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| - I haven't been to many Filipino places, and I'm admittedly a harsh critic (1 star for Kapit Bahay in Las Vegas; 2 stars for Isla Pilipina in Chicago), but the Saturday buffet at Nipa Hut is easily the best of those three. The buffet layout is simple and homey--food is cooked and brought out on dishes--sometimes a little sign will tell you what the dish is, sometimes not. I wish I had taken better notes, but I remembered a couple of Filipino staples: Chicken adobo, lechon, pancit, menudo, kare kare, dinuguan, shanghai rolls, and whole fish. I was also really surprised at a big plate of very large oysters, easily big and tasty enough to put a couple of non-seafood specialist places (steakhouses, in particular) to shame. Unfortunately, there was no cocktail sauce to be found to go with oysters. Of the dishes, I thought the menudo reminded me closest of home cooking, but I was really disappointed by the kare kare (my favorite dish) which was a little on the bland and runny side and completely bereft of any ox tail (though I can imagine at a buffet those chunks could go quickly). Some tripe in there would have also been a well-appreciated bonus.
There didn't appear to be any set menu (like you might see at a run of the mill Chinese restaurant buffet), so there's a little excitement knowing that anything could come out of the kitchen at any time. It looked like there was also halo halo and leche flan available at an additional charge for dessert, but we were plenty full with the included offerings. I would have loved to see some of my other Filipino favorites: empanadas, fresh lumpia, and callos. The buffet lunch for 2 came out to about $28, which in my opinion, for the variety and uniqueness of the food, is entirely reasonable.
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