Cleveland’s first dine-in Filipino restaurant is all about the classics

If you need an introduction to Filipino cuisine, visit Tita Flora’s in Cleveland | Photos from @titafloras/Instagram

One thing about Filipino food is that it’s best eaten freshly cooked, straight out of the kitchen, and shared immediately with family and friends at the table. So for Cleveland, which has already had a few Filipino carry-out spots, this new restaurant in Independence is an answered prayer.

Tita Flora’s is the new restaurant on the block, and it’s also the first brick and mortar dine-in space serving Filipino fare. And while a number of Filipino and Filipino fusion concepts have popped up in the US in recent years, Tita Flora’s is committed to keeping their flavors traditional.

Here, you can expect the perfect introduction to flavors of the homeland—just as if you’re eating it straight out of your tita’s kitchen.

Run by chef and owner Flora Grk, Tita Flora’s offers classics like adobo, sisig, pancit, and lumpia as well as street food favorites you’d find all over Manila like fish balls. The recipes are inspired by the very dishes Grk learned from her own titas, which she enjoyed cooking when she moved to the US.

Tita Flora herself, chef and owner Flora Grk | Photo from Tita Flora’s website

“When I was young, cooking wasn’t a passion for me. It was only when I moved to the US when I was 25 where I learned how connected I felt when I was in the kitchen, cooking the way my titas taught me. When I cook, I feel at home. I feel my family and my heritage,” she shares on Tita Flora’s website.

As such, it’s only natural that they take pride in a menu that’s “authentic Filipino food (like your tita makes),” as their tagline goes. Grk says she wants the restaurant to be able to provide a solid baseline for a Filipino food experience.

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“I have a standard with my food,” Grk says in an interview. “If you wouldn’t serve it to your own family, then you shouldn’t serve it. I serve with a lot of love as a mother.”

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And so it is also with this familial care that Tita Flora’s also tries to cater to other food restrictions and allergies, as some of the dishes can be made gluten-free or vegan.