Engeline’s Restaurant

Came here with my friend Jeff and was seated by Barbra she is a very kind person and a great server. We ordered our food and it was great everything came out to perfection and the quality was great the place is very clean and professional i will always come back when i am in the neighborhood.

This is a total comfort food spot (and Filipino is my ultimate comfort food). It’s nothing mindblowing, not a Maharlika, but a solid spot for authentic food. Please get the sansrival, even if you’re not a dessert person.

If you’ve been to Krystal’s Café on 69^th street, then Engeline’s menu will be no stranger to you … because it’s the SAME EXACT menu. My girlfriend and I have frequented Krystal’s on 69^th street many times in the past and decided to switch it up with a new location to eat at. I read some good things about Engeline’s so we decided to come here for a Saturday night dinner and, to our surprise, the menu was the same one as Krystal’s! The only difference was that the words ‘E. Krystal’s’ was printed on the menu instead of just ‘Krystal’s’.
We came here at about 6:30pm and the restaurant was mostly empty. There were maybe 4 – 6 customers in there only. We were seated immediately and gave the menu a quick glance. Since we were very familiar with the menu, we decided what to order quickly. Typically, we order the breakfast because it’s all day, but this time we ordered some entrees to be different so we ordered the following items:
Pancit Bihon — The sautéed rice noodles were good. There were plenty of carrots in there, but not enough shrimp or chicken.
Sizzling Sisig — If you love pork, then you’ll love Sizzling Sisig. The pork came out on a sizzling cast iron plate as it typical does. The pork was diced up and, although not that well-​flavored, the egg and vinegar that was mixed in contributed some.
Ginataang Manok — It was the 1^st time I had ever ordered this dish and it was way better than I anticipated. I have a love affair with anything coconut, so I absolutely loved the coconut milk flavored chicken! I’m not sure how much marinating they do, but the fact that the chicken was soaked in coconut milk gave it plenty of coconut flavor.
As stated, the menus between Krystal’s Café and Engeline’s are exactly identical. You won’t find a difference there. This location is much more quieter and seems less frequented by customers. Although the service has taken quite a hit at Krystal’s Café, the service was a tad better here at Engeline’s. We were seated immediately and our orders were taken pretty fast, but the food took a bit longer than expected to come out. Also, after we received our food, not much attention was paid to us.

The first time I went here was to pick up a cake for my friend’s dinner party. The cake had coffee filling and despite it not looking the best, it tasted pretty good. Then I went back for the same cake and it tasted completely different, and not in a good way. Third time, it wasn’t good either, so I just gave up. I haven’t had the food here so I can’t comment on it. But the three stars are for the great service. They really are so nice that I couldn’t give them a two star rating.

Everything about this place is fantastic, I have not had a bad experience here in 2 years. The owner and the staff are always ready to help in any way they can. My favorite is the chicken adobo. But like I said everything has been great.

I honestly like the food here and the place is nice as well.

A food quality A– service, really great food better than krystals (its accompanying partner). the menus are identical, but the food is way way better. both have big portions but the food quality is better. better presentation also (lumpia prepared w presentation) one of the better filipino food places in queens. i had their ube, kare-​kare & chicken sinigang, both were absolutely delicious! i was plesantly surprised.

Tried this Filipino restaurant with my husband. It was below okay. The service in the beginning was okay but after it was slow. The portion was not pleasing at all. The only thing I like was the Halo halo. We ordered the beef steak (Filipino style) with rice, 2 BBQ pork, pinabet and all day breakfast– longinisa with two egg and special rice.
The food portion was sloppy and small. Beef steak was dry and the beef chunks was too big. The two bbq pork on the sticks was fatty. We couldn’t eat much of it. The pinabet veggies was okay and expensive for the portion. There was a lot of fatty pork meat inside. The large portion of rice had a piece of hair.
We tried to get their attention to get the check but we were ignored for 10 minutes. It wasn’t like they were understaffed. They were just busy talking. My husband went up to the counter to pay and we left the tip and left. Never coming back to this unwelcome restaurant.

Not very good. Ordered a somewhat expensive seafood platter and the only edible food on the plate was the muscles (3) and squid and the veggies and rice. The crab was literally a crab cut in half with guts and everything still there. The shrimp were not cleaned or peeled. Are what I could and ordered a noodle plate. Which was also unimpressive.

I came here last night with a friend for dinner. This was his first time eating Filipino food and my second time eating Filipino food. This was our first time eating at Engeline’s Restaurant. I only chose this place because in the Unilocal photos (and in person as well), the exterior and inside of the restaurant looked better than other Filipino restaurants in the neighborhood.
He had a corona (about $ 5), chicken adobo (too salty and unappetizing looking) and the pork belly (a lot of small pieces, about half of which were too tough to eat and were basically all pork fat). Both dishes came with one bowl of rice (we were not charged for the rice).
No hairs or bugs in my food (and yes I checked after reading other Unilocal reviews).
The food was just so-​so and I wouldn’t return, not only because of the average food, but more so because of the POOR, RUDE service.
When I entered, a frowning female server brought me to my table. Whenever she served us, she seemed to have an attitude and whenever I made eye contact with any of the servers, they seemed to have a pissed off attitude, but they looked quite content when checking/​playing with their smartphones by the counter.
When I asked my water to be refilled, the woman seemed annoyed that she would actually have to do her job.
And, this place is CASH only. I had to go to the Rite Aid about two blocks up to buy something and get cash back because I didn’t have cash on me. It’s an inconvenience made worse by average food (at best) and definitely below average service.
HINT*** If your food is only so-​so, at least try to make it up with pleasant and efficient service.

Surprisingly, this place is very good! Only saying this because I’m Filipino, know my Filipino food, and know the other Filipino restaurants in the area. That, and my fiancé is not Filipino, so I drag her to all Filipino restaurants when I’m in the mood. She’s actually a huge fan, and always on the hunt to find the best halo-​halo! .LOL. Surprisingly because it looks different than the others, in a good way!
It seems newer, and cleaner, in both style and décor, not the typical look like the other Filipino restaurants in the area.
The food was just as good and authentic as others, in my honest opinion! We came pretty late, so it wasn’t too busy, so the service was great and our server was very attentive. There was also a very small party in the back room where either live music and/​or karaōke was happening, so that provided some fun entertainment as we ate.
Overall, we loved this place and will continue to keep coming here!

My go-​to Halo-​Halo place! I come here when I visit family. They have the best halo-​halo I’ve had compared to the other filipino restaurants in Woodside. Very generous with the Ube ice cream and leche flan! Superb! They also have really good Kare-​Kare (oxtail peanut butter stew), crispy pata (fried pork) and the Lumpiang Sariwa (fresh crêpe-​like stuffed with vegetable and covered with peanut sauce. They are all excellent. Staff is super nice and very patient. Sometimes i just come here with my dad for dessert. They never bother you and are always nice. Restaurant is very clean especially the bathroom, which is a great sign of a very clean restaurant.
I don’t suggest getting their chicken and pork bbq. Not my favorite. It’s edible but the best bbq and lumpia shanghi is at Ihawan on 70^th and Roosevelt. Just being honest.

Came here for late night dinner. The lechon kawali is good. Pork BBQ is a bit tangy. The palabok only comes with two shrimp (that were not deveined)
The service isn’t great. It was not busy at all (we were the only customers in the restaurant) and they came by to refill our water 0 times. There was a bug in my friends drink — no apology when we pointed it out to them.
By the way it’s cash only. They make this very clear by posting it five times on the restuarant.
Overall I wouldn’t come back here unless I was desperate. I learned my lesson.

Cash only!!! Super clean and spacious. Food was pretty good too. Had my standard Flip food: lechon, short rib tamarind soup, squid adobo and garlic fried rice. Had a great time and will be back for sure.

After reading the reviews I decided to drop by for take out being that I was craving for some Filipino food. Came for the Chicharon Bulaklak, Chicken Adobo and Halo Halo.
The Chicharon Bulaklak was really good, that alone satisfied my craving … the Chicken Adobo was ok. The Halo Halo was one of the better tasting ones … My favorite by far. I really enjoyed their halo halo and will definitely come back for more.
Service was great even though we had just dropped by for take out option. They were very hospitable — offering us seatings, water, explaining each dishes and all. We were there on a Saturday night and they had live jazz as well which I thought was a really nice touch.

A solid 2 stars because my lumpia appetizer was good, and the sauce with my dinner was good.
The rice was horribly overcooked. I got the entrée with cubed pork and shrimp cooked in chiles and coconut milk. Over ¼ of the pork was just plain old cubed fat. Come on. Whoever is doing prep, cut the fat out, or at least minimize it. They are just being cheap.
The shrimp is the whole shrimp with the heads on. I can handle that, but they were way over cooked and mealy, which could be overcooked or they were using old shrimp. Also, when you make whole shrimp, you have to take out the iodine sacs. Or guess what, all you taste is iodine. I am writing this as I still have the lingering taste of iodine in the back of my throat.
Not going back again.

I know nothing about Filipino food and this was my first time. I was a little scared and had no clue what to expect!
I ended up very happy with my meal. I got the fried calamari with sweet and sour sauce — delicious! Also tried the lumpia sariwa (vegetables in crêpe with peanut sauce) and ended up loving it. The veggies were nice and crispy and the peanut sauce was a great accent. And my entrée — shrimp in coconut milk — also delicious!
Also tried the banana drink with tapioca and gelatin (Sago At Gulaman). Good flavor but I thought there was a bit too much floating in it. Not my style.
I got take-​out by the way so can’t really speak regarding the service. It’s a little pricy for a take-​out meal, I wouldn’t come here all the time. But I’d definitely love to come back and try other items on the menu. Don’t be afraid, this is yummy (can’t attest as to authenticity of the food since I’ve never even had Filipino before).

When I think of a Filipino restaurant I don’t think of anything fancy. Filipinos are warm and simple people. I know some of us have expensive taste but really lets get really leave the fanciness to the French. I saw this because I’m not sure that this place is trying to accomplish, in the front there is a large pastry display case with many Filipino and Asian desserts. But then in the back there is this fancy private room set up… I’m just confused.
The dishes were ok, my boyfriend ordered the Sizzling Sisig and it was mostly cartilage and the pork that was there wasn’t to crispy. That was my first sisig experience but I have a couple more after that experience and I can say there are better ones around.
I ordered the Pancit Palabok and the noddles were cold and the sauce luke warm… I usually have this at Filipino parties and those potluck dishes were warmer than this one…
As far as the server, he was good, filled our drinks and tended to us, nothing special as far as service.
For how nice this place is, I want to like it more but it seems that they care more about their presentation and appearance than their food. Work on your food then think about how to make things pretty.

My favorite Filipino restaurant. Great food without the «turo turo» feel most Filipino restos along Roosevelt Ave has. Place looks good to bring guests in without them wondering if the food is clean. Authentic Filipino food, no fusion. Nothing fancy. Just like how my mother, grandmother, great grandmother makes at home.
Pastries and cakes also available to take home.

My first Filipino restaurant! The wifey brought me here, and now Filipino food is my new addiction. Won’t stop until I’ve conquered/​reviewed all the local and city Filipino restaurants, traditional and fusion.
LUMPIANG SHANGHAI: Other places offer this for cheaper.
LECHON KAWALI: Best testing compared to other places.
BBQ PORK: Pretty good, but Ihawan makes it better.
SINIGANG: Soup base was good, but the pork was too fatty.
LECHE FLAN: Aftertaste of lemon? Weird. Find the best at Krystal’s Café.
As someone said before, expect service to be mehhh.
I’ve already been to 4 more Filipino restaurants and will review them soonish.