Steak, of course, is as American as apple pie. I’m not a huge steak fan, although I enjoy an occasional filet mignon (no gravy, I always feel it detracts from the flavor of the steak) with mashed potatoes and buttered vegetables. My kids prefer ostrich meat and lamb chops to steak. It’s my husband who’s a real steak lover. The Filipino version of steak, called beef steak or “bistek”, is a compromise among our preferences. It uses a tender cut of beef (top or bottom round, sirloin or tenderloin), seasoned and has a light sauce so it does not dry up even when it starts to cool (my kids hate dry meat).
Ingredients
- 1/2 kilo of beef (round, sirloin or tenderloin), sliced 1/4-inch thick
4 tbsp. of kalamansi (native lemon) juice
1/4 c. of dark soy sauce
freshly-ground pepper
1 tsp. of minced garlic
2 large onions, cut into rings
2 tbsp. of cooking oil
Instructions
- In a glass mixing bowl, mix kalamansi or lemon juice and soy sauce. Add beef, garlic and ground pepper. Mix well. Let sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Heat a heavy skillet. Add oil. Lightly fry the onion rings. Remove from skillet and drain on paper towels. Keep warm.
Reheat oil until smoking. Pan-fry the beef slices in batches, removing them as they brown. When all the beef has been cooked, pour the marinade into the skillet and boil for 1 minute. Arrange beef slices on a plate. Place the onion rings on top. Pour the sauce over the onions and beef. Serve at once.
Cooking time (duration): about 50 including marinating time
Number of servings (yield): 3 to 4
the best bistek ever! maraming salamat and i have been following this recipe about thrice a week. my kids love it!
great, vanessa. am glad. hi to your kids.
Thank you for the recipe! I just made this for my packed lunch for the whole week. It looks and tastes great! Will be looking at your blog for future lunch inspirations.
oo kami rin. every other week nag bibistek kami. dalawa lang kami kaibigan ko dito sa apartment at laking savings talaga pag may baon kami lunch sa opisina. pandagdag gimik din yun!!!
yung spicy chicken pang hatak sa chicks!!! champion miss vanessa! swerte magiging asawa ng mga anak nyo. just kidding! salamat po ulit…
ERRATUM: Si miss connie may ari nitong website hindi si miss vanessa, sorry po.
Yup, this is our magna carta for pinoy cuisine.
Thanks a lot ma’am!
salamat naman at nag-eenjoy kayo, bert, kahit namali yung pangalan ko hehehe ok lang. and to your kasama. i am especially pleased when expats and OFWs find my blog and start cooking to remind them of home.
OMIGOSH..THANKS TO THIS SITE
Thank you for this recipe. It is ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS! I made this for the first time for my husband and he LOVES it. He can’t stop eating! He wants me to cook this on our family Christmas dinner.
More power!
Last night dinner?! Of course! Your recipe!
This!!! ehehe! I think I haven’t mention to you yet that my hubby is an australian…and the only thing that he always pick on me is our age gap coz im 6months older than him…i’m still not old! i’m only 26! lol anyway back to this…on cooking i just remember only 1! coz of coriander and tofu…well didnt know that he don’t like it…but that was my early days married to him. anyway again…ehehe! last night i put in his table a plate of ‘bistek’ and ‘mushpotato’ exactly what u have in this picture 
then i said compare our beefsteak and my filipino beefsteak 
and you know what he said?….”hmmm! yum! this is delicious hon! when did you marinade it?” once i answered it…he didn’t spoke anymore till he finished it LOL He loved it! And said he wanted to have another for 2nyt’s dinner. And I said “sorry its good enough for my lunch.” LOL
Bistek for dinner and pudding for dessert…san k pa! ehehe! Ky Tita Connie nah!
LOL Hush, you made a “covert” of your husband. You go, girl!
thanks po for the recipe!!! luto po ako beef steak for 50 persons for the party:shock:! sana magustuhan nila!!!:grin:hope magustuhan nila!!!!
wow, for 50! yan ang hindi ko kaya hehehe
Thank you so much for your recipe! My husband enjoyed it very much! I love your website! Keep up the great work!
You’re welcome JoAnn.
So we add your hubby to the list of readers’ well-fed (spoiled) husbands hehehe
Thanks for sharing this recipe. My husband and daughter love it and say it’s one of their favorite things to have for dinner.
This is like deja vu connie! my parents cook steak the way you do it.
i’m just glad to have discovered your website. I’ll cook this for 30 people next week. I’m sure they’ll keep asking for this once they try it! More power and more recipes!
good luck, pinky. cooking for large groups is not exactly my strong point hehehe
Thanks because it is on page 2, Bonggitz. The links are provided above.
Hello Connie,
Follow up on that Christmas dinner recipe…
So, I did make tons (like 2-3 lbs) of this last Christmas eve ( I’m glad I did) and I am so proud that my husband’s family loved it too. His brother was telling me that he would bring home the “bistek dish” in exchange of the 20 lbs ham! hahaha… it was a hit.
But of course, I let him have SOME of it
By the way, my husband is American and for them liking our dishes and the way it’s cook is heart warming….thanks to you because I get it from your wonderful site.
God bless you!
Laihla, that’s a lot of bistek hehehe I’m so glad they liked it. Isn’t homecooking the better way to introduce foreigners to our food rather than all those glitzy TV programs that showcase hotel and resort fare?
Hello Connie,
I’m in love with your site! I’m a 28 year old male of Puerto Rican decent, and my wife is of Filipino decent. I have been searching libraries and online for a comprehesive book on Filipino cookery for months now, when i stumbled onto yours today.
I have to tell you how excited i am, that i will be able to treat my wife to dishes from her own culture. I know she has grown up with a lot of them, but with the help from your vast amount of recipes i’m sure to come up with a few suprises.
I have a question however, that i hope you can answer. The soup dishes that i have seen, although simple, require multiple steps. Do you know of any recipes that would allow me to just throw all the ingredients into a crockpot and slow cook for up to 8-10 hours at a time.) I really appreciate your time, help, and your wonderful site. Keep up the good work and God Bless!
Hi Robert, I think the bulalo and nilagang baka (here, here and here) would suit your needs. You will have to add the vegetables at the end of cooking time though, when the beef is already tender.
i checked my fridge this AM and saw 2 old lemons. i had to throw away the old moldy okra. now what to do with the lemons before they go bad. i toyed with your sweet/sour fish but too many ingredients. so it looks like we’re going to have bistek again tonite. tried to make pandesal this weekend. not enough yeast i guess but it was edible. thanks connie. i hope your kids are feeling better.
I stumbled upon this gem of a site a few years back. At first, I was intrigued by the fact that it was written by someone who went to the same law school as I did. Then I saw the recipes. And from that point on, I was hooked. Although it’s only now that I’ve had the courage to try out the recipes, I’m glad I did. This Bistek was my first official venture into the cooking world. And it was a hit! Didn’t need to change a thing. (Well, I did use bit of butter to pan-fry the beef and added a tad more kalamansi juice
)
Thanks, Ms. Connie. Looking forward to trying out more of your recipes.
hi everybody! being a wife of a Chef, im always thrilled to try new recipes! its took me 2 yrs to realize that cooking is a great passion! before, you cant see me hold a skillet but now, i do stay in the kitchen most of the time! my dear husband does not do the cooking anymore and i always surprise him by my new recipes whenever he gets home! i also noticed that he’d been excited to go home much much earlier than before. awesome! this time, ill try the beef steak together with fried rice, im sure he’d love it. thanks guys for this sumptuous recipe!
helllo out there!
the rest of my first 3 weeks in the wild of UAE is a kind of apprehensive on what to prepare on my dining. until yesterday something clicks to my mind, bistek, asked my wife to send me ingredients & on how to make it. use to think of these things an hour before I left the office. Can’t get a reply for the information and don’t have an idea what am going to eat, Einstein come to the picture. click the search engine and luckily filipino bistek come to the monitor. My wife may be very happy ….not with the good diner that i get but to the attempt for preparing the food my self. unfortunately, however, the product was not that great for the first-first timer out of the print being the 27,679 visitor and the kitchen stuff available in my flat. but while posting my mouth is watering again. Thank you madam connie
I added some (about 2 tablesps) of ketchap manis to the marinade and the steak tasted better:neutral:
Hi Miss Connie,
I’m glad I’ve seen your site. I’m not good in kitchen and I dont really know everything that what engredients asking for Like marinade for the bestik what it mean? What kind of sauce?
I really expecting your reply.Thank you very much.
myleine, you can click the link to page 2.
I live in the US and couldn’t find calamansi in the supermarkets. Is lemon a good substitute to achieve the taste of bistek? I hope you can also feature the recipe for chicken inasal in the future. My husband is craving for this since he tasted it at Chicken Bacolod and he is requesting me to cook it for him. Many thanks and I really appreciate all the recipes you post in your website.God Bless.
Hi Connie. I have been using your site as my official cookbook….can’t cook without going through your site first
eniweyz, i’d would like to ask you about tenderizing the beef. What I have in my fridge is beef brisket and I think it needs to be “tenderized” first…i’m just worried na if i boil it, eh, the marinade might not seep through. Will this happen if I boil the beef first? Do you have a suggestion as to how I can go about making the beef brisket “soft”? I’m still honing my cooking skills. 
Thank you very much.
Myla, yes, lemon or even lime juice is good. Not the same but good.
Jojo, simmer (or pressure-cook) the brisket uncut. As in as a slab. Cool, then, slice thinly. Heat a little cooking oil, reheat the beef slices a few pieces at a time then pour in the seasonings, turning the beef often. Simmer for about 5 minutes and that’s it. If you slice the beef thinly enough, the marinade will still penetrate the meat.
My husband and I loved this dish. Thank you very much.
Hello miss connie..im living in norway now,filipina married to a norwegian..i have been trying much of your recipes and my husband likes it..thanks a lot..right now ill be preparing bistek…god bless and more power..
hello there, connie! thanks so much for the recipe! We moved to Australia three years ago and we really miss Filipino food. Since I basically do all things here without any help, cooking is the hardest, and the most challenging, thank God, I found the help I’m looking for. Your recipes are great!
Hi Connie! Ang SARAP! Living outside the Phils is not easy esp with cooking Filipino dishes. I am not a good cook but trying to do my best to eat well and cook healthier. Your “bistek” recipe is the best one I’ve tried yet…I was looking for arroz caldo when I saw your website and was so happy to finally see an authentic Filipino recipe that’s easy to prepare and doesn’t require a lot of ingredients. Thanks for not adding salt!
Hi! miss connie. I’m a nursing student and we had this subject named Nutrition. we had a food presentation for a specific diet (high caloric diet). we have 1 day to prepare, good thing i have a print out of some of your recipes, so no need to panic. we cooked mushroom soup for the appetizer, bistek for the main dish, buttered vegetables for the side dish and buko pandan for dessert… but it seems like cooking is not for us, we received comments from our panel: the soup was not served hot, the meat was not tender, the vegetables are well done (they prefer half cook) and the buko pandan was so sweet.. maybe because we are all sleepy that time, it’s midnight when we prepared the dishes..(-.-) thanks to your recipes !!!:)
Miss Connie, I think there are some recipes that do not display the link page for the procedures for a particular time. Just like the buttered corn and carrot. That’s actually the first “recipe” I was looking for when I found out abt this site. It was really tasty. And being me who did it, it was awesome coz I don’t know anything abt cooking. By the way, I cooked that corn and carrot bec of the “American Day” we had in the office. And my husband was amazed bec it was tastier than the one his mom is cooking. hehehe. Going back, but when i checked back to that page, it doesn’t display the page 2 anymore even i refresh the page. Though there is a note at the bottom of the page that says “Commenting is closed.” Could it be the reason? Well, again thanks to you and your great recipes. I’ll try other recipes like this one,and I’m not gonna tell my husband where I am getting it. He’ll be surprised coz he’s a better cook than I am. More power to you!
I will try all the recipe, especially this beef steak!!! I miss filipino food alot now that im here in USA thanks for the mouth watering recipe…
leah, that recipe is in the other blog. for sure you won’t find it if you look for it here.
Hi Miss Connie, i cook it as our dinner, my husband said that it was good so are the kids..
BTW, my husband is american so are the grandkids and they’re eating with much gusto…:)
i love bistek!every week may menu ako nyan, my kids love it
Actually my husband is American and he really likes pinoy food and today i run out recipe for change i happened that i am craving for Bistek i search in google your website came first so i look and try which i follow the recipe its really good simple but so much taste on it my daughter really loves it too . Thank you more pinoy recipe ……………
i love it niluto ko kanina at ang sarap!perfect sa mga anak ko!
That s ok now. sauna lesbienne I told her feet.
hi connie you did it again! sarap talaga bistek. the problem is that in our place there are just two choices of beef cuts: bone in and all meat. I actually cant recognize which one is the chuck, the thigh or the belly! being a vet didnt help either a training at c.s.i. might have helped hehehe anyway we loved the dish though it turned out a little tough to chew blame it on the unknown cuts . Naubos parin and lots of hugs from the family. thanks
mitzi, if you have stewing beef (like brisket) you can simmer it until tender, chill, slice then cook as bistek.
OK THANKS! will do that
hi connie. i came across your website yesterday and immediately tried out your bistek recipe for last night’s dinner. it came out great! it was fail-proof even. suddenly my life as a newlywed doesn’t seem as intimidating as i once thought it would be. all thanks to you and your recipes. more power to u!
i will try this recipe tomorrow..my son’s 4rth birthday..kami kami lang family..hope i can do this..
Wow seem interesting to me to make a bistake at the first time. I already marinate and tomorrow i will going to cook it Thanks for the recipes.
hi,Miss Connie. I am preggy and craving for pinoy beefsteak…and i just know where to go, your site of course! This was yummy thanks!
hi! iv been running out of ideas to cook for my family.Since we’re living outside the country for almost 3 yrs now, we’ve grown tired of the fish&chips/beef&gravy thing.Just then i thought of “BISTEK”, and so i stumbled upon your site. Thanks a lot for the recipe!
Hi Ms. Connie.. I moved to Qatar a week ago and while looking for a job, i assigned myself to do the cooking here. I am neophyte cook but your website is such a big help…i already tried some of your recipes back home…they were all great…i’ll try this bistek bukas…thank you very very much..i wish you could post more easy recipes for lamb, chicken and beef para sa mga neophyte na kagaya ko…thanks a lot Ms. Connie and God Bless.
hi po. found your link in a friend’s site. this looks yummy, i’ll try it this weekend. im running out of food ideas kasi and i want to cook for our family at least twice every weekend.
you have a very helpful site here. thanks again and will surely come back here often.
Salamat po sa recipe. I have never cooked bistek before. Birthday ko po bukas so I am marinating the meat tonight. Kaso I just realized na 1/2 kilo pala ang nasa recipe nyo (I thought 1 kilo) and I have like 3 lbs sirloin meat. I’ll just add more toyo bukas and the garlic pra maraming sauce. I’ll post back to let you know if nagustuhan ng mga barkada ko. Thanks again!
Good thing for me you have sahred this recipe, my wife out of the blue just told me to cook bistek! You have been a wonderful help.
Thanks, more power and God Bless!
- ErickGuerrero
hi ms connie, ask ko lng po when u say dark soy sauce, yan ba ung toyo natin sa pilipinas or talgang dark soy sauce? kasi may dark soy sauce sila dito (im overseas) pero parang matamis tamis ang lasa eh…thanks!
leah, lahat naman halos ng local brands ng toyo eh equivalent ng dark soy sauce.
ay iba po talga ang dark soy sauce dito sa SG, hndi mo maintindihan ang lasa.hehe…but then i’ll use our Phillipine-made toyo…nothing tastes better than our own!
salamat! wish me luck sa pagluluto..hindi po talga kasi ako marunong mgluto eh. but i miss our food so im taking the risk.
Hello! This is the first time I’ve added garlic to bistek and I love it! My family loved it too. Thanks for sharing!
hi where can i buy dark soy sauce? can i substitute datu puti soy sauce?
Datu Puti is dark soy sauce.
wow! magluluto talaga ko now ng bistek i’m not sure kung wat is the proper way to cook bistek, thanks 4 the recipe.. now i know.. I’ll be cooking it for lunch later.. wish me luck! this will be my first time.. i don’t know how to cook talaga.. start pa lang.. now that i’m with my husband na…
kathy from japan
thanks po sa recipe. my mom is not yet here to cook beef steak for lucnh, then i google how to cook beef steak, and i found your site. ang sarap po. my baby ishi loves it!
hi ms connie,
i will be trying this recipe. just wanted to be sure though, how long should the meat be pan-fried? and which is better between sirloin and tenderloin (just in case both are available in the grocery)?
thanks!
hi Miss Connie. thanks for the recipe.nagluto ako kanina. SARAp po. More power!
i’m so happy i found your site kasi nakita ko lahat ang mga recipe na palagi ko gigoogle pag gusto kung magluto.i already added your site to my popular sites. thanks again.
Connie,
If we use 1 kilo of beef, do we in effect double the amount of ingredients?
Not necessarily. The amounts given above are guides. Best policy is to follow what your taste buds tell you.
HI! I am 25 yrs old and i am a frustrated kitchen person! i’ve been married for 2 years now and we have a handsome one year old boy. We have been dependent on my mom’s delicious cooking since we were living with them up until last month when my husband found a job overseas and we have go with him. Everything is new to me. And this recipe, as a novice in the kitchen really helped me a lot! and my husband loves it! i’m looking forward to trying your other recipes.
Hello… im 26 years old and shy to admit that i dont know how to make magic in the kitchen.. i want to learn how to cook and plan to enrol in the culinary.. but because i have my own business… its hard to manage my time.. so i want to learn new recipes..
i will go abroad this year and im afraid that i cant cook …thats why i want to learn now.. please ate connie.. 
There’s no other way but to do it hands-on. Follow a recipe and cook the dish.
i’m cooking it RIGHT NOW!!!!
shocks…i hope it’ll be as good and as tasty as it appears to be in the picture…kc po dinagdagan ko ng worcestershire sauce..please, please, please…forgive me for altering your original recipe…
Just in time. My niece and I are planning a cookout with a lebanese friend this friday. I’m planning to cook chicken adobo and bistek. My google search led me to your site. Later, if I cook bistek alone, what other matching dish should I add, or say vegetable or soup. Thanks a lot.
Vegetable lumpia. Fried or fresh.
hi connie,
hello, my friend directed me to your website and with so many positive feedbacks you’re getting, i am greatly encouraged to try out your recipes. i want to try the beef steak and i was wondering if i can use my leftover ribeye steak? do u think it’s going to come out the same? pls advise. thanks.
So long as it hasn’t dried up yet, you can slice them thinly and pan fry them quickly with the onions and seasonings. You’ll be practically reheating the meat but if it’s still juicy, it should come out nicely.
An all time favourite when you need something quick to cook and serve up. My family’s variation is slice up a potato or two and fry them on each side for a few minutes in oil, then once your steak is cooking in the soy sauce, add the potatoes on top – They taste delicious!
Happy cooking,
Mestiza from Australia
umm, would it be ok to substitute lemon juice with vinegar?
also 4tbsp = 1/4 cup… why do you use different measurements for lemon juice and soy sauce when it’s a one-to-one measurement?
Because that was how I measured it.
Substitute vinegar and it’ll taste like adobo.
I tried the recipe and was not satisfied with teh result. I think the dark soy sauce is far too pungent and the lemon is too pronounced. I would use less lemon and standard soy sauce instead.
All recipes are guides. Always use more, or less, according to your taste buds.
Connie, this blog has been in the web for quiet a long time (2006 or earlier), I just found it now (2010). Thanks to you, my family enjoyed a great meal out of this recipe. More power to you. Keep up the good work. Many people are blessed with what you are dooing even if you didn’t get to know or see them. You deserve an award that will come from the hearts of satisfied people… GOD BLESS YOU
That’s the best award that I can wish for.
You are welcome Connie… I hope I will meet you personally someday. I’m a Philippine Navy Lieutenant (PMA-99) and I resigned from work last December 1,2009. I opted to be with my family here in Jeddah as my wife works our consul here. I rsigned so that I will be with my family. I would like to take your life as an inspiration-it seems, I would be like you -an active lawyer who changed a lifestyle. My wife and I are food trippers too so I got to see different kinds of food. Now I want to cook it myself. From Military type food to better ones.. I will check this site over and over again to have more bright ideas in cooking. I really appreciate what you are doing.. Hope you can also help me adjust from soldier to house daddy- you can help me in teaching me how to cook better.
My hubby loved this too =) I was afraid to add too much soy sauce for fear of it becoming too salty, but it turned out great!
I use your site as my own cookbook too, browsing it first before checking out other sites whenever I need cooking inspirations =) Thanks!
Wow!!! I’ve tried other recipes before but this one is definitely a keeper. My husband loves my mom’s bistek and I’ve asked her for her recipe countless times but unfortunately, she’s not one to write things down. She’s always said, “Just taste it” but I’m not a seasoned cook so I don’t trust my judgement. Anyway, I made this last night and my husband said it was the best he’s ever had and that it was better than my moms! I’m never going to tell her that but it was quite a compliment. So thanks for your recipe!
Hello Miss Connie, i’ve been wanting to try this recipe…but i couldn’t see the ingredients and the procedure.
Thanks…..
Read and ye shall find.
Oh… Thanks to this site… I’m learning to cook my favorite ULAM. (^_^) thnx mrs. connie!
I’ll cook this for my friends… hehehe…
salamat sa site na to,,,,natoto na rin ako magluto…
I just tried this! I’ve just marinated it and is sitting in the fridge. It already smells nice. Thanks ha!
hi connie,
puwede kaya ang recipe na ito using pork?
Sure!
thank you Connie for your response. I know I can always count on you to answer my not-so-intelligent questions.
I think that’s a very legit question.
hi,po tita connie thanks because few weeks ago im looking for the bistek recepie i suppose to call my grand ma to ask her on how to cook the bistek but i founded this site and now i have the recepie now im planning to cook for our dinner with my husband becoz today is his bday i want to make this night unforgetable foe him thank you po!
Hi Ate Connie:)
I was looking for a Pinoy cooking website, I found yours thankfully:) Anyway, I don’t have Calamansi so I wonder if I could use Lemon instead of Calamansi since Calamansi is a native lemon:) haha. It’s a dumb question but I just wanna make sure that I’m doing the right thing:) Thanks ate Con:)
Yes, you can.
Lime works too.
Thank you ate Con:) My Bistek turned out to be perfect:) My husband is not a big fan of lemon or lime but He loved it and craved for more:)
Hi Ms. Connie!
Happy New Year!
I’m really excited to have stumbled upon your website today. I was just looking for a bistek recipe and now I am looking forward to be staying more in the kitchen.
Thanks and more power to you!
Thanks for the recipe! I live nowhere near my mom or grandma so I have to try to cook my favorite Filippino food on my own.
thanks a lot! i’ve been looking so long for a filipino beefsteak recipe, thanks i’ve stumbled upon your site! and…. i love your BISTEK….
more power!!!!
Hello ma’am Connie please send me some recipes you know on my email trulyours30@yahoo.com. I like to make my boyfriend happy with my cook. Thanks and more power…
I can’t respond to individual requests like that. You can browse the entire blog and subscribe to the newsletter or the RSS feed.
Thank you for this recipe.
) Keep it up. 
Now, I can be a Mother. LolJokee!
Just to clarify, the measurements of calamansi juice and toyo are the same? 1:1 TNX MCH!
In my case, yes. But you can make adjustment to suit your taste.
I’VE TRIED TO COOKED BEEF STEAK AT SINUNOD KO YONG INSTRUCTIONS,GRABE IV’E MADE IT PERFECT BEEF STEAK..THANK U..AND THIS WAS MY FIRST TIME TO COOKED BEEF STEAK..THANK U AGAIN IN THIS SITE…GOD BLESS YOU ALL..
ma’am, thank you sa recipe nyo… nasa ofis kasi kapatid ko, tinawagan ako na medyo late siya darating sa bahay.. ehh, misis niya sanay na siya magluluto pagdating.. no choice po ako, kaya nag search ako sa internet,, nakita ko ito na recipe nyo, kasi beef ang available sa ref.. sinunod ko lang po ang instruction… at last nakuha ko rin.. Ofw po ako.. malaking tulong po itong site ninyo..
Can i sub the beef to pork for the bistek recipe? If so, what part of pork can i use? pwede yung pork tenderloin?Thank you.
Try and see if it works for you.