Rate-A-Restaurant #384: The Park's Finest BBQ (Historic Filipinotown)

Restaurant: The Park's Finest BBQ

Location: 1267 W. Temple St. (Historic Filipinotown)

Type of restaurant: BBQ

We stipulated: We were heading downtown to catch the LA Auto Show but wanted to grab a bite to eat first. We knew The Park's Finest was on the way, and it's been on our restaurant bucket list for a while. It was time to check it out.

They stipulated: "This food is the product of a group of friends' adventures growing up and cooking in the hood. This is our party food. What we eat at our celebrations. Mama Leah's Coconut Beef is a reflection of the Philippine islands. Ann's Cornbread Bibingka is the experience of growing up in L.A. Big Tony's hood famous sauce mixes cane, pineapple, simmered soy sauce, peppers, and spices, and is the soundtrack to it all. Meat is the canvas. Smoking is the art. The Park's Finest is the love."

What we ordered: Mount Taal Manok (crispy, seasoned, smoke-roasted chicken) $13; San Pablo Pulled Pork (16-hour roasted pork shoulder confit) $14; Timuay Beef Tri-Tip (tender season-crusted sirloin beef, cut deli-thin and paired with our own horseradish crema) $16; Elote (esquites style corn off the cob, smoked with butter, fresh ground peppers, pink Himalayan salt, and our garlic/onion seasoning blend, served with mayo, freshly grated parmesan reggiano cheese, and topped with cayenne pepper) $7; steamed white rice $3

High point:  First off, love a BBQ place that has rice -- it's something that I miss at most BBQ places, as it feels weird to eat meat without it. Blogger Kid 1.0 loved the elote, and the tri-tip with horseradish crema was just right. Also enjoyed the pulled pork.

Low point: The Park's Finest prides itself on its homemade BBQ sauce, but I found it a bit too sweet. I need spice with my BBQ, and although they did have Sriracha sauce available, a spicy BBQ sauce option would be nice. (The shoyu/vinegar sauce did pair nicely with the pulled pork.)

Overall impression: The Park's Finest does a great job of giving a Filipino twist to BBQ.

Will we return:  We might want to try some of the other offerings -- especially Mama Leah's Coconut Beef and the Mount Mayon Hot Links. But probably not quite a regular stop.