AFTER HEARING ABOUT the homestyle Filipino fare at Manileño, we went in hoping for a plate of lutong bahay. Instead, we found a relatively small array of typical Filipino restaurant dishes and started to get uncharacteristically grumpy—until we took those first bites.
The family-owned restaurant is situated in the South Grand space that previously housed Snō and VP Square. The first floor is mostly a bakery, with a case full of extravagant cakes, cookies, macaroons. , a purple yam with a flavor like vanilla-spiked nuts, is to Filipino cuisine what cheese is to France: part of the national identity.
