Bistro Luneta

Filipino food is the new yummy, at least for us. I mean, Chinese, Japanese and Thai even in the best of restaurant is the same flavors you expect, but Filipino food has a new flavor for our tastebuds. Growing up in Hawaii I only thought of Filipino food as Adobo and Lumpia so I didn’t try it out that much because those foods didn’t entice me. But now that David has gone to a few Filopino restaurants with his co-workers we have tried larger variety of foods.

We went to Bistro Luneta with an appetite since we only ate spam musubis for breakfast that day and ran errands the remainder of the day. The restaurant is in San Mateo in a not so posh neighborhood, meaning that jack in the box and Mexican taco place is right next door, but inside the restaurant is much more pleasant. The décor is quite nice. I noticed the glass for the candle holders was really clean . .nice detail.

Picture of Me below - I finally cut my hair since I was procrastinating too long.

For appetizer the tuna tartar and the milk-fish maki looked interesting. From the reviews everything on the menu was good so we picked the dishes that perked our interest. The tuna tartar was really excellent. I don’t know what all the flavors were but it was like having finely chopped pickled mango with cilantro and chili peper mixed up with tuna chunks. The bangus(milk fish) maki role was good. If I were to compare with Japanese sushi, it’s not as great because the rice wasn’t perfect. But rice aside, you could taste the bangus and citrus flavor, with tomato and onion. It was deep fried, which was a nice touch because it made it warm and topped with a sort of teriyaki sauce. I could imagine this little roll had the componets of a nice meal, rice and fish, so it was sort of comforting to eat.



We had the “Salpicao” described as the ribeye sautéed in olive oil and special sauce. What the hell was the special sauce? Who knows but it was good is all I can remember. On the side were neat little fried shoe string purple potatoes as a garnish.

For dinner we had the “pato sa gata” which was duck breast in coconut sauce. Now don’t think of the coconut sauce like a thai coconut sauce. . .think more like coconut gravy with pork fat (total guess) as the base. Okay, I know that sounds gross, but it’s really good. The duck breast was prepared perfectly.

We ordered garlic rice on the side for good measure since I like my rice with my meat dishes. That’s tasty stuff.

For dessert, the coffee crème brule was OO-SO-good. Perfect consistency, light and creamy, not too heavy, with the nice sugar coating on top. There was a touch of milk froth on top which was cute. You could definitely taste the coffee but it was not overpowering.


This is one of those restaurants you have to come again so you can try the other dishes you were thinking about but didn’t order this time around. We’re pretty happy with this find it’s been a while since we have found a good restaurant to get excited over, food, atmosphere and service were great.