For lovers of vinegar, pork and fresh seafood, there’s nothing like the bright, flavorful dishes of the Philippines. The Southeast Asian island country’s culinary traditions offer everything from the crackle of the country’s world-famous lechon to the nuanced, complex flavors of kare-kare and chicken adobo. With a unique blend of Chinese, Spanish, Japanese and indigenous culinary influences, modern Filipino cuisine is an ever-changing phenomenon—and though L.A. isn’t the very best place in the country for Filipino cuisine, the sizable Filipino population in Southern California and a handful of modern chef-driven concepts ensure there’s enough lechon, halo-halo, pancit and sweet spaghetto to go around. (Note that we’re not including Jollibee here, given the fast food chain’s ubiquity throughout Southern California.)
Why should you trust me? I’m an L.A. native whose parents immigrated from the Philippines, which means I’ve been eating lechon, ensaymada (cheese-covered sweet brioche rolls), sinigang (tamarind soup) and other staples of the archipelago since before I could read. Growing up, I spent a large bulk of my childhood driving to West Covina, where my family would visit Goldilocks and Red Ribbon. Most summers, I’d visit my extended family in Philippines, where I’d feast on balut (fertilized chicken or duck eggs) and usually come down with a terrible case of food poisoning. My favorite foods growing up were fried chicken and (sweet) spaghetti with hot dogs—in other words, the staple dishes most associated with Jollibee.
For this guide, I’ve trekked across Los Angeles County in search of the best Filipino cuisine available today. Many great options are located in Eagle Rock, Cerritos/Artesia and Long Beach—where the majority of Filipino Americans live in Los Angeles—but you can also find a handful of decent options in central L.A., including in and around Historic Filipinotown. Whether you want to sample chef-driven takes on the classics, or just want to chow down at a cafeteria-style turo-turo (named for the “point-point” ordering method), here’s where to find the city’s best Filipino cuisine—from Long Beach to West Covina, and everywhere in between.
July 2025: This guide removes Neri’s in Koreatown and adds Manila Inasal in Silver Lake. Time Out has also instituted a sitewide change in review policies. All food and drink venues included in guides now have star ratings, with five stars corresponding to “amazing,” four to “great” and three to “good,” and we’ve also standardized how most listings are structured. For more on our new policies, feel free to check out How we review at Time Out.