Fine Filipino fare is just the start at Kawali

Ever hear of Hillman City?

No?

Well, the burgeoning retail and restaurant strip along Rainier Avenue South just got lucky, catching some cuisine that could easily match -- and sometimes best -- that of its northern neighbor, Columbia City.

Perhaps passers-by were not aware of their good fortune when Kawali Grill opened in late summer. From the outside, its outcropping of tables walled in by glass has the look of a diner, an effect reinforced by Kawali's block letter advertisements for dishes from pasta to lechon kawali (heavenly fried pork belly, Filipino style, and a bargain at $9.99).

But inside, chef Gerold Castro was crafting a menu tasty enough to bring me back for breakfast, lunch and dinner, succeeding despite my doubts about its reach: from Filipino fare to the Pacific Rim and back through U.S. staples such as pasta and salad.

Castro's résumé is impressive. He is the former executive chef at the Seattle Hilton Hotel, where he oversaw two banquet kitchens and two restaurants, including the Top of the Hilton. His presentation is high-class fun: The crispy shrimp in Kawali's $6.50 appetizer come perched on top of one another in a halved coconut shell, nestling above an excellent combination of papaya relish and roasted pepper remoulade from which a spear of crispy plantain arcs.

That's pretty darned fancy for Rainier Avenue South.

But Kawali's clientele seem more interested in other things, dividing their time evenly among watching sports on Kawali's two televisions, singing traditional Filipino songs (creating the coolest multicultural moment I've had in a Seattle restaurant), and the house's Filipino specials.

The menu shines with Filipino mainstays, whether the $4.50 homemade pork lumpia, spring rolls lined up in a neat little row with their ends tipping a segment of halved bamboo, or the $7.99 main course of pansit, stir-fried noodles with pork, shrimp and a medley of green beans, carrots, shiitake mushrooms and cabbage. We chose the rice noodles, but they offer egg noodles, too.

The changing menu of house specials offered up some surprises, such as the $7.99 sweet and sour tilapia that, to my friend's dismay and my delight, came as a whole fried fish, eyes, bones and all.

Though pork dominates the menu, there are vegetarian options -- the lumpia come in a veggie version that "looks like a cross between a burrito and a spring roll," according to one friend who loved the accompanying peanut sauce.

And, yes, there are salads, and I am sure they were good, but I didn't order them. I just couldn't. It was that or miss out on the $8.99 ginger coconut curried clams and mussels and the $8.99 Pandan Chicken, fried in coconut milk with ginger, soy and pandan leaves.

Try washing those down with one of Kawali's $3 beers: San Miguel, Red Horse, Corona and Heineken. A glass of wine ranges from $4 to $6.

Leave some room for dessert, if you can. We ordered the $4.50 halo-halo, a crazy mix of tapioca pearls, coconut jellies, shaved ice, flan and ice cream, and the $4.25 cream caramel leche flan, which has the consistency of frosting and is rich to the extreme.

Even after all that, I eyed Kawali's breakfast menu and plotted my return to sample the series of $7.99 tapsilogs -- garlic fried rice with fried eggs and marinated grilled meats.