Tito Rad's Grill — Restaurant in New York

Came here with really high hopes for this place but was quite disappointed. General theme, not flavorful, no explosive flavors, and really needed more seasoning.

Came here with 3 people. Had to make a reservation before hand but we quickly got seated. Luckily we sat towards the front of the restaurant near the door because this place has extremely poor ventilation and you can see a thick fog/smoke from the middle to the back of the restaurant.

Our dishes: Lumpiang Shanghai (vegetable, pork, and shrimp) Lechon Kawali (deep fried pork belly) Chicaron Bulaklak (fried pork intestines) BBQ Pork (3 sticks) Pancit Bam-I (egg noodle) Kare kare (ox tail)

I won't be able to write every detail out because there is a character limit for reviews so I'll just hit the low points of each dish. My caveat to this place is that being there were tons of different cultural influences on the Philippines, I really expected tons of bold flavors. Their history has Spanish/Latin, Chinese, Malay, and American influences but this place really missed the mark for me.

In terms of all the fried dishes (lumpiang, kawali, chicaron), they were all over fried and the dipping sauces that came with them barely made the dish whole. The pork belly was chewy and skin was extremely tough.

The BBQ pork and satay sauce was okay. I could see it was influenced by Malay but the sauce really lacked spice and peanut. The actual Malay satay sauce is a much thicker peanut sauce and much spicier.

The Pancit Bam-I (birds' nest) is pretty much a replica from the Chinese version but the starched sauce was really watered down. The entire dish lacked seasoning. If I wanted this, I know I can get better at Sam Woo. One positive thing I will say about this dish are the noodles themselves. They were perfect consistency/texture and was fried correctly. It was crunchy throughout and not one side was burnt. I can't believe they did so well with the noodles but failed with the other fried stuff.

The ox-tail dish had lots of meat, which was good. The meat was tender and relatively flavorful. The sauce had too much coconut milk and the sauce was very fluid (watery like). It was a hearty dish. I wouldn't mind ordering this dish again and would definitely recommend it above the others.

Dessert: Halo halo i actually loved the dessert. Unfortunately, this was another meal where I thought the dessert was better than their main dishes including appetizers. Balance of sweetness. Different textures to the dish (eg rice crispy).

Drinks: Buko juice (coconut juice) and Calamansi juice ("Filipino lemonade") both juices were okay. The buko needed more coconut meat in it. Both were quite refreshing but I would recommend the Calamansi over the Buko.

The service was okay. There are definitely some amateur waiters because the owner was on the floor telling some of them what to do. It was nice that the owner came to our table and chatted with us. She was also bussing tables too. She is very friendly and really makes you feel important. However, that type of service needs to be matched with properly and seasoned food.

Overall, I think the place hovers between 2.5-3 stars. Perhaps their way of food is on the mild side but I don't think so because I tried another Filipino restaurant (Ihawan) and that had much more flavor and the meats were better prepared. In any case, I cannot strongly...

I've never had a restaurant with such a medley of A's and F's. I'm not sure what to rate this restaurant I would highly recommend going here for anyone interesting in sampling Filipino food, despite my ratings. I fully encourage everyone to try this restaurant. After all, you're in New York, the capital of the world. Take advantage of it!

Lumpiang Shanghai: A A little like southeast Asian spring rolls. It channels Turkish cigara boreks, and hits all the high notes. Crispy, flaky, flavorful, nice dipping sauce. The only better appetizer would be Ukoy. if you get two appetizers, this should be the second. Appropriate for 2 or 3 people.

Ukoy: A+ (w00t!) A perfect appetizer. Delicious beyond words, and a lot of fun to eat. This is essentially bean sprout tempura and is a truly remarkable dish. It's beyond delicious by itself, but the vinegar and garlic dipping sauce it comes with is indescribably good, and a WHOLE lot of fun to eat!

Nilagang Baka: B If you like Russian / German soups, you'll recognize the meat instantly. It's boneless flanken, which comes from the brisket cut. The meat is magnificent, but the soup itself is somewhat plainish. It didn't really taste special -- the only flavor I detected was salt and meat. I was a litlte overwhelmed.

Inihaw na Baboy: B+ Tasty grilled pork belly. Slightly tough meat, and I was surprised that it was less fatty than I was expecting. I mean, pork belly is usually a wall of fat, right? It was delicious, but I was expecting softer, more fatty meat.

Inihaw Tuna Belly: F One of the biggest let-downs of my culinary life. It looked delicious, but was utterly and completely inedible. The tuna smelled bad -- it smelled and tasted fishy. One of the reasons why tuna steak is amazing is that it's anything but fishy, but this was awful. I took one bite and, literally, threw away the rest. I wanted to put my head into my hands and cry. It looked so delicious but smelled and tasted disgusting.

Humba: F Inedible. It was nothing more than fatty skin, fatty fat, and bone. The sauce was sickly sweet. The whole dish was a gelatinous mess of overly sweet fat and lard. Yuck. Took one bite and threw the whole thing away.

Melon Juice: A+ Amazing! It's not so much juice as it is pulp. Almost as if they blended cantaloupe with water to make a fresh cantaloupe drink. Made fresh. Refreshing. Delicious. Took one sip and fell in love with it instantly!

Ube (dessert): B+ A cake made of purple yam. You can actually taste the yam, it kind of reminds me of taro and has the consistency of a firm sweet potato pie. Not as sweet as most Americans have their desserts, but that's a plus for me, since I don't usually like overly sweet things.

Ube Ice Cream: A- Very flavorful -- I gotta say, the ice cream made from purple yam was delicious. The consistency was fascinating -- you can tell the ice cream was made up of something starchy.

Leche Flan: A- Nice flan. Has a condensed milk flavoring to it, but didn't have condensed milk poured on top, which means the pie was baked using condensed milk. Excellent!

Turon with Ice Cream: A Banana wrapped in spring roll wrapping and deep fried. Served with ube ice cream. My favorite dessert here. Starchy and syrupy, but complements the ice cream...

They spent too much effort on the way the restaurant look but all their utensils and plate is old and so lucky for me to have a chip off plate and a Rubbermaid plastic pitcher? are you serious? is the glass cheap pitcher is so expensive now or what? you can get that in a dollar store for christ sake! that doesnt go with the classy glass wine you have.And also they should have provide paper napkin as well because some filipino food sometimes need to eat using your fingers and cloth napkin is a no no.FOOD, the tuna belly is so damn rubbery.they should have ask the costumer how the tuna is being done.There is the right period of time to cook tuna so you wont lose the texture and taste.not unless someone would prefer to eat rubber.The halo-halo, Yuck! the green small sago is from yesterday or so.and whats with the red banana? punyeta! the ice cream is cheap not the filipino one which suppose to be.shanghai meat is not freshly made.crispy pata doesnt stand out at all.rice is all over the place.bicol express is just meat and bunch of chili and bagoong i dont know why they have the option of "just veggies" or "with meat".So if i will order with meat i suppose to get meat with meat? holly crap!Ok im done with the foody.I dont mean to be disrespectful to the owner (wife).its normal to talk to your costumer and sit down with them but please lower your damn voice when you are talking.we get it,youre the owner but you are talking like the whole place can hear you and let us know " ako may-ari".Whats wrong with you,dont you know that people who eat there with different races and culture have manners.We go there to eat not to hear you voice everywhere.Lastly and most important with this hurtful critic review is..Treat your employee like a human being not garbage! eventhough you talk in tagalog (thank God) you are too harsh with no respect while telling them what to do infront of everyone which is for me as a filipino i find it offensive to the employees behalf who work harder for YOU! If they made a mistake talk to them on the back or just simply tell them in a nice way infront of everyone if thats how you are which you should as a owner dont you think?...i hope you read this review.Im not trying to put bad reputation against your restaurant.I just dont understant filipinos who eat there dont see details like this which is obvious.Filipinos are known for great hospitality.Dont take that away just for a couple of dollars if you know what i mean."If you want to have a good followers,you must be a...