Pondahan

Pondahan Restaurant Review:

West Covina is a Filipino-American stronghold, and one of the best places to experience that country’s cuisine. Pondahan’s name translates from Tagalog as a spot to “hang out.” The restaurant resides on the side of West Covina Parkway Plaza, and its dining room features yellow and green walls decorated with paintings of plant life, palm frond-style fans, and lanterns centered in round bamboo cages. Stars mark popular dishes on a sprawling menu that’s strong on pork and milkfish. Still, it’s worth exploring selections that aren’t on many Filipino menus in town. For instance, fresh lumpia features rough-chopped vegetables and shrimp wrapped in rice paper, poured with sweet brown sugar sauce and then sprinkled with crushed honey-roasted peanuts. The original "Pancit Malabon" is a good litmus test for how deep people are willing to dive into an underrepresented cuisine. Rice vermicelli comes topped with shrimp, pork slices and rinds, sliced bok choy, hard-boiled egg, fish flakes and a beguiling orange sauce made with pulverized dried shrimp. If that dish proves too challenging, there’s always sizzling sisig served with an over-easy egg.