Kulinarya

I’ve been here a couple times already, and it’s by far my favourite Filipino restaurant in the Lower Mainland. All of my experiences there have been great, except for this one. We came in on a Thursday around 2pm, there was nobody in the restaurant for the entirety of our stay, other than two guests doing take-​out.
Like I said, the food is amazing, we ordered a Filipino-​type fried rice with pork, shrimp paste, onion, tomato and mangoes, as well as crispy pork with lechon and my favourite Kare Kare. It was my first turn trying the fried rice this time, and it’s probably the best fried rice I’ve ever had ever (probably because I love shrimp paste so much), it wasn’t oily at all, the had a nice balance of flavour that actually went well with the Kare Kare rather than regular steamed rice. Everything in the dish was very balanced. The lechon was spot on, the insides were soft and the outsides were crispy. The Kare Kare on the other hand, wasn’t as good as it used to be. This was probably my fourth time at this restaurant and every time I come back, the quality just lessens, it’s quite disappointing because I love this dish, but it’s because the beef isn’t as tender and juicy anymore, it used to just fell apart when you touched it, but now it seems almost dry, like they cook it first than throw in the sauce, that’s what PinPin does and it’s even more disappointing.
The reason why my experience this time wasn’t as good as the others was because I actually found a long hair in the Kare Kare, they refired immediately, but then halfway through our dinner my boyfriend found another hair (short and wavy this time) in the fried rice :/​We had already eaten more than half of it, and didn’t want to mention it to them again, so we left it at that. What’s even worse is that when we went to pay, she still charged us for the food that we found a hair in, I mean I don’t really care, I’m not trying to be cheap and get free food, but in all honesty, it’s technically a complaint, and at my work, it definately would’ve been free. Just saying, service standards.
Atmosphere: I called this place hipstery, probably because of the chalkboard on the wall and the mix matched tables and chairs, but my boyfriend called it home-​y. There’s no music played so it’s quite quiet in there when there’s no other customers, but all the other times I came were for dinner around 7−9pm and there were always other tables so there was light chatter.
Service: They give you a small dish of Filipino nuts/​chip things after you order, it’s a nice touch because you don’t see that very often anymore and they’re delicious!
Food: ⁵⁄₅
Atmosphere: ⁴⁄₅
Service: ³⁄₅
I recommend this place to my friends all the time, I still love it regardless, but it’d be great if they could fix their Kare Kare recipe! The hair and the quality disintegration won’t stop me from coming back, maybe I’ll have to change my favourite dish to the fried rice. They’re still the best Filipino restaurant in the Lower Mainland!

Tried this place after seeing the Unilocal reviews and was pleasantly surprised. I love Filipino food but don’t get many chances to eat it. The crispy pata was delicious! We also ordered the garlic rice, chicken adobo, and grilled squid. The garlic fried rice was amazing, the other two were good also but I found the adobo a bit on the salty side. When we came in, the other tables were set up for their Kamayan style dinner, everything looked so yummy on the table, we already made plans with friends to try that next time!

Grabbed take out from this restaurant, food was not great at all. No taste and bbq was very greasy and small. If you take out for two price is ok, for one it’s expensive for what you get. Not coming back

This was my first time eating Filipino food and I was impressed. I had the Baka Sinigang as I had a bit of a cold. I felt way better after eating as much as I could. Can’t wait to try some more dishes here!

I’m from the states.. And Filipino food and stores are always convenient meaning they’re just a drive away. Constantly going to Canada and always eating «Asian food» or food we don’t have stateside always makes you miss Filipino food. I’m very picky when it comes to Filipino food because mama always does it best, but let me tell you… this place was right up there along side mama. There food is so good, fresh, and the people are very welcoming. Also, the cute mason jars is a nice touch! Super recommend and we’ll be coming back often!

First time we were here was a year ago… our first experience was horrible, the food was so bad that after a couple of bites we never touched the food again. We had so many leftovers, we didn’t even bother getting it to go! Since we’re around the area today we decided to give it another go. It wasn’t as bad as before but still not somewhere we would think of coming to eat a filipino food. We still think Kumare at Richmond is better. My husband ordered the longsilog, which he said is just alright. Pork and tofu is good. Pork hock was really good, the skin is crispy and the meat is juicy.

I learned Kulinarya from one of my WeChat friends. He’s not even Filipino lol! I have a Chinese friend whose husband arrived from China and he loves Filipino food. I thought this would be a perfect place to try the food and experience the culture at the same time. I invited my 3 Chinese, 1 Bengali and 1 Italian friend plus myself and my husband. Minimum number of persons for Kamayan (using your hands) style dinner is 6 plus 20% gratuity. It costs $ 25 per person. We are 7 people in total and so I made reservations for 7. The amount of food we got can feed 10 or even 12 people. It was awesome! The kare kare (beef & tripe with peanut sauce) was so good and so was the chicken adobo, grilled pusit (squid) and lechon kawali (fried pork belly). I suggest that you only order for 6 and take 10 people with you. If you love ethnic food then you would love this place. Highly recommended!

The food was so good! Hard to find a Filipino spot in Canada and I’m so glad we came to this one. The place itself was really chic and the workers were very nice. Had the adobo, pork BBQ, Shanghai, and turon for dessert. Yummmmm

I went here just to get Halo-​Halo with my bf. Small, tiny place but the place was nice and tidy. The servers were really nice although one of them lacked the experience. He was so confused on our orders too. Anyways the halo-​halo had too much ice! It was in a small cup for $ 7, so expensive! I felt like I was being ripped off by buying a $ 7 cup of water… I was so disappointed. For now I’m gonna give three stars but, maybe I’ll come back for the food since I can never find good Filipino restaurants around…

Kulinarya Filipino Eatery is a small little Filipino restaurant near me that we’ve often overlooked. The décor inside is homey and has a 19^th century Victorian garden like vibe. Kulinary is located in the same plaza as Nagano Japanese Restaurant; across the street from Coquitlam Centre and Delicious Phở and Legend Shanghai Restaurant and Browns. Literally, this side of Coquitlam has a lot of choices.
Corn nuts as snacks to start. We asked the server to recommend a few dishes for us.
Sizzling Sisig 11: Crispy minced pork pig ears with egg. This is the number one favorite of everyone entering the restaurant. Every table has pretty much order this dish. Comes on a hot plate with a raw egg to be mixed in and cooked on the table. Add a quick squeeze of lemon to cut the fat and brighten the flavors. It really is quite delicious.
Tortang Talong 10: Eggplant omelet. Similar to a Japanese grilled eggplant where the meat is softened, fibers sweeten and mixed in a dry pan fried omelet.
Sinangag 3 small: We ordered a side of garlic fried rice to go with our meal. Aromatic rice infused with garlic and topped with fried garlic bits.
Halo Halo 8: Shaved ice dessert with coconut milk, jelly, boba, coconut jelly, and mochi. Topped with coconut ice cream and sweet yam potato ice cream. Good to share for two people.
Service prompt and quite friendly. Good neighborhood joint.

I’ve been here a couple of times now and I was impressed both times.
There’s not a lot of places to find good Filipino food but this is definitely one of them.
We ordered our usual favourites…
Crispy Pata
Kare-​Kare
Laing
and added a noodle dish, soup and grilled fish. I wasn’t really paying attention to the latter stuff.
In any case, the Crispy Pata was very tasty. The skin was crispy and not overly chewy. The meat was tender and juicy still.
The Kare-​Kare was excellent. It’s so rich, creamy and flavourful. It’s just a very satisfying dish.
The Laing was also pretty good although I don’t like it as much as some of the others at the table. I found it a touch on the salty side so you have to have a mouthful of rice with it.
The other stuff was alright. I wasn’t blown away but it didn’t disappoint me either.
Service was quick and friendly.
Definitely come here.

Terrible. Came to the place at 8pm and they were closing, when clearly their sign says 9pm. Said that they had no customers since 5pm so they decided to shut down early. Who does that?!

It’s very hard to find a decent Filipino Restaurant around the Tri-​Cities, usually I have to head to Fraser at PinPin’s if I am craving Filipino food when not eating at my Mom’s.
The food here is made very well, taste healthier than your regular Filipino meal. Being a BIG fan of «Sisig», I just wished that their «Sisig» is more crispier as sometimes it can get a bit soggy. Their Pork «Sinigang» is really good and tasty, you can taste the distinct tamarind flavor that all «Sinigang’s» should have. Prices seem a bit steeper compared to others but since I don’t have to drive to Vancouver, I don’t mind it. Other than that I recommend this place especially for non-​Filipinos looking to try our cultural dishes.

The foods were carefully made, and the ambiance was sweet.
Probably Im simply not a fan of Filipino cuisine, I found myself wasn’t quite enjoying the dinner.
The breakfast menu seemed really nice.

My new favorite spot for delicious filipino food. Love this place. Will come back again for sure. I love their manok sa gata, kare kare, adobo, crispy pata and sisig. Will try their other food on my next visit. Yum!

We usually come here for «paksiw na pata» its one of the best and they do it very well. This is my personal favourite dish from kulinarya. Definitely a must have when in the area.

One day at lunch I randomly asked my Philippines friend where’s the best place to go for Philippines food in Vancouver, and she told me Kulinarya. She said their food was most authentic and closest to what she has back home. I went there for a dinner. I’ve never been to Philippines before nor tried real authentic Philippines food, so I asked the person there to recommend some things for me. I got 3 or 4 dishes (way too much for 2 people) but they were all amazing.
I end up taking the food I can’t finish home and even as leftovers the next day (and day after) they still taste amazing. I am planning on taking a few more friends there next time so we can order more dishes and try out more things!
It’s far out in Coquitlam, but it’s well worth the drive.

Great little place tucked away in a strip mall just behind Coquitlam Centre.
I went there for lunch with a friend and tried their combos which were delicious.
The woman who took our order was extremely friendly and helpful in showing us dishes from each section on the menu, but I’ll admit the dishes we selected weren’t anything that was really different from Chinese food beyond the fact that my friend’s dish had fried bananas so I can’t really say we tried anything that was uniquely Filipino.
I will definitely return with more friends for dinner so that we can take her up on her recommendations and try multiple dishes next time. I would say however, groups over 6 – 8 would probably have a hard time, being that the place was quite small and a group of 6 people would already take up about a quarter of the seating space available. Anything more and you’re practically taking over the place for a private function! haha

Ok, I’m not too familiar with Filipino food, because I’ve only tried three places (and some home-​cooked dishes from my boyfriend).
Goto King (near Joyce skytrain station), Pinpin (on Fraser St somewhere I think?) and Kulinarya (flippin’ Coquitlam!). (Sorry, that was such a bad pun, please ignore.)
My boyfriend ordered, because I was completely clueless. We had: crispy pata — deep fried pork… knuckles? with this vinegary dipping sauce — LOVE! I prefer this over the Chinese pork thing with the crispy skin, just because that one is way too salty to eat a lot of; Bicol express (mildly spicy pork stew) reminded me of Southeastern curries, as it had a hint of coconut milk in the mix. Lastly, we finished with a Halo halo — shaved ice dessert, with toppings like sweet yam, beans, jellies etc with UBE ice cream (my favorite part).
The people there were so welcoming and courteous. The place was on the cleaner side, compared to the two places I’ve mentioned earlier; has a nice café feel.
Out of the three places, I like this one the most, and would definitely go more often… if it wasn’t so far away from where I live): If you live in the area, lucky you, so go try it!

I would love to give you more than a 3 star! Kulinarya dearest, as your food is yummay!
Unfortunately. the downside is… its not as consitent as I would like it to be. The first time I ordered the crispy pata. it was probably forgetten about, as it was over cooked, and very very very dry. The second time we ordered it. it was fall off the bone good, and the crispy skin was delicious! SO DELICIOUS! I wish I could say it everytime.
The curry is delicious! A sweeter, lighter curry, compared to Indian or Thai curry. but it is delicious! I recommend any curry, as I’ve tried more than one. and was pleased both times.
Portions are large and great to share! But Another reason why it isn’t a 4 star is. I believe that raised their prices. Its still reasonably priced, but I was just a little taken back. I took a picture of the menu, so everyone can expect the prices now. Most dishes are $ 12 compared to their ~$ 10 before. Still reasonable. I guess I don’t blame them as inflation effects us all.
Staff is friendly, and Filipino family own and run. Just a tad bit slow, and you have to constantly ask them to refill your water. But still. good service :) Very very friendly and pleasing!
Hopefully I’ll be able to change this rating to a 4. As I am pretty much a fan: D Would recommend people to try this restaurant. as it has been mentioned in other reviews before. Good break from typical Chinese, Japanese or Korean restaurants in the tri-​cities.