The family we visited were very familiar with the restaurant and knew what to re-order and then some. Half the people on our table made it clear that whatever they ordered were not to be shared. Alma and I decided to be greedy as well. We ordered the the Pork Belly Skewers which used to be called Pigs on a Stick, Flaked Pork Adobo Fried Rice (braised pork belly), scallions, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce with a fried egg, and the Ultimate Noodles (Pancit Palabok) with lobster, shrimp, soft-shell crab, pork, round rice noddles, onions, garlic, ginger, in a lobster-uni sauce. Everything was deeelicious, we couldn't get enough of the Pigs ( we all preferred the old name), it was loaded with flavor and went well with the adobo fried rice. The Ultimate Noodles was a bit overwhelming. All the ingredients were great but it didn't do anything for the noodles. To compare it to the real pancit palabok was not ideal as pancit palabok has it's own strong flavor from the chicharon. The chicharon on this dish was just on the side. The funny part was as soon as we had our first bite of the Pigs on the skewer and decided we absolutely loved it, we waited for the rice so we could eat it all together which is the Filipino way of eating. You eat everything with rice using your fork to push a good size bite into your spoon. They served everything Chinese style which was one at a time. Someone forgot to tell our server our preference of having everything served at the same time.
The vegetarian member of the family ordered the Veggi Q, a specialty cut role made with cucumber sheet, shitake, oshinko, avocado, asparagus spring mix with ponzu sauce. She also ordered the Sweet Potato Caterpillar which was made with roasted sweet potato, Asian pear, avocado, black garlic teriyaki with roasted red pepper puree. I had one to taste and I liked it! This got an A+ on the presentation alone. The Miso Cauliflower with garlic and chilies were not bad either.
The rest of the our party ordered a bunch of interesting dishes, like Crispy Pata (a Filipino favorite) which is pork shank, garlic liver gravy, garlic vinaigrette, watercress frisee and radish. A kind member of the family had us have a bite. Nice and crispy and plain yummy. One ordered the Chili Albacore Sashimi which was very good. I had a bite of someone's Lemongrass Beef Lollipop which was N.Y. strip beef wrapped lemongrass with ginger citrus sweet soy glaze. We should have ordered that on our end of the table! My son had the Miso-Bronzed Black Cod with eggplant and sweet miso. Someone had some mini tacos that looked good but our side of the table didn't get to try any. The Oxtail Pot Stickers; braised oxtail with caramelized onion jus and white wasabi cream looked good as well; unfortunately they were on the East side.....communists!
There was another dish that was outstanding. It was the Tom Kha Gai Soup which had chicken, Asian mushroom medley, chilies, lemongrass, herbs and coconut milk broth served with roti prata. This coconut milk soup was wonderful and the roti prata (flat bread) tasted like it was had a torrid affair with butter! I would definitely have this again.
For dessert, people shared orders of Sans Rival and Halo-Halo; both Philippine delicacies. The Sans Rival was made with pistachios instead of the traditional cashews. The Halo-Halo was different; less filling but we all loved the cheese ice cream that was in it so we ordered an additional dessert that was just cheese ice cream....yummmmm.
We wanted to extend our complements to the executive chef, Jess de Guzman but he was not around so the executive sous chef, Michael Morales came out to chat with us. Sunda is a must when one visit's Chicago. The next time we go, we will try and remember to tell our server we want everything brought out at the same time; Filipino style.
Sunda's address is 110 W. Illinois St. in Chicago, Illinois.
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