LAReview
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Spoon & Pork
Included In
In the 1890s, Claude Monet painted a series of impressionist pieces of the Rouen Cathedral. There are more than 30 of them, and each one looks almost completely different, because he made them in rented apartments with distinct views of the cathedral. Monet wasn’t trying to capture the cathedral itself, but rather, how light shone on its exterior - so some paintings are beige, some are dark green, some are blue, and some are bright red.
That’s a lot like a meal at Spoon & Pork, the Filipino comfort food spot on Sunset. If the name doesn’t make it abundantly clear, the three-foot-tall neon pig above the door will: There are enough pork varieties here to rival Monet’s cathedral perspectives - adobo pork nigiri, pork belly banh mi, deep-fried pork shank, adobo pork belly, lechon kawali. And each dish shines in its own distinct way.
The adobo-glazed, twice-cooked pork belly, served with a fried egg, rice, tomatoes, chives, and fried garlic, is so tender you can use your fork to flake off pieces. The lechon kawali, on the other hand, is the same cut of meat, only deep-fried, resulting in a hunk of pork belly that’s crisp and intensely crunchy on the outside, but so soft on the inside that it melts in your mouth.
photo credit: Jakob Layman
The star of the show here, and the thing everyone should order, is the patita. This slow-cooked (then deep-fried) pork shank is absolutely massive - big enough for two - rubbed with an excellent chili garlic mixture, and served with jasmine rice. It’s also just $22, a pretty incredible deal considering we’ve gotten less meat for twice the price at fancier restaurants, and it didn’t taste nearly as good.
If it sounds like a meal at Spoon & Pork can be a bit of a one-note affair - that’s not far from the truth. The main knock on this place is that, while the iterations of what they serve are different, at the end of the day, it’s still a lot of pork, and a lot of oil. The menu doesn’t have much balance, and even the best non-pork dishes (like the fried chicken, or the short rib-topped caldereta bravas) are heavy, fried, and - while highly worth your time - will still leave you feeling ready for a nap afterward. The lightest dish on the menu is probably a very good, very vinegary rice porridge. But even that’s topped with fried chicken skins.
Then again, balance isn’t why you eat comfort food. You eat it to feel like you’re at home, even if it’s just for a minute. If that’s the goal, Spoon & Pork achieve it in a big way. They also manage to do it while presenting pork in interesting, innovative, and (above all else) delicious ways. And they didn’t even have to rent a single apartment in Rouen to do it.
Food Rundown
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Caldereta Bravas
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Patita
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Arroz Coddled Egg
photo credit: Jakob Layman
Pork Belly Banh Mi
Chori Burger
FGC
photo credit: Jakob Layman