Josephine's is a restaurant that serves Philippine cuisine such as adobo, seafood and curry. They can cater for private parties of up to 80 people and provide outside seating on the terrace.
User Reviews
Anonymous
Mar 15, 2010
To the person who did the degrading list:
I've eaten at Josephine's and you're obviously talking about a different restaurant because:
1) the dipping sauce for my spring rolls tasted of Chilli Sauce.
2) my group's main courses had lots of flavor and were authentic of Philippine cuisine
3) the restaurant had a certificate of 4/5 stars for cleanliness, as seen near the front door.
4) the service was helpful and friendly in helping us choose our dishes.
5) you obviously wanted something to complain about because this place was good for us and it was good for Manny Paquiao who ate here.
My favourite cuisine is Filipino, and you get the best Filipino food in the country at Josephine’s on Charlotte Street. My wife is loves it and she’s from the Philippines, so it must be pretty authentic. Filipino dishes are an interesting mix between Spanish and Asian flavours. They use a lot of tamarind, fish sauce and sour mango, but their international dish is Paella, because of the influx of Spanish in the 18th Century. I go to Josephine’s for my regular fix of pork lechon, which is pork rubbed in herbs, roasted and served with garlic fried rice. Josephine’s is reasonably priced and traditionally designed with pictures of the Philippines. The owners make you feel really welcomed, so my advice is to get down there and try it
1) the dipping sauce for my spring rolls tasted suspiciously like tomato ketchup
2) my main course lacked any distinct flavour and the portion was tiny
3) the toilets were filthy
4) the service was poor
5) i was constantly distracted by the sound of other people complaining about the poor service
Josephine's is the closet thing to authentic Filipino cuisine you'll find in London. Though the cuisine is slightly altered to cater to English tastes and the availablity of ingredients in the UK, Josephine's still hits the mark for touching on the traditional cool-sour flavours that are hallmark to Filipino cuisine: Saltiness from Patis, (fish sauce); tartness from Kalamansi and tamarind; acidity from rice vinegar; and the gentle heat from garlic and cracked black pepper. Filipino cuisine is unique in that it draws its influence from Spanish, Malay, Indian, and Chinese cuisines. If you're a novice to Filipino cuisine, then I would strongly suggest their Sinigang-Sour Soup and Lumpiang Manila as a first course, the chicken adobo or lechon malabon as a main course, and the Halo-Halo for the third course. Halo-Halo translates as "Mix-Mix" in Tagalog, and is served in a tall milkshake glass containing a couple of different variations of sweet beans, gulaman, sago, ice, leche flan, and topped with a scoop of mango ice cream. Though it may appear a bit intimidating upon arrival, just take your spoon and mix the ingredients together which will yield a delicate flavor unmatched by any dessert found in any other oriental restaurant. The kind of Filipino cuisine that only a Filipino grandmother would prepare! :-)
Was staying in London overnight and wandered down Charlotte Street (which has a lot of excellent restaurants) and into Josephine's. The waitresses didn't seem to know what they were doing, or speak any English. I ordered soup + a main course and they seemed confused. Was I making some enormous snub to the Filipino people? I don't know. They asked if I wanted the soup first. The soup was OK, but not the fiery ginger promised, just a clear, rather boring liquid containing a handful of impossible-to-eat- 5 inch beans, and some bits of ginger. The main course was the pork belly speciality. My god. It sat on my stomach for at least 3 days. Clearly prepared some time before, and defrosted especially for me. The accompanying rice was lumpy, glutinous, and contained luminous particles of vegetables. My glass of wine was barely drinkable. The waitress were far too fussy, whiping my plate away almost before I'd finished (I suppose that should count as a blessing). As you will have gathered - not impressed. Frank.
I went to eat here with my Filipino friends. The owner was also helping out in the service, but he was not quite attentive and friendly. He even told us he was quite busy to take our picture. Food was great though (or maybe just because we miss the native dishes).
This is an awesome restaurant!!! Masarap doon! For anyone missing Filipino food, go here. Plus it has a really good value lunch time menu: £7.50 for two courses or £9.50 for three! The staff were really friendly and helpful.
I had vegetable lumpia to start with followed by pancit. Both were piping hot and delicious!
I highly recommend Josephine's!!!
I had often passed this restaurant and liked the idea of trying it as it always seemed well frequented. I ordered a starter of steamed meat dumplings(as described on the menu) while my partner opted for tempura prawns. When my dumplings arrived I lifted the lid of the bamboo steamer to discover they were sprinkled with powdered fish(I have a fish intollerance).Told the waitress who said that I should know that meat dumplings are always made of a mixture of prawns and meat(so their was fish IN the dumplings as well). What followed was tastless, cold and awful and I would not be able to recommend this place to anybody.
