Filipiniana Restaurant

This place was great for flip food… too bad its closed =(

Here’s the thing about Filipino food: it’s one of those cuisine’s that just can’t be Americanized. We Filipinos just take a lot of pride in our food. Family recipes of the same dish are as varied as the languages we all speak and, though variations are often subtle, it means that nothing will ever be as good as mom’s home cooking.
That said, Filipiniana’s food is not the best Filipino food around. Not by a long shot. My mom’s food is the best Filipino food around (which is what I’m sure you Filipino Unilocalers would say too).
But, for being the «other» recipe… it’s pretty good. The adobo is good. The kare-​kare is good. The sinigang is good. The crispy-​pata is HUGE and super-​good.
You can’t be that critical of the place. It’ll never be the best because that spot is already reserved for our family cooks.
If you think about it, Filipiniana actually has it pretty tough. They have to service and please two different demographics. First they have to make sure we Filipinos get our fix when we’re too lazy to cook. But they have to be accessible to the American palate too. They’ve made changes to succeed and, what comes off as bland to us might be the key to their success with non-​Filipinos.
–Eat on!

I’ve tried this place twice before and have always left disappointed. the dishes are very bland, the customer service is horrible, and good luck getting a hold of the wait staff.
Crispy pata taste like OIL and pancit tastes horrible.
I recommend Cids Ma Mon Luk over this place anyday.

I had the buffet lunch with my daddy this past Sunday and it was great! They had my fave, kare kare! I had such a huge helping of it cuz it’s my fave and they make it really delicious here! I love authentic Filipino dishes especially when bagoong is involved! (hahaha!) They also had crispy pata which was yummy! There were maybe 6 other dishes offered and they were pretty good too. There were several desserts out but the fresh fruit was the best. The only negative comment I can say is that the price for the buffet is a bit too much. It was $ 14.50 per person and they didn’t have that many dishes available. I kow of another Filipino restaurant that serves way more dishes and it’s even cheaper! (Little Quiapo) I din’t mind paying it cuz it was for my daddy’s b-​day and we don’t usually go to this restaurant, but I wouldn’t come here on a daily basis. Great food but a bit too pricey for the buffet!

Everything either tastes like MSG or oil. They should stop using such fatty meats; just a coronary about to happen. Ordered Pansit Bihon with shrimp and pork. Yes, there was shrimp, but the pork they used was just pork fat. It’s nasty. Just cook at home. You’ll like the result better.

okay Filipiniana… you need to clean up your act. You are the sole place in the suburbs for a filpino fix, but lately you are disappointing me. Mainly because your greediness for customers is outweighing your customer service.
My ningang told me that after spending an entire full course meal with 10 people in their party, you advised her to order her halo halo at the end. Then upon being bumrused by other customers, you claimed that you ran out of the dessert, and handed my ninang and her family the check. Tsk, tsk. Not a good thing to do to paying customers. And not a wise thing to do for a large family who frequents often, but now much less, if any.
Some key points. They have really good fried chicken, and some of the best kare kare chock full of both meat AND veggies. A nice change of pace, with some pinoy restaurants giving only 2 or 3 oxtials in their entrée
The very low point of this place, besides what they did to my Ninang. My sister told me their mango bubble tea was about $ 7!!! I didn’t believe the mischief out of here, so I called myself. Low and behold… she was correct. Boo! Hello Filipiniana! You are going to lose cutomers

I’ve lived in the Chicagoland area since the1970s. I have yet to find a Filipino restaurant better than Filipiniana. The food is stellar – especially during their Sunday buffet, which runs from 11 am 8 pm;it’s consistently great – especially the crispy pata, kare kare, pinakbet, pancit, kaldereta, super max fried chicken… basically just about everything! I’ve never had bad service here either. I think some of the bad reviews are coming from people who support or work for lesser Filipino restaurants who are not able to match the food quality and variety, plus staying power of this
restaurant.This restaurant has been used by Mayor Daley for Filipino
community dinners with Chicago;Obama’s own head chef (who’s also Filipino), dined here last year with her entourage;Even celebrities from the Philippines dine here when they’re in town. With a reputation like that, you have to wonder how credible all those negative reviews are.

So-​went last Sat with the girls-​we had a craving and our moms were too busy socializing to cook for us :-) so we decided to make the trek out. I WILL say that the crispy pata was pretty meaty and good-​a little more seasoning would have been better, but the quality was WAY better than Quiapo’s. Pancit was boring-​the caldereta wasnt too shabby. My only real complaint was that there was a veggie dish-​pakbet with green beans. And then there was only one other dish with vegetables. ALSO green beans. Sinigang was pretty standard. Was surprised there weren’t any lumpias, till we were almost done eating our dessert (halo-​halo, but more on that in a minute) When they finally did bring them out, they were not as flavorful as I would have wanted. Now, the halo halo. What can I say.. . B O R I N G. cheap vanilla ice cream. Watered down evaporated milk, a half teaspoon each ube and flan. Just sad. AND I paid $ 7? WTF.. .
It will fill a void if you have a craving,

We brought 6 non-​Filipinos here to expose them to our fave foods. They were not impressed… neither were we (the Filipinos).
The bad: The pancit bihon was bland… I can cook noodles and throw some soy sauce and salt on it at home (I can’t cook like my parents… yet). The adobo was oily and overly soy sauced. The leche flan had the consistency of pound cake — weird! It’s supposed to be lighter and not as heavily sweet as it was there. The worst dish we had was the halo halo. How could you mess that up??? I guess when you put a spoonfull of icecream instead of a scoop and you use 2% milk instead of condensed milk, it’s going to taste watery and gross.
The good: The eggrolls were surpisingly tasty! I think it’s hard to make lumpia with quality meat flavor. And they were perfectly fried and served with a yummy hot sweet sauce. The kaldereta — PERFECT! The only reason this place gets 3 stars instead of 2 was b/​c of this entrée — totally like quality home food. Yum!

The food is good (although I think my Mom can cook better Filipino food — but who doesn’t think that about their Mom)… but the service… ugh.
Everytime I go here, it seems as if there’s some kind of shower or small party taking up half the restaurant… lol. But whatever, as long as there’s a place I can sit. Anyway, the reason I’m not crazy about the service is because there always seems to be some confusion about who our server is. For example, one time I went there, there were 2 women hovering around our table… one takes our order, leaves, then another comes and takes our order again. We tell her we’ve been served… then we don’t see our server again for a long time as if we’ve been forgotten. lol what is going on? So confusing… and a bit annoying.
The food is good, but if you catch me eating Filipino food outside the house, its usually because I want the halo halo. Yeah, the halo halo at Filipiana is great! :)

When it comes to catering, Filipiniana knows how to cook and serve it up!
My friend’s family ordered tons of food from Filipiniana for their party: miki bihon pancit (mixed sized noodles), menudo with hot dogs (meat, meat, more meat, and oooh, some hot dogs!), lumpia (eggrolls), pusit (fried squid), and desserts like turon (plaintain eggroll) and bibingka (gluttonous rice cake).
After 4 hours, Filpiniana’s pusit was THE BEST. It was still crispy and the squid wasn’t chewy at all. It made for great snacks during the Pacquiao v. Hatton fight. (Pacman wins by TKO in 2 rounds. YEAHHH!!!)
Thank goodness my friend brought an arsenal of tupperware because we were all stuffed silly AND each guest had a lot to bring home.

MR says… thumbs up for the «dinuguan» … as for the bistek, should have made it as «tapa»
MRS says… after hopping for chicago deep dish pizzas and chicago dogs, i needed something different to clean my palate. since there are more filipino community in chicago area, i went looking for a filipino restaurant. a friend had a dinner reception at FILIPINIANA months ago which i missed to attend. i figure food must be exceptionally good so i gave it a try. unfortunately, i’ve had better filipino food in los angeles. im giving FILIPINIANA 3 Stars *** for making MR happy with the dinuguan
dinuguan — good portion, tender meat and really tasty. would have been nice if there’s «puto» to eat with this but there’s not enough sauce. it was a bit dry.
kare-​kare — oxtail meat were not as tender, veggies like eggplant and beans were overcoooked, sauce was ok because it had that peanut butter taste
bistek — meat was not tender, there’s no «lemon» taste to it, felt cheated in the portion but since meat wasn’t that good, it was ok. i did not like the texture of the meat it was dry and hard
bagoong baboy — very chunky slices of pork that’s not even tender. very fatty and would have been better if the pork meat was fried then sauteed in bagoong because the meat is so pale. good thing the bagoong looked a little pink
yema — been craving for this sweet… i even tried to make one myself

I LOVE FILIPINIANA !!!
Their breakfast entrees on the weekends are excellent.
I love their tapsilog, which consists of tapa, eggs overeasy, & garlic fried rice.
All of the dishes are excellent, esp. the crispy pata, kaldereta, & kare kare.
The cassava cake and halo halo are excellent !!!
Excellent service and the staff are very professional and accomodating.

Decided to have lunch here on a Sunday, and we were disappointed by the fact that we were forced to eat buffet style. Their buffet that day really didn’t have that great of a selection, I would have to say there were only a few dishes that I enjoyed, so we were pretty much stuck to what was offered. The only upside was there was Crispy Pata, which I love.
We were seated in the front area, which so happened to be reserved by a large party, and were confused as to why we were seated there, talk about inconvenient. The food needed to be replenished more often, I felt as though we had the last portions and needed to scrape whatever we could get. Our waitress dragged to our requests, especially when we asked for our bill, and even more when we waited for the transaction to go through.
At least the lumpia was good!
Overall:
Cleanliness: A
Food: B
Prices: B
Service: C
— — — — — — —
Grade: B

Hellejuyah!
We usually go to Filipiniana if my mom is too lazy to cook and we have a birthday or special occasion. A perfect place to go. A family atmosphere. The walls are decorated with Philippine art. I just love the ambiance of this establishment. Best of all this place is clean.
On to the food. It is FANTASTIC!!! When we go there we usually have the Crispy Pata, Kare-​Kare, and bistek con cebollas. The Crispy pata is the best I have ever had, and trust me, i have been to many places. It is just enough meat and pork fat combined with that Crispness. It makes my mouth water just thinking of it. It can get on the pricey side especially for Filipino food which is inexpensive to make. Which leads me to believe that it is highway robbery. (That’s why I didn’t give it 5 stars)
In conclusion, try the Crispy pata, bistek, and Kare kare, and get the halo-​halo as dessert. Also, bring your cash.

This is one of the more popular Filipino restaurants in Chicago. I’ve eaten the adobo and it was full of that adobo flavor that makes you want to pour the sauce over white rice and destroy it!
Yes adobo is the simplest dish, it can be easy to screw up. The halo halo is the main reason I always come here. Instead of the small spoonful of lank, coconut and all the flavored layers, they ladle in layers of the multi colored sweet condiments so not only doe it look pretty but tastes like an authentic halo halo.
It’s reminiscent to the outdoor seating in the Philippines with the tables covered in table cloths. The walls are lined with rational Filipino artifacts and decorations. The service was prompt and it felt like talking lola or a tita.

Had the Sunday buffet for $ 13.50, which comes with free pop! the selections were quite abundant — kare kare (pork with peanut butter sauce), crispy pata, bbq pork, deep fried shrimp, etc.
The only disappointment with this place was that there was no garlic rice, I was looking forward to that.
The best and my favorite part was the fresh fruit and fruit salad — which was filled will custardy goodness! YUMMY.
My fiancé and his brother and friend gives it 5 stars! They know what Filipino food should taste like

I’m not big on eating out for Filipino food only because my mom can make all the same dishes and it’s free for me haha. This was a good experience though since you could have all you can eat crispy pata and kare kare. I really liked their crab rangoon too (surprisingly). Not bad… not bad.

I rarely get to eat pilipino food since I don’t cook it at all so this was a total treat when my husband surprised me by taking me here with the kid to meet up with our friends for my birthday =)
I got kare kare because it’s my favorite pilipino dish ever and my husband got caldereta which he said he liked. Usually it’s hard to get pilipino food right at a restaurant but they did perty good!
Oh yeah and… the portions were so big that we had leftovers to take home… yay!

Tried their Sunday buffet brunch today priced at $ 13.50; Selections included:
1. White Rice
— non-​descript long-​grain, too much water during cooking
2. Pancit
— some diced veges and occasional piece of meat or tiny shrimp; rice noodles had a heavy odor — would have benefitted from pre-​soaking or rinsing prior to stirfry
3. Chicken & Vegetable Stock Soup
— surprisingly good, clean flavor (just drink the broth, don’t eat the stock items)
4. Chicken Sinigang
— somewhat bland, overcooked chicken (to mush consistency)
5. Estofado Pata
— did not try this dish of stewed ham hock
6. Crispy Pata
— initially thought this was deep-​fried duck, turned out to be deep-​fried ham hock, surprisingly good and meaty, with crisp skin, mild tasting
7. Bistek Tagalog
— overly salty slices of braised beef, cheap cuts sauteed with onions
8. New Zealand Mussel stirfry
— did not try this as I’m not a fan of pre-​blanched New Zealand mussels in any dish
9. Catfish Adobo
— decent deep-​fried bone-​in pieces of catfish cooked in vinegar, garlic and spices
10. Bitsuwelas at kalabasa sa Gata
— wonderfully tasty dish of string beans & squash in coconut milk
— Who doesn’t like anything brimming with coconut milk?
11. Cut Fruit & Dessert Tray
Verdict:
1) Popular restaurant packed to the gills with Filipino families and a few non-​Asians
2) Initially aloof yet later friendly, if not professional, servers — It was amusing when the «grandma» of the restaurant came by to clear some plates, ask how the food was and whether I tried everything on the buffet.
3) Authentic home-​cooking, but the preparation is quite coarse.
4) They did not volunteer that soda is included in the price of the buffet.
5) Very enticing looking smoothies and halo-​halo — was too stuffed to try.
6) Very expensive for what you get considering a smoothie and the buffet will put you at $ 20; I can think of many other things I’d rather have for $ 20.
7) All in all a nice experience that I’d been wanting to try for a long time.
The menu is large, and I’d come back to try some other items a la carte. Probably one of the most authentic Filipino restaurants in the area and with the greatest menu offerings.
Picture above.