Tita Celia’s

Right away I had misgivings about this place because they had a «B» rating, but my wife wanted it.
The first thing I hear are the staffs whispered comments about how I look calling me ugly in Filipino assuming we didn’t understand.
The food was less than good and the staff made this a one star I will not be back.

I love their stick bbq… And make sure to have it reheat before picking up.
I Recomended this place

Yummy homemade food. Great taste and friendly staff. Loved the flavored. Good value. I’m not Filipino, so they were kind enough to review the ingredients of the dishes

Came here to try out their turron, it was ok not as good as I expected, but their bbq pork is yummy!

For authentic Filipino food from back in the Philippines, you’ll definitely want to check out the cuisine here. In addition to the entrées, they offer a generous selection of desserts as well.
I purchased a certificate from
for $ 10 off $ 20 valid Monday to Friday only and for dine-​in but they put your food in styro to-​go containers anyway, so it’s not really a big deal. An average cost for three people to dine, including two plates with two items and rice and one plate including one item and rice is about $ 16 (discount already subtracted).
The staff here are always welcome mean and very friendly, regardless if you’re Filipino or not or a regular customer or a newcomer.
All day traditional Filipino breakfasts are offered. This includes garlic fried rice, over easy eggs and your one choice from the following: pork tosino, pork longinusa (sweet sausage), daing (marinated fish), beef tapa (marinated meat).
A few favorites here are dinaguan (surprise, it’s not chocolate!), pork sisig (mild, not too spicy), beef mechado (filipino version of beef stew), pork adobo, pusit (squid), lechon kawali (Fried pieces of pork belly), ginitang gulay (asian vegetables in coconut milk).
For dessert the halo-​halo is great (layered sweet beans, Agar (firm jello)„ leche flan, sweetened bottled or canned imported fruit and topped with filipino ice cream. Delicious if they have all the components. Other sweets to try are kareoka (Fried round rice flour dumplings, covered in melted crystallized brown sugar), turon (saba — firm type of banana with sugar, wrapped like an eggroll and fried), banana-​q (saba, fried directly in oil then covered in crystallized brown sugar), biko (baked sweet rice with anise then topped with melted brown sugar. There’s a whole lot more, but these are just a Few faves.
If you’re not familiar with the cuisine you can always ask questions. They are more than welcome to help!
Canned soft drinks are available as well as self-​serve ice and water.
Credit cards accepted

I used to come here all the time with my dad or I would have him bring me food from here. I still eat some food from here, but I’m VERY picky with what I’m getting.
I used to be OBSESSED with their Kare Kare, but I stopped eating anything with veggies from here about 5 years ago. Reason being, I found a CATEPILLAR in my all time favorite Filipino dish, Kare Kare. I thought it was a string bean and I closely looked at it. String beans don’t have eyes!!! (Criiii face) I also feel like the way the food is served, it doesn’t stay as fresh. Any Filipino restaurant at that, since most of them pretty much have the same set up where you point and they scoop.
The bbq chicken is really the only thing I get here. I’m obsessed with it, not sure if it has a specific name. Haha. Also their breakfast. My brother missed Filipino food so we took him and our family from NY here to get breakfast. The chicken tocino is pretty good and it’s my favorite Filipino breakfast. I’d definitely choose Tita Celia’s breakfast over Silog any day.
They had a B on their window. Hmmm. But the food is still good. I’m just afraid to eat anything with veggies. They seem to know my dad here so the service is pretty good. I’m just bummed that I can’t and I refuse to eat the Kare Kare. It sucks cause if I’m craving Filipino food, I don’t really know where to go, I’m a horrible Filipina. :(

Dropped in for dessert. My friend and I got the halo halo and the fried red bean bun to try and flan to take home. The halo halo… I’ve had better. But, since it was my friend’s first time, she devoured it and loved it. The only complaint she had was that she wished there was more taro in there. For me, I’ve had better at the Leelin Bakery in Koreatown. Every single ingredient in Leelin’s version of halo halo was of utmost quality… simply the best. Here, it was just okay, does the job but even the taro consistency hinted that it was made from powder. To be fair, I’ve also had worse.
The red bean bun… OMG, was addictively delicious!!! I’m not a big sweets nut but man oh man, that was really something. Crispy sweet glaze exterior, coconut shreds in the yummy chewy rice flour and red bean center. Man, I’d come back just for that.
They were very nice, treated us to a plantain dessert because it was our first time… loved it. Tasted like how my mom makes it at home. Seems Filipino cooking is much like Vietnamese cooking. And Hawaiian, at that, in the sense that it is diabolically delicious n unhealthy.
Plenty of seats, plenty of parking. Very easy, fast dining.

Our go-​to place for filipino food in the area. Call the restaurant and order you X-​silog ahead of time so it is ready when you get there.
Good place to order a bunch of lumpia for a potluck.

Don’t mind the B grading, every restaurant needs that extra flavor from roaches. Lol just kidding. I have never seen a reach in this establishment and we all know how clean Filipinos can be.
Best Filipino breakfast in Carson hands down. Tapsilog always on point with two scoops of garlic fried rice and two over medium eggs. The portions are filling however I wouldn’t recommended sharing because it’ll probably end with an argument. I don’t really go here for anything else but the breakfast however I always order a side of chicken chicharon and a small cup of melon juice with light ice.

I wouldn’t even give this 1 star but you can’t submit a review otherwise. Easily the worst Filipino breakfast I’ve had in my life. Then when I was leaving, I saw a cockroach on its back under the table. Nope, never again.

I love this place when the time my girlfriend introduced it to me. It is a cafeteria style set up just like a typical Filipino fast food around the area of Carson. They do stand out though cause of the quality of food they serve. Their dishes are so good that it is difficult to choose what to pick.
My girlfriend always ordered their Bilobilo (rice ball dessert soup) which includes coconut cream, sago (Filipino boba), jackfruit, and sticky rice balls. It is so good and an excellent dish for cold weather days. The ingredients taste fresh that it feels like they made it when you ordered it. Her and I typically share food cause their combo #2 has a big portion. We get two dish, usually Filipino beef steak and their Dinuguan (blood soup). If you’re not Filipino, don’t hesitate to try something new cause their Dinuguan doesn’t taste like blood at all. It taste like Mexican Mole actually with pork meat in it! Their Filipino beef steak is tender that it literally melts in your mouth. The flavor is highly condensed that it will make your taste buds so happy :)
They have more menus than this obviously, but you just gotta check this place out to try it. Oh yeah, their melon juice and sagot gulaman (Filipino Boba drink) are really refreshing. They have BBQ sticks, too and chicharons if you want to stick with your typical orders. Overall, this place is awesome. They really represent the Filipino culture by the food they serve.

For some reason, I felt hungry this morning. I usually don’t eat breakfast or crave breakfast food. I had my heart set on making tocino for breakfast. As I was driving down Carson Street, I remembered Tita Celia’s. So I ordered the tocino breakfast and a 2 item combo. The tocino okay as it was a bit overdone for my liking. The machado and bopis was good.
If you want garlic rice with your entrée, it’s a dollar extra. Overall, it should satisfy your filipino food craving. A plus… it’s open early.

This is my office’s go-​to catering place for the Filipino Independence Day celebration. Their dishes are pretty impressive and affordable.
I was in the neighborhood and decided to check their breakfast out. Five orders to-​go: 3 orders of tapsilog, 1 order of the ribsilog and 1 order of the corned beef.
Each breakfast is cooked to order, so we expected a wait. About ten minutes, it wasn’t so bad.
The tapa was a little dry, but it was okay, nothing special. (I’ve had better.) The rib was SUPER dry, that was disappointing. The corned beef was delicious!
Free pickled vegetables available.
They also packed enough vinegar dip without us asking. (Some places do not do this, they leave that for you to do.) I like that a lot as I usually forget to do it.
I’m gonna have to try breakfast from other places nearby (there are quite a few) simply to compare. But so far, this place is a-​okay.

I dropped by here to pick up some lumpiang shanghai (skinny egg rolls) for our Halloween office potluck. In addition to party platter items, they offer turo turo («point point») style food, that is typical amongst Filipino casual restaurants. Tita Celia’s is on Carson & Figueroa in Carson.
The lumpia were very good, and reasonably priced at $ 15 for 50 pieces. They were crispy on the outside, but still moist on the inside. I ordered in advance and the lumpia were ready when requested and the staff is nice and friendly. The only downside was the oil was prolly a little old, that resulted in the lumpia being darker than they should have been: 4 Stars.
Tita Celia’s also offers Filipino staples like adobo, lechon kawali, pancit bihon, sinigang, pinakbet, and sisig. On a second visit, I had a two item combo for $ 7.25 w/​pancit and lechon kawali. Both items were really good, and I killed my plate. Two co-​workers that joined me, have never had Filipino food before. One ordered kare kare (oxtail stew) and inihaw na baboy (pork skewer). The other had adobo and pancit. Both of them really enjoyed the food. BTW the place was busy on both occasions, and most of the clientele were Filipino (a good indicator the food is good).
Its nice having a really good, casual Filipino place close by my office (1.5 miles). I rarely get Filipino food, because Artesia & Cerritos are a hike from HB.

Me: Hey Mom, I’m craving Filipino food.
Mom: Did you find a place in Carson to get some?
Me: Yeah, at Tita Celia’s.
Mom: Who is Tita Celia?
Lol! And yes that is exactly how that conversation went down.
I would say that Tita Celia’s is my go to Filipino restaurant in the area. Well it’s the only one I’ve tried in the area. So by default its my go to Filipino restaurant. But I’m sure if I tried others, I would still come back to this one.
I got some rice, a BBQ stick, caldereta and sinigang broth. Everything tasted great. It definitely satisfied my Filipino food craving.
Service: Friendly.
Parking: Easy to find parking.
Will I be back? Heck yeahhh! I always get some random Filipino food cravings every once in awhile. And I will definitely stop by Tita Celia’s to satisfy that craving! lol,

Alrighty!!! My first Filipino food run! The overall experience was quite a bit of a rollercoaster for me. The food is laid out in a Panda Express type of format where you have the luxury of looking before you commit. It reminded me of Harry Potter’s Bertie Bott’s Every Flavour Beans, randomly choosing waiting in anticipation to see which flavors I got. Or tinder!!! Holla at my food! Walking over with a cheesy pickup line, «If you were a Pokemon, I’d choose you!!! Get in my belly!» Or Yu-​Gi-​Oh even, the luck of the draw. Naw what I mean? Have I nerded out enough?
None of the items I picked were bad. With each item I tasted and each flavor profile being so unbelievably different and unexpected, I felt like my mouth was being hit by a massive surprise train. I found it to be incredibly fun. I picked the option of two items with rice and a soup. To be completely honest, with the names of each entrée being so foreign and new, I have no recollection of what they were called… Hehehehhe. Just know from sweet to savory, to super sour and fishy, meaty and hearty, everything was all over the place. Each component on its own wasn’t bad, just the adjustment between switching back and forth from each item took some time. The sweet and sour meatball thing was really good though. Keep a look out for that!!!
I do remember what my dessert was called, HALO HALO!!! Oh Beyoncé! You did me something good girl!!! Way to help a man remember something’s name!!! After watching a food blogger on YouTube sample some halo halo in the pursuit of the best dessert, I’ve been drying to try some myself. I finally got my opportunity!!! It consisted of a cup filled and stacked with different ingredients and toppings. At the peak of this mountain of a cup was some… what I believe to be vanilla ice cream with a caramel swirl. I guess the thing to do with desserts like these is mix everything to form the perfect bite with each component being packed into each mouthful. I was not disappointed.
With this being my first experience, I’ll have to venture on to other Filipino restaurants using this place as a basis of comparison! Overall, I’ll have to give this place a 3.5.

If you’re ever in Carson city you HAVE to make a pit stop here. I wish they had this restaurant in Orlando, because this is just some awesome filipino food! Tastes so close to how my mom cooks our homeland food and this hit close to home!
Right when you walk into the restaurant, the aroma is just simply DIVINE! It’s a cafeteria style, so many options and the decision making is pretty tough. But the two times we went I ordered the breakfast menu which I believe is all day (correct me if I’m wrong). You HAVE to get Tapsilog! Beef with fried garlic rice AND an egg. Mercy me! I could eat this honestly every day with no hesitation! While you’re at it, order some chicken bbq. It taste just like the way they bbq the meat in the Philippines! And since you’re already indulging you MUST and I repeat MUST order some chicharon! Chicken or Pork or whatever fits your fancy, just order it! SO FREAKING GOOD!
To down it all down, the melon juice is the TRUTH. One of my absolute fav drinks! So refreshing and a palette cleanser most definitely. I loooooove this place! Definitely will be visiting this place again when I go to Cali!

Haven’t craved Filipino in such a long time until this certain week. May be it’s in the air. May be it’s because I’ve all of a sudden been surrounded with Pinoys. Who knows, riiight? !
Anyway, we were going to be around the south bay area so I knew I had a few spots bookmarked that I’ve been wanting to try.
Highly recommended by a few Unilocalers, the drive WAS a drive for me but didn’t mind it at all especially we didn’t catch any traffic.
It is your typical cafeteria/​turo turo style restaurant. Located right off the fwy so be careful you don’t pass it like I did.
After being greeted with a smile, I went pretty crazy picking whatever looked good. Well they all did.
Beef calderetta, falling apart tender and juicy and flavorful at each bite. Very good!
Puset, was juicy, tasty, soft, and marinated just right.
Laing, chunks of pork and shrimp adding on to the distinct flavors of laing. So damn good and the reason why I chose to drive down here today!
Kare kare, great consistency and taste on the gravy, tripe and oxtail was soft to chew.
Pork sinigang was bomb. Pork and Veges were cooked soft just how I like it. And the taste of tamarind was just like how my Dad made sinigang.
We also ordered their deep fried battered white fish… so good but so bad for you. Hahaha
Places like these are similar to pinoy Pinays, dj bibingkahans, and all the non franchise establishments. What sets each one apart from the rest? Freshness of the food, prices, variety, etc… but it is not your 5 star dining establishment.
What I liked about this place is definitely the variety and the flavors, ofcourse. And this alone will definitely bring back Chel at Tita Celia’s.

Good home-​cooked Filipino comfort food.
TIP: can get pretty packed for lunch. Sometimes the line gets so long it doesn’t even know what to do with itself and we all end up standing in an awkward huddle. I know they try to move as fast as possible but with a pick-​and-​choose style restaurant like this, it’s hard to be efficient. Parking can be rough too as the parking lot is super limited.
Gets VERY hot in the summer, which can make this piping hot salty food pretty hard to eat.
The food is pretty good and authentic. Comfort food for sure. Better in chillier weather. Pancit is very half-​assed, I’ve had better. I’ve liked mostly everything I’ve tried. Sometimes their stewed dishes can be pretty starchy. I got a beef stewed in some peanut sauce once, and boy was it hard to finish. Also very oily and fatty. Sometimes the saltiness can be overwhelming. But that’s everywhere. You really can’t go wrong with any of their breakfasts though. Garlic rice is so bomb!
SUPER cheap. Ask for free soup with your meal.

I’ve had this place bookmarked forever.
It was right there by my dentist office too.
So the last time I visited my dentist, I made a point to stop by here and try them out.
Tita Celia’s is a typical Filipino Turo Turo (point point) place. It’s cafeteria style. Just point to the dish you want and you’re good to go. They offer combos with one, two or three entrees and your combo includes rice and soup (you have to ask for the soup, it’s not automatically given)
The fam bam was in tow so we decided to dine in.
The décor is minimal.
They have a TV playing Filipino soup opera programs
They have a condiment station and that’s where you can go get some filtered water as well.
The place was clean and It was nice to see someone cleaning up the tables as customer leaves. (a Plus in my book)
To the food:
Kare Kare (oxtail stew with peanut butter sauce) — Wifey loves this dish, just not this one. I’ve been getting this dish a lot recently from other restaurant and by far this ranks in the bottom of that category. The sauce wasn’t tasty, how do you produce a bland Kare Kare? Minimal vegetables and the meat was not tender. I would pass on this dish.
Rib-​Si-​Log — I have never had a rib-​si-​log (BBQ Ribs served with garlic fried rice and 2 eggs) so I had to try it. Should have stuck to a regular Filipino breakfast dish (maybe). My pet peeve. Over cooked eggs. The yoke on both sunny side up egg was hard as a rock over cooked. Yuck. The rib was not tender as well. BBQ sauce or glaze on it was super sweet. The garlic fried rice was meh. Didn’t even finish it. PASS again.
Fried Chicken Skin — stale, not crunchy and still had chicken hair (yes, that wasn’t a typo, lol). PASS again
Fried Anchovies — Hallelujah, we finally got a winner here. That was a good dish. Dipped in some garlicky vinegar it’s the bomb.
Pancit — this was just okay. I’ve definitely had better.
I’m being overly critical here, I know. But I know what Filipino food should taste like and this place wasn’t close to being good eats.
Maybe I ordered the wrong things.
Maybe it was a bad day.
Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the Filipino restaurants in the Cerritos /​Artesia area that would run circles around this place.
Maybe…
Maybe…
Too many maybes. I don’t see myself coming back to find out.
There’s better Filipino food out there than this place.
Rating 2 ½ Stars
2015 Review #11