Mekenie Pampangga's Special

This apparent hidden gem is located in an industrial setting. The restaurant was full when we'd arrived at 12:45pm. The specials for this Saturday was handwritten and handed to us with the menu of homestyle specialty dishes. They were sold out of pancit palabok. Gotta try that next time.KARE KARE: savory peanut sauce forward with a few chunks of pork and ample vegetables that were not wilted or overcooked. It's supposed to be an oxtail dish. I guess it was good that it didn't have bones. The "not so salty" bagoong paste, an essential condiment, really tied everything together. 3.5/5 SISIG: authentic and flavorful. If you enjoy liver, this is a great meat combo dish that sizzles when it gets to your table. Get the extra egg on top. 4/5HALO HALO: toppings included the usual variety of jellies, shaved ice, milk, crispy dried bananas, ube ice cream, and rice crispies. This classic dessert has lots of ube flavor. I'd like more kaong ( palm nuts) and coconut shreds please. 3.5/5Please note that rice is a side dish and not included. Each savory dish ordered was not overly salted, so you can customize it to your own liking. Overall, we enjoyed the service, homestyle dishes, and affordable prices. I

Hidden gem with a lot of locals eating here.I came here after Erika's IG seattle food eats video . Food was packed with flavors. I'm not an expert with Filipino food but the pork adobo and brisket had my heart; even though the portion was kind of small (adobo). Their meat was fall off the bone soft. We even had the sisig which wasnt overpowering by liver but def smelled like liver; good amount of flavor there as well but can be a little too salty after eating half way. The lechon sadly was my least favorite here and disappointed. It was too oily with too much fat and not enough meat portion to balance the pieces. I felt like I could squeeze out the oil from them. It wasn't crunchy and just soggy. My cousin and I ordered a lot of food and even tried the salmon soup for the first time; we did not expect it to be soo sour; even though the soup is supposed to be that way which is on us. We notice a lot of people who came ordered this soup; heard it's very traditional and popularThe service was good but once the restaurant had picked up on people it became really slow. It was hard to get the check with there being one server.

Food overall is good, they have a lot of options to chose from. I liked most of what I ate and would visit again. Parking is pretty easy overall, so not too much of an issue there. I'd say the location overall is a bit odd, but it's not bad or anything. Service was quick and friendly too!

Love Filipino food. We only ordered a bowl except for the sisig where we ordered a full plate. The lechon kawali was very crispy! The beef steak was also nice. The place isn't big but definitely a good place to eat Filipino food. They always play Filipino movies too. The waiter was attentive and would come refill our water. Overall experience is excellent!

If I had to review based on food quality, flavor and presentation alone, I would've given this place a solid 4.75. There were a couple minor things that threw me off. Kare Kare was so yummy--delicious traditional peanut butter flavorful goodness! TONS of meat, veggies and eggplant! Not pictured: bagoong. Would I say this was my favorite Kare Kare ever? Not sure if it beats my Tita's, BUT let's just say theirs is better than another unnamed Filipino establishment in a town nearby.Bulalo - perfect flavor; meat was tender and plentiful. Large family option shown. Closest to my own family homemade bulalo, I think! Loved it. Do wish that they cut the meat away from the large bone since this was served family style but no biggie. Nothing that a trusty Filipino knife (a spoon LOL) couldn't take care of!Lechon kawali (Deep fried pork belly) served with diced tomatoes and their own house special sauce. Sauce was ok but had this semi-cinnamony taste to it (a a fan of cinnamon) but would've preferred it with traditional mang tomas sauce so I mostly ate it plain which was fine since it was super fatty. I liked that some pieces were slightly overcooked as I love the textural difference between the meaty vs fatty parts of the pork belly.Now for the negative Nancy stuff...or negative "Nanay" for my fellow Filipinos (LOL):Drinks listed as calamansi juice, buko or mango juice make me think they are FRESHLY made. Nope - ALL of it was canned. Available desserts? None. Absolutely zero available.We ran out of rice due to my Rice Monster rice loving nephew, so we asked for more. The server took our rice bowl to get us some more, and came back with the same empty bowl and told us that they ran out. I'm not fluent in Tagalog but I clearly understood what she said so I had to ask my sister (who is fluent) to clarify if I heard correctly. They RAN OUT OF RICE. Were they making more? Yes, they just started, but we were practically finished with our meal and I had to catch a flight so we ended up eating the rest of our Filipino meal WITHOUT RICE. Why did they not make more rice earlier, when they realized they were out? The response was, "Because they didn't want to waste the rice." I can't.Hence, this is why I had to drop the review down to a solid 4, and only because the food was that good. My sister's family are regulars here though so I will come back and am hopeful that things will be better! PS please note that cashier/server girl was nice and polite and I don't fault her for any of this.PPS the family size portions were large for a party of 4. We ended up packing up leftovers of the Kare Kare and kawali!

Food was fantastic. I can't speak to authenticity, but the sizzling minced boneless milk fish (sizzling Bangus) was delicious and a totally new food and flavor experience! Can't wait to come again!

Mmm. Good comfort food! We ordered kare kare, pinakbet, sisig and torta talong. They have a big menu and I can't wait to go back to try more.

I found the hidden gem of Filipino food! It's a little hard to find, and quite frankly I was apprehensive because the area didn't seem to be well traveled or inhabited, but I felt daring and unafraid on this day. It's an annual tradition in honor of my Filipino mother, that on the anniversary of her passing I eat Filipino food. I felt it was a good year to change it up and try a new restaurant, from the usual (and very good) Kent establishment, so I came to Mekenie. So glad I did! Unlike the surrounding area, once inside the restaurant has an island vibe, is clean and well laid out. The staff is friendly and the food is fantastic! Check it out!

How did I get so lucky to live close to this Filipino restaurant? I've been here a few times and have gotten different dishes each time. But the last time we came here, we got the pork sinigang, bangus sisig., and bistek. The sinigang is one of the dishes we would always get. As always, it was as perfectly sour and the meat was cooked perfectly! The bangus sisig was not overly cooked or doused with sauce so you can still taste the fish. The bistek is the dish that we got for the first time and I was amazed by how well-balanced the sauce was! When my family would cook it, the sauce would normally be too runny or too salty. But at this place, the sauce had a mild sweetness to it and it's slightly thicker that it tastes slightly caramelized! I can't wait to go back here and try other dishes! I'd bring my husband and friends so we can order more than 2 dishes!

Ordered the sigsig, pork adobo, lumpia.Not sure what the hype was. We sat down at our table and took 1 hour by the time we got our food. Understaffed for sure.Sigsig tasted like wet dog, undercooked. I couldn't eat more than a few bites before I nearly vomited.Pork adobo was not pork adobo. The meat was not tender whatsoever and was extremely salty.Lumpia was much more chewy than it should be, almost like they were frozen or something. I had high expectations here, but it was a total upset.