Bago

I gave this place a couple tries but I’m not impressed at all. I expected more given the fact that the owner’s mom used to operate a very popular eatery not far from here. But the adobo, the most basic of dishes, was not even up to par. My own Filipino home cooking is a lot better. It’s a shame if this is the first time you are trying Filipino food. There are a lot better Filipino restaurants in the city and particularly in Queens.

Ok I love Filipino food. I think it’s amazing but honestly this places chicken adobo was really dry and bland. I couldn’t finish it and I haven’t gone back. I could make better chicken adobo myself.

Stumbled upon this place and I was very glad I did! Ordered the beef soy glazed plate, chicken pancit (noodles), and lumpia Shanghai. Very tasty at a great price. Exactly what Filipino food should be. I enjoy the fusion spots (Jeepney etc) but sometimes you just need the classics that mom used to make without all the fancy hoo haa. This place will satisfy your home cooking craving. Good luck to them and I hope they stick around!

Opening a takeaway restaurant focusing on Filipino food is a fantastic idea. The lower end of the market has been served by steam tables for crews of cruise ships while the fancier folks can partake of the dishes at Pig & Khao (great!) and Jeepney (no thanks).
Here there proteins, veg and rice available in hearty portions at around $ 10. My entrée was the adobo, juicy and moist with each bite. It was a well-​flavored piece of meat and I ate it quickly at one of the restaurant’s three tables.
As First Avenue continues to turn over I hope we see more of these restaurants — diverse, with a very specific point of view and offering affordable and different fare to all sorts of people. That’d be nice.

Que sarap! Friendly staff, good food, excellent service. Cured my homesickness. We’ll be back with our family. Good job, Carla!

This is a Filipino or cuisine from the Philippines. Very clean with just 3 tables and the rest is a table around the 3 walls with chairs.
You can see the kitchen and how they prepare the food. The menu is limited so they do a good job doing it over and over again.
I ordered the grilled pork. It was good but a small portion. It is equivalent to eating a ending size sandwich. Portions are not very big.
It’s close to the 14^th street bus stop and the L train in East Village.
You can eat there or take out.
They have a small version of Crispy Pata now in their menu. Crispy Pata is deep fried pork hocks. It reminds me of the German Pork hocks except this is crispier and and served with vinegar sauce.

Bago or «new» in Tagalog is indeed another Filipino restaurant along 1^st Avenue in the East Village.
It’s more fast food-​ish, where customer can help themselves to a table. The interior design is simple and clear. One can order what they want on the counter (McDonalds style) and it will be ready for you in no time at all.
The menu selections on the board are few but all time Filipino food favorites and for under $ 10! Not my go-​to pinoy restaurant or something that will come up to mind when thinking of a decent dinner, but definitely will do for my work lunches.

I saw this new place on Unilocal so my friend and I decided to try it out. Was craving for dasilog (daing na bangus/​fried fish, egg and garlic fried rice).
So ordered the dasilog, lumpiang shanghai, sinigang with chicken.
Dasilog: it was good but small. wanted more fish and more vinegar on the side (i’m filipino so love my fried fish with vinegar)
Lumpiang shanghai: it was ok. very oily. tasted like it was fried twice.
Sinigang with chicken: bland! this is not the sinigang I am used to eating. where is the sourness that is associated with sinigang
I really wanted to like this place.
I may come back because they serve filipino breakfast all day but please make the sinigang how it should be =)

A bit worried that a NYT Hungry City piece covered them the day before (they really open @8am?), ordered up the Daing $ 5.95 (Marinated milkfish fried to a crisp.) which was solid, and the Icy Tapioca Shake $ 5.95 (Halo-​halo with taro, red or white beans and tapioca topped with your choice of ice cream… Make it With: Red Beans… Ice Cream Flavor: Taro) which was pretty great.

This place is awesome. There’s a couple places I go to for my Filipino food cravings and this place is one of them. They are also conveniently located near the L which is great.
They are also open for breakfast which is awesome. I recommend the Adobo and the pansit. I haven’t tried anything else but those usually hit the spot. I like my food a little bit more salty so I usually add a little Patis (fish sauce) when I am scarfing it down.
The price is why I gave these guys 5 star. Not a rip off but priced well. Just to fix my Filipino cravings it won’t break the bank like some spots on 1^st ave.

I had a noodle dish that was full of flavor, fresh vegetables, and delicious tofu. I also tried the grilled salmon which was accompanied by a piquant tomato relish and brown rice. The food was filling and healthy feeling. The prices were more than reasonable and the service was excellent. Carla, the owner and chef, was friendly, attentive, and spent time going over the menu with us.
I read the NYT review but had been here before and highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a good meal at a reasonable price.

Am a business traveler so needed a bite that didn’t take too long but wasn’t fast food. Was looking for a reasonably priced place for my comfort food. The pork sinigang and Lumpia Shanghai were great! Just opened about 5 months ago so menu will expand. Great sized portions and fresh. Will definitely return to check out the crispy pats and Tinola.

Been wanting to try this place for a while so I stopped by one night and got the tocilog (marinated pork with garlic rice and egg), pan-​sautéed noodles with chicken, and veggie rolls.
What did I think? Well, I couldn’t resist coming back a few days later. That’s what I think.
Everything was fantastic. I’m sitting in the restaurant as we speak after finishing up a lapsilog (sweet sausage with garlic rice and egg) and a plate of Shanghai rolls (8 x $ 5.45).
Everything is so cheap for the portion you receive (think Chipotle prices) but for an authentic Filipino experience not too far from Cambodian or Vietnamese actually.
Please give this place a try. They’re new, delicious, and underestimated. And the woman running the place is so kind.

Had an hour before I had to go to work and was looking for something inexpensive, relatively quick, and of course, tasty. Didn’t want the usual takeout spot and this appeared before my eyes. I was the only one in there which offered welcomed respite from the gloomy rain-​filled weather. Got the pan-​sauteed noodles with chicken. The lone cashier cooked it for me, brought it out, then set the mood by dimming the lights.
The food was delicious.
Price was even better.
Service was good.
And the ambiance helped me reflect on the «break» my boo and I are taking…
Go.

Great quick Filipino food in the East Village. I hit this place up at least once a week.
When it’s cold and grey outside I get the tinola — chicken ginger broth soup.
The pancit — pan fried noodles with chicken — is the bomb. As good as anywhere in Queens.
The owner is super nice.

Ok I need to start by saying… I REALLY REALLY WANTED TO LIKE THIS.
Guy who took my order was really nice. So I give two stars for that.
First and most basic of all, filipino food is really easy to make.
We got the adobo and sinigang. Both colorless and flavorless. I mean, adobo has 5 ingredients! We had to add patis to the sinigang to add flavor. And also (again basic), they need another way to deliver this because their current container doesn’t contain the soup. It was spilled by the time we got it.
And halo halo.
Um.
Here’s some big advise. Don’t put ice cream on your menu for delivery. duh.
I was worried about this but the guy said not to, that’s it be fine. I guess, if it were cold ice soup that I ordered.
And lastly.
It took an hour and a half to get to me.

Great place for a quick feed. Very very well priced, good quality and great location. Perfect post gym meal. Wish it was a bit more filling but for 8 bucks you can’t complain. Very friendly staff and I’ll definitely be back.

I really wish I discovered this restaurant near my workplace earlier so I wouldn’t have had to suffer from the distasteful chicken from the Checkers right next to it when I first started working. Thank you Unilocal.So from what it seems, Bago seems to be kinda new. The interior is very simple and clean, and looks good. Nothing bad yet nothing extravagant either. They serve Filipino food. I was on a thirty minute break so I really needed to find a speedy and quality place around. The person at the register was very friendly and had a good conversation with me. She even told the guy in the back that I was on a thirty minute break, so my meal got prepared pretty fast. Plus one star for that. I ordered the pan-​sauteed noodles with chicken and it came out to be a little over $ 7. It was priced very reasonably for the portion and the meal was average. Perhaps since I was a rush, I didn’t really take the time to enjoy it. I was full from it though and I liked it better than the other few places around the area. It is rare to find such an inexpensive restaurant around 14^th street so that’s why I like Bago. Their door is pretty unique. I wasn’t able to open it the first time and I thought they were closed so I started to leave, but I tried again and was able to open it. The worker said that in the future, they’ll put up a sign or something. I wonder how many customers they lost because of the door confusion. Regardless I will come back here again for as long as I work in the area. I will be generous this time and give four stars. Next time I come back, I will be very critical and either decrease a star or keep it the same depending on how it is.

You’ve finally answered my long awaited prayers and made an affordable filipino restaurant in the east village. Born and raised in New York to a filipino mom and a foodie dad, I know what it takes to make and eat good Filipino food. When I was a child, my parents would take me to elvie’s, which has been long gone from the area. That was the ONLY affordable Filipino restaurant in Manhattan back in the 90s.
And it was quite a surprise to see that Bago is kind of like a reincarnation of Elvie’s, as the owner’s mom used to work for Elvie’s back in the day.
I ordered the (lumpiang) Shanghai rolls and they were rolled perfectly and tasted delicious!!! And the price was excellent! This is exactly what Filipino is, should cost and taste like. I’m excited to bring my family here as they will truly appreciate this place. Finally a place that isn’t hip and trendy like Maharlika, jeepney or kuma-​inn. This is the real deal.
The menu is limited, but the owner did say that she will be adding more items soon. They have only been open for 3 months.

There don’t seem to many Filipino places in the city (at least that I’m aware of), let alone fast food Filipino places. So when I came across Bago on Unilocal and saw all the positive reviews, I was excited to try it. Everyone seemed to be raving about their chicken adobo, so that’s what I went with.
I don’t know if they were having an off day or what, but my chicken was dry. It also tasted like they just poured a lot of soy sauce and vinegar over it along with the bed of rice it came with. So there wasn’t a lot of flavor there, mainly just saltiness.
I didn’t try it but the ginger broth sounds like it would be good. But I doubt I’ll be coming back here again.