Despite sharing ingredients and cooking methods with the widely adored and devoured cuisines of Thailand, Indonesia and Vietnam, Filipino food has traditionally been difficult to find in Melbourne.

I grew up eating this food in all its garlicky glory: simmering stews punched with citrus and vinegar; juicy, grilled meats dipped in sweet, tangy sauces; stir-fries and soups filled with earthy vegetables; colourful desserts of purple ube and emerald green pandan.

But recent years have seen a surge of Filipino eateries opening across the city, serving everything from traditional dishes and regional delicacies to modern takes on home-style favourites.

And they’ve done so to lengthy queues and roaring applause. Serai in the CBD, for example, was awarded New Restaurant of the Year by The Age’s Good Food Guide in 2023, and it didn’t take long for lockdown-born dessert shop Kariton Sorbetes to expand to three suburbs before also launching in Sydney.

From glistening barbecued meats to “dirty ice-cream”, here are 10 Filipino dishes everyone should try – and where to get them in Melbourne.

Batchoy

Ceree – Melbourne

Few things cure Melbourne’s winter blues like a steaming bowl of soup. Just as the crowds start to pack out the city’s favourite haunts for pho, ramen and laksa, people are also flocking to Ceree to savour their batchoy, a sweet and salty broth with tender beef, egg noodles, pork crackling and a boiled egg.

Batchoy traces its roots to the La Paz district in Iloilo City – and like many Filipino staples such as pancit canton and lumpiang Shanghai, it’s inspired by the dishes brought to the Philippines by Chinese immigrants.

285 Spring Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/ceree_melb

Sorbetes

Kariton Sorbetes – Footscray, Melbourne (Chinatown) and Glen Waverley

Walk down Manila’s cacophonous streets and you may be lucky enough to hear a rickety pushcart and its ringing bell, which signals the arrival of mamang sorbetero – the local ice-cream man – and his sorbetes, pejoratively called “dirty ice-cream” for its street-side preparation.

Despite the nickname, sorbetes is a beloved snack, with its silky scoops made from carabao or coconut milk and sweetened with native flavours such as cheese, ube, jackfruit and mango.

Kariton Sorbetes, the dessert shop inspired by nostalgia for traditional sorbetes, has earned a cult following for its creative Filipino flavours, from creamy ube halaya to Jollibee’s iconic peach mango pie.

50 Leeds Street, Footscray; 177 Russell Street, Melbourne; 265 Springvale Road, Glen Waverley, karitonsorbetes.com

Silog meals

Cafe Kusina, Camberwell

Australia has bacon and eggs, the Philippines has silog meals: a variety of breakfast plates with sinangag (garlic rice); itlog (egg); a type of mouth-watering salty meat; and condiments like vinegar, fresh tomato and atchara (pickled papaya).

Cafe Kusina brings the savoury Filipino breakfast to Camberwell, dishing up longsilog (a garlicky Filipino sausage called longganisa), tapsilog (thin slices of cured beef called tapa), and daingsilog (milkfish marinated in vinegar and spices) in their fusion brunch menu.

726 Burke Road, Camberwell, facebook.com/cafekusinaus

Chicken inasal

Barkada Pinoy Streetfood – Melbourne

This is a popular street-food dish of juicy chicken marinated with the Filipino staples: garlic, vinegar, pepper and ginger, with brown sugar for sweetness and citrus for acidity. It’s grilled and basted with annatto sauce, which gives it a distinct glossy sheen and peppery taste, and eaten with garlic rice and sawsawan (a vinegary dipping sauce).

Try it at Barkada Pinoy Streetfood in the CBD, which serves up a bona fide Filipino barbecue with pork and chicken skewers and chicken skin, and other street-side snacks like fish balls and kwek-kwek (crispy battered quail eggs).

Level 1, 6 Sutherland Street, Melbourne, instagram.com/barkadapinoy

Lechon

Cebu Charcoal Lechon Belly – Sunshine North

Suckling pig is a fierce contender in the unending debate over the Philippines’ national dish. It impresses not only with its cultural theatrics – spit-roasting a whole pig over dancing flames has become synonymous with joyous Filipino celebrations – but also with its succulent meat and distinctive golden, crackling skin.

Cebu Charcoal Lechon Belly serves it Cebu-style: pork belly rolled with aromatics like garlic and lemongrass, charcoal-roasted and expertly basted for that crispy brown skin.

71 McIntyre Road, Sunshine North, facebook.com/cebucharcoal.lechonbellytakeaway

Sinigang

Mama Lor Restaurant & Bakery – Werribee

Just like Filipino cuisine as a whole, sinigang is bold and punchy. The sweet tartness of tamarind, its key ingredient, hits you with the first sip. While this soup’s other elements vary across families and regions (my Dad loves to add pork and watermelon), sinigang usually features a protein like milkfish, prawns or pork, and vegetables like tomato, kangkong, eggplant, radish, bok choy or beans.

Mama Lor knows simplicity is best: their sinigang na baboy is rich, fatty and hearty with simmered pork belly, green beans, tomato and eggplant.

187 Watton Street, Werribee, mamalor.com

Turon

Inasal Express – Melbourne

Most people know about lumpia, the addictive Filipino pork spring rolls, but fewer are familiar with its sweeter, stickier counterpart, turon. This dessert consists of sugared banana and jackfruit slices rolled into a crispy spring-roll pastry topped with caramel drizzle.

It’s one of the many traditional desserts on the menu at Inasal Express, the easygoing CBD alleyway joint also serving halo-halo (a shaved ice dessert with condensed milk, fruits and sweet toppings) and taho (silken tofu with sago pearls and brown sugar syrup).

Melbourne Central Shopping Centre, shop GD 079, corner Elizabeth and La Trobe streets, Melbourne, inasalexpress.com

Sisig

Mrs Parks Kitchen – Caroline Springs

Described by Anthony Bourdain as “perfectly positioned to win the hearts and minds of the world”, sisig is a rich medley of pork (usually the cheeks, snout and ears) fried with chilli, onions and vinegar. Served sizzling on a cast iron plate for a caramelised char, its deep, gamey flavours are balanced by a silky fried egg and calamansi juice (a citrus fruit native to the Philippines).

While this is how it’s served at most Filipino restaurants, Mrs Parks Kitchen ditches the egg and offers an authentic Kapampangan version with roasted pork and chicken liver, which adds a creaminess to the zesty, spicy dish.

Shop 15a, 218/222 Caroline Springs Boulevard, Caroline Springs, mrsparkskitchen.com.au

Kare-kare

Pinoy Diner –Werribee

Kare-kare is the ultimate labour of Filipino love. Oxtail – braised for hours until fork-tender – forms the velvety, rich base of this peanut stew filled with vegetables and spiced with annatto powder for its bright marigold colouring. Modern recipes, however, often use alternative cuts of meat that can still create a deep, flavourful stew, like beef shank or chuck steak.

Pinoy Diner, a no-frills favourite in Werribee, makes their kare-kare with moreish chunks of casserole beef and traditional vegetables of string beans, eggplant and bok choy.

Shop 5, 49 Synnot Street, Werribee, pinoydiner.com.au

Pancit

Askal – Melbourne

Pancit is a general term for various Filipino noodle dishes. Pancit palabok smothers vermicelli with a minced pork and shrimp gravy; pancit lomi has thick egg noodles swimming in a starchy, savoury broth; and pancit canton is a festive dish of egg noodles stir-fried with lap cheong, cabbage, pork, snap peas and prawns.

Acknowledging pancit’s diverse fusion roots, contemporary Filipino diner Askal serves its pancit canton with blue swimmer crab and a creamy egg yolk, with layers of tangy spice from chilli and calamansi.

167 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, askalmelbourne.com