Irenia Introduces Modern Filipino Food to OC—And It’s Awesome

When you hit Irenia at the right time in the afternoon, maybe late on a Saturday when the lunch rush has faded away, you may run into a couple of old guys who look as if they’ve never left their table in the bar, nursing bottles of San Miguel and...

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Ryan Garlitos of Irenia Restaurant dreamed of opening his own place someday. He just didn’t expect it to happen so soon. He and his girlfriend, Sarah Mosqueda, had been doing itinerant supper clubs, starting on a whim. “I was making dinner for...

This is the Filipino food moment — I think we can all agree on that. Restaurants such as Lasa, Irenia and Washington, D.C.’s Bad Saint have become media stars in a way that no Filipino restaurants in America have before, and The Times has been...

Always get the shrimp. Photo by Edwin Goei At a recent Jo Koy concert in Brea, the Filipino American comedian lamented how Filipino food hasn’t yet permeated into the American culture, an age-old gripe shared by Filipinos and Filipino-food-lovers...

The morning after my last meal at Maestro, Danny Godinez’s new Mexican restaurant in Old Pasadena, I pulled the leftover barbacoa out of the refrigerator to see if I could salvage enough for a taco. There were still a few scraps of lamb left, but...