Noodles and Rice

Zarlito’s Family Restaurant, National City, CA

by Stef on April 27th, 2007

Last week after a day in Carlsbad we went to Zarlito’s, one of the Filipino restaurants reviewed at Kirk’s awesome San Diego (and beyond) food blog…

This was dinner:

Hubby’s tosilog (yes, he’s allergic to eggs but vacation = no restrictions)

Aisa’s longsilog

My 10-yo’s Crispy Pata

My 8-yo’s Bistek

I had to have my veggies, so I got Pinakbet:

Zarlito’s interior, featuring paintings and photographs of Philippine scenes, mostly vegetation

Christmas in April!

A little boy who for some reason took a fascination to us and kept going under our table to hide, much to his mother’s consternation

I don’t know where the “Filipino-American Chinese Food” comes from. The dishes were Filipino, period. I wouldn’t say they were much altered to suit American tastes, it’s about average what you can eat at small eateries (read cheap) in the Philippines. I’d comment about the quality but for the price that one would pay here (speaking from the POV of someone who resides here in the US, of course) it’s really unfair to expect fine dining. The tosino and longganisa are not shockingly red, but this is the type of food we are really avoiding and won’t buy for our kids for everyday consumption. I’d rather stick with natural colorings like annatto or no coloring at all. Or as Karen and Celia mention in their blogs, coloring from fermentation — if you’ve done any sort of meat aging experimentation in the fridge, it’s the same principle. When you’re on vacation though, a lot of rules don’t apply :D. The crispy pata wasn’t as crunchy as my son was hoping for, but he still polished it off with a bit of help from Dad. The bistek was average, some tough cuts, others a bit more tender. I do like my onions half-crunchy half-soft, so that part was perfect, as there was a bit of both. Since I love veggies I’d say the pinakbet was the best, as the vegetables were carefully cooked to just the right stage, and the seasoning was neither bland nor too salty. Dh asked for dessert (halo-halo and ice cream were on the menu after all) but he was told that there was none — I don’t know if that means they had ran out that evening, or if they simply don’t offer dessert anymore.

If I’ve got one major complaint it would be the garlic fried rice that came with everything — ugh. Stale, reheated, dry. Even the bits of eggs mixed in looked like they were cooked the day before. I can take average or even mediocre viands, but please, please, please, give me perfect rice at least — unfortunately this was too far off the mark. For the price we’re paying we should at least get freshly cooked/fried rice. Although if clientele is sporadic, I can understand why some nights may be better than others. This exemplifies what other Filipinos have commented before about our restaurants — that sometimes we are okay with puede na (good enough) so there’s no real drive to shoot for the best, which is why we keep on getting same old-same old.

Having said all that, I still would recommend this restaurant for fellow Pinoys looking for a home-cooked meal. It isn’t perfect, but if you don’t have a Lola or Nanay to cook for you here, Zarlito’s may very well satisfy a craving. My cousin (who lived in LA for 15+ years and still makes regular visits) insists there are better choices in LA, but we didn’t want to drive that far just for dinner. In retrospect we probably should have.

Zarlito’s Family Restaurant
505 E. 8th St.
National City, Ca
619-474-1144

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POSTED IN: Filipino, Restaurant Reviews