Top Southeast Asian Restaurant in National City
Zarlitos Family Restaurant
505 E 8th St, National City, CA 91950, United States
In my beloved Filipino centric National City sits a changing view on traditional Filipino cuisine, giving established traditionalists like Conchings a run for their money. Though not as old, they arent new, but theyve adapted to a true local flair and modern flavor vehicles.For those who know of the mythical beast called Carne Asada Fries, but you grew up like me and wanted to throw our islander style meats on their (long before the words Asian Fusion or the Korean Taco truck) westernized palate. This isnt as crazy as it sounds.Tonico, longonisa, adobo, sisig mixed with fries, thrown in tacos or wrapped in burritos are any Filipino foodies childhood dream. To me the menu is very clear, many add ons. if they have it then they can do it. To those in the know GFR is Garlic Fried Rice, a staple for any islander diet. The next level was the garlic French fries. So instead of the classic plate they offer garlic style French fries with all the fixings you would have on a plate item . Very Carne Asada Fries-esque from an Ertos.I usually come here in the day time, unlike most of my food escapes for Mexican in the area, this is my peoples cooking. Its really more of the family spot, order up and share, fast food though. The hours also dont quite appeal to the nocturnal foodie bachelor as I often need the fix well after midnight, except on weekends. They open pretty early.Call ahead and it will be ready for a swoop, especially when I do sneak attack stealthmode trips from Oceanside. Parking sucks carabao hooves. Do not go here on Sundays its fam bam central for pre-post church eats. They need a freaking drive thru for my pickups.They have longanisa fried rice, loco moco chorizo fried rice, bistek torta, all excellent mixes of traditional and modern gluttony.Its a must visit for anyone who is adventurous enough to try a taco food truck, but traditional enough to cook at home.
Villa Manila
500 E 8th St, National City, CA 91950, United States
Seems like most of the other reviewers ate kamayan style, with the banana leaves on the table, no plates or silverware. It was our first time eating here and didnt realize that was an option, it wasnt offered either and I dont believe it would have made a difference. Let me start off with the service, my mom and aunt sat down about 5 mins before my sister and I showed up. I was told our server didnt ask for drink orders or anything until my aunt caught her attention. Once my sister and I showed up she finally came to bring the drinks after we had been there for a while already. She was NOT friendly, she didnt seem rushed but just had an attitude. Second, the food was not good at all. The oil the calamari was fried in was obviously old and dark brown. The sinigang was bland and had more baby bok-choy than anything else. The ginataang I ordered with shrimp because thats how I make it and like it, she came back with pork. When asked for it to be fixed it was obvious the kitchen just took the pork out, heated up some tiny salad shrimps and tossed it in there, it didnt even smell like coconut, it smelled like bacon. Also, WAAAYYYY more kamanyang (string beans) than anything else. Back to the service, once I asked for my food to be fixed it just got worse. She snatched up with dish with a short ok and never came back to ask how anything else was. She didnt apologize for the mixed up and didnt say anything when she came back with the corrected dish. We waited almost 20 mins to finally be able to catch her attention and even then, my aunt had to go up to the front to get her attention. This place gets one star because the other server, the one who seemed a bit older than our server, we flagged her down to ask to talk to a manager, they apparently dont have one. But she took care of us and was very friendly, she apologized for the service and the food and took care of everything. Suffice it to say I will never be back here and anyone who asks is going to get the full horrible run down.
Top other services in National City:
Seafood City Supermarket
1420 E Plaza Blvd, National City, CA 91950, United States
Hit or miss. I love the fact that its a one stop shop with all your asian neccesities available. Lots of fishe and you can even get them to clean and fry it for you. Prices are reasonable because a lot of the gooda were imported here.from the PI or somewhere in Asia. I just wish that some of the staff esp the cashiers be more friendly. Some are very nice but some just dont care. Also grill city which is their reataurant is good but forgets to put in the orders a lot of times. I had ordered a lechon belly 3 days prior to the event, p/up time 1030 am, i get a call at 0800 and was told they forgot to cook my order and maybe, just maybe will be ready at 1230. They asked me to come in, after the inconvenience because they could not refund via the phone. I ended up changing my order to 100 pcs bbq which has $29.00 difference. All i got was sorry, still made me wait, and not even waived thr difference of my new order or at least take $10.00 off my new order. I still would go back, luckily it wasnt a major event but the lechon was announced. I just need the staff to be more careful.