Subtle Heat And Sweet Surprises At Cocina Filipina Fare

Cocina Filipina Fare. Photo taken Aug. 27, 2026 by Cari Taylor-Carlson.

I like to be surprised when I visit a newly opened restaurant. But Cocina Filipina Fare went beyond even that. The restaurant hit it out of the park with their Filipino-inspired dishes.

The restaurant had a modest beginning when three years ago when the owners began with a food truck. In 2026, they took their plates and bowls and moved into a building on W. Vliet Street that most-recently housed Lisa Kaye Bistro. The restaurant has that corner bar charm familiar to Milwaukeans and that includes brick walls, hardwood floors, high ceilings, and plant-filled windows. There is a back room, formerly an apartment, that adds a few more tables to the small front bar area. Because the owners, Lupe Moreno and Edu Aragon Guzman are Mexican, they named their restaurant Cocina, kitchen in Spanish, to represent their heritage, and Filipina to honor their cuisine.

My companions and I began our meal with an ube horchata, a mildly sweet and very purple drink made with purple sweet potatoes. It was lighter than the familiar Mexican horchata and proved to be a good match to our spicy dishes, the hot piggy, the vegan sweet chili tofu, and the sweet chili chicky.

The hot piggy, a combination of slow-cooked marinated pork along with garlic rice, was topped with pickled red onions and scallions. At my companion’s request, the hot part of the piggy, a sriracha aioli, was served on the side. Its spicy heat did not overwhelm the juicy pork, but instead highlighted the flavors of the meat and, together with the rice, created a delicious bouquet of Filipino flavors. Like everything we ordered, there were edible flowers on the plate, a lovely and classy addition to the presentation of the meal.

Both the tofu and the chicken had a generous amount of spicy sweet chili sauce that animated every bite, while the purple ube horchata cooled things down. The chef sautéed small pieces of dark meat for the chicken dish, which is always a plus, to add lots of good chicken flavor. Our server brought a special sauce to the table that was simply labeled banana sauce. We ate it on everything as it surprisingly added another layer of flavor that played well with the pork, the chicken, and the tofu.

At our server’s suggestion, we started with a five-pack of lumpia, a Filipino egg roll filled with minced pork, served with a spicy red sauce. They were golden, deep-fried, and had a crunchy, crepe-like skin. We ended our meal with two desserts: churros coated with cinnamon sugar that were deep-fried and addictive, and turon, deep-fried spring rolls filled with plantain and chocolate chips.

When I came back for another meal, my companions split a mixy mix, and I ordered the teriyaki chicken, two more meals filled with more subtle flavors that spoke to the best of Filipino cuisine. The chicken, a mix of dark and white meat, was grilled and lightly coated with a mild sauce that adhered to every bite. The mix was half chicken and half pork, served with the spicy sriracha aioli on the side. There was enough meat in the bowl for two lunches and a doggie bag for a snack later.

You could also order a cucumber salad or a corn dog, but for now, the aforementioned menu choices that my companions and I enjoyed are the main dishes on the currently limited menu. More is promised soon. It is a wise choice to start slowly with what you do well before expanding the menu, and that is precisely what the owners of Cocina Filipina are doing.

My companions and I appreciated the subtle flavors, the spicy heat that didn’t overpower, and the vitality from the spices in each of our meals, tastefully presented with fresh flowers on every plate.

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• Location: 3801 W. Vliet St.
• Phone: 414-581-6840
• Hours: 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Mon-Sun
• Website: https://www.cocinafilipinamke.com

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