Manila’s Kakanin

***Review for the kakanin***
I’ve never heard of this place until my mom ordered their beautifully plated dessert platter for Thanksgiving! «Kakanin» in English simply translate to «prepared rice» or «rice cakes»! There are several kinds of «kakanin» in Filipino cuisine and their platter is great way to sample most of them! *variety is always good!*
The large order came with:
— Sapin Sapin — multi layered and colored rice cake (glutinous rice and coconut milk) garnished w/​coconut flakes!
— Puto — steamed rice cake.
— Ube rice cake — Another sticky rice dessert also with grated coconut flakes!
— Kuchinta — Another type of sticky rice cake!
— Maja Blanca — (coconut pudding) made with coconut milk and corn starch sometimes it has some pieces of corn inside.
The platter looked very presentable and it tasted as good as it looks! My favorites were the sapin sapin and maja blanca! Manila’s Kakanin also serves other Filipino dishes besides the desserts, which I haven’t tried! I’ll stick with their kakanin/​desserts since it is their specialty!

Disappointed. Ordered a tray of palabok for my birthday and I was SO excited to eat it because when this place used to be Gold Tray Manila the palabok was so bomb.
Well the presentation was good, I’ll tell ya that and the lady was really nice. Took my first bite and I was like «wth!?» It was so bland! I had to add some garlic and pepper and that barely made a difference. I wish it tasted better. Just about $ 50 for a medium sized party tray.
Give it a try if u like, but we are def not going back.

Food is okay if it’s one o’clock in the afternoon and your starving! We had coupons from
so that’s how we end up here. The food is okay just be prepared to wait a long time for your order.

I can understand the reason for some of the bad reviews. Place does not appear very clean and organized. The steam table (or whatever its called) did not appear to be on when I came in (around 3pm). The food turned out to be warm, but I definitely prefer it to be warmer — this can definitely lead to some health issues!
But the food tasted very good. I was actually cautious as I started eating it, due to the impression I got from the visuals of the restaurant and food. But everything tasted flavorful and fresh. The rice was cooked well and did not seem to have been sitting too long. I really *want to* give a great review based on how the food tastes and the good service (I was actually $ 1 short and the lady said it was ok).
I hope they can put more work into the restaurant’s appearance, and they definitely need to turn that heat lamp on for the food trays! Don’t be stingy on the electric bill, because you might have a huge issue down the road if someone gets sick from food gone bad!

My company recently moved into the area and I’ve been looking for lunch places. Stumbled upon Manila’s Kakanin doing a Unilocal search and finally got over there for lunch. I had the Pancit Palobak which was pretty good and bought an order of Pitsi Pitsi (sp?). Both were pretty good! I was suspicious how fresh the food would be, but realized the service was kind of slow but because they cook everything to order versus just having it ready & microwaved.
The main lady was quite helpful & nice. I was the third customer and, after the others left, she spent a fair bit of time explaining some of the dishes, that kanin means rice in Tagalog, etc. Desserts are more of their specialty but lunch was good.
I’ll be back to try other dishes…

Noelle’s Unilocal Notebook 2014
About nine months ago I found out there were under new ownership. In an act of good faith I came a couple of times in the past nine months only to find that :
1. The restaurant is often dark with the lights turned off.
2. Inside of restaurant isn’t as clean.
3. Food doesn’t taste as good as before and food is sitting in the steam table cold (ie steam table isn’t on).
4. They don’t have hot pandesal around the clock like the previous owners.
They also have a new sandwich station in the corner that looks tired and unclean. It’s a shame how its gone done hill. The food photos I’ve posted look nothing like the current food they serve up today. Last visit they told me and another customer they don’t have hot pandesal or any to sell and it was 2 p.m. — if it were the other owners back in the day we would have had it hot from the oven. So I picked up some hopia and it tasted old and rancid. I couldn’t recommend this place to anyone.
Noelle’s Notes
Skip it

Manila’s Kakanin lists many items on their standing sign board: donuts, coffee, pastries, sammies?, desserts, filipino foods. some (donuts) not easily visible nor that good (coffee)
pastries premade, wrapped in plastice (how long?)
prepped food in steam trays, didn’t see labels nor pricing.
eats: fried banana in lumpia skin (1)
–actually pretty tasty
3.5 stars
notes:
–store busy, server busy in kitchen talking on phone.

I love coming here after church on most sundays. The pandasal is my favorite out of the whole store. They are all fresh baked and so delicious. Im always coming here for the pandasal. Yum!

How long do you have to wait to get service? Does it take someone walking out? Apparently!!! I wanted Filipino food and thought to give this place a shot. So far service sucks. They don’t close for an hour and already they stop working. Typical for a Filipino restaurant. If I could give it ZERO stars I would, but Unilocal won’t let me continue unless I give a pity star

Our first time here and definitely not the last. The food is great. We love the smoke bangus and we will try all the food they serve.
Its a mini food mart next door.

Merienda special pancit palobak, desert and drink is totally worth it! It was good! It didn’t look like the picture since the picture looked like it had shrimp and egg and mine came out with none of that but I ate it all including the puto I picked for dessert.
They also sell sandwiches and have a steam table with items.
Small place in a strip mall but a nice little find for some grub.

3 plates plus dessert for under $ 20. Loved that their lumpia was homemade, not frozen. I crave dinuguan and am excited this place is so close to my house. Not quite a point-​point i.e. lumpia is not on the menu or in plain view but it’s there. 4 stars for the lack of lechon and sig sig

I was craving Pinakbet or Pakbet (veggies with shrimp/​fish paste) and thank goodness they had it when I first visited. It may not be my favorite, just like everyone whose Mama can cook will claim Mom’s will always be their fave. But thanks for satisfying the craving and the lady who made my halo-​halo provided some good customer service.

Craving for pinoy food but no time to cook? I suggest you check this place out. They have cooked food ready to eat at the counter. However, they only have about 6 selections. For me it’s enough but you can order from their menu if you can hold on to your appetite. You may have to wait a bit though if you order any of their silogs. Btw, their halo-​halo special was heaven! Overall, I like this place.

Found this place on Unilocal.I was craving for Filipino food but didn’t want to cook. I live only a few miles away from this place. That is awesome!
I ordered their tocilog plate, which was $ 6.99. Not too bad at all.
I had a raised glazed donut for dessert. It was so soft like it was just made, and I went when it was near closing. So good!
I’ve gotta come back for their pan de sal & kakanins too. I hear these are all made fresh daily.
So glad I tried this place!

Work around this area and Unilocaled filipino foods since I was always wondering why there’s no Filipino places around South San Jose. Was so excited to find out there was this gem next to where I work !! I had the eggs and tocino plate since I didn’t really feel like eating the other foods they had. Couldn’t believe they had halo halo so of course had to try it ! It was deliccuous ! And they put a huge dallop of mango ice cream (you can choose your flavor) love the people who work there! Such a friendly environment, felt right at home. Will be back for more filipino foods !

Ah, what a miss.
I had a kakanin craving for the longest time, but I think it ended after today. I bought their kutsinta and puto combination pack, their sapin-​sapin, and majablanco. The majablanco was like jello, very soft but lacked a bit of flavor even with the latik on top. The kutsinta was not bad but it wasn’t a big deal. It, too, was soft, had a smooth and slightly sticky texture, and was not too sweet. However, the fried coconut was a turnoff. I always eat it kutsinta with freshly carved coconut meat. As for the puto, I enjoyed the first three pieces but noticed that there was a strong «moist» smell coming from the puto. They did tell me that they were from today, but they seemed a bit spoiled or «panis» when I stopped by in the late afternoon. The sapin-​sapin was actually the better item I bought at my stop here. It had the perfect sweetness, right amount of latik, and nothing overpowered the taste.
What didn’t disappoint me as much were the meals I also bought. The tapsilog was delicious! They were very generous in the portions of both the tapa and especially the garlic rice; however, the garlic rice had garlic bits, but lacked the strong garlicy taste I was hoping for. I also ordered palabok, which was also fulfilling. Their palabok was missing chives, chicharon crumbs, and fried garlic pieces, but you could certainly add it yourself if you want to.
Price wise, it was all affordable. There isn’t much written on their menu, but they did have desserts listed. There are also Filipino snacks and what appeared to be BALUT for sale! The service was great and pretty quick; they were very hospitable. If I would come back here, I would most likely come by in the early morning so the products are really fresh.

Got shanghai lumpia and fresh pandasal. The lumpia was cooked when ordered very tasty but the sauce was overly sweet, this coming from someone with a sweet tooth. Thank god I had some sweet chili sauce at home. Ordered 1 dozen pandasal they are fresh and cooked to order as well. Very delicious not over sweet but just right. My friend asked about adobo cuz unfortunately they didn’t have any made but he was told if you call in advance they will make some yay! So want to try it.

Not impressed at all.
The old Gold Tray Manila offered better tasting kakanin and bibingka… enuff said!

Manila’s Kakanin is awesome!!! Super clean and renovated! This place used to be Gold Tray Manila and it is under new management! New management equals new name= Manila’s Kakanin.
One of my girlfriends told me «kanin» means rice in tagalog. I thought the name was pretty cool cuz who doesn’t like rice! :)
Here are a couple things I know Manila Kakanin offers:
Rice cakes galore! For example:
–majablanco
–sapin sapin
–cassava cake
–pitsi pitsi
–puto
–bibinka (special & regular)
My favorite rice cake is the Pitsi Pitsi! It consists of sweet rice, ube, coconut milk, jackfruit and sugar. The texture is wonderful and I just can’t stop after one piece. Don’t worry, if your looking to buy for a party they sell in bulk! No worries!
5 pieces: $ 3.75
10 pieces: $ 5.99
Besides carrying a ton of filipino desserts they also carry food/​togo. Here is a list of things they had today:
–palabok
–bitter melon w/​egg
–fried fish
–arroz caldo
They had a couple others but I unfortunately do not know the names.
P. S. I deducted one star because they don’t have turon :(Sad life.