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| - TL;DR (out of 5):
In a state with very little cultural/culinary diversity, I was surprised to find the Southeast Asian hole-in-the-wall restaurant that is Halo-Halo Kitchen. With a variety of traditional options from silog to full entrees to fun snacks and drinks, Halo-Halo has brought the Filipino dinner table to central Phoenix. Although the oily, diet-overlooking fare isn't for everyone, it's definitely on my list of go-to's in PHX.
Food: 3
Atmosphere: 3
Price: 4
Service: 4
Decor: 2
I gave this restaurant 4-stars overall even though my experience with the food was more deserving of 3-stars due to the fact that I went into the restaurant around 4:30 after skipping lunch. Unsurprisingly, the food (served in a Panda Express-like fashion) was not the freshest. I ordered the 3-combo plate , which comes with two scoops of rice, and chose lechon kawali, chicken adobo, and pork dinuguan (pork and pig's blood stew).
The lechon, which I had heard so much of, was understandably sub-par, due to the fact that it had probably been sitting under a heat lamp for quite some time. The meat was flavorful and tender, which was my main expectation. However, the fat was not soft enough, and the skin was not crispy; they were both relatively chewy. I would expect that a fresh order of lechon kawali would have been much better. The sauce that it came with was nice, although I'm guessing it's essentially a reduction of the pan drippings from the pork with vinegar and other flavors - but good nonetheless.
The chicken adobo was jam-packed with flavor. There was a peppery-ness and sweetness that balanced really well. The chicken itself was falling off the bone and the bones themselves broke apart when I bit into them (although I'm unsure as to whether or not that's a good thing).
I was hesitant to order the dinuguan because it looked quite heavy, but was pleasantly surprised to find that the heaviness of the pork blood was counteracted by the tanginess of both vinegar and banana peppers in the stew. The pork meat itself wasn't half bad, but I think it had been cooking for a little bit too long as it was kind of tough.
Overall, the food was little too oily for my liking (even for Southeast Asian food) and the foods were a little too saucy, but the flavors were all there. And like I said, for a hole-in-the-wall Filipino restaurant in central Phoenix, Halo-Halo is doing pretty darn well.
The atmosphere was fine - since I went in at a weird time, the restaurant was essentially empty. The mom and children who shuffled in after me seemed quite excited to be there, so that's a good sign. The decor was unsurprising for a hole-in-the-wall Filipino restaurant; very similar to a mexican restaurant, there were cheap tables and chairs organized randomly in dining area with red tile and decorations galore. I didn't really expect too much in terms of the restaurant's aesthetic from the get-go. The woman who boxed up my food for me was nice though; she explained what each of the options were and seemed happy enough to be there.
3-entree plate: $10
- rice
- lechon kawali
- chicken adobo
- dinuguan
Next time, I'll have to try their fresh lechon kawali and maybe their silog. I'm sure that ordering a taro smoothie or something of that sort would also help to cut through the heaviness of their food.
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