Tucked away in Camden, Bintang has been in the neighbourhood for over 35 years. Its pandesal sliders — a starter that feels like a main —  are made from short rib patties, smashed on the grill with toyomansi, a condiment of soy sauce and calamansi, and sandwiched in pandesal buns with onions from the grill. Bintang also offers four variations of silog — a union of garlic fried rice and egg — with the choice of bistek, baby aubergine, beef and lamb sausage, or fried milkfish.

Built to be a place where Filipinos could introduce their cuisine to London, Romulo’s was brought into London from Manila. London co-founder Rowena Romulo is behind the expansion, which remains a strictly family-run restaurant despite numerous approaches from franchisers. Walls are decked with spirited colours headlined by its signature lime green, reminiscent of a heritage house. Its menu is lined with home-cooked Filipino favourites with subtle twists, like truffled pork belly adobo: Dingley Dell pork slow-cooked in a mixture of soy, garlic and cane vinegar, and scented with black truffle.

Tagalog for “delicious,” chef Budgie Montoya’s Sarap centres its short menu on refracting Filipino tradition through a modern London lens. Lechon — a staple in any Filipino party — is reimagined into crispy pork trotter, stuffed with lemongrass and truffled adobo pork rice, while larger groups can literally go the whole hog and order a pig. It further shows off its contemporary interpretation of Filipino cuisine in a bistek tartare, which mimics the taste of classic bistek tagalog – thinly sliced beef marinated in soy sauce and calamansi juice – but changes the texture. Consider a calamansi daiquiri, which is a refreshing blend of Don Papa Rum, calamansi juice, and agave syrup, to drink.

The bakery takes Filipino-style breakfast, which is on the richer, more savoury side, and remoulds it to the contours of London cafe and brunch culture. The highlight is the corned beef hash sando, wrapped in béchamel sauce and turned into a Filipino-style croquette. It also transforms taho – a classic snack made from silken tofu, brown sugar syrup, and sago pearls – into a hot and sweet beverage only served on Fridays to Sundays. Diners in search of pastries can turn to its buttery and flaky ube tart, made from its sibling brand Mamasons Dirty Ice Cream’s signature purple yam flavour.

Hailing from a coastal town in Occidental Mindoro, Chef Francis Puyat specialises in kinilaw — a native method of cooking using liquid fire from vinegar or citrus often used on fish. Puyat applies this technique to poke bowls, served with rice, avocado, daikon and sriracha mayo. Off-menu, RAPSA — a switch of syllables of the word sarap — also accepts secret requests for sisig, a must-try dish made of fried parts of pig’s head and belly. Come dessert, look for homemade buko ice cream, a coconut base infused with flavours like ube or the classic Filipino dessert, leche flan.

Owned by Cacho brothers Jonathan and Justice, Filishack has mastered the art of chicken inasal. The dish, much like their approach to running a food joint, is simple and uncomplicated. The chicken is marinated in lemongrass, ginger, vinegar and calamansi before being charred: smoky and aromatic from the grill, it’s then laid out in a rice box or enveloped in a burrito. Also consider the adobo burrito, its filling braised in soy, pepper, vinegar, garlic, bayleaf, and a dash of coconut milk.

An ode to sisters, mothers and grandmothers, Mama’s Kubo takes inspiration from traditional recipes passed down to chef Rommel Bustarde and director Claudine Bleza. The extensive menu offers a taste of home for nostalgic appetites, serving dinner table staples like kare kare — stewed beef brisket, aubergine and pak choi in peanut sauce. It also has a wide array of pancit, Filipino noodle dishes, but it’s the palabok, in which they are stir-fried with prawns, squid and smoked mackerel, shows off a distinct salty flavour unique to the Philippines.

Situated on the second floor of a pub in Walworth Road, Turo Turo caters to bar hoppers wanting a bite to pair with their beers. Its vegetarian charred aubergine dish and ginger and bagoong wings drenched in fermented shrimp glaze are tangy preludes to the main event: a four-hour braised pork tocino rice bowl, all from the mind of Rex de Guzman, who recently won acclaim on Jamie Oliver’s Great Cookbook Challenge. Dessert comes in the form of turon, a crisp fried plantain and jackfruit spring roll sprinkled with brown sugar syrup.

Chef Mary San Pablo sees Luto — a Filipino-inspired supper club —  as a personal mission of rediscovering her heritage and culture. While San Pablo has taken a break from hosting supper clubs to work as a freelance chef, she’s hoping to bring Luto to a more permanent site later in the year. Her quarterly menu is set to remain faithful to umami Filipino flavours, but with untraditional additions of certain ingredients, like her popular risotto-like brown crab arroz caldo — made of coconut-drenched rice, brown crab fish stock, shellfish, ginger and spring onions.

Situated between a busy intersection in east London, Cirilo is cooking classic Filipino dishes from Tuesday to Sunday. Lumpia are handmade, filled with crab and prawn and best dipped with sweet chilli and soy sauce but the highlight is any of its three variations of sisig: pork, chicken or beef — all equal parts tangy and spicy, served on a sizzling plate.

Kamayan refers to the native Filipino way of eating with bare hands, and Kamayan Earl’s Court translates this into a boodle fight in which savoury dishes like crunchy fried pork knuckles, deep fried pork belly and stewed chicken are bunched together with soft rice and laid out on banana leaves. Designed to be an eating combat of sorts, boodle fights suggest a minimum group of 4 for fair play.