Letter of Recommendation Los Angeles
It’s a Celebration Every Night at Manila Inasal
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Whenever anyone asks me for a restaurant recommendation — which happens a lot as a food writer — I enthusiastically direct them to Manila Inasal.
The charming Filipino restaurant checks all the boxes for a memorable night out in Los Angeles, and often leaves me fantasizing about booking it for my future birthday party. The dishes, consistently on point, are classics with the right amount of finesse and modern touches that make them both comforting and exciting. It’s an unfussy and lively space for group dinners, dates, and intergenerational meals that impress even the most discerning grandparents and children. And I haven’t even mentioned the live music yet, performed almost nightly, that makes every meal in this humble strip mall restaurant feel like a party.
On a recent visit, I invited another family to join mine for what I promised to be a delicious dinner. I delivered. Our party of six, which included two kids, devoured lumpia Shanghai, fluffy focaccia with a laing dip (stewed taro leaves with coconut milk and shrimp paste), crab tortang talong (omelet), grilled chicken inasal, garlic rice, and pancit with Canton and vermicelli noodles. Every plate was a hit at our table. At one point, my friend said he couldn’t stop eating the crab tortang talong, a riff on the more traditional eggplant version: “It’s everything I want in a dish.”
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At its core, Manila Inasal is a community hub that feels distinctly L.A., one that stems from immigrants pursuing big dreams in unassuming places. On the corner of a bustling five-point intersection joining East Hollywood, Westlake, and Koreatown, the 2,000-square-foot restaurant is situated alongside a massage parlor and nail salon. (There’s also a free parking garage, a rarity in these parts.)
But what really sets Manila Inasal restaurant apart is how conducive it is for bringing lots of people together for a blowout bash. The owners had large groups in mind when they designed the space, avoiding booths that could limit a party size. The fact that anyone can easily make a 15-person reservation online for Manila Inasal makes it the ultimate celebration restaurant — and feels like a cheat code for L.A. dining. And for anyone looking to throw an even bigger fête, you can buy out the entire 62-seat restaurant as well.
Chef Natalia Moran, who was previously a restaurant consultant in the Philippines, originally launched Manila Inasal as a cloud kitchen in her hometown of San Juan after she donated 10,000 meals to frontline workers during the pandemic. She moved to the U.S. last year to join her longtime family friend Elisha Paul Simon, who is now the restaurant’s chief operating officer, to open Manila Inasal in 2025. The duo created a menu and space that merged their Filipino and Filipino American experiences.
The warmth of a family-run business is evident in the homey decor. The chef’s sister, Bella Moran, designed the space, which has greenery and woven baskets dangling from the ceiling. One wall has a series of framed black-and-white prints of tiny people climbing clocks and books, hand-drawn by Simon’s sister, Ysabel, while another has shelves lined with Filipino tchotchkes.
The centerpiece of the room is the small stage with an “On Air” sign in neon, where mostly Filipino American musicians perform on Tuesday to Saturday evenings from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm. (There’s even a karaoke and open mic night on Wednesdays.) The performances carry on the Simon family’s musical tradition, as their patriarch is a songwriter and composer with strong ties to the Filipino American music community.
Recently, a talented singer-and-pianist duo performed jazz standards like “Fly Me to the Moon” and “The Way You Look Tonight” at a reasonable volume in the dining room. Several times, the singer got on the microphone to announce a diner’s birthday, and the whole restaurant erupted in song. The mood was jubilant.
“Filipino parties are something to marvel at because they have a distinct personality that I think is very unlike other cultures, and we wanted to make sure that was ever-present,” says Simon.
While weekend dinners are lively, the restaurant is just as packed on Sunday mornings after church. And following Filipino tradition, Christmas music and decorations go up in the restaurant as early as September and stay up until January. “Usually, you’ll hear the first Christmas song in SM Malls across the Philippines on September 1st,” says Moran. “It’s a happy time of the year where everybody can just shop, eat, and be together, so Christmas is a huge part of our culture and we wanted to make sure it’s also experienced here at the restaurant.”
The more I go to Manila Inasal, the more I fall in love with the place. It’s all in the little details and warm hospitality. Simon says the community has welcomed them with open arms, including a neighboring business owner who told them, “We’ve been waiting for you guys to be here this entire time.” Since there’s nowhere else bringing people together for celebrations quite like Manila Inasal in L.A., I’m inclined to say the same thing.
