Novo Asian Food Hall — Restaurant in Pittsburgh

I came here with modest expectations, but they outright exceeded them. I'd even say the concept is a home run. It's definitely the best food hall in Pittsburgh hands down. I'd actually say the prices are cheaper than expected and are way cheaper than the other Pittsburgh food halls.

All restaurants here are local. Clearly not Pittsburgh-born, but every stall is a small businesses created and bred in Pittsburgh.

The highest quality stall at the moment hands down is Kung Fu Chicken. 5/5 just absolutely levels of ridiculous. I can't even explain just how ridiculous the food is there. Best chicken sandwich in Pittsburgh hands down. My pics will explain it better.

Mola is just as good as the restaurant. Easily the best sushi in Pittsburgh.

I will say this as a Fil-Am who also grew up in WV/OH, so obviously I will leave a large portion of the review to Lolo's Kusina.

Lolo's dinner is more elevated than expected and actually really good. However, their sides have not improved since day 1, and the silog menu is bottom of the barrel bad. The bfast is so terrible that I have to update Lolo's individual star rating to 2/5. The other restaurants are so good that Lolo's doesn't affect the overall score of Novo.

The main dishes I had, chicken adobo and pork sisig, actually had high-end ingredients and terrible sides. Bola-bola is also really good. If I only had the dinner mains, I'd have given the restaurant a 4/5.

The chicken adobo has coconut milk. Before anyone criticizes the ingredient choice, the best high-end Filipino restaurants in the US do use it. It is also sparsely used in other lesser known regions of the Philippines. The adobo had plenty of flavor and probably is a style choice from the chef. It is great.

Second, the sisig is elite. The sisig had lechon kawali skin crunchiness, very reminiscent of Kuya Ja's US famous sisig. Traditional sisig is not crunchy, but neither is Kuya Ja's.

The sides however let the dinner down. No improvement on the pancit since day 1. Ingredients were traditional but was dry and undercooked. I later heated it up with my wok at home, and it would otherwise have been a very traditional 9/10 pancit. The pan de sal is now sweet and tastes like one now, but it's still too heavy/thick.

The lumpia is elite tier, just as good as homemade lumpia. But the lechon kawali is dry and overcooked. At least it has skin unlike Lola's version.

Now for the silog menu. This menu will be the demise of this restaurant because this food is SACRED in Filipino food culture. The homemade longganisa's main flavor profile is Jufran banana ketchup. This is an issue because longganisa should not be made with ketchup, let alone need ketchup to make it taste good. To the chef: do not make it from scratch if you cannot guarantee better longganisa than the frozen stuff you get at Many More, etc.

The Tapa is so hard, and our forks and spoons kept breaking and should not taste smoky either. The flavor profile is nowhere near Filipino tapa. Extremely upsetting all around.

Overall, I hope the chef listens to the Filipinos reviewing his restaurant. Unexpectedly great mains in the dinner is being killed by lack of improvements on the sides since day 1, and the silog menu does not even get close to the Filipino standard at all. I don't care if it's about style or whatever, please fix them or the community will call to close the restaurant.

Meanwhile...

The mandu from Korea Garden was ELITE and made from scratch tier but lacks modern day Korean food options.

Teachana is actually on the higher end of good bobas in Pittsburgh.

The bar portion deserves lots of praise, too. They have 2 versions of San Miguel for the fellow Filipinos looking for traditional food.

Overall, I feel the Novo Asian food hall was properly priced (still expensive) and far exceeded expectations. It is a gem to the local Pittsburgh community, and for sure it will thrive. It is 100% better than other competing food halls in Pittsburgh...

The concept is pretty great- considering they are trying to mesh together a variety of asian fusion foods in the strip, but I feel as if there is something missing.

Let’s start with the pros:

Artwork of the building is BEAUTIFULLY done. If you pay attention to the artistry and the details of the place, you could tell that they poured their heart out into making this dining hall as inviting as possible. Nothing I’d ever see a typical dining hall have.

The staff members are really friendly and they do not hesitate to answer questions about the menu if need be. Keep in mind though, this place is still new and in high demand. So until everyone gets that chance of trying the place out, you are bound to have long wait times. Just be patient :)

The variety is wonderful. You have the options of trying different dishes all in one location. There is even a bakery/boba shop in the front of the building if you’re feeling something light, and there is plenty of seating even outside of the terminal to relax and enjoy the food.

Cons:

It’s a bit overpriced in my opinion. I tried a little bit of everything from this place (From Lolos, Korea garden, Sumi’s bakery.. etc) and the portions sizes are a bit small. If you don’t mind the light lunch/bento meals then this place will be for you! Otherwise, I feel 18 dollars, plus tip for a small plate of adobo with some noodles is a bit much. Even the dessert was about 9 dollars for a packaged cake. But nevertheless, the food was okay, but I still felt as if I got robbed. :(

It was also a little bit harder to find utensils, seating, and a trash can that wasn’t too full. Bring some napkins from your house/in your car and you can fix this problem! However, to reiterate, this place is still new, so please keep this in mind when you do come out here.

If you don’t live local, I recommend you find parking a little ways down the street and walk around to make this worth while, or plan this trip accordingly and wake up a bit early to get first dibs out front. As you know, this is the strip district. So come mentally prepared that you may not always get the ideal fixture here for your visit.

Thank you guys for reading, I hope this review helped a little...

🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭 If you’re a filipino or you’re interested to taste filipino food here in Novo Asian Mall Pittsburgh—Please read this review.

First let me share some other than Filipino food that we tried:

👍👍TEACHANA drinks super DOUBLE THUMBS UP! With wide varieties of flavors! 👍TAIWAN CHICKEN is just right— won’t dig too much because there’s nothing wow factor. 👍👍👍SUMI’s CAKERY a wow delight! Truly this is the reason why i will be coming back to Novo Asian Mall— Hopefully you offer more beautiful zerts like instagrammable cakes, delights— BUT the taste of your strawberry slice cake and cream buns?! A WOWOWOWOWOW FACTOR TRULY! Not too sweet— not too eewiee dairy that’s too much to digest— Your delicious baked goodies……. ✔️clean taste, ✔️balanced sweetness with✔️ light sponge cake & ✔️pastry heavenly cream that’s just right to end any savory asian meal💖 YES!!

🥺👎👎👎 🇵🇭 Lolo’s Filipino Restaurant

OMAYGULAY. What a disappointment ‼️‼️‼️ Thrilled that finally.. there’s a Filipino cuisine being presented here in Pittsburgh..

BUT PLEASE HEAR ME. As a born and raised filipino— This is not how our food taste like‼️😭

We ordered— Adobo Sisig Lumpia Bola bola(pork meatballs) Garlic fried rice And calamansi juice.

None of the above taste like Filipino food. *Adobo tasted like just oily chicken dipped in salt. Just that— No soy sauce, vinegar, no notes of sweetness taste that is a must for ADOBO. There’s a bayleaf but it didn’t give any flavors too— what is this? *Sisig is just overcooked, overfried pork, with lots of chopped chillis with a no taste cream?! 🙄 Oh please. *Lumpia… NO TASTE AT ALL. Slightly burned too. Also the oil used for frying tasted fish 😭 *Bola bola?! Almost totally burned meat balls 🥹 *Garlic fried rice— oh my GAWD. Very bitter taste because the garlic is overcooked as well 😭 None of these food represents how tasty and yummy our food is. *Calamansi juice taste nothing too— Just bland. Should’ve ordered water.

PLEASE KINDLY LET THE LOLO FILIPINO RESTAURANT STAFF KNOW THAT PLEASE… ASK HOW OUR FOOD IS PROPERLY COOKED—really 😞 Give respect to our food by cooking it well. Represent Filipino food properly please.

THIS IS NOT A LEGIT FILIPINO FOOD. We beg to let people know of...