L.A. Rose Cafe

For the last four decades, L.A. Rose Cafe has served a solid, consistently good menu of Filipino dishes that still fires on all cylinders today. The charming atmosphere and generous portions—Rose Cafe’s pancit palabok with salted dried fish can easily feed two—keep locals coming back for more, and dishes like the buchon (Cebuano-style roasted pig) and dinuguan (pork blood stew) rival those of restaurants in the Philippines itself. It’s also one of the best places in the city for a traditional halo-halo—the country’s answer to shaved ice, which is very likely influenced by Japanese kakigori. Here, the dessert is served in a banana split bowl instead of a plastic cup or tall sundae glass, which allows for better mixing of the bright purple ube ice cream, candied fruits, purple yam and creamy flan.

Time Out tip: Order one of the restaurant’s famous empanadas, which come with a housemade sweet mustard sauce.