Kalye — Restaurant in New York

I was looking forward to enjoying a birthday dinner here over the weekend, unfortunately my family and I were so disappointed with the food that we went home instead of going out for my birthday cake. We ordered a few things: the mango salad, lumpia shanghai, pork sisig, kare kare, pancit palabok, sinigang, and the ube sliders.

The good: the pork sliders were delicious. It’s made with sweet langonisa and my family enjoyed it quite a bit. The pork sinigang and sisig were fine, typical Filipino dishes, nothing out of the ordinary. We enjoyed the sourness of the soup and the sisig had good flavors. The service was good, they were very accommodating. Traffic was horrible that day and it caused us to be late for our reservation. We called ahead to inform them we would be late and luckily they were able to accommodate us.

The bad: the mango salad was put over a bed of greens (which is fine, it’s their twist on the dish) but they didn’t put any dressing or vinaigrette. The moisture from the mango was not enough to give moisture to the salad and it tasted dry. We had to ask for a vinaigrette to add to the salad. The calamnsi vinaigrette was amazing and it made the salad taste so much better. So if you order the mango salad ask for the calamnsi vinaigrette. The lumpia was a good size but a bit more on the salty side. The same thing with the palabok, it was alright but too salty. The worst dish, which really ruined the night, was the kare kare. Typical kare kare is supposed to have sauce that smooth in texture and usually made from oxtail. The kare kare here was made with pork and terribly salty. The sauce had curdled and did not have a smooth texture at all. The worst part was that the protein pieces were pure fat. I don’t even remember if I ate any protein pieces, although I didn’t eat much of it after I ate a piece that was pure fat. My father said they were trying to give people high blood pressure with the fat and salt in this dish. In some filipino cooking the pork pieces tend to have a layer fat connected to a layer of meat. This piece was pure fat no meat connected and it was so off putting. The pork pieces in the sinigang were also more fatty than meat. The inasal rice they gave us were old, you can tell because the some of it were hard when chewing.

The vibe: it had a good vibe, more bar like than restaurant. Maybe I’m getting older (it was my 39th birthday we were celebrating) but it felt like the music was too loud and had to kind be loud to be heard over the music. However, if you like more of bar vibe it might be good for you. Although the Filipino movie they were playing was a bit disturbing. The film I believe was Markova: Comfort Gay. An interesting story but there was one scene that showed a brutal act being done and I was uncomfortable seeing it while eating my dinner.

Overall: the service was good, vibe was fine but the food was terrible. Kinda felt like they gave us the end of the day food that was sitting at the bottom of the pan. The salty food caused me to feel a bit swollen the morning after. The space isn’t so big so it felt kinda crammed.

I’m a Filipina who loves her Filipino food. I’m always interested in trying different Filipino restaurants to see the different takes on making the food. However, I would not recommend this place to anyone wanting to try Filipino food. There are other Filipino restaurants that aren’t too far that are much better...

FOOD

Lumpia was nice and crispy, nothing to write home about though.

Pork bbq skewers were fantastic, some of the best Filipino pork bbq skewers I’ve had. They slice the pork rly thinly and it super easy to eat bc it’s so tender. A lot of Filipino bbq is tasty but it’s kinda difficult to chew/bite off the skewer IYKYK.

Palabok was forgettable but I appreciate that the eggs weren’t overdone, was perfect. It’s a personal thing and it’s common in palaboks but I hate when they leave the tail on lol I gotta slow down my eating to take the tail out my mouth! A bit salty.

Pork sisig - way too salty unfortunately. And I know sisig dishes vary from region to region but this one doesn’t have an egg and I wish it did lol. Wasn’t spicy which I’m glad about but I know some ppl do like that. Would have liked some acid to top it off with but that’s just my preference.

Garlic fried rice - the rice was kinda hard? And not in a fried rice way. Suuuuuuper oily like too much. And too salty

Pork sinigang - very good! I like mine pretty sour and this delivered. Weren’t too many fatty pork parts which I hate. Love that the beans weren’t over cooked and still had a nice crispness to it. It it was a bit too salty for me which was a shame bc it would pretty much be perfect otherwise

SERVICE

Although it was a full house the staff was still patient and polite. Very quick to remove finished dishes from the table. Only had to ask for a new bottle canteen once. Very accommodating too.

ATMOSPHERE

Music - I also agree w other reviewers on this the music was WAY too loud. Why are the speakers at a volume meant for a space like 10 times the actual space?? Had a hard time conversing because of it, was legit screaming. Tho the music they were playing was rly good lol just turn it down pls 😭

The decor was awesome, they had traditional capiz shutters lining the walls and idk what it was but when u walk in it smells Filipino lol (a good thing!). Also had old school pinoy movies playing on the projector screen—a cute touch.

There is only one bathroom room but it’s inclusive. There is a sink right outside the bathroom so you can wash your hands without needing to enter the bathroom—common in manila. I never did have to wait for the bathroom more than like 30 seconds though. Bathroom is very dark, if you have trouble with low contrast, be advised (the floor, toilet, walls, and sink are black).

Not sure if it was from some dish or they purposefully fragranced the place but whatever jasmine-y smell they had going on was so good. Also was randomly spotted with moments of…incense? That I didn’t hate. I think it was the burnt cinnamon sticks that come with one of the alcoholic ube drinks.

They only had ube ice cream for dessert which honestly was super good but I wish they had other desserts! Filipinos know sweets so it would be a great way to showcase more Filipino flavors like flan, halo halo, ensaymada, egg tart, polvaron, etc.

Overall, would come back again and try some other dishes, maybe not at night tho when the music isn’t so loud.

We spent $50-100 per person but you could easily...

A Taste of Home in LES – Almost Perfect!

My husband and I were super excited to try this new Filipino restaurant in the Lower East Side on Saturday night. As Filipinos, it’s always exciting to see more Filipino spots popping up around the city, and we were hopeful this one would deliver.

First off, the ambiance was great—relaxed but with an elevated street-style vibe. Definitely a cool spot to bring friends or even go on a casual date. One thing we loved was how the cocktails were named after famous Pinoy comic characters, which was such a fun touch! Unfortunately, my drink took forever to arrive, and by the time it came, we were already eating our mains. Not a dealbreaker, but definitely something they should work on.

Now, the food—easily the highlight! The Lumpia appetizer? Probably one of the best we’ve had in the city. They were huge, crispy, and absolutely delicious. The Tuna Kinilaw was super fresh, with just the right balance of zest and savory. For mains, we went with Pork Sisig and Chopsuey—both solid dishes, well-seasoned, and flavorful. BUT… they ran out of rice. On a Saturday night. At a Filipino restaurant. That was a bit of a letdown, considering how much Filipino food relies on rice. To top it off, they also ran out of desserts, which was disappointing.

Overall, the food was delicious, the ambiance was on point, and the servers were really nice. But they definitely need to improve on service speed and communicate better when they run out of key menu items. Would we go back? Yes—but hopefully, next time,...