When friends are visiting from out of town and you want to take them to a nicer sit-down Filipino dinner, this is your joint. All of the classics are on the menu, including impressive versions of kare kare (stewed oxtails with a peanut-based sauce), pata (crispy pork leg), and caldereta (a tomato-based stew). The place gets hopping on weekends, so make a reservation or get there early.

At first glance, the menu might lead customers to think, “That’s it? All they serve is skewers.” But then you take that first bite, and you realize that’s all they need to serve. The cooks mean business here, constantly churning out piles of beautifully charred, juicy, soy-sauce-marinated pork and dark-meat chicken over a flaming grill. The smoky scent hits you before you even walk in. There’s also a second shop located in downtown South San Francisco.

Order any of this dinner spot’s silogs — the fried egg and garlic rice plates typically eaten for breakfast — and you’ll know why the restaurant smells so intensely of garlic and soy sauce. One of the best dishes is the sisigsilog, which features moist, garlicky shredded chicken with a delightfully sour kick. Be sure to get an order of the tiny, habit-forming lumpia Shanghai, too. Can’t make it down to Daly City? The local mini-chain also has two shops in San Francisco.

Locals know to come here for cakes for any celebration or family get-together. But in addition to the perfect birthday cake, Auntie Em’s also serves up a great selection of traditional Filipino pastries like cheese rolls, bibingka (glutinous rice cake with coconut milk), cassava cake, and buko pie (coconut custard). If you have to grab just one thing, go with their famous ensaymada, preferably the dulce de leche or ube version, which are perfectly soft, buttery, and lightly sweet.

This casual local favorite serves some good Filipino comfort food like lechon kawali (fried pork belly), bangus (milkfish), sisig (a sizzling meat dish), and pancit (stir-fried rice noodles). The menu is full of classic dishes done reliably well, including a great version of short rib sinigang, a savory and sour soup flavored with tamarind — a wonderful dish to share on a cold day.

Starbread’s wildly popular señorita bread looks like nothing special, almost like a generic crescent roll. But Pillsbury has nothing on these soft, buttery, sweet rolls, which are freshly baked and served hot all day long — literally 24 hours a day on Saturdays at the local chain’s South San Francisco location, which shares a storefront with Ling Nam, a Filipino diner/noodle shop. A box of 20 costs only $8, which is a good thing because it’s not humanly possible to eat just one.

Magnolia is a Filipino ice cream brand that has been around for generations, known for their tubs of ice cream that can be found at Filipino supermarkets. But the company’s South San Francisco ice cream shop specializes in what is arguably the Philippines’ most popular dessert: halo-halo, a cold treat made of crushed ice, evaporated milk, ice cream, and a variety of tropical toppings. Locals love this place for its smooth and creamy version of the dessert and its selection of authentic Filipino ice cream flavors like ube, avocado, guava, buko pandan, mango, lychee, and more. Milkshakes and Hawaiian shaved ice are also on offer.

If you’re looking for traditional bibingka — the flat, pancake-like coconut-and-rice-flour snack — that’s not what they sell here. Binka Bites’ version is even better, using the same ingredients to make a cupcake-shaped pastry with a texture similar to a mochi donut. Get anything made with ube, the vibrant purple yam that Filipinos love. The ube flan bibingka, for instance, comes topped with cream cheese frosting and a cube of flan. It’s a contemporary take on the traditional dessert — and it’s absolutely delicious.