The soundtrack for Sir Manong isn’t music, it’s crunching. You’ll hear it over the buzz of the packed room as people bite into shatteringly crisp pork crackling, feasting on platters of crispy pata (pork knuckles) and lechon (roast suckling pig).

Run by husband-and-wife team Tim and Liz Casaje, Eastern Creek’s Sir Manong celebrates classic Filipino food. Plates of textural sisig (pork cheeks) topped with finely diced onion and a runny egg; beef kare-kare so tender it can be pulled apart with a spoon. The portions are enormous and calamansi juice is on tap, its tart citrus perfect for cutting through the slick dishes.

“We want to help Filipino families connect with their roots and their culture,” Tim tells Broadsheet. Sir Manong opened in 2020 and has been so popular that the Casajes opened a second spot in Chatswood late last year. “The dishes are about preserving Filipino traditions for future generations, even though we’re far from home. Every dish has a story, and everyone has their favourite.”

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For Tim, it’s kare-kare (a beef and vegetable stew slow-cooked in rich peanut sauce) that inspires nostalgia. “It brings back so many memories of my childhood back home, especially the beautiful Sunday lunches my mum used to make.”

Rather than having a regional focus, Sir Manong’s menu represents Filipino cooking’s greatest hits – meaning the flavours and ingredients across the menu are wide-ranging but authentic. “We don’t do fusion.”

There’s the spicy Bicol Express, a pork dish cooked with coconut milk and green chillies, named for the train that once ran from central to regional Bicol province; and sinigang, a comforting tamarind-based soup with king prawns and chunks of daikon. And then there’s adobo, which is probably the best known, most loved Filipino dish. Every family has a recipe, and some say there are as many iterations as there are islands in the Philippines: over 7000.

It’s adobong itim (black adobo) at Sir Manong, tweaked from an old family recipe. Thick cuts of pork belly are marinated and then slow-cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, sugar and garlic, but it’s just one way to cook the ubiquitous dish. Operations manager Clarice Zuasola grew up with adobong puti (white adobo).

“Adobo is like a blank canvas that represents who you are as a person and where you come from,” she says. “I’m from Mindanao in the south, and our adobo is more dry than soupy, and it’s white because we use salt instead of soy sauce.”

Eastern Creek Quarter is home to a handful of competing restaurants, but Sir Manong stands out for being steeped in culture beyond the food. Around the dining room are signs painted in a flourished script that mimics that used on Manila’s public transport jeepneys. “They’re a mix of words that if you’re a Filipino living abroad and you read the signs, you might see something familiar – maybe the street in Manila you lived on, or the name of your favourite ingredient – and it sparks joy,” says Zualosa.

As for the name Sir Manong? It’s part of a complex system of honorifics and terms of respect that doesn’t easily translate to English or Western culture.

“Manong is an elder, someone who has guided you in the community or workplace,” Tim says. “Sir Manong conveys both respect and affection, and it reflects the values of kinship that are deeply ingrained in Filipino culture.”

Sir Manong
T16/159 Rooty Hill Road South, Eastern Creek

Hours:
Mon to Thu 10.30am–8.30pm
Fri to Sun 9.30am–8.30pm

@sirmanong