First Course: Manila Grille
Gansevoort's family-owned Filipino food truck is a must-visit.
Typically, I reserve the “First Course” headline for features on brand-new restaurants, like Standard Fare and Tree House Brewing. But while Manila Grille has been serving authentic Filipino fare on weekends in Gansevoort for nearly a year now, word seems to have only recently gotten out about it.
“We have someone who put our name out there on What’s Going on Saratoga and other things on Facebook,” says Troy Soriano, the son of Manila Grille owner Romeo Soriano. “Because of his kindness, people started hearing about us.”
That’s how I heard about them. Last weekend, my boyfriend, Pete, and I decided to make the drive up to Manila Grille’s location at The Day Dream Farmer to check it out.
Open on weekends through the fall, Manila Grille is a family business run by Philippines natives Romeo and Teresita Soriano and their American-born children. When Troy was little, Romeo ran a restaurant in Albany called, according to the elder Soriano, “Romeo’s Tavern…and Grill and Restaurant.”
“Tavern and Grill and Restaurant?” I asked.
“OK, sorry—he’s just saying stuff,” Troy said quickly. “I don’t know what he’s talking about.”
Romeo just smirked.
After Romeo’s Tavern (we think that’s what it was called) closed, Romeo found other work, but never lost his passion for cooking. When the idea for a food truck came about, he decided to give it a shot. At first, the family was catering events and serving food at festivals like the World’s Largest Garage Sale in Warrensburg and The Shirt Factory’s Thursday Market & Food Truck Corral in Glens Falls. Then, they got a good deal on a space at The Day Dream Farmer, a farm cooperative and garden center located just off Exit 16 of the Northway, and decided to set up a more permanent shop.
Now, Manila Grille is open at Day Dream Farmer on weekends (you can still find them at The Shirt Factory on Thursday evenings). Next to the food truck are a few tables and chairs that, when we went, seemed to be mainly occupied by repeat customers who were more than happy to offer us food recommendations and/or snap a photo of me with Romeo for the owner to send to his wife.
Troy defines Filipino food as hearty, rich, and consisting of a lot of meat. The cuisine draws influence from Spanish, Chinese, American, and Southeast Asian flavors, and is known for having savory, tangy, and sweet flavors all in the same dish.
On the Manila Grille menu itself: a variety of pork and chicken dishes, Filipino spring rolls called lumpia, and pansit—a noodle dish with vegetables and chicken. “Whenever anyone comes up, I’m conditioned to recommend our No. 3, which is a sampling platter of four different items,” Troy told me. “If you’re unsure about this, unsure about that, try them all and see what you like from it.”
Pete got the chicken adobo and the pansit. When I explained that I don’t eat meat, Romeo assured me that the pansit is made with chicken breast, so it should be fine. (I didn’t eat the chicken, but I did eat the noodles around it.) Before we left, Romeo snuck a few lumpia into our to-go container.
Manila Grille doesn’t have a website, but it does have a Facebook page—sort of.
“This guy needs to give me his Facebook login,” Troy said of his father. “I don’t know if he forgot his password or something, but there’s a section in Facebook where you can link a personal account to a business account, and I’ve been trying to get that going.”
The good news? Romeo’s a whole lot better at cooking than he is at navigating the world of social media. And if you need to reach him? All you need to do is call.
—Natalie