Recently, I was wanting some Sisig….so I naturally thought of one of my favorites when it came to that dish. Which I hadn’t been to in a while. But then….I thought I should try someplace I hadn’t been to before and Lumpia House came to mind. I’m trying to remember who mentioned the place to me. I think it was Calvin, but am not sure. II also wasn’t too sure about the drive….which looked to take over 30 minutes…..on a Saturday. Still, the place opens at 10, so I decided to make the drive up. The shop is in a very low keyed strip mall off of Poway Road right next to a location of Su Pan….the parking lot is pretty small, but heck, this was 10 on a Saturday so there were no parking issues.
Walking in and taking a look around made me smile. This really looked like a typical, humble turo-turo shop….
Snacks stacked about, trays of food coming out of the back kitchen…..
Their “signature” lumpia under the heat lamps…..
Nothing hipster about this place….that’s for sure!
I got a two item combo ($16.99)…of course with Sisig….but they also had a version of Tokwat Lechon – basically lechon with stir fried tofu that I don’t see around much; so I got that as well. And because this place is named Lumpia House – I got 6 meat lumpia ($1.15/each).
Man, this was a lot of food! Enough for two meals….one of which was for both the Missus and I!
So, how was it? Well, let’s start with the not so good….the rice was terrible, some parts hard, other parts super mushy…photos don’t lie; check this out. It was almost like porridge!
As for the Sisig? Well, it was a bit different as it had a good amount of red and green bell peppers, which I kind of enjoyed in terms of texture and a hint of vegetal and sweetness.
I enjoyed the texture of the lechon; some nice crisp pieces, good porkiness……enjoyed the pugent-sweetness of the onions. It had adequate sweetness, but was really lacking in terms of spiciness. In fact, when heating up, which it did adequately I added in a couple of chili de arbol from our garden which really enhanced things. Still, this was pretty good for turo-turo sisig.
As for the dish that was like Tokwat Lechon….well the tofu had kept shape nicely throughout the cooking process. The pork skin was quite crunchy and I used the air fryer to heat which restored the texture.
The weak point was the flavor…which was bland overall and the sauce was really watery and thin. I had expected good soy sauce, perhaps a hint of sweetness, savory tones….but this was watered down soy sauce.
And then there was the lumpia. I guess lumpia is going for a buck or more a piece these days?
I liked the very savory filling, but the wrapper seemed over-friend and was on the chewy side. Though, when heating the leftovers, I put it in the air fryer which helped things. And the Missus ended up enjoying the leftover lumpia.
If nicely fried the lumpia here would be really good.
The woman working was very nice and friendly. The portion sizes are very generous….and that sisig was pretty good. If they were in my ‘hood, I’d visit every so often. It’s a nice, unpretentious neighborhood Filipino restaurant….which was just what I wanted on this day. Also of note; there’s an 3.85% charge for credit cards, so cash is king here.
Lumpia House
13160 Poway Rd.
Poway, CA 92064
Current Hours:
Mon – Sat 10am – 6pm
Sunday 11am – 6pm