Grill City

I’ve had their stuffed talong, grilled pusit, smoked bangus, and gulay. All good Filipino comfort food for me coming from the desertlands of Temecula where Filipinos are like the mythical unicorn or the fabled four-​leaf clover. You see them at the church on Sunday and then poof, we’re gone. Anyways, if in in the area, I come for the talong and pusit. The bangus was a little dry but still a good smokey flavor. I’m not too big on the grilled meat here although this is what they are known for. Because talong and grilled pusit are not on the menu at my local Filipino restaurant in Temecula, I appreciate these offerings at Grill City.

This place is not 5 star but it definitely fills my Filipino food crave. Here you’ll get quick, affordable, good portioned, and tasty Filipino food. My favorite would be their breakfast options, for only $ 6.95 you get garlic rice, 2 eggs, and 2 good size portioned entrees. The chicken Tocino is delish! Try it! Another plus of eating at this establishment is that it’s surrounded by a handful of small Filipino booths, restaurants, and bakeries in case you want to top off your meal with a small dessert or more Filipino delicacies. Walking through this place made me feel like I was back in the Philippines. Ahh, a little taste of Filipino right down the street, thank you Lord

Since Grill City was opened, We usually visit this place for a quick breakfast. But now I noticed something that I wanna share to my fellow Unilocaler.
Apparently, Grill City was a good place to start your day. But one day I ordered «corn beef, fried rice, egg (corsilog), I noticed that the corn beef was too oily and they put a lot of onions with less meat. Not to mention, the server told me that the container supposed to be filled up halfway only. Seriously who wants to eat the whole onion without the meat of corn beef? Well, I don’t. I was so upset. And now I started to give a doubt if the management is trying to cheats the customers, or its just me.
See for yourself if you don’t believe me. Good luck.

So we eat here all the time but on this occasion, I saw a fly floating in my sinampalukan chicken soup. I showed it to the cashier who took the soup and that was the end of it. Needless to say, it ruined my appetite. Last time I’ll ever go here.

It’s no wonder Filipino restaurants don’t make it big in the US. It’s unfortunate that Filipinos have to put up with this kind of customer service. The sad thing is these people will probably not even care about customer reviews because the management and employees here thinks its a right to serve their customers, not a privilege. Try ordering when they are busy or even catered food and you will know what I mean. Can there be a Filipino operator out there that knows what customer service means?

I am only reviewing the BBQ skewers and I must say they are amazing, We got the chicken and the beef (I think) they were great and 6 sticks for 14 bucks is a deal, I ate them for work lunch Monday and Tuesday. when I am in this part of town and hungry I will drop in for sure.

Their combo platters are expensive and aren’t interchangeable. The staff asked the manager if I can replace my tilapia fish with bangus or squid instead Ms. Manager said yes but only if I add $ 2. Platter also includes only 1 choice of salad that even the staff dosen’t eat. Come on Grill City this is America! You are the reason why Pinoy businesses aren’t making it here. Good luck and may God bless you! You need divine intervention folks!

Very poor costumer service. staff is not friendly and polite. Food is not good, squid is so tough. Their manager is mean. One of the staff made a mistake, she put a lot of meat in one of the costumer’s order, and the manager saw it, she scolded her employee and ask the costumer to return the extra meat in her box.

The food was NOT good. Save your money and go somewhere, anywhere else! I ordered 4 skewers (pork and chicken) and rice and lumpia. The skewers were cold and had no taste. The lumpia was not lumpia. It gave me a dry weird taste at the end. The rice was fine, but afterall… how can you mess up white rice when you use a rice cooker. I was rooting for this place to be good, but was let down immensely.

their chicken BBQ would be 5 stars if they just changed one thing. cook it to order instead of grilling a bunch all day. why? cause by the time you get the BBQ its room temp or cold. which we don’t understand, they’re in a market where people can shop while they wait so give people a number while paying, or call out the number in the PA system. the food would be better because of it cause the marinade was spot on, it was sweet, sticky, very charred from the grill with lean cuts of dark meat. we ordered one just to try and liked it so much we ordered two more chicken BBQ with sinigang and the liempo (pork belly).
another change for the owners. the BBQ liempo was more like BBQ tocino. your better off just using salt, pepper and fresh garlic with a little soy when grilling. liempo should be pork tender charred not rubbery charred. if it was the pork belly would be killer in the Filipino vinegar dip.
hopefully whoever owns it can make changes soon enough before numbers ($) start suffering. its a great idea that needs some major tweaking in their business model because SD doesn’t really have a place that grills filipino chicken, pork, squid and fish bbq in one place.

Horrible food. The pork sticks were fatty. The place was dirty too. No one emptied the trash bins which were overflowing with garbage. I should have followed my gut feeling and gone next door to Chow King!

I lived and worked 34 years in the Philippines, and one of my favorite types of Filipino cuisine is «inihaw” – their barbecue. So when my son and I stopped by Seafood Market last week for a couple of halo-​halos, we were really excited to find Grill City. We both had pork barbecue meals, and the pork barbecue was delicious. It definitely had that inihaw flavor we were looking for. There was on big difference between Grill City pork bbq and the bbq we were used to from the Philippines: Grill City uses a lot more meat. No complaints so far.
A few days back all my grown children were over at the house, and we decided it would be fun to go to Grill City for their breakfast. This was an event; we were driving all the way down from Carlsbad just for breakfast. Tapa, tocino, longanisa, bangus, tinapa – all of these are breakfast favorites of ours. It turned out not to be that great.
First, there were no fried eggs for breakfast. The traditional egg that’s part of a sinangag breakfast is fried, sunny side up. I guess whatever equipment they used for frying eggs was broken, so their solution was to give us hard-​boiled eggs instead – cold, as though previously refrigerated. Maybe 2 of 10 boiled eggs we were served ended up getting eaten.
Second, there was no longanisa. I had my heart set on longanisa for breakfast, so along with my wife I ended up eating at the nearby Chowking instead (longanisa: check; fried egg: check).
Third, one my my sons ordered tocino and was given chicken tocino instead. He’s not the kind of guy to complain, so he sat and ate his chicken tocino, wishing he had pork tocino. In my mind, that was strike three for Grill City.
Pros: Good inihaw: The pork bbq, tocino, tapa, tinapa, and even the chicken tocino were all very good. The sinangag was fine. The prices were also decent.
Cons: Careless in preparing the correct orders. No fried eggs for breakfast. Some pre-​cooked food rather cold.
Will I eat again at Grill City? Probably, if I’m at Seafood Market and I can see Grill City has something I like. Will I drive to Grill City again as my destination? No.

Finally! Grill City is the only place in town that has this huge of a variety when it comes to Inihaw (Grill/​Smoke house). Before they opened up, you’d have to drive all the way to National City just to get this type of food.
Grill City is located inside of Seafood City. It’s next to a Sanrio type store and a Filipino dessert shop. They occupy a pretty big chunk of that corner, hard to miss (specially that undeniable smell or grilled meats and seafood).
They have plenty of grilled goods. Pork, Chicken, Beef, Bangus, Squid, and I believe Tilapia. I’ve only had their Pork, chicken, and squid. The pork and chicken were superb. Grilled nicely and still juicy. It’s seasoned well and wont taste like any American style grilled pork and chicken you’ve ever had. It does have that distinct Filipino kick. The squid was on the bland side. But had excellent seafood texture. Still soft but it had the right amount of chew. I have yet to try the chicken or beef skewers. There’s a huge amount and they’re always grilling a fresh batch. The skewers fly off the shelves during peak hours. As far as the side dishes go, I’ve tried the Bopis, and Laing. The Bopis I’ve tried twice and it had consistent flavor. The Laing also had good flavor, compared to other places I’ve tried it at where it was bland. They do large size orders too for parties and events. Prices are a little on the steep side, but as long as I’m not eating here everyday, my arteries and wallet will manage.

Sinigang= different/​weird taste, dinuguan= lots of fat, tilapia= barely any meat, prices= not worth the food.
Chicken skewers were pretty good.
3^rd time coming here, seeing if my view would change BUT nope.

Love their bbq skewers here and the lechon kawaili. That’s all I ever get here besides their pancit palabok every once in a while. Service is ok sometimes it can get messy if there’s a long line. So 4 stars for my main food items that I get here.

Chicken and pork BBQ are delicious and flavorful.
However, bad experience when I was served really old and crunchy pancit palabok. Can live without going here again. Try at your own risk.

Came here for the first time to try out their chicken and pork barbecue. Price listed was 4 for $ 10, thinking it was $ 2.50 each. However, it’s 2.75 a piece and you must buy four in a single transaction.
The food was flavorful and juicy.
The person helping us was «Zander» he was more than helpful.
However, I do wonder why they don’t wear gloves. Especially when the person handling the food is also the same person who works the cash register.

We came in to check out the remodeled store. Grill City is nicely set up when you enter Seafood City. We came on a Friday night and it was not busy. We looked at what was offered and some of the items looks old, burnt or gone.
Although I knew most of the food items, it would be nice for them to place labels for what is being offered for the day.
We ordered 1 pork BBQ and 1 chicken BBQ with a side rice and soda. All this was $ 11, which I thought was a little expensive. The BBQ are $ 2.75 each. The proteins are plentiful as 1 stick equates to 2 small BBQ sticks. I was full with eating half of a stick.
The service was good and the employees were friendly. I noticed that it was a couple hours until closing and the dude at the BBQ station kept BBQing. Will there really be a rush for them to cook and possibly waste all that BBQ?!
There are tables where you can dine in, but they weren’t cleaned very often. There were a lot of flies flying around too.
What’s up with that?! I felt like I was in the Philippines!

Disorganized. Seriously disorganized.
Grill City’s been open for about a month now inside Seafood City. The visual of the BBQ skewers cooking on an open grill is what lures people there, and the items on the steam trays do look appealing. However, you know what they say about looks being deceiving…
I’d decided to give the place a go this past Friday after looking at the line and thinking, «Oh, that doesn’t look so bad…» Boy, was I wrong — between placing my order, waiting in line to pay for it, and actually finding a place to sit down and eat it, it took me about 15 minutes. That’s right — FIFTEEN MINUTES of standing in line for what should be a five minute wait. The staff may be polite, but they should work on that efficiency; I remember another Unilocaler in his review comparing the wait time to Porto’s, but unlike the latter, your food will get cold the longer you stand in line.
Speaking of the food, I had gone with an combo of their pork BBQ for $ 5.95 (1 skewer, ¾ of a styrofoam container of rice — they sure pack it on here! — and a container of pork sinigang), a half order of lechon for $ 6.50 (I was feeling like having some), and a drink for $ 1.79 (after being in line for fifteen minutes, I sure needed one). Is the food worth the wait? Well, yes… and no. While the pork BBQ was delicious, it also had quite a bit of fat on it. The lechon wasn’t as crispy as I was expecting, but the sinigang actually wasn’t that bad; normally when I get a side of sinigang from Filipino fast food places, it’s usually just the broth and a smattering of veggies. At Grill City, they actually give you some protein (pork in my case, though I’ve also seen shrimp sinigang offered)!
If the speed of service and organization can be vastly improved, I can see Grill City being successful. As it stands, my visits here will be few and far between… although I do want to try that grilled stuffed squid that’s on the menu.

It’s their 2^nd week running 3^rd but they still haven’t figured out a system that will lighten up the line and not disappoint people having to wait for long period of time only to find out that they run out their best sellers which is actually the chicken and pork bbq when it’s your turn at the counter. They should devise a system of getting/​taking orders from the line and inform the customers what are available or how long it will take to have the bbq’s.
Their pork & chicken bbq are their bread and butter here because admittedly, it is really good. Other than that, all other items are just mediocre or ok at best.
I will try them again this wk and see what has changed but seriously, they look lost, disorganized and often looks chaotic most of the time. And because of that, I’m bumping them down from 4 starts to a mere 1 star. Promising but utterly disappointing at this point in time. They have to step up their game or they’ll lose more customers.