Ihawan

40-06 70th Street
Woodside, Queens 11377











This Filipino restaurant is located on the second floor with a small bakery downstairs. Great home cooking and prices! Instead of a turo turo where you point to dishes that are sitting in heated restaurant pans, you order from a menu and the dishes are cooked to order. Service could be more cordial but you come here for the food and not the decor.
A view of the menu can be found here.





Small tables line the spare wooden floor with a waiter or two walking about taking orders.











Pinakbet (pumpkin & string beans stewed in shrimp paste) Sinigang Na Baboy (pork and vegetables in tamarind soup), Lechon kawali (roast pork), pancit bihon









Avocado milk with ice...refreshing!

Krystal's Cafe

6902 Roosevelt Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
(718) 898-1900









This Filipino bakery also offers delicious food and has seating downstairs and upstairs where you will find the all you can eat buffet for about $8. Sodas are included that you pour yourself from plastic pitchers. The variety of dishes offered changes daily. Flat screen televisions broadcast ABS-CBN Filipino shows. This is one place that has great rice congee like "arroz caldo" which is made with chicken. It's good with "tokwa't baboy" which is vinegared pork ears and fried tofu.
Pleasant staff.

Casa Manila Newark

665 Newark Ave
Jersey City, NJ

(201) 386-8900 ‎


This restaurant is quite noticeable from the outside with it's large windows. This place is a "turo turo" like many of the Filipino restaurants and offers a variety of dishes that you can have with a side of rice. I had the paksiw na lechon (stewed roast pork) and pinakbet (stewed pumpkin, green beans and eggplant in shrimp paste) with a side of rice for about $5. Pleasant staff and clean decor with a large flat screen television broadcasting Filipino Variety shows. Lots of seating.

Fiesta Grill Newark

655 Newark Avenue
Jersey City, NJ 07306
Phone: 201.656.7060






This restaurant is the Newark New jersey branch of the chain. It is not as glamorous looking as the West Side Avenue branch but offers the same homemade Filipino cooking. This place is a "turo turo" or "point point". A variety of Filipino dishes are in metal pans kept warm from below and you point to what you want. Prices are average for the neighborhood (about $5 for 2 dishes and a side of rice). Odd that EVERY dish offered had a chili pepper or two stuck into it for garnish. If you are allergic to peppers then beware of this place. Food was tasty but the decor is lacking.

Phil-Am Food Market

(201) 963-0455
683 Newark Ave, Jersey City, NJ 07306







I reviewed this food market before but this new review is about the food that they serve next door.
You enter through the main doors and walk around the corner to the right to see a cooked food station that serves 2 main dishes with a side of rice (or noodle) and includes a can of soda for only $5.25!
Dishes vary every day so it exciting experience each time I visit. On this particular day, I had the pata (pork knuckles braised in sweet sauce), kangkong (sauteed water spinach) and palabok (rice noodles with shrimp). I chose a can of iced tea.
Everything was tasty and the meal was filling! Other Filipino restaurants in the area offer the same turo turo (point point)for about $5 but this place you can also buy the ingredients to make it yourself at home.
You can also buy food to take out (they offer whole grilled milkfish $8 and fried whole tilapia $4) and the varieties of Filipino dishes are all delicious!
Comes in handy if you go with a Filipino friend who knows the dishes but the servers all know English.

This place has quickly become one of my favorite places to eat /shop at in NJ.

Taste of India

Taste of India

Newport Mall
Jersey City, NJ 07310

(201) 656-5000‎

I went shopping at the Newport Centre Mall in New Jersey with some friends and an Indian man was standing outside the entrance to the mall handing out fliers for the grand opening of Taste of India in the food court. We decided to try it out for lunch and were amazed at the long line of Indian men waiting to order. $7.95 for non vegetarian meal of 1 meat entree, 1 vegetable entree, rice, and nan bread or $6.95 for vegetarian meal of 2 vegetable entrees, rice, and nan bread were advertised on the flier.

As you approach the stand, you will see a small selection of food offerings in restaurant pans kept heated from below by hot water. There are signage to label the dishes but nothing to tell you what is in it. With the feel of a high school lunch line, you walk up to the glass and point to what you want. A manager was standing behind his staff excitedly trying to expedite things but it seems like he was doing too much and not very helpful in the end. EVERY dish has chili pepper in it and are from the Southern Regions of India from Dal (lentals in sauce), and curried potatoes with spinach, to chicken tikka masala (chicken pieces in a creamy tomato sauce) and some other chicken dish consisting of stewed chicken pieces in a red oily sauce. I asked if they offered korma and the manager said, "Korma no, not today." I settled for the chicken tikka masala which I've had before at Balucchis and thought it would be the same but no, it was dry and sauce less. I think in their excitement, they misheard which dish I ordered and gave me the chicken tikka instead. A bit flustered by the flurry of confused activity behind the counter I just accepted the dish and ordered a drink of rose water, melted icecream and some sort of exotic fruit similar with papaya like seeds in it. We all sat down at a table and after one bite of the chicken, I was so disappointed by the over cooked chicken which was more heat than taste and thank goodness that we were in a Food Court, went over to nearby Popeye's Chicken and Biscuits to order a 2 piece chicken lunch meal that was much cheaper.

Something could be said of the fact that Taste of India had more Indian men standing on line waiting to order lunch than women and non Indians who work in the nearby offices that gravitated to the other food chain stands instead. Perhaps these guys longed for a taste of their homeland and a spicy lunch that someone decided to open a Taste of India in the Mall's food court. What ever it is, my friends were showing the effects of the spicy lunches they ordered as their coughing, snifling and sweating can attest. A late arriving friend joined us and saw the results of the Indian food and quickly and wisely, went over to Taco Bell for a Mexican Pizza.

The only positive thing I can say about this Taste of India is that they use a 3 compartment Versatainer for their combo meals which comes in handy for take-a-way and reusable for your own meals (you guessed it, I asked my lunch companions if I could have their containers afterwards).

Sorry, but this is one taste of India that I will avoid.

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Olive Garden

200 North Galleria Drive
Middletown NY 10941
(845) 692-8232






This chain of Italian restaurants offers what I would consider, popular Italian dishes that Americans would understand and eat. An Italian friend of mine told me that the Olive Garden is not real Italian cuisine and I would have to agree to a point. Many of the dishes on the menu I have made at home so I knew the preparation and ingredients used. Simple and basic.

To start, I was with a large group of people (9) and had to wait for a large table to clear to accommodate us. The waitresses seemed flustered at having to wait on a large table but in my experience, they are usually the most fun and the easiest to handle. I quickly noticed that a large number of families come here to dine but that was probably because in this town, both parent's work and don't have time to cook a homemade sit down dinner.
We were escorted to a long, large, wooden table that comfortably accommodated 10. The walls were painted in a beige/brown Tuscan style with a various grouping of different Italian Majolica plates hanging from the walls. Two waitresses were assigned to us and then the ordering began.

I started with a glass of their Rosato blush wine ($5.25) which was a sweet refreshing wine.
My dinner companions all ordered entrees which came with a choice of soup or salad. If everyone decides on salad, two large plastic bowls of house salad arrive at the table along with their bread sticks. The house salad consists of romaine, radicchio, sliced red onion, tomato, banana peppers, and croutons tossed in their Italian dressing. The bread sticks were small and soft and I asked the waitress to bring extra virgin olive oil for dipping. The salad and the bread sticks were unlimited and that's what fills you up as you wait for your entree.
I ordered the Fettuccine Alfredo ($12.25). Nothing big deal to write home about. The creamy sauce was pretty decent and I used my bread stick to wipe up every last drop. Pretty tasty and acceptable in my standards but could have used a touch more garlic. I've had Alfredo sauce at other places where it was lacking in garlic or cream but this was pretty okay. The Chicken Alfredo seemed lack luster as the grilled chicken on top of the dish was thin and dry.

A gratuity charge is placed on large parties (which many restaurants practice) but overall the prices were good.
You can check out their dinner menu online here.