Pinpin (Surrey)

With Mr. Mike's finally shutting its doors at their Scott Road location, it opened up an opportunity for another tenant to move it.  Hopefully, it would not serve up mediocre steaks at unreasonable prices.  I admit that I wasn't a big fan of the place, but the Mikeburger did hold a place in my heart.  To my surprise, Pinpin to moved right in, offering up Filipino dishes amongst an array of Indian restaurants.  For me, I was quite interested how it compares to their Vancouver location.  

For my first visit, I started with a standard dish being the Pancit Bihon.  Despite exhibiting good flavours, the dish itself was wet and somewhat greasy.  Hence, the noodles were on the softer side including the practically melting vermicelli.  As mentioned, the flavours were good including the ample garlic and onions.  There was no absence of ingredients where the cabbage and carrots were not overly soft while the pork was fatty and tender.  Off to my next dish, I tried the Pusit ala Pobre which didn't arrive sizzling.  However, I found the dish quite good with appealingly chewy squid bathed in a garlicky sauce while exhibiting a slight spiciness and tartness.

On my next visit, I had to get another standard being the National dish - Chicken Adobo (well, it can be pork as well or both).  I thought this was prepared far better than their Main Street location.  The chicken thighs were fried up nicely where the skin was rendered and crispy.  Inside, the meat was not exactly juicy, but not overly dry either.  It was sauced with the classic flavours of sweet, tart, garlicky and salty.  In this case, it was a thickened version where it was goopy and rather unappealing.  Of course I couldn't leave this time around without getting an order of the small Crispy Pata.  Yes, this was the small...  I thought the skin was nicely crunchy while the fat was mostly rendered.  The meat portions were gelatinous and soft while some of the exterior parts were crispy.  Overall, the food here was acceptable, but not really all that memorable.  Pretty much par for the course for Pinpin.

The Good:
- Large menu
- Decent value

The Bad:
- Food so-so
- Service so-so