Wholly Grill

There was a funny moment once on the medical drama "St. Elsewhere" in which a patient at the hospital wished to identify his ethnicity to the doctor treating him. The character stated "I am Filipino." The feckless response from Dr. Wayne Fiscus, played by Howie Mandel, was along the lines of "Hi, Phil. Nice to meet you." That conversational misfire seems to capture the status of Filipino cuisine in much of the United States, including Phoenix. While Americans have been eager to embrace Thai and Vietnamese food, the cooking of the nearby Philippines has yet to gain much traction beyond those who grew up with it. Maybe it's prevalence of sour, vinegary flavors in some dishes, but Filipino food remains largely undiscovered in relation to the other cuisines of east Asia.

view from the food court

Locally, Filipino restaurants have come and gone over the years with little staying power. The latest loss is the recently closed Karey's Kitchen on the east side of Phoenix. Fortunately, that closure is balanced by the recent opening of Wholly Grill at Mekong Plaza, just a few blocks from the Sycamore / Main light rail station in Mesa. Wholly Grill faces not only the dining public's lack of familiarity with its cuisine, but also the difficulties associated with being the lone tenant in Mekong Plaza's food court. Finally, that’s changing with several new tenants on the way to the attractive but deserted north end of the indoor shopping center. In fact, it's not uncommon to see construction workers and hear their equipment during a meal at Wholly Grill.

lumpia

Until Mekong Plaza has a bustling food court to complement its full-service restaurants, Wholly Grill may seem an obscure destination, but it's a worthwhile one. Not only does it offer reasonably priced food with intriguing flavors, but the gracious proprietor Chona is eager to help novices discovering her food for the first time. The name "Wholly Grill" has no secret meaning in any of the languages of the Philippines. Instead, it's a play on words reflecting the restaurant's emphasis on grilled food. That focus is evident on the reader boards over the counter. Pork skewers, barbecued chicken, and garlic shrimp are typical of what's offered here. Each meat has been seasoned prior to grilling, often with flavors that meld sweet, salty, and sour tastes into bold combinations.

grilled chicken with rice and papaya salad

Beyond Wholly Grill's regular menu of grilled foods, including a vegetarian dish featuring peppers and mushrooms, there's another realm of daily specials, most of which offer a deeper taste of Filipino cuisine for the adventurous. Twice a week -- Wednesdays and Saturdays -- there is a roast pork special featuring tender meat with a crispy, charred, and highly flavorful exterior. Every day, there are steam table specials -- generally two or three stews or soups. Recent offerings have included tuna and jackfruit in a thick stew and a tart soup of pork and vegetables. Chona is always happy to offer samples of the steam table specials to anyone who wants a test drive before ordering. This is helpful because even a dish as seemingly familiar as chop suey has its own special touch at Wholly Grill, where the expected chicken, shrimp, and vegetables are augmented with squash.

chop suey and rice

All these items can be plated with sides dishes. The most familiar are a steamed vegetable assortment and a Hawaiian-style macaroni salad, but those basics are balanced with two bolder alternatives: an eggplant salad with a texture like baba ghanoush but a tangier taste and another salad based on shredded papaya. All entrees come with slightly sticky rice as well. Of course there are two other items that no Filipino restaurant should be without: lumpia and pancit. The former are tiny egg rolls with a crisp exterior wrapped around a ground pork filling. The latter is all about noodles. Dozens of types of pancit are found in Filipino kitchens, but Wholly Grill focuses on just one or two at any time. Here, pancit gisado combines round rice noodles with chicken and vegetables in a simple, filling dish. To add some zest, use the bottled sriracha, the barbecue sauce, or just the plain vinegar at the counter.

pancit

There's no alcohol here, but the fruit drinks are worth exploring. The house lemonade is a nice balance of tart and sweet flavors. While lemonade is familiar and comforting, calamansi juice is something new to try. The fruit is a citrus variety native to the Philippines and has a flavor simultaneously reminiscent of orange, lemon, and lime. For dessert, the banana turron maintains the fruit theme. A whole banana is deep fried to produce something like a sweet egg roll. It's filling and probably best if shared among two or three people. From familiar bananas to exotic jackfruit, there's no reason to be as confused about the Philippines, or at least its food, as Dr. Fiscus from St. Elsewhere. Instead, educate yourself at the Mekong Plaza food court and hope that Wholly Grill lasts longer than the other Filipino restaurants that have come before it.

banana turron

66 S. Dobson Rd., Mesa AZ 85202
(480) 567-4992




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