Let’s start with the odd location of the sink- which was not conveniently accessible to guests as it is Let’s start with the location of the sink which should be conveniently accessible to guests. The room was crowded and one can barely go to the sink when everybody’s seated. Then this picture is how the food was presented, nothing like the pictures that we saw from previous reviews that seem to have abundance of food. The milkfish/ “daing” and eggplant was undercooked, beef skewers were dry and tough, underwhelmed w mushroom sisig , “atsara” lacks flavor …. However, I was surprise with the flavorful duck adobo, and was happy with the crispy lechon kawali, pork spring rolls w an amazing sweet sauce !Tanam should reconsider their menu, step up with the presentation and lastly hire cheerful servers as customer service is equally important to make this place successful.
M R.
Had VIP tickets for Pinoy Piyesta. The tickets were fairly expensive, but there was a lot of food. I had table reserved upstairs at Bow Market Ski Bar because of inclement weather. I gave this seating info to a Tanam host. I was told my food would be brought to my table. I waited over 30 minutes, then went downstairs and was treated with extreme condescension by a different person at host stand, and given my now-bagged food without utensils. Never will purchase tickets or food again from Tanam. I am Filipina and was trying to support a Filipinx small business/restaurant. This is would be given a zero star if I had that option.
Doug C.
Wow, came for the Kamayan, only second time doing this. I booked ahead of time for 4 via Chase Dining, which includes gratuity, also added the egg custard. Arrived early, but seated right away. It's a VERY small place, only two inside tables, but more outside tables. It was very cold when we came so nobody outside. Bit hard to find initially, no obvious signs but we eventually found it. It is expensive, so prepare yourself - about $80 each, I think if we had reserved more in advance it would have been $75 each. The service was excellent, explained everything, from sauces to everything included in the Kamayan. I can't even begin to explain the food, but the pictures show the essence. The rice is delicious! Meat - also delicious. Pork belly so juicy and crispy. Salmon, mussels, everything was delicious. Wife and I inhaled ours - each one serves two people - other couple only ate about half, made us feel like fatty's haha. The pork lumpia was also delicious - Filipino egg rolls essentially, so crunchy and fresh, they also gave us two more because we didn't have enough without asking - probably wouldn't have even noticed! The boiled tea eggs were delicious too. The wings were also delicious - nice and crispy, sauce tasty, ginger garlic wings tasty. My tequila drink in the pictures was tasty - came in a bowl which was the first time I've ever had a cocktail in a bowl. They are not cheap cocktails though. The egg custard was delicious - an interesting combination of sweet and salty, crispy crust, a type of whip cream on top but not a typical whip cream. Ordered 2 ahead of time, but they gave us an extra 2! It's a unique dining experience that normally is done with your hands but this place does provide silverware. There is also a hand washing station which is clutch. Service top notich, I would definitely recommend!
Dara Behjat
4 stars on the food as it was extremely solid but 5 stars in the experience overall. Highly suggest the table experience especially with large groups
Cheryl E.
attended piyestang Pinoy last weekend. very disappointed with servings. served lechon with no lech on sauce. dried chicken and pancit. ordered halo halo for 2 and was charged $33. Halo halo ingredients also not good. will be the first and last time at this restauran.
Jennifer Burns
Really wanted to like this place but the service was horrible. While we were waiting 20+ minutes for the check, we could see the servers taking shots. Food was decent but not worth the price.
Brandie Alexander
Wanted to love this place but the mixed drink my friend got was $16 and tiny. I’ve tried ordering the fried tofu but it always shows up incredibly greasy. Oil spills out when I bite into it.
Marvin B.
I had to try Tanam after discovering that there was a Filipino restaurant with vegan options in the Cambridge/Somerville area! I ordered the Beyond Meat Lumpia. I tend to not like Beyond Meat as I prefer Impossible Meat, but they seasoned it really well with the veggies that it was actually really good and tasted a lot like other lumpia that I've had before becoming vegan. The best part was definitely the spicy house sweet and sour sauce! It had a really good balance of spice to sweetness and paired perfectly with the lumpia. The pandan milk tea tasted really good, but I don't think it was worth $8 for such a small cup and included medium sized ice cubes. Despite that, I'll definitely be back!
Della S.
I was really excited to try the kamayan here. Our server was great but the food could have been better. We started with some of their drinks. We got the buntot pagi ($16), melon sa malamig ($8), and pandan milk tea ($8) with infanta lambanog (+$5). The alcoholic drinks packed a punch! The melon juice was very sweet, almost like a syrup. I wouldn't recommend adding the infanta lambanog to the pandan milk tea, since the flavors didn't complement that well. Upon each sip I'd taste the pandan first, then get hit with the burn of alcohol down my throat. The kamayan platter was beautiful and the sauces were all unique and tasty, but I felt that the quality of the items on the platter could have been better, especially at the price point of $79 per person. My favorite item was probably the pork lumpia, which had juicy, perfectly seasoned pork wrapped in a crispy shell. The soft-boiled tea eggs were a close runner up-- I loved that the yolks were super jammy while the egg whites were full of umami flavor. The crispy shallots on top added some texture to the very soft eggs. Now onto the items that were decent but could use improvement: the mussels came swimming in a delicious coconut milk sauce. However, the mussels themselves were pretty dry and did not have much of their own flavor. The grilled pork tocino and roasted pork belly were both extremely dry even though I loved the flavor of the pork tocino. The items that were the most disappointing to me were the wings, vegetables, and papaya salad. The wings had so much potential to be crispy and/or caramelized on the outside but the skins were soft. I liked the sweet fish sauce but the ginger garlic wings basically had no flavor at all. The vegetables were overcooked to the point of being mushy and yellow. The salad items were also quite mushy. I couldn't taste any pearl onions and the cucumbers were sliced so thinly that they lost their crunch. If the items in the kamayan all had the same quality as the lumpia and soft eggs, then I think this place would be well worth its price. However from my recent experience, I would not recommend ordering the kamayan.
Ken
After reading glowing write-ups in both Eater and Timeout, my partner and I were excited to enjoy what seemed one of the few Filipino culinary experiences in Boston. So it’s disheartening to say that we left feeling disappointed.I don’t know if it was the high price point that altered our expectations (the Kamayan platter is $79 (pre-tax and tip) per person, but in all we found the quality of the food lacking.For a total of around ~$200 the Kamayan platter included: 1 small piece of salmon, 4 chicken wings, 4 tea egg halves, 6 lumpia, and a small portion of pork tocino and pork belly, all on a bed of rice; alongside it were 8 mussels, two small plates of vegetables, and some pineapple chunks and tamarind fruit. (I specify quantities only because the overall quality was lacking, $200 would have been an adequate price to pay for this size platter if the food had possessed any wow factor).The salmon was overcooked, leaving it dry and tough. The tea eggs, while cooked well, lacked a noticeable flavor profile and served more as a space filler. The pork belly arrived cold and the skin was crisp to a degree where it was hard to chew. Other items that arrived unexpectedly cold included the mussels and the pork tocino.The plates of vegetables, which normally would have served as a refugee away from the meat heavy dinner, were left virtually untouched. They were almost entirely unseasoned and arrived cold.The dinner was not without some redeeming qualities. The lumpia were good, along with the chicken wings, which were probably some of the best we’ve eaten. But we ordered a Kamayan platter, so 4 chicken wings and 6 lumpia alone weren’t enough to save the meal. None of the meals components were tasty, interesting, or exciting enough to justify the price point.However, the service was wonderful. Our server was attentive and took great care in explaining each component of the meal.The idea behind the restaurant is exciting in theory, but its execution left much to be desired. Overall, this was less an experience, more an overpriced dinner. Drinks and appetizers seem to be the way to go at Tanam.
Very disappointing experience here. We arrived around 5:30pm for drinks and dinner at Bow Market. Bow market was lively, but strangely there was no one ordering food from or dining at Tanam. We should have taken the hint, but despite our better judgement we ordered some drinks and lumpia from Tanam (pictured). The drinks were small and our food (one order of spring rolls) took 40 min to complete. At least they came out hot. It was probably an off night, but with so many options in Bow Market I won't be in a hurry to come back.
Melissa Smiley
This is hard to write because I had been looking forward to trying Tanam for a while and stan Filipino food/culture, but my kamayan takeout order was disappointing.Keeping in mind that ordering to-go will cause some obvious changes to temperature and texture of food, the flavor and execution of the dishes overall were lacking. The pork tocino was extremely dry and under-seasoned, as was the kabocha squash and bok choy. We also received salmon (guessing this was maybe a special for the day). I would have liked a description of what this was, because it was hard to tell what it was supposed to be and came across unpleasantly fishy. The lumpia and tea eggs were decent. The chicken wings were just okay- the menu states these are double-fried but I would not have guessed that without reading this. The kabocha coconut milk puree could use more seasoning. The coconut milk mussels were good, and the pork belly was crispy and juicy. The condiments were good but for the price of the meal I would have expected to receive bigger portions.In general I don’t think the takeout option is worth the price. The takeout kamayan was $140 (not including fees) and I don’t feel I received my money’s worth. I’m still rooting for Tanam and hope they review and consider feedback.
Junie Quicho
Hello Tanam, we were there yesterday, enjoyed our boxed kamayan food and drinks. Even though we pre-ordered for pick up we decided to eat there. We had really good service and the boxed food and drinks we ordered were delicious. However, the Halo-halo party mix was awful. First of all, I felt cheated on the play for names calling a party snack mix Halo-halo which is the name for a very traditional age-old Filipino treat and then serve it badly was distasteful. Everything in it was stale and old. Please check your food items before serving. It was a total waste of money considering the contents are of cheap snack mixes and a small serving size. A cup of old party mix for $8+ was a waste of money.
Stacey T.
We made a last minute reservation on a bit of a whim and really enjoyed it. After reading some other reviews, we decided to test our luck with the indoor communal table and it worked out as there was only one other pair at the opposite end of the table for the 8:45 seating. The space is definitely unusual and gives it a temporary "pop-up" feel. The indoor space is quite small with one oblong, high top table that I guess would seat 8 people. Behind the table there is a single sink only accessible to indoor guests, which I attribute to the tight space and safety. The kitchen is directly behind the wall/sink as well. The full restroom is in a common space that is for all vendors that share the courtyard. The staff were very friendly and made sure to explain each part of the platter. The food was really tasty as well. Although typically eaten with your hands, they provide forks and spoons. The pork belly had a nice, crispy crust. The lumpia were really crisp as well. The muscles have a bit of a kick and the eggs are super savory. The wings were good, but if we had to pick a favorite we'd go with sticky sweet glaze. We were tempted to get the lobster but thought it would be too much food. We enjoyed everything and brought home some leftovers. I think my only criticism, which is minor, is that the pineapple didn't to be fresh. Then roasted vegetables were good but a bit of an afterthought considering the great flavors of everything else.
Alex O.
Incredible experience. Everything tasted and looked amazing. We had Kabayan to celebrate my dad's birthday, and we'll definitely be back.
Let’s start with the odd location of the sink- which was not conveniently accessible to guests as it is Let’s start with the location of the sink which should be conveniently accessible to guests. The room was crowded and one can barely go to the sink when everybody’s seated. Then this picture is how the food was presented, nothing like the pictures that we saw from previous reviews that seem to have abundance of food. The milkfish/ “daing” and eggplant was undercooked, beef skewers were dry and tough, underwhelmed w mushroom sisig , “atsara” lacks flavor …. However, I was surprise with the flavorful duck adobo, and was happy with the crispy lechon kawali, pork spring rolls w an amazing sweet sauce !Tanam should reconsider their menu, step up with the presentation and lastly hire cheerful servers as customer service is equally important to make this place successful.
Had VIP tickets for Pinoy Piyesta. The tickets were fairly expensive, but there was a lot of food. I had table reserved upstairs at Bow Market Ski Bar because of inclement weather. I gave this seating info to a Tanam host. I was told my food would be brought to my table. I waited over 30 minutes, then went downstairs and was treated with extreme condescension by a different person at host stand, and given my now-bagged food without utensils. Never will purchase tickets or food again from Tanam. I am Filipina and was trying to support a Filipinx small business/restaurant. This is would be given a zero star if I had that option.
Wow, came for the Kamayan, only second time doing this. I booked ahead of time for 4 via Chase Dining, which includes gratuity, also added the egg custard. Arrived early, but seated right away. It's a VERY small place, only two inside tables, but more outside tables. It was very cold when we came so nobody outside. Bit hard to find initially, no obvious signs but we eventually found it. It is expensive, so prepare yourself - about $80 each, I think if we had reserved more in advance it would have been $75 each. The service was excellent, explained everything, from sauces to everything included in the Kamayan. I can't even begin to explain the food, but the pictures show the essence. The rice is delicious! Meat - also delicious. Pork belly so juicy and crispy. Salmon, mussels, everything was delicious. Wife and I inhaled ours - each one serves two people - other couple only ate about half, made us feel like fatty's haha. The pork lumpia was also delicious - Filipino egg rolls essentially, so crunchy and fresh, they also gave us two more because we didn't have enough without asking - probably wouldn't have even noticed! The boiled tea eggs were delicious too. The wings were also delicious - nice and crispy, sauce tasty, ginger garlic wings tasty. My tequila drink in the pictures was tasty - came in a bowl which was the first time I've ever had a cocktail in a bowl. They are not cheap cocktails though. The egg custard was delicious - an interesting combination of sweet and salty, crispy crust, a type of whip cream on top but not a typical whip cream. Ordered 2 ahead of time, but they gave us an extra 2! It's a unique dining experience that normally is done with your hands but this place does provide silverware. There is also a hand washing station which is clutch. Service top notich, I would definitely recommend!
4 stars on the food as it was extremely solid but 5 stars in the experience overall. Highly suggest the table experience especially with large groups
attended piyestang Pinoy last weekend. very disappointed with servings. served lechon with no lech on sauce. dried chicken and pancit. ordered halo halo for 2 and was charged $33. Halo halo ingredients also not good. will be the first and last time at this restauran.
Really wanted to like this place but the service was horrible. While we were waiting 20+ minutes for the check, we could see the servers taking shots. Food was decent but not worth the price.
Wanted to love this place but the mixed drink my friend got was $16 and tiny. I’ve tried ordering the fried tofu but it always shows up incredibly greasy. Oil spills out when I bite into it.
I had to try Tanam after discovering that there was a Filipino restaurant with vegan options in the Cambridge/Somerville area! I ordered the Beyond Meat Lumpia. I tend to not like Beyond Meat as I prefer Impossible Meat, but they seasoned it really well with the veggies that it was actually really good and tasted a lot like other lumpia that I've had before becoming vegan. The best part was definitely the spicy house sweet and sour sauce! It had a really good balance of spice to sweetness and paired perfectly with the lumpia. The pandan milk tea tasted really good, but I don't think it was worth $8 for such a small cup and included medium sized ice cubes. Despite that, I'll definitely be back!
I was really excited to try the kamayan here. Our server was great but the food could have been better. We started with some of their drinks. We got the buntot pagi ($16), melon sa malamig ($8), and pandan milk tea ($8) with infanta lambanog (+$5). The alcoholic drinks packed a punch! The melon juice was very sweet, almost like a syrup. I wouldn't recommend adding the infanta lambanog to the pandan milk tea, since the flavors didn't complement that well. Upon each sip I'd taste the pandan first, then get hit with the burn of alcohol down my throat. The kamayan platter was beautiful and the sauces were all unique and tasty, but I felt that the quality of the items on the platter could have been better, especially at the price point of $79 per person. My favorite item was probably the pork lumpia, which had juicy, perfectly seasoned pork wrapped in a crispy shell. The soft-boiled tea eggs were a close runner up-- I loved that the yolks were super jammy while the egg whites were full of umami flavor. The crispy shallots on top added some texture to the very soft eggs. Now onto the items that were decent but could use improvement: the mussels came swimming in a delicious coconut milk sauce. However, the mussels themselves were pretty dry and did not have much of their own flavor. The grilled pork tocino and roasted pork belly were both extremely dry even though I loved the flavor of the pork tocino. The items that were the most disappointing to me were the wings, vegetables, and papaya salad. The wings had so much potential to be crispy and/or caramelized on the outside but the skins were soft. I liked the sweet fish sauce but the ginger garlic wings basically had no flavor at all. The vegetables were overcooked to the point of being mushy and yellow. The salad items were also quite mushy. I couldn't taste any pearl onions and the cucumbers were sliced so thinly that they lost their crunch. If the items in the kamayan all had the same quality as the lumpia and soft eggs, then I think this place would be well worth its price. However from my recent experience, I would not recommend ordering the kamayan.
After reading glowing write-ups in both Eater and Timeout, my partner and I were excited to enjoy what seemed one of the few Filipino culinary experiences in Boston. So it’s disheartening to say that we left feeling disappointed.I don’t know if it was the high price point that altered our expectations (the Kamayan platter is $79 (pre-tax and tip) per person, but in all we found the quality of the food lacking.For a total of around ~$200 the Kamayan platter included: 1 small piece of salmon, 4 chicken wings, 4 tea egg halves, 6 lumpia, and a small portion of pork tocino and pork belly, all on a bed of rice; alongside it were 8 mussels, two small plates of vegetables, and some pineapple chunks and tamarind fruit. (I specify quantities only because the overall quality was lacking, $200 would have been an adequate price to pay for this size platter if the food had possessed any wow factor).The salmon was overcooked, leaving it dry and tough. The tea eggs, while cooked well, lacked a noticeable flavor profile and served more as a space filler. The pork belly arrived cold and the skin was crisp to a degree where it was hard to chew. Other items that arrived unexpectedly cold included the mussels and the pork tocino.The plates of vegetables, which normally would have served as a refugee away from the meat heavy dinner, were left virtually untouched. They were almost entirely unseasoned and arrived cold.The dinner was not without some redeeming qualities. The lumpia were good, along with the chicken wings, which were probably some of the best we’ve eaten. But we ordered a Kamayan platter, so 4 chicken wings and 6 lumpia alone weren’t enough to save the meal. None of the meals components were tasty, interesting, or exciting enough to justify the price point.However, the service was wonderful. Our server was attentive and took great care in explaining each component of the meal.The idea behind the restaurant is exciting in theory, but its execution left much to be desired. Overall, this was less an experience, more an overpriced dinner. Drinks and appetizers seem to be the way to go at Tanam.
Restaurantji Recommends
Very disappointing experience here. We arrived around 5:30pm for drinks and dinner at Bow Market. Bow market was lively, but strangely there was no one ordering food from or dining at Tanam. We should have taken the hint, but despite our better judgement we ordered some drinks and lumpia from Tanam (pictured). The drinks were small and our food (one order of spring rolls) took 40 min to complete. At least they came out hot. It was probably an off night, but with so many options in Bow Market I won't be in a hurry to come back.
This is hard to write because I had been looking forward to trying Tanam for a while and stan Filipino food/culture, but my kamayan takeout order was disappointing.Keeping in mind that ordering to-go will cause some obvious changes to temperature and texture of food, the flavor and execution of the dishes overall were lacking. The pork tocino was extremely dry and under-seasoned, as was the kabocha squash and bok choy. We also received salmon (guessing this was maybe a special for the day). I would have liked a description of what this was, because it was hard to tell what it was supposed to be and came across unpleasantly fishy. The lumpia and tea eggs were decent. The chicken wings were just okay- the menu states these are double-fried but I would not have guessed that without reading this. The kabocha coconut milk puree could use more seasoning. The coconut milk mussels were good, and the pork belly was crispy and juicy. The condiments were good but for the price of the meal I would have expected to receive bigger portions.In general I don’t think the takeout option is worth the price. The takeout kamayan was $140 (not including fees) and I don’t feel I received my money’s worth. I’m still rooting for Tanam and hope they review and consider feedback.
Hello Tanam, we were there yesterday, enjoyed our boxed kamayan food and drinks. Even though we pre-ordered for pick up we decided to eat there. We had really good service and the boxed food and drinks we ordered were delicious. However, the Halo-halo party mix was awful. First of all, I felt cheated on the play for names calling a party snack mix Halo-halo which is the name for a very traditional age-old Filipino treat and then serve it badly was distasteful. Everything in it was stale and old. Please check your food items before serving. It was a total waste of money considering the contents are of cheap snack mixes and a small serving size. A cup of old party mix for $8+ was a waste of money.
We made a last minute reservation on a bit of a whim and really enjoyed it. After reading some other reviews, we decided to test our luck with the indoor communal table and it worked out as there was only one other pair at the opposite end of the table for the 8:45 seating. The space is definitely unusual and gives it a temporary "pop-up" feel. The indoor space is quite small with one oblong, high top table that I guess would seat 8 people. Behind the table there is a single sink only accessible to indoor guests, which I attribute to the tight space and safety. The kitchen is directly behind the wall/sink as well. The full restroom is in a common space that is for all vendors that share the courtyard. The staff were very friendly and made sure to explain each part of the platter. The food was really tasty as well. Although typically eaten with your hands, they provide forks and spoons. The pork belly had a nice, crispy crust. The lumpia were really crisp as well. The muscles have a bit of a kick and the eggs are super savory. The wings were good, but if we had to pick a favorite we'd go with sticky sweet glaze. We were tempted to get the lobster but thought it would be too much food. We enjoyed everything and brought home some leftovers. I think my only criticism, which is minor, is that the pineapple didn't to be fresh. Then roasted vegetables were good but a bit of an afterthought considering the great flavors of everything else.
Incredible experience. Everything tasted and looked amazing. We had Kabayan to celebrate my dad's birthday, and we'll definitely be back.