Gerry’s Grill and Bar

It’s been over two years since my mom and I stepped foot inside this place for a late lunch, and we thought that the food was horrible… so, before I wrote this, I decided to first take a look at other reviews before putting in my two cents — for all I know, things could have improved overall…
Judging from the more current negative reviews, I’ll just leave my brief, yet horrible experience of this establishment as well:
* My mom and I were seated at a table where the air-​conditioning blasted down on us without mercy, which didn’t help in keeping our warm — not hot — food hot.
* The server was a nice kid, but seemed new to his job. We gave him some slack for forgetting to do basic things — like bring more water, napkins, etc.
* It took forever to get our food.
* HORRIBLE FOOD! If one wanted to classify what was on our plates as food for human consumption. My mom ordered ribs, and judging from the charred remains of what was left on the bones, we could see where most of our wait time went — they spent a considerable amount of it cutting and chipping away the burnt stuff.
I ordered some type of fish — I forget what it was — and I swear, the three times I attempted to eat it, I got a mouthful of scales. NO… just no.
Needless to say, we didn’t leave a tip. I recall writing a note letting them know that the food was BAD.
My mom — who’s in her 80’s — had made an earlier comment on joining the table of hot military guys who were downing beers like crazy. I don’t even like beer, but getting plastered with them would have been preferable to the stuff we tried to eat.

Took forever and a day (seriously) for someone to take our order. The girl from the front had to take our order while we saw one waiter woi just sat there. WTF! That sets a bad example for your customers. Food was good but service SUCKS! We had to ask for our waiter for our bill!

AMBIENCE: Family friendly… with a bar. Great for large groups.
SERVICE: Came with a group of 13 for a birthday. Servers were friendly and attentive, repeatedly checking on us. Food came out quickly, especially considering the amount of dishes ordered.
FOOD: Better than Tribu, I’d say. Standouts were the kare kare and sisig. I also liked the adobo spinach. The crispy pata looked good on other tables, but our host didn’t order it. Adobo shreds were tasty but felt too greasy.
VALUE: About average for a Filipino restaurant. Dessert portions were generous. FYI: 100 oz beer towers are only $ 22 during happy hour (even on the weekend).
DRAWBACK: Nothing really. There were a lot of people waiting around by the time we left at 7 (Sat night), so you may have to wait a while for a table.

Great selection of food and beer. I love Filipino food and this place is probaly the best I’ve ever had. The only down side is their bar is tiny.

Gerry!
Where you been all my life?
Filipino food is pretty good my friend. There is more to Filipino food then chicken adobe and all the glorious (… and heart stopping) grease meals.
Take it from an Asian non-​Filipino who is admittedly picky about good food and eating well…
this place is great. not your typical asian-​fare. Don’t expect any «oh my grandma used to make this for me» type of food. This is slightly higher end stuff. but good none the less.
I love it that your space is LARGE. great for groups, great to bring a bunch of friends for a unique meal. Great to come watch sports — big warrior fan base. Was like a giant party last time there was a game here.
But more than that. let’s get to the real good stuff. the food.
*added some of my images Unilocal is not showing for my review
— Grilled Squid (4 out of 5) — Good stuff. but I prefer other meats. very pretty tho!
— Crab Fried Rice (4 out of 5) — More Good Stuff. I mean it’s friend rice. Can’t go wrong.
— Crispy Pata (5 out of 5) — YES. My heart cried a little, so did my cholesterol, but my mind was like… MORE MORE MORE. fat, juicy and. fat. lovely if you are a meat eater.
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— Grilled Liempo (5 out of 5) — YES AGAIN. Think this is the best bang for the buck too. Good Meat at decent price. Was very delicious. Give me more of that pickled veggie tho!
— Tuna Ceviche (3 out of 5) — Good bc, well Tuna Ceviche is good in general. But not as good or exciting as the other listed. If you like tuna, well get it then! Don’t listen to a fart like me, order what you want!
— Image:
— Kare Kare (3 out of 5) — Good.
— Image:
— Soup that I don’t remember the name (2 out of 5)
— Image:
I’ve had other stuff, but can’t remember them all. These were the highlights.
Gerry, you made me appreciate Flipino food. worse you make me crave it. Can’t wait to visit you again and try some new things… or just get the same things again!
until next time Gerry.
btw. is Gerry a common Flipino name… doesn’t sound like it… liempo or pata sound better.

Old crew is gone. Service is very poor. Slow to serve, bartender was late. Forgot our order and made a lame excuse. Never checks on you and nobody knows what their doing. Not worthy your money.

The food here is always served cold-​warm!!! Considering how long you have to wait for your food, you would think it would come out hot since they take their sweet time to bring it out! The grilled squid is gamey and tastes undercooked. Can’t even tell your server since she is nowhere to be found. The Dinakdakan was drowned in mayonnaise and was NOT warm at all. Is it supposed to be served cold?!!
Service is awful, we only saw our server to take our order and to give us our bill. No refills on water, no asking how we are doing, nothing.
ALYSSA though is a wonderful and sweet server! We have no complaints when she is our server, too bad she was super busy the last time we were here :(

Went here with my family while we were visiting the bay area. Definitely not the best tasting filipino food I’ve eaten. We ordered crispy pata and I felt like it had a weird after taste in the seasoning. Like cinnamon or something. I prefer crispy pata from Goldilocks. We also got sisig which was different from the sisig Im used too. Some of my family does like this place though, Guess this restaurant just isnt my thang. Different strokes for different folks.

Their grilled squid is a must try!!! I have never had a grilled squid this good and Im not lying!!! My husband has been inviting me to try this restaurant and he always brags about this grilled squid. I rejected him so many times because of the thought that I don’t wanna drive 30 minutes away from our area just to have another regular squid. Yes it’s grilled, I can grill a squid too?! But then I finally gave in to my hubbys request and tried the squids and boom! It was hella bomb! The meat is so tender not gummy, and the sweet filipino style bbq juicing took me by surprised!!!
We also had dinakdakan, crab meat fried rice and buko pandan for dessert which were all good! At last a filipino restaurant that tastes like the one from our home.

So my hubby & I running errands all day smell something delicious coming outside from Walmart to car. We we’re very hungry & said let’s find where that’s coming from. We were surprised there was a little restaurant in the small strip mall by Comcast. The ambiance was very nice. They were very busy & was told it was a 30min wait but they had a ok little bar with the game on so we were willing to wait.
WORST DECISION EVER! That’s what our whole night ended up being… just one BIG wait.
We were even seated at the end table right across from the servers cash register where they all constantly walked by us but NO ONE came to our table. Passed right by us several times. Looked at us sitting there for 15 minutes .so yeah. NOT COOL! Especially since we seen all the tables next to us being waited on so well.
My hubby finally called a waitress over & she apologized & took our orders but AGAIN we waited because she never came back with our drink’s. Really?! Twice abandoned WTF!!! We were ready to walk out after 17 minutes but surprise. she managed to put in our food order because a nice young man named Kirby (I think) brought out our food. We actually was shocked & we told him about our ordeal & he went & got our drinks for us. Thank You Kirby! If name is wrong. please forgive me as it was dark to see the tag correctly.
So my 1 star is for Kirby & the food was ok. I got the Chicken kabob which that is all you get so order side dishes to share separately. Was it worth what I paid… No., but it was not terrible. Just a little dry as there is no sauce or anything with it. Considering I had to order a side it was $ 17 for 4 kabobs & noodles. Great Coke though. mixed well. (could be that we were so damn parched by then that it just made it taste like the Best Coke Ever!) Will never know for sure.
Sadly after all that. it was not the end of our wait because the waitress that was waiting so well on the tables next to us earlier finally came over. Well hello there, thank you for coming to the Ignore Table finally! She did do refills but way to late to make amends. We wanted to just leave as we were tired & very unhappy by then but she ended up making us wait more not coming back for our bill.
Total wait time: 1hr 29min
25min to be seated
15min to ask for order to be taken
17min to finally get food & drinks
32min to have our bill brought & paid.(she gave us our bill but went MIA again)
Horrible Service. for us anyhow. At least they had a band to entertain us towards the end of our wait but we just wanted to go.

I typically avoid going to any Filipino places because as a Fil-​Am born and raised in Texas, being unfamiliar with Filipino culture, food, and not being able to speak Tagalog, I never really see the point of ordering anything when I know my parents have a better recipe. And if you’re a 2^nd gen, you know that «look down upon» look you get when they realize you can’t speak Tagalog.
However, my husband recognized this restaurant from the PI. He insisted that it’s not like the small local filipino places that I see maybe 2 or 3 times in Texas. He described it as a «Filipino Chili’s.» And that’s basically why I’m giving it 5 stars.
I find it very professional that they don’t just assume you speak Tagalog, have no problem telling you what’s in the dishes and they don’t just throw your plate around and give you a foam cup. (Yes, this has been my experience with EVERY Filipino business in America, which is why I avoid them.)
The food came out reasonably fast, and I loved the presentation. Sizzling sisig was actually sizzling on a hot plate when it came out, the Bistek actually looked gourmet instead of just meat and sauce dumped in a bowl. And I must emphasize that they actually give you a good portion of rice.

This place has great ambiance considering its located in a strip mall but food is just ‘okay’.
Ordered food-​to-​go for 2:
* Fried chicken — pieces of chicken — okay chicken but prob wouldn’t order again
* Garlic rice — i could see the fried garlic on top but didn’t add much to rice. hmmm
* Spring roll aka lumpia — delicious, flavorful, crispy
3 items to go at around $ 28. Possibly come back to order grilled items and dine in.

Hmm. I consider this place to be average, no «wow-​factor» here.
However, their crab fried rice was super delicious! Their grilled squid had great flavor, but it was overcooked… not like it stopped me from eating it. 0_​o. Their Tuna Kilawin wasn’t too shabby either. I loved the lemon and ginger juice that was used to cook the tuna ;).
As for the service? Well, the first time, it was great, but the second time, it was terrible! So, I would say it’s average to low when it comes to the service.

I don’t check in as often as I go here because I’m always ordering to-​go. But I love coming here because the food always hits so close to home! Their Sugba Kinilaw is my all time favorite that I have to get it every time I go. It’s the perfect mix of sour and spicy that reminds me of the Kinilaw my Grandpa use to make for me when I was a little girl. The fish tastes very fresh too!
The times that I have eaten here is usually on the nights that there’s live music which brings a cool vibe in even though we prefer sitting on the quieter side just so we can actually hear each other when we talk. The service can get kind of slow sometimes when there’s a lot of people that you might worry they forget you, but the food has always been worth the wait to make up for it. The food is a little pricey too, which should make the service a little more upscale for what your paying but it is what it is. A local favorite here and in the Philippines that I’ll always come to for assured quality!

As someone who has not only gone to the Philippines every year due to family being overseas, but who has a culinary background, and one well-​versed in different cultures and cuisines, I am honestly surprised that anyone could offer anything less than at least 4-​Stars for the food as a stand alone.
In any case, I brought four male coworkers here tonight, as I had been raving about Filipino food for the past two weeks that we have been in town for business, and none of them had ever tried it. Of course, the responsibility was given to me to choose the food for the table, so I started us off with the Shredded Adobo and Lumpia. The first bites that the guys had, they were already raving about the food, while I was in Filipina-​Heaven (okay, maybe Mestiza Heaven is more accurate, but I digress).
For entrees, I chose the Pork BBQ, Beef Kare Kare, Lechon Kawali, Crispy Pata, Pancit Bihon and Chicken Inasak, along with Garlic Rice and Adobo Rice. Everything was extremely flavorful, but we had our clear favorites among the group.
The Chicken Inasak, Pancit, Lechon and Pork BBQ were all getting rave reviews from the table throughout the entire meal, and believe me when I tell you that we finished the entire plate of each. The least favorite was the Beef Kare Kare. It had good flavor, but the beef itself was overcooked so it was very dry, although the sauce did help counteract that issue. Aside from the Kare Kare, the only dishes we didn’t finish were the rice dishes, and although the Adobo Rice was good, it lacked a little zest that the others provided, while the Garlic Rice went unnoticed for the most part and wasn’t anything exciting. Overall, I converted these Americans to being fans of Filipino food, and they all agreed that once they have birthed their Filipino food babies, we will be back before we leave back to our homes in NY, Boston, Philly, San Antonio and Cleveland this weekend.
As far as service was concerned, while there were some lag moments of waiting for service at the end, it didn’t go unnoticed that the restaurant was jam-​packed and they were very attentive considering. Our waiter was also extremely friendly.
I would definitely recommend this place to anyone wanting some amazing Filipino food!!! I will be back and then miss this place immensely after I’ve returned home, though I surely will be 10-​lbs lighter because of it.
P. S. Oh, yes, we had drinks too, but who cares about the drinks at this point?!

It was my first time going the other day.
The wait can get pretty long though. The host told us that our wait was gonna be 5 mins but we had to wait longer. I mean, I wouldn’t have minded waiting but she shouldn’t have said 5 mins if it wasn’t gonna be a 5 minute wait.
The kare-​kare is very creamy & I also love their garlic rice!
The sisig was alright to me, the chicharon that they put on top was kind of stale when they served it to us. Also, they put the egg raw so it didn’t really cook right, I didn’t even get to eat it. Their fries are big cuts so they taste really have that potato taste as opposed to the fries taste, if that even makes sense. They also serve it with filipino ketchup.
This place was alright, but I would come back again to try other dishes!

Price = expensive
Portions = skimpy
Customer service = None
Taste = below average
There are two types of filipino restaurants… the one that value your patronage and deliver stellar customer service, and the other type is Gerry’s grill.
From the moment we walked in, I felt like they didn’t want our business. We stood by the «please wait to be seated sign» even though we were the only ones there. Some chef/​employee from the kitchen was sitting at a table eating and saw us but never said anything. Not even a ‚“someone will be right with you” nor did he call the hostess that was supposed to seat us. She eventually came out of the kitchen but even then she clearly walked past our bug group waiting to be seated and she didn’t acknowledge us and kept doing what she was doing until she was finallllly ready, came over to us and made us follow her.
Once she showed us to our table, she gave us no menu’s, no instructions, literally just said, «here» as she showed us our table and she left. Then we waited for the other waiters to acknowledge us but no one looked at us even though we were just seated with no menus and then we finally call someone over to ask for menus. Then we have to call them over again so we can order. The people that work there are not friendly, and make it seem like you are bothering them from doing their job.
We ordered water to drink and didn’t get them before we ordered, didn’t get them during our meal, we had to keep calling a waitress reminding them about our drinks and they finally delivered it once we were almost done eating. We never got the high chair we asked multiple times for and walked over and got it ourselves. The food takes forever to come out and the portions are skimpy and it’s not even good! The kare kare and soup dishes are served in a tiny bowl and skimpy on the sauce and they charge you to add more sauce. It wasnt even enough sauce for one person! I expected the food to be awesome because the person that brought us was raving about the Gerry“s grill in the PI but this place was a disappointment. If your food isn’t good then at least give good customer service and do a good job!
We wanted to order dessert but she never brought our dessert menus after we asked her… we were basically tired at that point of not getting proper service and having to flag down the waitress every time and not getting anything. We spent way too much time there because our waitress was so slow and never checked on us. Sorry Gerry’s Grill but never again!

Tasty Filipino food here. Traditional but with somewhat of a modern twist.
Our party ordered the lechon, lumpia, spicy chicken wings, pancit bihon, grilled calamari, and halo halo.
Not much to complain about the food because they were all good. My favorites would be the calamari and the chicken wings. The chicken wings have a unique taste with a sour undertone. Normally, I dislike sour food, but for this, the sourness was very complementary to the spices.
Do come here early if you don’t want to wait in line though. We came here at around 5pm and we waited only 5−10mins but when we left, the whole front was packed with people waiting.

My fambam can’t eat meat without rice, we are Filipino after all. It’s like eating a cheeseburger without the bun or ramen without the noodles. It’s like walking around all day in your tennis shoes without socks because you forgot to pack the stupid socks in your gym bag the night before so you’re not late for your 5:30am yoga class! It’s absolute torture!!!
Sixteen of us came here to celebrate my sister’s birthday on a Friday night. We had 2 orders of everything, starting with calamari, lumpia, sweet bbq on a stick, and inihaw (soup). Everyone attacked the calamari and the lumpia so fast that they disappeared within seconds. Then everyone (except the only white guy at our table) asked, «Where’s the rice?» Even the kids at one end of the table were asking. This is a Filipino restaurant, rice should be the first thing they serve! What’s going on in the kitchen??? The server assured us that rice was coming and it FINALLY arrived 10 minutes later. After that, the other dishes kept coming — crispy pata that was slightly burnt, sinigang, sisig, and pansit. For dessert we had halo-​halo that wasn’t too exciting and fried banana with ice cream that was really good.
Overall, the food was not bad but not excellent either. I might be biased though. There are many people in my life who are excellent cooks so I have no need to go to Filipino restaurants often. Even my white hubby cooks Filipino food very well. If I had to choose, I would rather eat home cooked meals from my family than eat at Gerry’s Grill. Unfortunately, no one wanted to cook that day so this restaurant sufficed.
Besides the rice fiasco (and it was a real fiasco), there are other things that needed improvement:
1) We walked in and there was a big group of people waiting to be seated. Where was the hostess??? Was there one??? I’m glad someone I knew from 20 years ago recognized me and pointed to where my fambam was seated.
2) They placed hot plates of food in front of my baby girl over and over again, which made the grandparents and aunties very nervous. The server must not be around babies much, and doesn’t know that babies easily grab things to throw all over the place. We didn’t understand why they didn’t spread the dishes around, it was a long table. We had to keep passing the dishes to the other ends of of the table. Were they too lazy to go to the other sides to serve the dishes???
3) They need birthday candles. It was a bummer they didn’t have one for my sister.
Anyway, like I was sayin’, rice is the fruit of the sea. (See: Forrest Gump.) You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauté it. Dey’s uh… rice-​kabobs, rice sinigang, rice creole, rice gumbo. Pan fried, deep fried, stir-​fried. There’s pineapple rice, lemon rice, coconut rice, rice tilapia, rice sisig, pepper rice, rice soup, rice stew, rice salad, rice and potatoes, rice burger, rice sandwich, rice ice cream. That– that’s about it.

Filipino Food will always be close to my heart. I’m full-​Filipino and I take pride in our cuisine. We have exceptional restaurants in the Bay Area and Gerry’s Grill is a fine example.
What my family and I love about Gerry’s Grill is their grilled food selection. We love their grilled seafood and grilled pork belly. Not a lot of Filipino restaurants serve it as how they prepare it here. They marinate their meat in a sweet and savory mixture and grill it open fire to perfection.
What We Ordered:
* Chicharron Bulaklak (Fried Pork Ruffles): Ehhh didn’t like it too much. Had a cinnamon flavor to it that I wasn’t very fond of.
*Kilawin w/​Grilled Pork: SO GOOD! The tuna was cooked to a rare and served in a ceviche-​like concoction of citrus, jalapenos, & red onions. What I liked about Gerry’s Grill’s version is the grilled pork belly on top! All the flavors worked well with each other.
* Pancit Bihon: Very flavorful and cooked to al dente. Sometimes pancit can be «liquidy» but this one was just right. Filled with lots of shrimp, chicken, & veggies! It’s my mom’s favorite.
* Grilled Liempo (Grilled Pork Belly): The reason why we come here. Tender, juicy, & flavorful. Seasoned perfectly & served with a pickled salad to cleanse the palate. If you love pork, you’ll love this.
* Grilled Squid: Cooked perfectly. Very tender and very flavorful. Huge serving!
Bottomline…come here for some good Filipino Food. Wish they had one closer to the Daly City area. Worth the 45 minute drive though!