the deep-fried pork shank of the crispy pata ($11.45/1 piece, $16.95 for 2). Veg hunters can make eyes with a variety of vegetable-laden dishes, and meat seekers can snare servings of beef, chicken, and pork without the use of Rube Goldberg–esque booby traps.
Reviews
Saveur magazine, SF Weekly, On My Plate, and Check Please! featured Patio Filipino. More than 460 [Yelpers] give it an average of four stars:
- It's a comfortable, attractive, well-priced bistro that satisfies both first-generation palates and second-generation expectations of what a night out at a good restaurant entails — touches like olive walls and dark-wood flourishes, starched cloth napkins, and white ceramic plates that waft away the moment the waiters spot them lying empty. – Jonathan Kauffman, SF Weekly
- It almost feels like you're dining on a veranda somewhere in Spain (minus the Peninsula fog, of course). It's refreshing to have Filipino food in a white tablecloth/fine dining setting like this, with a friendly staff that actually knows their stuff. – On My Plate
Patio Filipino Restaurant
The traditional Filipino dish of crispy pata is nearly always "pure pork bliss," according to Saveur, but the version at Patio Filipino is a cut above: it's “the best I've found,” writer David Bolosan says. To create the dish, pork foreshanks are simmered, slathered with fish sauce, and then deep-fried for a crispy coating. It's a three-step process perfected by Patio Filipino's head chef, a Manila native with both Spanish and Filipina heritage. It's no wonder, then, that the kitchen incorporates ginger, miso, and other Filipino ingredients into their tapas menu. Diners can wash down these shareable dishes with one of the restaurant's own wines, or clack their empty plates together like castanets to accompany the painting of a flamenco dancer gracing the dining room.