I know I'm totally late to the Bay Area vegan game on this one, but I finally made it to the all-vegan Filipino restaurant No Worries the other night. I have good reasons for waiting though! You see, not only is it in the East Bay (sorry, but it's true) - I also wanted to take some Filipino friends along so they could explain the menu... and see if some omnivores could enjoy vegan versions of their momma's home cookin'. To that end, I let them do all the ordering, and here's (some of) what we had:
First up we had lumpia (spring rolls with soy ground beef) and fried "shrimp." The former were exactly like any other fried spring rolls I've had. The latter, on the other hand, were way better than I thought they would be. One member of our party was so enamored of them (he claimed to be "in love" with them) that he ordered another plate just to get his fill. In the end, the truth of the universe remains: Fried=tasty.
Next we enjoyed some pancit, which is rice noodles with veggies and soy chicken. This one was not a hit. Pretty bland and blah and way salty. Moving on....
This eggplant dish, talong sitaw adobo, was one of the favorites of the table. First of all, it contained no soy meat which was nice, and the sauce was super tasty, if just a tad on the salty side (again).
The sinigang is made with soy fish which I just found to be way too fish. Even in the days before I was vegan, I loathed fish, and it all came rushing back. That texture, ugh. My table mates, however, were not at all offended by the faux fish and seemed to enjoy it.
Two dishes not pictured that we really loved were the afritada, which is potatoes and "pork" in a lovely light tomato broth, and the kare-kare which is basically cabbage and other veggies cooked in a traditional peanut sauce. It doesn't look like much, but trust me, the kare-kare is bangin'!
For dessert we all got turon with ice cream and everyone loved it. I mean, what's not to love about wrapped and fried plantain with coconut milk ice cream all coated with powdered sugar. It was divine.
All in all No Worries was hit or miss (not to mention SALTY) and I won't be rushing back across the bay anytime soon just to eat there. I'm glad I tried it, but there are better places.
Up next? I have no idea.... but keep checking in over at Vegan Favorites for the fave of the day!
6 comments:
I don't think the vegan aspect made this experience any different. I found majority of Filipino restos I've been to are either too salty, or too greasy or both.
Well that's good to know. What I don't get is that this place (and I'm assuming other Filipino restaurants) is run by a Filipino guy. If the restaurants are run by Filipinos but all the Filipino people who eat there think it is too salty/greasy/etc something is getting seriously lost in translation, no?
I think people's taste preferences vary. Some people would enjoy Filipino Food, some people not. It's similar when you say Thai Food is too Spicy.
I love Seafoods at Filipino Restaurants. Sometimes, its too greasy, so I love it when its grilled.
This place has a great service. Our waiter was SUPER HOT, looked like a JOSH HARTNETT look-alike, hella tall with the prettiest eyes. I would go back just to take another peek at him. LOL
And, the food was so good that he doesn't have to be my only excuse to go back. I had the Lumpia, Bistek w/ green beans, the Pancit, and steamed rice. (I'm getting HUNGRY just typing this!)
In addition to that, The vegan TOCILOG (tocino [sweet pork], sinangag [fried rice] & itlog [eggs]) was hella (my NORCAL roots) good. Garlic rice could've been more garlicky, vegan tocino was ON POINT with the vinegar dip (drizzle in my case) and the tofu scramble was delicious! The tofu scramble had a tofu-ish aftertaste but chased with the freshly chopped tomatoes provided a really balanced dish!
Thanks for the input newcomers. When I'm back in the states I'll have to give it a retry... if it's still even open!
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