Cebu - Wicker Park Filipino restaurant

We visited Cebu (Wicker Park, does not appear to be affiliated with a former Downers Grove restaurant of the same name back in the mid-2000s) for Filipino food last week. I believe they opened about a year ago. I'm only moderately familiar with Filipino food but liked what we tried, though there did seem to be a sweet salty soy flavor profile to most of our dishes.

Unfortunately no photos (though there are lots on Yelp), beyond 1 photo of a particularly pretty cocktail (Butterflies in the Attic), with ube-infused gin, cucumber and mint.


It was a great summer evening to dine on their outdoor patio in the back of the restaurant. Good service, good food, and it's in our neighborhood.

We enjoyed:
Pan de Sal - soft, slightly sweet, housemade rolls (4 for $3) served with honey butter. Delicious; would have been fantastic if they were warm, but served at room temperature (still, they were clearly freshly made that day).

Ensalada - shredded napa cabbage dressed with a light sweet and sour vinaigrette (made with pinakurat, apparently a Filipino spiced vinegar, and calamansi, the Filipino citrus fruit), but the most interesting thing on the salad was a hard boiled salted duck egg, which I've had frequently in Chinese cuisine but never on a salad. There aren't lots of vegetables on the menu, so this was our "green" dish.

Pork BBQ Skewers - 6 pretty large, juicy and tender, grilled pork skewers, basted with a soy glaze. Nothing not to like.

Sizzling Gambas - definitely similar to Spanish sizzling gambas - a fairly large portion of shrimp in a sweet salty garlic soy sauce, with lots of red chili flakes. Salty and spicy, though I don't recall them particularly sizzling when served (they were hot in temperature, just not sizzling). These were really good and worth getting a side of steamed rice to go with the garlic sauce.

Bam-I - Filipino pancit, and a large portion for $18. I'm not a fan of Chinese sausage, but still liked the dish a lot!

Portions were large enough that we took home half of our Bam-I and did not have room for the very pretty desserts.

Would go again, ideally with someone other than my clean-eating husband, who was not interested in the Lechon Belly (crispy skin-on pork belly, which looked delicious).

Cebu
2211 W North Ave
Chicago IL
https://cebuchicago.com/