Boonie's Will Make You Feel Like You Were Invited to Someone's Home

You know how a meal is going to go before you sit down. You smell it walking in. Boonie's is a simple room — black exterior, warm brown interior, nothing trying to impress you with the design — and the kitchen announces itself the moment you open the door. That smell is the promise. Chef Joe Fontelera keeps it.

This is a Michelin Bib Gourmand restaurant in Lincoln Square, which is already a sentence worth paying attention to. The menu is small and focused, built to be shared, and if you come with a group of four to six people you could realistically order the whole thing. I say this without shame. This is what the menu wants you to do.

The lumpia arrives first and I have to be honest about what happens to me when I eat them. My mother and I used to roll lumpia together on holidays. It was one of those kitchen rituals that felt ordinary at the time and feels like something else entirely now. Boonie's lumpia tastes like those ones. Crispy, delicious, the kind of thing I could eat one hundred of without reconsidering. That is not a hyperbole. That is a personal record I am willing to attempt.

The sizzling sisig is the dish you see coming to every table and there's a reason for that. It arrives dramatic and loud, bubbling and steaming, a raw egg yolk balanced on top. The server breaks the yolk and folds it in at the table, cooking it in the heat of the dish in front of you. It is delicious and theatrical in equal measure.

The krispy pata is the centerpiece. A pork shank cooked three ways: braised until it falls off the bone, roasted for depth and richness, fried to make the exterior crispy. It is exactly as good as that description sounds. The adobong isda rounds things out beautifully. The cod is flaky, soft, savory, a little sweet. Well cooked in the way that simple fish dishes only are when someone is paying close attention.

Boonie's is BYOB if you want something alcoholic. A few non-alcoholic options are available if you don't. Every time we've come here we've ordered something new. Every time, it has been delicious and surprising. That is a hard thing to sustain and Fontelera sustains it.

Bring people you like. Order everything. Go back and do it again.