Cafe Pilipino — Restaurant in Jersey City

You can get your fix for authentic Filipino cuisine at this little gem of a Filipino cafe near Journal Square. It also looks to be family owned with a few grandmas in the back working their magic and youth managing the customer-facing front.

This is a well kept combo shop, housing a Filipino bakery on one side, and the cafe with both hot and cold food available. If you are not already familiar with Filipino food, it is very strongly flavored and has lots of salt. So get your glass of water ready.

I highly recommend either their chicken or pork adobo. Also, when they finally get the ingredients again, halo halo is always a great Filipino dish.

Generally, the prices are pretty cheap for their Filipino pastries. However, they recently upped the prices on their buffet menu from around $5 for a meal to over $8.

Before it was a no brainer to get the combo meal with 2 entrees for $5.25. But now that same meal costs $9.25! That's a 60% price increase!

Even when I gave it a chance during my last visit and purchased to the 2 entree combo, I found that the serving sizes actually decreased! I only got about 5 small pieces of meat, one piece of potato, and a ton of old and slightly dry rice. It was more like a sample appetizer than an "entree." (Check my posted images)

Normally they have seating inside, unfortunately they haven't pivoted during the pandemic and did not setup any outdoor seating. They have limited customer capacity, shut down indoor dining, required customers to wear masks, and the staff also wears masks.

I'd have given the spot 4 stars or better but, after the 60% price increase the value just isn't there anymore. Paying $10 a pop is pricy for a small lunch sized meal from a buffet.

If it was made to order, perhaps it could stand. But this is a to-go buffet, with food that's been sitting there for hours.

After all, we're not in Manhattan. There are many ALL YOU CAN EAT buffets within a 10-20 minute drive that are around $16 pp.

Overall, this spot is good for authentic Filipino food when the yearning hits and it warrants the nearly $10 a plate price tag. But after my last experience and the price bump I took it off of my list...

I wish this place is close to Philadelphia or they have a similar one. It was a good excuse to see my good friend Sonny Maranan who is the man running Cafe Pilipino. The food was very delicious, typical Filipino flair, big portions and affordable. This restaurant is an institution among the philippine community here in the Northeast.

Guess where I was. I could not control myself. So many choices I bought two of a kind.

Update: 10/13/22

Another chance to visit the authentic Filipino dishes and bakery products fromCafe Pilipino and Philippine Bread House.

Congratulations to Sonny Maranan and his team for a job well done.

Delicious food, affordable prices and top notch...

Some staff members are young but polite and have good customer service.

Service can be slow but it does move

Prices vary but the price for the fish is reasonable, which is what I always get.

Cash are encouraged and credit cards have a minimum they impose

Food here is often not oily but on some days it is so depends on who is cooking them. However their eggplant is oily. I actually threw it in the garbage. Cooking like this should not be present in 2019 because it's not healthy.

Weekends can be busy. Its next to the bakery which is great...