Photograph by Andrew Doench
Driving through the eclectic foodscape that lines U.S. Route 42, it’s easy to miss Global Cuisine. Amid the signs and pictures of dishes from places like Mexico, Italy, and Jamaica, you would be forgiven for missing the dishes from owner Kris Wirtjes’s native Philippines. This is emblematic of Filipino food in general here in the tri-state. Until very recently, you would have been hard-pressed to find Filipino food on any local menu, no matter how eclectic. But this is starting to change, thanks in large part to the efforts of three women: Wirtjes, Christine McDay of Christine’s Casual Dining in Western Hills, and Krizzia Yanga, who recently opened Gabriela Filipina Kantina at the new Factory 52 development in Norwood. Each of their takes on the cuisine they grew up eating are not to be missed.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW DOENCH
Wirtjes moved here 34 years ago from the Philippines and originally worked in the banking industry. Professional cooking was in her blood—her parents owned a restaurant in Mindanao, a lush province in the Southern Philippines—and it wasn’t long before she carried the culinary torch stateside.
In 1997, Wirtjes opened Blesame Catering, where she cooked for the local Filipino community as well as major companies like P&G, Kao, and GE. Blesame is also a staple at local festivals like BLINK and the Asian Food Fest. She parlayed this success into her restaurant, which she opened last year in the former Udupi space in Sharonville.
The Filipino dishes here are classic comfort food, served with a hearty hominess that seems to come from Wirtjes’s own kitchen. Definitely try the lumpia, often described as “Filipino eggrolls.” Long, thin, and flaky, it’s traditionally filled with ground pork and sliced vegetables (often carrots and cabbage) and served with a vinegary dipping sauce. Wirtjes’s proprietary sauce combines vinegar, brown sugar, honey, and lemon, bringing a zesty sweetness to the savory lumpia. For her take on the iconic Filipino dish, try the pork adobo ribs. Adobo—slow-cooked meat (often chicken or pork) typically marinated in some combination of vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaf, and black peppercorns—is arguably the most popular entrée in the Philippines.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW DOENCH
Like Global Cuisine, Christine’s Casual Dining features a mishmash of cuisines. You’ll find meatloaf, spaghetti, and BLTs, but you’ll also find lumpia, pork adobo, and pancit, a traditional Filipino dish of thin, translucent rice noodles, often mixed with meat and vegetables (Christine’s version comes with chicken, carrots, and green beans).
My order of pancit came with one of the restaurant’s many Filipino combo plates, which included two skewers of perfectly grilled pork and a thick lumpia. The thickness stems from necessity rather than personal preference; McDay couldn’t find a supplier that carries the thinner Filipino-style rice wrapper in bulk, so she started experimenting with egg roll wrappers, thickening the sauce to match. She now sells more than 400 a day.
According to McDay, the local Filipino community really started showing up once she put halo-halo (Tagalog for “mix-mix”) on the menu. Not for the faint of appetite, the dessert comes in a massive, chilled glass that might well have been used for Perkins’s sundaes. The base of shaved ice and sweetened condensed milk is mixed with more ingredients than I have the space to name here, but red beans, fried bananas, creamed corn, and Ube ice cream all make appearances. Proof that sometimes more is more, the mashup somehow works.
Photograph by Andrew Doench
A restaurant industry veteran, McDay worked at Cancun’s for 13 years before venturing out on her own (Mexican food is heavily featured on Christine’s menu). She realized her dream of opening her namesake restaurant in 2015, renting a space on Harrison Avenue. In 2021, she bought and moved into her current space off Glenway. Well on its way to becoming a west side institution, Christine’s has something for everyone, especially if you are looking for a large plate of Filipino comfort food and a massive halo-halo.
At Gabriela Filipina Kantina, the food is entirely Filipino, which means it’s also a little Spanish. That’s because the Philippines was a Spanish colony for more than 300 years. According to Yanga, Gabriela recognizes the Spanish influence on Filipino food and culture while also celebrating the Philippines’ resistance to Spanish colonization.
For the latter, look no further than the restaurant’s name. Gabriela is named for Gabriela Silang, a female revolutionary who was executed in 1763 for leading a resistance movement against Spanish occupation. By paying homage to Silang, Gabriela honors not only said movement, but Filipina women in general.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANDREW DOENCH
For instance, Gabriela’s lechon, which is Spanish for “roasted suckling pig,” is popular in the Philippines, but versions exist in Spain and many of its former colonies. Gabriela’s features moist chunks of fatty pork made even more delicious when dipped in the zesty sawsawan sauce, an onion-flecked blend of soy sauce and vinegar.
Yanga was born in the Philippines but moved to the U.S. with her family as a child, eventually settling in the Columbus area, where she started experimenting with Filipino brunches, which regularly brought lines out the door.
She decided to bring her vibrant, festive take on Filipino food down to Cincinnati because many of her Columbus customers drove up from this area. Her experience, like Wirtjes’s, shows that people are willing to travel for good Filipino food. Luckily, here in the tri-state, we no longer have to travel very far.
Global Cuisine, 11707 Lebanon Rd., Sharonville, (513) 883-8932
Christine’s Casual Dining, 3360 Westbourne Dr., Western Hills (513) 574-1273, christinescasualdining.com
Gabriela Filipina Kantina, 2750 Park Ave., Suite E, Norwood, (378) 978-3928. gabrielafilipina.com
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