Chibog

Chibog is a modern Filipino restaurant in Barkly St, West Footscray. The first thing you’ll notice walking in is the beautiful Jeepney mural, a popular public transport from back home. They are family friendly, offering child seats and a change room.

We tried the following dishes.

Crispy Pata: crispy and crunchy pork hock, served with house made atchara, Mang Tomas sauce and spicy soy sauce dip – a must order, great for sharing

Kinilaw: a ceviche of fresh, wild caught tuna with cucumber, tobiko and a spiced coconut dressing – fresh and delicious

Lumpiang Sariwa: fresh, crisp farm vegetables within a house made coconut crepe, served with a rich garlic and peanut sauce – my wife’s favourite

Ukoy: sweet potato, carrot and spring onion fritters ($3 school prawns extra) – Yummy, but we wanted a bit more school prawns in it

Kare Kare: Tender ox tail stewed in a peanut and toasted rice gravy served with roasted eggplant, okra, snake beans, bok choy and a side of bagoong – This modern take on a classic had a great sauce reduction

Singkamas Crunchy Salad: a textural salad of crunchy wombok, crisp jicama, jalapeno, chives and coriander dressed in a palm sugar and sukang Iloko vinaigrette – very good vegetable dish to balance out the meaty options

Pork Sisig: triple cooked sizzling crispy pork with onions, chilli, lime, chicharon in a rich liver sauce – meaty and filling

Pancit Malabon: thick rice noodles coated in an unctuous, smoky pork and prawn sauce topped with crunchy chicharon and spring onion – a good dish, but the flavours weren’t quite right

Garlic Rice – Perfect traditional accompaniment

For their desserts, they use a lot of delicious ice cream from a local Filipino small business Kariton Sorbetes. So great to see this collaboration.

Crispy Leche Flan: rich, fudgy house made leche flan wrapped in spring roll pastry and fried till crisp, served with Kariton Sorbetes “Ube Halaya” gelato (topped with peanuts)

Sans Rival Cake: gelato cake by Kariton Sorbetes – layers of chewy cashew biscuit, roasted cashew praline, brown butter gelato and candied cashew nuts

On our first visit, we were disappointed with the menu, but it has dramatically improved since.

The food, vibe and service are all exceptional. For Filipino food, we’d highly recommend feasting at Chibog.