Barkadas

The workers at this place are soooo kind. We wanted to get food to-go and she was so kind and attentive and even gave me a water since it was such a hot day. The inside was definitely super cute and super clean.The food was OKAY. I am Filipino so I know what Filipino food should taste like and I don't think this place hit the spot. The food didn't taste bad by any means, but definitely not Filipino flavors. The pork in the fries was definitely the best part of the meal - crispy and succulent. My beef bistek was just lacking in flavor. The carrot and onion slaw was SO sour. There was barely any pork in my partner's bowl and just kind of tasted like soy sauce. This place was also kind of expensive for what it is. Definitely try it if you want but just know you probably aren't getting authentic flavors.

Cool spot in Charleston! Loved the vibes of the place and service was great. We ordered the Brussels sprouts (6.5/10) and the Salmon bowl with coconut rice (8/10). Sprouts were a bit saucy for me, but still great flavor and would definitely try again. The salmon bowl was great, and do NOT skip the coconut rice!

My girlfriend and I come here often and we love it. The food is great and the half off wine on Wednesdays is awesome! The bowls are great to switch up what you get every time. Great option in Charleston!

Don't be fooled by the humble location. Barkadas is a trendy, modern, chic Phillipino-American fusion restaurant with great food and an impressive amount of draft beers. We have gone for brunch twice and loved it. The first time we ordered shrimp and grits and chicken and waffles. The second time we ordered the chicken and waffles and breakfast burger. First of all, you must order these chicken and waffles--they are some of the best we've had. The waffle batter has a nutty-candy crunch topping which would almost be too sweet except it's perfectly balanced out by savory fried chicken. The breakfast burger was also delicious--it comes with a runny egg, bacon and smokey pepper jam. Our only disappointment was the portion sizes--for the price, we found the dishes a tad small. However, the food was delicious and we look forward to coming back again!

Where to begin with this place that offers any number of options from either asian or pacific islander cusine. When I looked up this place, it had relatively good reviews, the interior looked clean and cozy and I thought to myself why not? Upon entering the entire place has a woodsy sort of vibe. Lots of hardwood, nothing wrong about that. There are some festive pillows off to the side on the pew-like seats that adorn the wall. Likely they haven't been washed ever as the white has now turned an interesting shade of light grey. But I will say the interior was clean. The odd thing though is think to yourself the staples of asian cooking. Garlic, ginger, scallion, shallot, msg, soy sauce, oyster sauce, any number of fermented pastes. These smells were.... absent from the area. Entirely. It's not as if they used air freshener to eliminate it, it was just gone. A harbinger of the 5th horsemen of culinary apocolypse. My asian ancestors would roll over in their grave at the sight of some of this food. The lumpia was freshly fried but was $10. The fried spring rolls that are made and served en-masse during holidays. Were 10 dollars. I get the economy and the state of the food industry but this is tragic. The real food crime was their brunch "everything but the kitchen sink bowl"It was served on coconut rice, which had the world's faintest taste of coconut. It was as if you killed a real coconut and through some necromantic spell, imparted the barest essence of coconut into the rice. There are haunted houses with stronger presences than this rice had coconut. In this bowl was rice, egg, (good start and debatably the most asian of the ingredients presented), spam (a staple of asian food, but sadly there was only a very thin slice, cut in half to make it seem as if there was more), two small pieces of pork belly (slightly dry and wish there was more), some potato/chipped meat hash (super... ethnic hash?), and most bafflingly of all, queso and gravy. Now I have eaten a good number of asian foods from different cultures and places and never have I ever seen an asian place try to place gravy or queso on its food and this place had both. It instantly smothered out any other flavors that would have been present and worse of all, I couldn't distinguish them from each other. Even blind tasting them, they visually looked identical just that one had more... color? Seasonings in it? I would challenge you to name a single asian ingredient. Sesame seeds, soy sauce, garlic, ginger, scallion, shallot, hell even honey, mushrooms, spring onion. Not a single one was present, or distinguishable in this food. It is disingenuous to call this at all asian or island inspired and quite frankly it disgusts me. Avatar the Last Airbender is more asian than this cuisine. The live action. There I said it. I had to admit that I watched that movie and that's the second worst thing about this post cause the worst is the bowl I was served. I would say dishonor upon your family and family cow but there was no beef in this dish. Worse of all my server was absent for most of the meal, attending to "another thing she had to do" but no other tables were being waited by her and she checked in with me once to take my order and once to give me the check. No water, no check after food was served to see if everything was alright. More absent than a high school senior's mind in April. I shall not be going back as this would likely incur the wrath of the entire nation of the Philipines for giving this any more attention it deserves.

I had high expectations for this place after watching a famous tik toker review it. I'm not sure if I went on a bad morning or what, but my food didn't taste as fresh as I'd hoped. I still think it's worth the visit and will try it again.

Service was excellent. Friendly and efficient. I had the pineapple jalapeño margarita. Wow! What flavor! Nice kick of heat balanced with the sweet hit of pineapple. Delish. Food was great. We enjoyed eating here two times during our 4 day trip. Their jasmine rice is so good I could eat it plain every day. I had the Loco Moco bowl from the brunch menu. It was delish. Rice with a burger patty covered in a sausage gravy and a runny yolk egg. Sooooooo gooooood. Super flavorful with a kick of heat. The rice, as I mentioned, was fabulous. We had the pork belly bao buns and second visit we had the shrimp ones. Second visit we also had the lumpia. Buns were fluffy and each protein was flavorful and topped with a bit of slaw type veggies. Amazing!! The lumpia were nice and crispy with decent amount of beef/pork filling. Husband got their version of corn beef--Karne Norte. He enjoyed it a lot. Loved the music; light 70s during our visits. Restaurant is clean and pleasantly decorated. If I lived in Charleston and not just visiting I would eat here every week.

My husband and I visited for the first time this evening. We were both impressed with the quality of the food and the friendliness and attentiveness of the staff. I asked for a dish that was no longer on the menu and was still able to get it (Hernshaw Farms Mushroom Bowl). I was honestly a little worried that I would miss having protein in my entrée, but the mushrooms were seasoned so well and had such a nice texture that I didn't miss having meat at all. My husband got the Mango Tuna Tini in addition to his entrée, and it was to die for. Will definitely be visiting again.

Customer service 4/5. Very kind, quick to help, and provided good customer service. Only thing is we were not aware that there were smaller beer cup options until we got the bill. Had we know, we would have ordered a smaller glass. Food: pork adobo was a little on the salty side. Flavor was otherwise enjoyable. There were hardly any full chunks of chicken in my plate. Most of it were shreds. For how it tasted, I would eat it again, but for the portion sizes and cost, I would not come back. Fili Cheesesteak was a standard cheesesteak that left me wanting more spice/seasoning in the beef. When I saw it was "Korean braised" I expected a slightly different experience. I was satisfied with the portion size and the wonton chips were really good. Good meal just felt like it needed some more flavor.

As a Filipina it's always exciting to see a restaurant that offers their take on Filipino food. Our meal was mostly good but please whoever is rolling your lumpia.... y'all have to roll it right! Its always bursting But flavors are good and really do their best to honor authentic Filipino flavors!