Island Cuisine

Located at 6246 Towncenter Drive in Clemmons, Island Cuisine offers Filipino and Asian Fusion cuisine. It is open from 4-8 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 11-8 Friday-Sunday, and closed Monday. Outdoor seating, online ordering, and catering are available.

 

It had been too long since I had Filipino cooking, so I was eager to give Island Cuisine a try. It didn’t disappoint though there is room for improvement in a few areas.

 

Island Cuisine boasts a fairly extensive menu, offering everything from apps to noodles (pancit) to rice bowls to various proteins to soups and more. You can do breakfast for dinner here, and there are several vegetarian options as well. For our first visit, my wife and I went with a meat lumpia, a pinakbet (Japanese eggplant, squash, green beans, and okra over rice), and a pork binagoongan (pork with pineapple in a coconut milk sauce). We didn’t have long to wait for our food, and the pricing here (our entrees were in the $10 to $12 range) left no complaints.

 

The food offered more hits than misses. The lumpia were quite thin but tasty and crispy. The vegetables in the pinakbet made for a vibrant medley, and the Japanese eggplant in particular shined. The pork dish featured a very satisfying sauce that reminded me a bit of a Panang curry. However, the accompanying sauteed zucchini was confusingly lukewarm. We'd also paid $3 extra to add fried pork belly to the pinakbet, and it proved very dry.

 

Overall, Island Cuisine offers a good change-of-pace, and I will keep it in mind the next time a Filipino craving hits.