I am really thrilled to say that Filipino food has finally arrived. It is becoming more main stream here in the United States. There are several Filipino restaurants that have opened in the New York City area in recent years that caters not only to the Filipino palate. One of these is Maharlika in downtown New York. They started as a pop-up moving from one restaurant to another, which finally led them to opening a place in East Village.
Reservations is highly recommended when you visit if you are a party of four or more. The place is small and it get’s really busy specially during weekends. We got there around 1 pm on a Saturday, we were lucky that they were able to seat us right away, because the place filled up pretty quickly after that.
On the table you will immediately see a bottle of Jufran sauce (banana ketchup) and Maggi liquid seasoning. These are some typical sauces/condiments Filipinos love to use. The server would also offer you a vinegar dipping sauce one with chillies or without.
We didn’t order any appetizer, though the sisig was pretty tempting. I got the Flip’D Chicken and Ube Waffle which is batterless fried chicken with purple yam waffle served with compound anchovy-bagoong butter and housemade caramelized macapuno syrup. My husband ordered one of the Silog Breakfasts the Cornsilog which is corned beef (house brined w/ peppercorn and bay leaf) served with sunny side up egg, garlic rice and ensalada.
Portions are huge so be sure to come with an appetite. Food was very flavorful and did not disappoint. The Ube waffle and chicken was simply an amazing combination of salty and sweet. I was not a fan of the anchovy compound butter that came with it though. I find the taste too strong and distracting. Their corned beef was housemade and not the canned variety and is quite good. We also ordered the calamansi seltzer very refreshing drink to have since it was quite humid that day. Can’t wait to be back to try out the rest of the food from their menu.