Boodle fight at Sizzling Fillo, Lidcombe

No cutlery. No plates. Just one long table piled with food. This, my friends, is a boodle fight. It’s how the Filipino military used to eat in an army mess hall, soldiers standing shoulder-to-shoulder battling to eat their fill before the food ran out. Eating together wasn’t just about efficiency – it also represented equality and camaraderie for all troops.

Today’s boodle fights have evolved into more of a communal feast for family and friends, while still acknowledging its traditional origins. So hand-to-mouth combat sounds like your kinda thing? Sizzling Fillo has ten different banquets to choose from, including special lovers’ feasts for two. Sexy times. For a less intimate meal, it’s worth rounding up at least three of your mates who won’t freak out about eating with their fingers. And yes, they have a vegan feast too. Nobody misses out here.


Serving the garlic rice on banana leaves

Pre-book at least three days in advance and when you rock up, you’ll find your table covered in banana leaves. The dining room is a happy hubbub of Filipino families and friends, with most ordering from the a la carte menu.

On your signal, staff will start bringing out your food, piling it up on or around fragrant garlic rice planted straight onto your banana leaf-lined table.


Sizzling steak

You’ll get everything from steamed crabs to sizzling steak to fried baby milkfish depending on the banquet you’ve ordered. Veggies are always included.


Fried milkfish with salted egg


Sizzling sisig

Sizzling sisig is a Filo specialty worth trying, a hot plate of shredded meat from the pigs head and liver mixed through with egg yolk.


Stirring the egg yolk into the sizzling sisig pigs head with liver



Plating the crispy pata deep fried pig trotters

But the undoubted star of the show is the crispy pata, deep fried pork trotters that you tear apart and dip into vinegar and soy. If there’s going to be a fight, it’ll be over the hunks of crunchy crackling.


You know you want it

Relapse to childhood and get down and dirty with your fingers. It might feel weird at first but you’ll be ripping apart that milkfish like a seasoned Survivor contestant in no time.


The best kind of finger food

Finish up with deep fried banana fritters, leche flan crème caramel or halo halo, mixed fruits topped with ice cream. The sago’t gulaman doubles as dessert too, a brown sugar drink served icy cold with tapioca pearls and cubes of agar agar jelly.


Sago't gulaman


Boodle fight


Fried milkfish with salted egg and garlic rice


Crispy pata deep fried pork trotter






Sizzling Fillo
36 Railway Street, Lidcombe, Sydney
Tel: +61 (02) 9649 7939

Opening hours
Tuesday to Friday 5.30pm-9pm
Saturday to Sunday 11.30am-3.30pm and 4.30pm-9pm

This article first appeared in Time Out Sydney. Read this article online or read more of my Time Out Sydney reviews.