This place on Queen West brings out the best in Filipino food in an effort to showcase it to more people, using ingredients like albacore tuna for a kinilaw. They do their own version of a traditional kamayan (“hand-to-mouth”) feast mixing expected and unexpected with fried chicken adobo, mussels, eggplant, bangus, cornbread, broccolini and more.

A little sister project to Lamesa on St. Clair West, this more casual venture still puts out some of the best Filipino food in the city but in a little more toned down, traditional style. Some of the best shrimp ginataan (a vegetarian dish without it, made with squash and green bean), lechon, halo halo, chicken adobo, and sinigang presented cleanly and simply.

With transportative decor, this restaurant in Don Mills has a huge menu and classes up its kamayan offerings by portioning out each guest’s meal. They also do “salo-salo” set menus for 5 or 10 guests of typical dishes like pancit, kare kare, spring rolls, and lechon, and sell tubs of ube ice cream.

This humble family-style spot in St. Jamestown does kamayan eating justice. Yummy feasts of seafood, lechon, and rice spread in the typical style over banana leaves can be eaten out on the patio in the summer here.

On Wilson, the menu here is simple but has a good variety of fried rices, pancit, chicken dishes, and combos. The prices are right, hovering around $10 - $15.

A true family restaurant, this place near Wilson and Bathurst is the ultimate place to go for lechon right now. Specializing in pigs and chickens stuffed with aromatics and cooked whole, feed a giant group on a dime here.

With locations in Vaughan and Scarborough, this chain is known for its 70-year-old fried chicken recipe. They also do sizzling pork belly plates and typical Filipino breakfasts of fried eggs, rice, and fish, sausage or sirloin.

Not the swankiest Filipino joint in town, but there’s wide variety (especially of Filipino pork dishes) at this classic hot table spot with a couple locations in Scarborough. A few shelves stock some essential groceries and there's a freezer of ube ice cream and other desserts.