Six To Try: Filipino Cafes and Dessert Shops in Melbourne

Melbourne’s Filipino food scene has changed a lot over the last decade. A new generation of Filipino Australians is climbing aboard the Filo food train, honouring the classics and adding fresh twists. A handful of casual spots in the CBD, like Kariton Sorbetes and Ceree, offer familiar flavours, but head a little further out to find gems like Pecks Road and Papabear Bakehouse, which serve comfort food including ube cheescake and a spam-and-egg spin on a bagel.

Whether you’re after snacky barbeque pork skewers or a full, traditional silog – a Filipino breakfast of garlic fried rice and fried egg with sides like tapa (cured meat), longganisa (pork sausage), tocino (sweet cured pork) and adobo – these spots offer dishes combining the best of Manila and Melbourne.

Ceree, Melbourne CBD

Albert Estampador opened this cafe with a mission to introduce Melburnians to lesser-known Filipino dishes. Inspired by family recipes, the menu has silog, batchoy (noodle soup with pork and offal) and Filipino spaghetti – a slightly sweet take on bolognaise, often made with hotdog frankfurters. The star of the drinks list is the iced ube latte, a creamy number with an espresso shot that balances sweet and nutty notes.

The light-filled spot close to Carlton Gardens has homely, neutral tones, wooden furniture and a shoppable pantry full of Filipino chocolates and chips, plus harder-to-find ingredients such as banana ketchup.

285 Spring Street, Melbourne
@ceree_melb

Migrant Coffee, West Footscray

Both daughters of immigrants, Melodee “Melo” Malazarte and Stacey Earsman dedicated this west-side spot to their mums. The pair switch up classic New-York-style bagels with Filipino, Southeast Asian and Polynesian flavours. The menu changes regularly, but you might find the Bok Bok Manok with Filipino chicken salad, cheddar and iceberg lettuce, or one with brisket pastrami and atchara (Filipino pickled green papaya). If you’re just after a schmear, the house-made spreads include coconut jam and pandan cream. There’s also a courtyard – the perfect place to sip the all-day Mimosas and Bloody Marys.

3/576 Barkly Street, West Footscray
migrantcoffee.com
@migrantcoffee

Pecks Road Cafe, Caroline Springs

Co-owners and brothers AJ, Albin and Arbi Lawang wanted this cafe to feel like their lola’s (grandmother’s) living room, where they spent most afternoons as kids. Whether you’re after something sweet or savoury, you’ll find a range of house-made treats. The glazed doughnuts, made on-site daily, are the best place to start. But you also can’t go wrong with the spam-and-egg bagel, which dials up the crunch with crisp chicharon (pork crackling). The bagel calls to mind two Filipino classics: lechon (spit-roasted pig) and spamsilog (spam and egg breakfast with garlic fried rice).

Shop A6/1–7 Caroline Springs Boulevard, Caroline Springs
pecksroadcheatmeals.com
@pecksroad

Enelssie Cafe and Grill, Burnside Heights

This lively Filipino grill started life on a different path: as a bike shop. Chef-owner Anthony Hererra grew up in Marikina, on the eastern side of Manila, where streetside barbeques are commonplace. He wanted to give his cycling customers a taste of Filipino barbeque and share recipes passed down from his father. (He was also feeling inspired by Bunnings’s snag stands). His barbeque skewers quickly gained a following, alongside Filipino corned beef served in pandesal (a slightly sweet Filipino bread roll).

You’ll still see old bikes and accessories decorating the walls, but now folks mostly come for the food. Beyond the beloved barbeque skewers, try classics like chicken inasal (sweet and smokey barbequed chicken) hot off the grill, classic chicken adobo, and the bicol express (a spicy stew of pork, shrimp paste and chillies cooked in coconut milk).

102 Tenterfield Drive, Burnside Heights
enelssie.com.au
@enelssiecafegrill

Papabear Bakehouse, Braybrook

Filipinos are experts at making sweet treats. And Papabear Bakehouse, which has been doing it for three decades, is in the Filipino bakery upper crust. The Braybook gem opened in 1994 and peddles top-notch pandesal, hopia (flaky pastry filled with bean paste, similar to mooncakes) and twisted golden doughnuts. Its owner Nancy “Nanay” Bautista ran a bakery in Taguig, Manila before migrating to Australia in 1985; needless to say, she (and her family) has plenty of experience waking up early to serve home-style baked goods. Highlights include ube scroll cake, glossy chicken empanadas and ensaymada (a Spanish sweet bread frosted with buttercream and sprinkled with salty cheese). The pandesal, with its crusty exterior and fluffy inside, is best enjoyed with a swipe of butter in the middle (if it lasts the journey home).

11 Market Place, Braybrook
Papabear Bakehouse

Kariton, Melbourne CBD, Footscray, Glen Waverley

In 2020, Kariton Sorbetes co-founder John Rivera told Broadsheet: “We want to be the Asian Messina.” We’re calling it: the ex-Sunda and Lume chef has done it. He and Minh Duong (ex-Maha) have opened in Footscray, the CBD and Glen Waverley, as well as Sydney. There’s good reason for that popularity: you’ve never had ice-cream like this. Kariton’s small-batch treats incorporate nostalgic Filipino flavours, from ube halaya to leche flan and pandan. At least a dozen options are on offer at any given time, with a few slots reserved for adventurous limited-time flavours.

karitonsorbetes.com
@kariton.au

Additional reporting by Doug Wallen, Pauline de Leon, Sofia Levin and Chynna Santos.