✨ At a Glance: Quick Facts
| 📍 Location: | Plato Filipino (Joyce-Collingwood — Vancouver, BC) |
| 🍲 Ordered: | Ginataang Langka, Laing, Pork Sisig, Dinuguan, Pork Barbecue Skewer, Turon |
| ⭐ Smooch Verdict: | The ultimate home-cooked antidote to mall queue frustration. Skipping the chaotic upscale food court crowds for a neighborhood Filipino turo-turo feast was the best decision ever. Every single dish hits you with pure, nostalgic, deeply savoury comfort. |
Happy Sunday! After attending mass and running a few morning errands, we decided to head over to the newly opened Oakridge Park mall to check out the hype. Our main goal was to grab lunch at the Time Out Market, but the queue just to step inside their high-end food court was absolutely ridiculous. Feeling a bit annoyed, we immediately pivoted: we hopped on the R4 bus line, briefly considered just heading straight home, but made a last-minute decision to cruise over to the Joyce-Collingwood neighbourhood for a proper Filipino lunch instead.
The Joyce area is such a wonderful hub for our community, packed with comforting aromas that instantly make you feel at home. We actually walked into all three Filipino spots in the area to see what was cooking, but we ultimately chose Plato Filipino. The second I looked at their display counter, I saw two traditional dishes that I have been missing lately: ginataang langka and laing. I knew right then and there that we were in the right place.
My plate was a vegetable-heavy dream. The laing was beautifully executed: shredded taro leaves slow-simmered in rich, luscious coconut milk until completely tender, infused with a subtle, aromatic warmth. Right beside it, the ginataang langka brought pure nostalgic bliss, featuring tender chunks of young jackfruit bathed in that same creamy, savoury coconut cream, studded with plump shrimp and green beans. Eating those classic, velvety stews over a mountain of steaming white rice was pure heaven.
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| Pure coconut cream comfort: The rich Ginataang Langka and velvety Laing. |
Hubby chose the ultimate meat lover's path, pairing his white rice with a dark, glistening bowl of dinuguan and a side of pork sisig. The dinuguan was wonderfully deep and complex, featuring tender, melt-in-your-mouth pork simmered in a rich, savoury, and perfectly vinegary pork blood gravy. It had that quintessential tangy depth that pairs so beautifully with rice.
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| Hubby's favourite combo: Deeply savoury and tangy Dinuguan. |
His pork sisig was another major hit. It was an incredibly flavourful mix of finely chopped pork, crisp onions, and a tiny hint of red chilli for brightness, offering a fantastic contrast of textures between the tender meat pieces and the crunch of the raw onions.
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| Packed with texture and flavour: The Pork Sisig with crisp onions. |
Of course, as anyone who knows me expects, I have absolute zero self-control when it comes to a proper Filipino counter spread. The sight of the sweet marinade on the grill section was too enticing, so I just had to add a skewer of pork barbecue to our order. It was charred, smoky, sweet, and sticky, boasting that incredible flame-kissed flavour that brings back instant childhood memories.
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| Sticky, sweet, and perfectly charred: The classic Pork BBQ Skewer. |
To end our feast on a sweet note, of course, I got my favourite turon for dessert. They featured sweet saba bananas wrapped up tightly and deep-fried to a golden-brown perfection, coated in a layer of hard-caramelized brown sugar.
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| The perfect sweet finale: Crunchy, golden-brown caramelised banana Turon. |
Unfortunate for the utility aspect of this blog, I actually cannot tell you exactly how much each individual item costs this time around. I was simply far too excited to dig into my plate that I completely forgot to look at the receipt! But honestly, skipping the chaotic lines of Oakridge for a peaceful, heart-warming traditional meal at Plato Filipino was the ultimate Sunday blessing.
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