Nick's Kitchen

I've never had Filipino cooking before. And I gotta say it's really good!!!

We got the Shanghai lumpia - I couldn't really taste the filing. Only the crunch and the dipping sauce - at least those were good. S agreed with me on this one.

Sizzling sisig - suuuper good. Flavoring was spot on.

Garlic rice - wasn't very garlicky actually.

Ube pancakes - delicious. Ube taste was more subtle and also not too sweet, so I did use some syrup.

Loved that everything was vegan!!!
Our waitress was great, but the guy who took her place was not... Don't wear headphones draped over your ears while you're busy interacting with customers.

I was delightedly surprised.

I'm a meat-eater, and proud of it. But you gotta have your veggies and have a balanced and healthy meal. I'm also not getting into Vegan vs. Vegetarian as that's way over my expertise. So this joint came to my radar a few months ago and I bookmarked it based on the reviews.

It's located in front of Cow Palace in a rough part of town, but I've seen this area in a much worse condition than it is now. Upon setting foot inside, it's as if you suddenly felt safe like a cocoon of herbivorous human beings. The place just had the energy, and all the patrons looked and felt like they were connected with the earth. They just had that aura about them.

It was a lazy Sunday and they had a live band playing soft jazz. The vibe was chill and relaxed like an Anthony Bourdain episode of Parts Unknown. Bless his soul.

Our server was honest, it was his first day...but he was more than helpful. He explained and answered all our inquiries, and we were ready to order. We got the Lumpia Shanghai for starters and Wifey got the Sisig to share. I got the Loco Moco and anticipated our orders to the beat of the drums and trumpet playing on stage.

First came the Lumpia Shanghai and it blew me away. How the eff is this not meat? There's gotta be pork in here, but alas this sh*t was as cruelty-free as a drum snare hitting the cymbal. It was bloody delicious with all the pun intended.

Next came the Loco Moco and I was perplexed, but in a good way. WHAT SORCERY IS THIS? What madness of concoction made this taste just like meat? Surely they were cheating somehow, someway and passing this off as plant-based food. Even the texture of the patty was similar to the real thing. The only thing I was not impressed with was the yolk on the egg. But my mind was blown again like a Jackie Chan meme.

Last came the Sisig - it was mixture of tofu and mushrooms. The flavors were there, but they used too much salt for my taste. I wouldn't say it was a miss, but they just need to ease up on the sodium and it would've been nicer. All the elements were there, and if they had used Calamansi instead of Lemon to cut the saltiness down then it would have hit the spot.

But the experience was superb and quite enjoyable. It was also eye-opener as Filipino food is typically not vegetarian friendly, unless it's from the Ilocos, the Northern part of the Philippines. I laugh because on most Filipino menu, the vegetarian dishes always comes with pork or some type of protein. Sh*t, that's a huge pet peeve of mine.

Like the famous words uttered by a famous general...I shall return.

PHENOMENAL.

As a vegan, this was the only way that I was going to get to try Filipino food. My boyfriend and I showed up pretty early, around opening time, and we were the only ones there besides two Filipino women who came there regularly. One of the women said that it was some of the best Filipino food she'd had, vegan or not. She said she prefers the vegan versions of several dishes because it is lighter and easier to digest.

We had quite a few things: the sizzling sigsig (tofu), the chicken adobo, the halo-halo, and the lumpia. The favorite was the CHICKEN ADOBO and the purple ube ice cream on the halo-halo. Honestly, the sigsig didn't really do it for us, and the lumpia was just ok. But the chicken adobo and the purple ice cream were so amazing -- literally the best vegan ice cream I've ever had in the Bay Area, and melt-in-your-mouth seitan -- that it more than made up for it.

The! Best! Next time I go, I'm going to try the crab cakes!

Bookmarked for probably years at this point, but finally had for the first time today. (Am I cool enough to join the club yet?)

When it comes to Filipino food, I'm no expert. As someone who went the plant-based way over half my life ago, I didn't have much of a chance to try this meat-centric cuisine.

Besides Senor Sisig (yeah...can't really call that authentic Flip cuisine), my only real experience has been with No Worries, a Vegan Filipino food truck based out of Oakland. They also make quite tasty and homey dishes. But they are hard to keep up with sometimes since they are a truck.

I've never been to Nick's because it really is out of the way. Tucked in a quiet neighborhood right next to the Cow Palace, it is not very accessible by public transportation, and I am not going to throw $$ on a Lyft just to eat lunch.

My friend wanted lunch and since we had access to a vehicle and he's also never tried it before, we zipped over to the other side of town.

We walked into a quiet, yet delicately decorated restaurant. Small jars of flowers adorned each wooden table, and the place had quite an ethereal feeling. Only 2 other tables occupied the room, and the empty stage sits in the corner, yet the memories of live music seem to amplify loudly through the otherwise quiet space. I would love to come back when actual music is playing.

We settled on 3 dishes: the Shanghai Lumpia, Pancit with Egg Noodles, and Tofu Sisig with Garlic Rice. (Thanks John B. & many other Yelp friends for the suggestions and photos to help us decide!)

Shanghai Lumpia: Perfectly crispy & savory. Something about a beautifully fried roll that hits that salt tooth that just makes you so happy.

Pancit with Egg Noodles: Veggies were nicely cooked and the noodles very soft.

Tofu Sisig: A generous portion that had soft tofu that has that great texture from being cooked on the sizzling plate.

Garlic Rice: Good, nothing too exciting here.

The Pancit & Tofu Sisig was overall severely lacking seasoning. I saw some reviewers mention that it was too salty. Maybe they took those critiques and adjusted too much to the other end. It just needed more salt overall. I grabbed some hot sauce, which helped, but tofu is already a bland ingredient so skimping out on flavors is not good.

We were eyeing the Halo Halo, but of course too full by the end of our meal for dessert. Next time!

Overall, a very good lunch and impressed with the number of options. So happy to see a cuisine that most people would otherwise dismiss as "impossible to veganize" become a reality.

Now, if I have access to a vehicle again, I will come back to Nick's. Anyone up for a lunch date? :)

Nick's is proof that any type of cuisine can be made plant-based and cruelty-free.

I told my Filipino friends about this place recently and they were in complete disbelief. How do you have longsilong without meat they asked me. Go to Nick's Kitchen and see how. And while you're at it, check out those amazing lumpia shanghai they're serving up. Seriously, those are dangerously good. I could go back just for those.

The lonsilong and tofu scramble was good, but the garlic rice left a lot to be desired. The pancit was also good, but I think it needs the addition of a protein to complete the dish.

I'm looking forward to going back and trying more dishes... and, well, who am I kidding... more lumpia shanghai!

Nick's Kitchen gets the honor of my 900th review! :)

My original review for Nick's has been archived away here: https://www.yelp.com/biz/nicks-kitchen-daly-city?hrid=DxWQyWz_SrHioq6SasWxZQ&utm_campaign=www_review_share_popup&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_source=(direct)

...but rather than re-review the same experience, I waited until my second visit to give an update on Nick's. Besides, my first review was about my takeout experience. This new and improved review is about my dine-in experience.

With Meateater BF in tow, we walked into this vegan Filipino hole in the wall with high expectations. Even though I've already had a good majority of the items on the menu, I was excited to see something that I didn't have last time: Chick'n Adobo! Although it didn't taste exactly how my mom used to make it (my mom's recipe is more vinegar-y), this was super good. Not sure what brand vegan chick'n they use but it was convincing. (Take that with a grain of salt since I haven't had meat in over 10 years.) The portion size was legit huge so I was able to take leftovers home and share it with my mom, dad, and auntie. All Filipino, all meateaters, and they were pretty convinced they were eating meat. They all said this dish was good! http://bit.ly/2MztWAI

On the specials board, I couldn't resist the two Hawaiian dishes they were offering that day. Chick'n Katsu and Loco Moco. Although I've had vegan versions of both dishes elsewhere, I was curious to see Nick's take on something that I used to love eating back in my meateating days.

The Chick'n Katsu was just as I remembered it! Crispy breading on the outside with tangy tonkatsu sauce. We ordered it with garlic rice. We completely devoured this! http://bit.ly/2tgxBKG

The Loco Moco was on point! They used a Beyond Burger patty and Loving Hut fried egg. The gravy was savory goodness. We practically inhaled this! http://bit.ly/2t3yK91

Considering all we ordered and consumed for our main course, we made room for dessert because how am I supposed to resist vegan Halo Halo? This was the real reason I wanted to come back to Nick's. Although I had it last time, I needed to take a better photo of this deliciousness :) http://bit.ly/2tfOd5b

At 8:30pm, we were surprised to see several tables were empty on this Saturday night. But more tables started to fill up after 9pm. Service was friendly and fairly fast considering that only one gal was working the floor. We took a Lyft here since parking isn't the best. I'm just grateful that Nick's impressed the Meateater BF! Which means we'll be coming here on all future trips to San Francisco :)

Nick's Kitchen has been on my list for a long time! Finally got a chance to visit Nick's this week on a Thursday evening around 8. The place was decently busy. Unfortunately there was only one waiter who was running around like crazy trying to take care of all the tables. Though he was working hard, he definitely needed more help! Perhaps it's normally not quite this busy.

We tried the crab cakes, Shanghai Lumpia, Pancit Canton, Chicken adobo, and fries. I would say my favorite was the Pancit. The crab cakes were good, but the sauce served with them was runny and weird. The lumpia were good, but slightly on the small side so they were pretty greasy. The Chicken adobo was also good, but not my favorite. The French fries were awful. I guess they serve fries because they serve a burger, but why steak fries?? If you are buying frozen fries to serve at your restaurant at least get some decent ones!

Overall the food was definitely good enough for me to return!

I've had my share of vegan interpretations of various cuisines over the years, but never had vegan Filipino before. I was quite impressed with their non-animal equivalents! Only issue is that they seem understaffed and the wait for your food is very long when the restaurant is full.

Lechon Kawali: This is some of the best fake meat I've ever had. They got the deep fried pork belly texture perfect. Firm meat layers and chewy fat layers with a crispness all around. This actually tasted better than some of the real pork versions of lechon kawali I've had.

Caldereta: Overall, the stew was pretty darn tasty. The fake beef wasn't quite like real stewed beef though. A tad chewier and less stringy. But still satisfying and tasty.

Palabok: A very gooey gravy with some nice sea/fish/umami tastes.

So apparently this place used to be one of a million other places in Daly City serving Filipino food until one day the owners had an epiphany. They went Vegan and so did their little restaurant located right across from the Cow Palace.

I came here to order lunch one day and everything I had was delicious. So much so that my lovely wife brought me back here for my birthday dinner. She would've taken me anywhere but I chose Nick's for something different.

Of course since it was my birthday we went buckwild. We overloaded our table with all the Filipino delicacies that it could support. Sisig, sinigang, pancit, lumpia, longsilog, Kare Kare, halo halo. You name it, we probably ate it that night and for several days later.

The pancit is excellent. I roll with the miki bihon version which features both types of noodles. It's as good as I've had anywhere.

That lumpia shanghai it's dangerously good! I had to double check that there wasn't really meat the first time I ate it. One of the best deep fried rolls I can remember having.

Sinigang is one of my favorite soups. Don't tell my babygirl but Nick's might actually be better than hers. That's high praise since she makes a mean version herself. When she makes it...

I've never had sisig before so I'm not sure how authentic Nick's version is. All I can say is this is really good. It's savory and salty. How can you not love that? Then again, I could see this being too salty for some people. Consistency could be an issue here as this has tasted different both times that I tried it. It was good both times, just different.

The longsilog was okay. The flavors didn't really jump out at me and the garlic fried rice wasn't really fried. It was steamed rice with garlic on top. I was hoping for more.

The wife loved the Kare Kare. I on the other hand was not a fan. She made this for me once and it was one of my least favorite dishes that she made. I guess I'm just not a fan of this peanut sauce stew. Which is odd because I love all things peanuty.

We ended the night with halo halo. My honey has been craving for this ever since she turned Vegan. The ice cream was outstanding but the ratio of that to shaved ice seemed off to me. I would love this to be served in a glass instead of a bowl with a smaller portion at a lower price.

Service was great as the young girl helping us was very friendly. The whole time I'm looking into the kitchen I don't know how they got all these little old ladies to cook Vegan food. My mother-in-law can't even cook just plain veggies without sneaking in the patis!

I'll probably try the few Western dishes in the menu at some point but that's not really why this place exists. You come here for the delicious Filipino food that is made with 100% less cruelty.

My only experience with eating Filipino restaurant food is from No Worries food truck which unfortunately isn't very convenient to me. The fact that this place turned Vegan in a not so Vegan-friendly area speaks volumes. No it's not health food but they're taking a traditionally unhealthy cuisine and making it delicious and accessible to everyone. Thank you Nick's!

Nick's kitchen is one of the best vegetarian eateries in the area. I was really impressed with how they portrayed Filipino food in a vegetarian form. We ordered four dishes and one dessert during our dining experience: sizzling sisig, tamarind soup, special of the day (mock chicken adobe), and their lumpia. It's tough to chose, but their sisig was my favorite pick of the evening. It really had a good balance of spice and savory. It also had the texture of other sisig I'd tried in the past and the right spice combination. My husband really enjoyed his mock chicken adobe. It wasn't exactly the same as chicken, but had a really good flavor combination and had a similar flavor combination to other adobe dishes I've had the past.

The staff also made the meal as they were attentive to the customer's needs. For example, your water glass is always filled as soon as you drink it. While not a large establishment, it's sizable enough for them to have a stage. While the band was not playing when we arrived they had equipment out for a performance. It was a very relaxing atmosphere and definitely a place we would go back to in the future.

There is only one thing that I would say to be aware of before you go to this establishment, it's street only parking. It took us about 5 minutes to find space. Not a terrible time delay, but does require you to add a few extra minutes to your lunch or dinner window.