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Pinoy Express (Filipino cuisine)  $

 7.5
JaT Rating

807 Aldo Avenue, Santa Clara, 95054  (Directions)


408.727.4499


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Filipino buffet offering catering and late night Karaoke on the weekends


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 6/25/2007
Rating: 7.5
My photo gallery 		We trekked out to Santa Clara to pickup the new batch of jatbar shirts. I had made arrangements to meet up at noon and to my distaste, the t-shirt placed was closed. We're in the middle of some business park and needed time to kill. There was a yellow sign up the road with Pinoy Express listed. Hidden way back in the parking lot is this Filipino all you can eat buffet. It's an odd location considering finding a Filipino buffet in the south bay is rare.

The buffet costs $8.99 with about 20+ dishes to choose from. If you're on the go, they also offer combination plates for a couple of dollars less. I've been to Philippines and the buffet selection mimics what you'd see in the super malls throughout Manila. This place is legit and even sports a Karaoke machine for those late night singing binges that go on until 2AM on Friday and Saturday.

For the readers who've never had Filipino food, it's one of those cuisines that you'll either love or hate. Much of the food is extremely greasy with little vegetables options. Items can be exotic while other dishes like lumpia (looks like eggrolls) or pansit (fried noodles) are the norm in other asian menus. If you're new to the cuisine, a buffet will offer you one of the best tasting experiences. I tried picking the most popular Filipino items

garlic fried rice - off the hook, one of the best items in the buffet. Some of the rice was kinda crunchy with the right amount of salt and overwhelming serving of garlic. Go easy on this dish or all your coworkers will think you just got back from the gym.

adobo - If there's 1 dish that Filipinos are known for, it's gotta be this one. It's basically chicken or pork marinated in vinegar and soy sauce. There are a number of ways to prepare this dish as I'm of the side of no bay leaf served semi-dry. The chicken was tender and sauce wasn't too acidic. For people reluctant to try asian foods, this one is an easy one to eat. Pinoy Express did a good job with it.

sinigang - today's version was a beef in tamarind soup. I love this dish to be very sour. The soup could use a little work. The beef was chewy and beef cuts had too much fat to it. They need to slow cook it a bit longer and let the tamarind flavor soak into the beef. The potatoes were on the hard side too and broth wasn't even that sour. A complete miss.

lechon (roast pig) - There's a restaurant next door called the Lechon Factory and convinced they are getting it from there. It was soooo flippin good. The skin was crackling crispy with the meat tender as cook be. It's a fatty dish so don't be alarmed if you see a layer of fat between the skin and meat. There's a light brown sauce with the black speckles. It's a traditional sweet liver sauce that a great compliment to salty meat. Overall, super good.

beef mechado - beef stewed in tomato sauce. This dish is probably more Spanish if anything. Meat could have been more tender and on the salty side. It was ok.

kare kare - oxtail or beef in peanut sauce. This is one of my favorite dishes and one of the hardest ones to get right. I'm completely surprised they even have this on a buffet as it takes hours to make. I had a small batch as I know how deadly the ingredients are. The sauce was too thick, all I could taste was peanut butter. I think it could have used more of the beef broth to water it down. The biggest sin was the beef. The beef has to be slow cooked or pressure cooked, whatever but the beef needs to be super tender. It was tough and chewy which is a complete no-no in my book. There were no vegetables in the dish. All the kare kare dishes I've had either had eggplant, bok choy, long beans, or green beens. I did not enjoy this dish at all.

Pinoy Express cooks up authentic food but navigating the 20+ steam trays is a tough task. Some foods are friendly while others might scare you back to the car (dinuguan). If I were to guide you to a safe visit, I'd order a side of lumpia. Take a scoopful of garlic fried rice, pickup a leg of fried chicken, lechon, adobo, pansit, sinigang, and longenisa. If you want to do it Pinoy style breakfast, go for garlic fried rice, fried eggs, and longenisa (sweet pork sausage). The breakfast alone would earn an 8.

Just remember, Filipino food is greasy. That's the way it's always been and if you see it served differently, it's probably not authentic. As with every Filipino restaurant I've ever visited, the service will be one of the friendliest you'll ever receive. You're treated like family and the cook even goes out of his way to guide you to his favorite dishes. I'm definitely coming back to Pinoy Express to try other dishes.
 
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