Kawali Grill

I know that if I didn't do a double post this weekend, I would have a backlog of restaurants to blog about. So, here's another. Whenever I crave for Filipino food, I would miss Vancouver or Toronto where I could get Filipino food that is comparable to what we could get in the Philippines. Seattle just seems to be so deprived of Filipino food. I remember visiting Kusina Filipina at Beacon Hill in Seattle 3 years ago and wasn't too impressed with it. So when K said she wanted Filipino food, I knew we had to look for some place else. I remember hearing about Kawali Grill from the 4th of July party I attended this year so I thought we should give that a try.

K and I went to Kawali Grill for dinner yesterday and between the two of us, we shared 3 dishes and 2 desserts. Yes, we wanted to order everything. No, we did not finish everything, but yes, everything was mmm mmm good! The first dish that arrived was the lechon kawali. As soon as we saw it, three things came to mind. Holy cow, that plate is huge! Oh no, we have two other dishes coming! And... Drat, we forgot to request for garlic rice!

Lechon kawali is roasted pork belly. Normally, the best part of it is the skin, but this time, that wasn't the case. The skin was tough to chew on, not as crispy as I would have wanted it, but I ate it nonetheless. The meat was surprisingly tender. As soon as I took a bite, I was amazed by how soft it was and how very tasty.

The next dish was the Palabok Fiesta which is made from vermicelli noodles with a bright orange sauce (shrimp paste?) and eggs, fish flakes, shrimp, chicharon (fried pork fat) and chopped vegetables for toppings. A lot of filipino restaurants in North America don't get this right. For instance, though I love the food in Casa Manila in Toronto or Little Ongpin in BC, their palabok lacks flavor and is never quite as satisfying as those we get from Via Mare or even Jollibee in the Philippines. In Kawali Grill, it was good enough. It had a certain taste that K and I couldn't quite define (maybe cilantro), but we still enjoyed the dish despite its unique flavor. Even better, the noodles were generously topped with the Palabok toppings I love.

And of course, in any Filipino restaurant, we had to order pork sisig. If the restaurant doesn't have this on their menu, it is not worth visiting. I had to send an e-mail to Kawali Grill to confirm if they had this because the menu they posted online didn't have it listed. Thankfully, they did.

Pork sisig comes in a sizzling plate and is made up of ingredients you don't want to know, but trust me, it is heavenly.

By the time I was finished with my main course, I was debating on whether or not to still get dessert. My stomach says I shouldn't, my mouth says I should and all my brain was saying was you've driven all the way to Rainier Ave, might as well make the most of it and get everything you want. So, I followed my brain and my mouth and got Halo Halo. They loaded it with nata de coco (coconut jelly), palm seeds, beans, jackfruit, coconut meat, sweet bananas, tapioca, leche flan and added a huge scoop of ube ice cream on top. As soon as I saw it, I knew that this restaurant would be on my list of restaurants to visit regularly.

Kimby didn't like halo-halo (honestly, I don't know why!!! :)) so she ordered leche flan which is just like creme caramel drizzled with really sweet syrup!

Kawali Grill is located along Rainier Ave South in Seattle. It is a tiny restaurant that has its own parking lot with enough parking spaces for everyone. As parking is my weakness, this is a big plus for me. I highly recommend Kawali Grill.

Kawali Grill
5300 Rainier Avenue South
Seattle, WA
info@kawaligrill.com
206-723-6179