This small, family-owned Bay Area chain is famous for its señorita bread, oblong rolls slathered with butter, sugar, and breadcrumbs. Always the crowd favorite at any big Filipino family gatherings, Starbread’s señorita bread is served hot with a molten, almost custard-like buttery center — and in generous quantities. The pricing starts at $6 for 15 pieces.

The restaurant’s vividly colorful, tropically inspired dining room is welcoming customers back indoors, where FOB chef Janice Dulce is still slinging some of Oakland’s best Filipino food. During the pandemic, the former pop-up leaned even more heavily into comfort foods (lumpia, pancit, pork adobo, and more) and offering its popular silog brunch plates all day — and all week — long. There are also multiple options for family-sized takeout meals.

This popular pop-up (co-owned by legendary East Bay rapper E-40) has taken up residence at two locations: in Oakland, at the Kitchener Oakland takeout window, and at a trailer parked in the back patio of SoMa’s newly rebranded restaurant and pop-up space, Merkado. At either spot, customers can expect to find a variety of lumpia with nontraditional fillings like bacon cheeseburger and even beef quesabirria, as well as nontraditional-traditional fillings like Bicol express and chicken tinola.

Hip-hop is always on blast at Lucky Three Seven, a small takeout-oriented joint in East Oakland with a few stools outside. While there are always daily specials in the steam table (including what might be the best oxtail kare-kare in town), customers can’t go wrong with the made-to-order — or, in this case, the fried-to-order — options. The XL lumpia are light, crisp, and at least four times the size of the lumpia at most restaurants. And the G-fire wings taste of soy sauce and vinegar — reminiscent of chicken adobo, but in an even better, crunchier format.

If you’re looking for traditional, homey Filipino food lovingly dropped from a steam table in San Francisco proper, Kusina Ni Tess is your best bet. Breakfast silogs (meat, egg, and garlic rice) are served all day, and the service is some of the friendliest in town. In pre-COVID times, you could even sample the daily specials — a rotating mix of classics like chicken adobo, laing (taro leaves in coconut milk), and picadillo (ground pork stewed with potatoes and tomatoes) — before committing. There are few places in downtown San Francisco where you can get this much food for less than $10.

Pampanguena Cuisine offers a long menu of Filipino classics, but most people order one of the family-style kamayan feasts, served on banana leaves and intended to be eaten with your hands. The kamayan meal is now available for takeout, too — served in a big, banana leaf-lined box. Depending on how many people you want to feed, it might include a whole grilled tilapia, barbecued chicken, lumpia, shrimp fritters, salted eggs, steamed vegetables, and a mountain of rice, plus mandatory dipping sauces.

A no-frills Filipino-Chinese spot in the Excelsior, Super Star is known, in part, for its mind-bendingly low prices — often less than $6 for a huge garlic rice plate with a fried egg and your protein of choice. Popular options include both the Filipino- and Hong Kong-style fried pork chops, the jumbo fried chicken leg, and an entire lineup of classic silogs (breakfast combo plates). 

Ultra crispy, sizzling pork sisig is the star at Parekoy Lutong Pinoy, a no-frills San Leandro restaurant where everything is portioned for a party likely far greater than your own. The pork dishes tend to shine the brightest here, but Parekoy might be the best all-around option for made-to-order, homestyle Filipino eats in the East Bay.

A one-of-a-kind spot in the East Bay, Toto’s Grill is the place to go for that nostalgic, street food-style of Filipino barbecue that comes out smoky, sticky-sweet, and unapologetically charred. The standard pork and chicken skewers are excellent here, especially when dipped in the house vinegar sauces. But the restaurant’s calling card is its wide variety of offal cuts: chicken heads, feet, and tails; tender pig ears; and all different kinds of intestines — the chicken intestines (or isaw) tend to sell out so quickly that they keep them hidden behind the counter. During pre-pandemic times, Toto’s also had a communal, cook-it-yourself charcoal grill setup, that reopened for indoor dining. And if you want to try balut? This is your spot.

Isla Restaurant offers an impressive range of Filipino food, made in the Kapampangan style of cooking, including a variety of sinigang soups — a sour broth traditionally made from tamarind, and served with seafood or meat — pancit noodle dishes, and adobo dishes (just to name a few). If you’re looking to feed a large family, the restaurant also has combo meals to choose from, with generous portions for hungry customers.