Manila Bay Bar & Grill

We went there on September 10, 2011 and it was closed. We called the number and it was disconnected and there was a lock box on the door. I am disappointed, so I went to down the street to Picanha Brazilian Grill and had a wonderful meal.

One star off because I was consistently asked by all your people if I was Filipino. I love you guys, but damn stop speaking Tagalog to me. It sounds like you guys are always asking me questions all bubbly sounding. Not like anyone comes up to me like hey you look so Cambodian, doo ma mey.
I can’t handle this pressure of being a bad Filipino when I’m not able to respond in your native language.
Foods always tasty though. Some fine honeys too. You get the mix of the pot.

Here it is on the eve before New Year’s Eve, and what better to do with
tomorrow being a federal holiday than head out for a little Filipino cuisine at what I consider the best Filipino restaurant on the East Coast, Manila Bay. We loaded up the car, and headed over to Northeast Philly to get our grub on.
We arrived at Manila Bay about 45 minutes later, only to find the restaurant empty. We were greeted by the owner and our waiter, Caroline, and grabbed a table near the bar. They are always so nice in here, and tonight was no different. I was actually a bit umbfounded as to why nobody was in here, but then I also realized that it was barely 6PM. DUH!
Zelda ended up starting off with the Spring Rolls, and I went with the
Filipino staple, Lumpia Shanghai! I grew up eating lumpia, and as much as I love to make my own, I have to say that these are better than anything I can make at home. Unfortunately, I have no idea why, as I am sure that I use the same elements as they do. Zelda enjoyed her vegetable spring rolls also, but I didn’t get them a try for whatever reason. Both appetizers were huge, and I probably shouldn’t have eaten the entire of lumpia by myself, but I did! They were that good!
For entrees tonight, Zelda went the salmon route, and she has yet to be disappointed with a salmon dish at Manila Bay. If I remember correctly, she ordered the Grilled Salmon Medallions, which came out as more salmon than she could possibly eat in one sitting, with a nicely flavored garlic sauce! The true beauty of this dish, or any grilled item at Manila Bay is the flavor from their grill. The grill is seasoned as perfectly as you could ever believe, and it puts off the best flavors. It just doesn’t get any better to me!
For me, 2011 brings eating healthy, so I had to get my grub on tonight, and order a lot! That said, I ordered 2 different entrees, both Filipino
staples!
First, I ordered the Tilapia! This is a whole tilapia, cleaned and gutted,
then friend whole and served with a vinaigrette sauce on the side. I can’t tell you how many times my mother made this as a child, but it was delicious! There is no fork needed for this, and true Filipino’s just dig in with their hands. The flavors were awesome, and you can tell that this is fried in good, clean oil! As always, the best flavors came from the cheek meat, as well as the belly meat. This was no different tonight, and absolutely awesome!
I also ordered the pork inihaw, which was spectacular the last time I
ordered it here! Tonight was no different, and the great flavor truly comes from the grill! Like Zelda’s entrée, the grill puts so much flavor into your dish, and is perfectly seasoned! This was cooked nicely, the sauce was tasty, and it is just damn good! The pork is thinly sliced, and seems to be marinated for a long time as it has nice flavors! Maybe not though! In short, the flavors rocked, and I wish I could eat this once a week!
Once again we were too full for dessert, and once again our bellies left extremely happy! In short, Manila Bay is such a great restaurant, and the owners really know how to make you feel welcomed, and like family! I’ve’ said it once, and I’ll say it again: this is the best Filipino restaurant I’ve found on the east coast! The flavors are awesome, and it’s just like eating back home in my mom’s kitchen! But the pricing is ridiculously cheap, and I would pay twice as much for some of the entrees they serve for under $ 10! Kudos to the Manila Bay team! Cheers!

Despite being an Asian food devotee, I’ve never eaten Filipino food before. I was stoked when we decided to take a day trip out to the Northeast to sample Philly’s only Filipino restaurant. Overall, I wasn’t a big fan, but I’m not ready to throw in the towel on this country’s cuisine.
The food at Manila Bay is fatty, overspiced, and HEAVY. We ate at 1 pm, and 10 hours later, I’m still stuffed to the gills. There were two dishes that I did enjoy. One was the Lumpia Shanghai appetizer. It reminded me of pigs in a blanket, except the blanket was a thin, fried springroll. The other was the Lechon Kawali — traditional roast pork belly. A friend of mine had heard Anthony Bourdain, lover of all things pig, rave about this dish, so he went straight for it. Oh my god, this stuff is decadent. Talk about a heart attack on a plate… accept the fact that you’re going to be munching on a quarter-​inch layer of fat, and dig in.
Aside from these two dishes, everything else was a disappointment. I’ve never tasted so much pepper in my whole life… from the Adobo to the Pancit Bihon, it was everywhere and overwhelming.
To sum up, I just wasn’t intrigued by the menu’s offerings. The food items had descriptions, but in the end, it seemed like they were serving chunks of fatty meat in pepper sauce over and over again. I will seek out other Filipino restaurants in other cities, because I’m sure they have some wonderful things to offer. I won’t be going back to Manila Bay, however.

I was craving filipino food while I was out in Philadelphia and this was one of a very few spots that came up in my search. The pictures I found online made the location and setting a lot nicer than it actually was. It was in the middle of a pretty rundown neighborhood and the building and interior weren’t as nice as what I was expecting.
The food itself was decent. Not as good as what I would find back home in San Diego but it definitely fulfilled my craving.
I’m not totally sure I would come back here if I was in Philly again, but then again I never know when my cravings going to kick in so it’s not completely out of the possibilties.

Awesome authentic filipino food. Makes me feel like I’m at home. Good for what it was worth. Can’t give 5 stars to it because only my Mom can cook 5 star type of filipino food.

Oh Unilocalers, how you disappoint me, do you give your stars away for everyone or do you save it for something special.
So I am a bit spoiled I used to live in queens and have been to Ihawan. Explain to me how you cant park in the area. Went around the block a few times and saw the most peculiar thing… chairs. Chairs every where on the street as if they were saving the parking spots. If this was NY those chairs all hell would break loose, but I paid the parking meter instead.
Buffet was so so I mean someone served you although you could go up for seconds it felt weird. Like you were being greedy if you went up for seconds. I had the Lechon Kawali and let me tell you I have had waaaay better. It was flavorless no salt added and to fatty, I mean where is the crispy skin. They also lack the Filipino drinks I love like Cantaloupe and avocado.
So I think I will just wait till I visit home and take a trip to Ihawan.

It’s Filipino food, what’s not to love!
If you’re new to Filipino food, I would recommend: pork tocino, kare-​kare, and dinuguan (it’s only chocolate, just shut up and eat it)

Since my parents took a vacation to the Philippines, I was force to come here since I seriously can’t cook filipino food. Plus I was getting tired of american food and chinese food. har har har…
I ordered 2 appetizers (tokwa baboy & lumpia shanghai) and 1 main course (pork inihaw) to go. Oh boy, was it delicious, they were as good as my mom’s cooking! I really liked pork inihaw the most, it was marinated well and every bite of it was sooo good.
The owner and the server were really nice. We chit-​chatted for a minute while I was waiting for my food to be cooked. I told them I was looking for a filipino store around the Philly area and they actually refered me to one. How cool is that!
So if you ever want a taste of filipino food, this is the place to go.
Happy Eating!

The first full service Filipino restaurant & bar in the Philadelphia region is totally authentic in the menu selections, prepared by a native of the islands. «A few artifacts suggestive of the homeland distinguish this small restaurant (with its lively bar) from any other storefront restaurants in this Northeast Philadelphia area that harbors a variety of diverse ethnic eateries.»

I’m Filipino. I lived in the Philippines for eight years. I know Filipino food.
Manila Bay is really not that bad. I’ve had FIlipino food catered from Fiesta Bistro in South Jersey and it’s comparable. The kare-​kare (my most favorite Filipino food ever) had a great flavor, but the oxtail could’ve been cooked a little longer — nothing worse than having to pry the meat off the bone. The lechon kawali was pretty good and crunchy, but they didn’t serve it with Mang Tomas (the sweetened liver sauce that makes lechon kawali so delicious). The pork inihaw is definitely a favorite, as well as the tortang talong. The pancit malabon tasted good, but for some reason, they cut the noodles up into bite-​sized pieces.
The desserts are great: go for the ube cassava if you can, or the regular cassava.
The worst thing about Manila Bay is the location. Castor Avenue, really?

We ordered Tapsilog, Tocilog, and Lechon Kawali. Everything was bland. However, the portions were big. I was very impressed. The garlic rice was lacking garlic.
What really irked me about this place is not being able to get some items from the menu. We wanted mango juice, the server said, «we ran out». We ordered Losilog, she replied, «oh sorry we ran out of that one too.» We wanted to walk out, but we had no choice because we were so hungry. So, I decided to keep my mouth shut (which is unsual) so we just ordered something else from the menu. When we got the food, we were so impressed because of the size of each platter. However, our excitement quickly died down after we took our first bite. I wanted to spit it out, but the owner approached us. I felt bad because she was very friendly and the server was nice.
My suggestion to everyone is if you’re really desperate for Filipino food, take an hour and a half drive to Bloomfield, NJ. Go to Pandan Restaurant. The quality of food and the cleanliness of the place are far better than any Filipino restaurants you will find in the East coast.
I don’t intend to offend anyone by this… it is just my opinion…

First time I’d been recommended to go to a place via Twitter. Oh well, after a weekend in Philly and having way too much cheesesteak in me, I was ready for some Filipino food after dropping my sis off at the airport. I got here at 11:45 on a Sunday… and they opened at 12. Whoops!
So I waited a bit in my car and was given my choice of seat since it was… well, empty. Ordered some lumpia shanghai, which I always do as a baseline reading. These were interesting because the meat portion easily slid out of the wrapper… but as a whole, they were good.
I also got the tapsilog, a classic Filipino dinner. I made the mistake of not breaking my eggs right away… do this! Otherwise they’ll overcook and you won’t get the yolk on your food. The tapa came in pretty big pieces, and were nice and juicy. It was around this time that Christina (spelled right?) sat at the table next to mine, and we struck up a convo. Turns out there are only two Filipino restaurants in the Philly area, and the owners are brothers. Interesting stuff.
By the end of our meals, we each ordered cassava cake. Now, this is my mom’s specialty, but here they mixed in ube, which is purple sweet potato. Full as I was, I savored every warm bite of cake.
$ 20 for the whole shebang wasn’t bad, especially because my leftovers served as my dinner. As I was leaving, Mary (my server) filled me in a bit on how they got ube into their cake (some kind of frozen mix). The place looks like it’d be crazy fun at night with drinks and karaōke, but I guess I’ll never see it. Service was charming, the place had a Philly/​Filipino pride thing going on (see what I did there?), and the food hit the spot.

Talk about food porn, try their longanisa breakfast special, this goes down as one of my top meals in Philadelphia.

Walking into Manila Bay was like walking into a family friend’s house– hellllo, big tv with karaōke!
I give this place 4 stars because going from their wonderfully flavored sisig to the main entrée was a little disappointing.
Don’t get me wrong, their food reminds me of being at one of our parties back home. But because their sisig was just so effin’ good (!!!), the other things we ordered, palabok and chicken apritada, just paled in comparison.
It redeemed itself during dinner though… we took our leftovers home. Eating the palabok and apritada tasted better by themselves, instead of after the sisig.
Mmmm…sisig…gimme that and some rice and I’m good to go! It’s a good thing we went here AFTER my wedding dress fitting or I would have gotten stuck in the zipper. :(

Finding good Filipino food in the Philadelphia area is like trying to find a non-​crooked sidewalk in CC. So when we found Manila Bay, imagine my relief when the food reminded me of home! The flavorful pork belly sealed it for me, and that was just the appetizer!
The friendly service, homestyle Filipino cooking, and bright surroundings will bring me back again and again, even with the 20 minute drive from CC. If you’re craving Filipino food, or are curious to try, this place is great. The prices are more than reasonable!

Being a Filipino it is hard not to see many Pinoy Restaurants flourish and you have to drive far to get good tasting home cooking like you get in Manila.
Manila Bay thanks for all the Lechon Kawali, Liempo (pork bellies) and Barbequed Pork. If you want a taste of fattenning devil may care kind of fare, Pinoy food is the way to go. They have very reasonable prices and the lady who mans the tables and the bar all by herself is so friendly and nice to my son. They accept credit cards too and its always clean. I never had a bad meal at Manila Bay. Open one here at South Philly will you! so we dont have to drive there or to Somerdale for a taste of home.
check their business hours 5pm is a safe bet except Mondays (day off)

i used to live right around the corner from manila bay. LOVED it to death. i grew up with quite a few filipino pals, and this was a good substitute for the cooking i enjoyed back then…
of course, their lumpia is nothing like chris’ moms, but whatevs, man.

Just tried this with some friends, one of which is Filipino. After seeing what another table had received, we decided for the five of us to order the sampler appetizer plate and 3 main course dishes to share. All the food was great and enough for the 5 of us.
Service was friendly and Im now a big fan of the beer, San Miguel, now. Also the desserts we had were excellent, especially a coconut flan-​like dish! I’d highly recommend the trip. From fishtown area, it only took us 20 minutes to drive there!

It’s hard to find Filipino restaurants in Philadelphia, which is why I was so happy when my boyfriend found Manila Bay. I was so used to seeing all kinds of them when I lived back in New York City. Anyway…
–Good food, they serve a good amount of it, I usually would have to take the rest to go.
–Their Tocino is amazing, and my favorite Dinuguan.
–Affordable, especially for a struggling college student like myself.
–It’s also a bar, they have karaōke and such and they are open until 2am. or maybe later. I haven’t really visited them during those hours. I only come in for dinner.
–Clean bathrooms
–Very nice services.
–Great atmosphere.
–It would be great to see a little more choices on their menus.
–I was sad when they didn’t have Cantaloupe Juice on their menu, since it was pretty popular back in the Filipino restaurants back in NYC.
–their hours are a little weird, I believe they are closed on Mondays. They open at like 5pm.
–There was this one time they served me soggy Dinuguan, and they didn’t serve me as much as usual. They were pretty consistent, until that one occasion.