At Tita Flora’s, a Taste of Home for Some, an Introduction to Authentic Filipino Food for the Rest of Cleveland

Like most cuisines, Filipino food is being redefined by the modern-day chefs who are preparing it. In cities like Chicago, New York and even Columbus, Filipino-American chefs are taking traditional recipes and updating them to appeal to contemporary diners. To find conventional preparations of the classics, a diner likely would have better luck inveigling an invitation to a family feast than by securing a restaurant reservation.

That’s not the case at Tita Flora’s, a new Filipino restaurant in Independence. Chef and owner Flora Grk believes that her mission is best served by sticking to tradition. In a market like Cleveland, where commercially available Filipino food is still very much a rarity, Grk wants to provide first-timers with an authentic baseline experience.

“We never had a Filipino restaurant, so not everyone knows what it tastes like,” she explains. "I would like them to try authentic Filipino dishes that I will serve and hopefully the people will love it."

After working “every job in the restaurant industry” for 25 years, Manila-born Grk struck out on her own this summer. Propelled by her passion to share her culture through food, she opened a modest but cheery 60-seat restaurant in a brick-clad strip mall. For newbies, Tita Flora’s is a great place to go to explore Filipino food. For Filipino-Americans, Tito Flora’s is a great place to go to get out of cooking dinner. As such, Grk sees a 50/50 mix of those types of customers on most days.

Filipino food is accessible but exciting, boldly flavored dishes redolent of soy, garlic and vinegar. Most offer up a compelling interplay of sweet, sour and salty. Adobo, arguably the national dish of the Philippines, is a mouthwatering stew of tender meat and tangy sauce. Flora uses whole bone-in chicken to maximize flavor. We ordered the pork adobo ($14), which featured large chunks of both lean and fatty meat that have been braised into submission.

I’ve had sisig ($15), another celebrated Filipino dish, a handful of times, but I don’t recall it being this electric. Served on a sizzling platter, the small-diced pork belly continues to sear in the pan until the edges are crisp and golden. The meat is cooked with onions and garlic and enough bird’s eye chile to make it prickly but not oppressive. It is garnished with a raw egg and drizzle of mayo, which get stirred in at the table for added richness. Most dishes come with white rice, but for an extra $2 you can upgrade to garlic rice, white rice seasoned with enough garlic oil to keep the vampires at bay.

If adobo and sisig are the flashy leads, pancit ($13) is the humble costar. Springy rice noodles are stir-fried in a mild but umami-rich sauce with julienned veggies and a choice of proteins such as tofu, chicken and shrimp.

Grk twists up exceptional lumpia ($6), slender and crunchy spring rolls filled with pork and vegetables. They are served with a sweet chili dipping sauce. In another starter, marinated pork ($8) is skewered and grilled until well-browned and savory. Those are served with a bright and bracing vinegar and onion-based sauce. Tita Flora’s also prepares fish balls ($8), a street food favorite that nets the diner twin skewers of mild and bouncy balls paired with a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.

Tita Flora’s also offers a variety of silog, comforting all-day breakfast dishes comprised of meat, garlic rice and a fried egg. Grk sprinkles in the occasional special, like dinuguan, a stew made with pork and pork blood.

“This is a very traditional Filipino dish that not a lot of people can make at home, so I try and do it as a special,” says Grk. “It has pork blood, but it’s really good.”

Every meal ends with a dish of halo-halo ($10), a kitchen-sink dessert that combines ice cream, evaporated milk, crushed ice, tapioca pearls, coconut and candy.

“That’s why they name it halo-halo, it’s a mix of everything,” explains Grk. “Halo-halo means mix-mix in English.”

Grk says that she’s still ramping up staff so that she can expand her hours of operation, open all day on weekends, and increase carry out capacity. Going forward, she plans to change up the menu every couple of months by incorporating new items, eliminating slow movers and continuing to feature specials. In the coming weeks, Grk hopes to open for lunch.

For diners hungry to experience something new – or those in search of a long-lost taste of home – Tita Flora's is eager to feed you.

Tita Flora’s
6531 Brecksville Rd., Independence
216-232-4303
titafloras.com

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