LAReview
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Sari Sari Store
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How far is too far to travel for a slice of pie? Is a slice of pie worth dealing with traffic on the 110, navigating the obscenely small spaces in the Grand Central Market parking lot, waiting in line, and then, once you’ve secured your pie, getting back on the freeway? This is a question we’ve found ourselves wondering since discovering the buko pie at Sari Sari Store. Answer: it’s never too far.
Sari Sari Store is the younger sibling of Republique, the French restaurant that’s on our Greatest Hits List, and our Brunch Greatest Hits List, and has just generally become a member of our (and most likely, your) family. With their La Brea HQ essentially a self-driving car (with a very long waiting list), the husband and wife team are now doing something very different: Filipino food served at a stall in Grand Central Market.
That said, a few things are similar: there’s the same order-at-the-counter setup you get during daytime hours at Republique, the truly excellent desserts, and the same feeling that they really care that you’re enjoying your food. Sari Sari Store and Republique definitely feel related, but in more of a second cousin kind of way.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Besides the coconut-filled pie, Sari Sari serves stuff that will have you counting down the minutes until it’s acceptable to go to lunch. The menu seems pretty simple - there are a bunch of rice bowls with different proteins, all topped with an egg, an arroz caldo (the Filipino rice porridge that’s basically a hug in a bowl), a breakfast sandwich, and desserts. But once you start diving into the food, you realize that the rice is garlicky in one bowl and vinegary in another, the breakfast sandwich is impossible to put down, and everything you’re eating is actually improving your psychological well-being. Which is further improved by the fact that nothing you order will be more than $13.
Unless you have an automatically replenishing swimming pool of money, or feel good about regularly spending weekends in a 50-person long brunch line, you probably don’t get to Republique that often. Sari Sari Store, though, is somewhere you could easily eat at all the time. Just don’t forget to order the pie.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Arroz Caldo
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Pinoy BBQ
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Lechon Manok
Adobo Fried Rice
Tortang Talong
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Filipino Breakfast Sandwich
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Halo Halo
photo credit: Jakob Layman