Cafe Pilipino
Cafe Pilipino
Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Has TV: Yes
Caters: Yes
Price range.
Price range
2 reviews
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Great food at a cheap price.
It's located in the Philippine Bread House with the typical cafeteria-style set-up that you'd see in a food court at the mall. There's plenty of seating, they have a big flat-screen TV in the corner that's always tuned into The Filipino Channel (TFC), and there's a small parking lot next to the building.
I've always set high standards for Filipino restaurants because I'm so used to the homemade meals that my mom cooks, but I've been coming here for the past decade and Café Pilipino has yet to disappoint me with its authenticity, variety, and flavor. They even serve bubble tea and halo-halo (a popular Filipino shaved ice dessert).
I've had many dishes here over the years but during my most recent visit, I ordered the bopis and paksiw na lechon, and I tried my friend's binagoongan. Everything was really good. My friend and I each ordered two dishes served with 2 cups of rice – only $5.50 per person! What a bang for your buck!!!
I'm deducting a star because although the food is very tasty, it's often served cold and the parking lot is so tiny that it's almost always a pain to get in and out of. However, if you're looking for a cheap and authentic Filipino meal, this is a pretty good place to start.
Conveniently located inside Philippine Bread House, Pilipinas Cafe offers your standard turo-turo cafeteria-style Filipino food experience. The employees are friendly and the food is cooked fresh everyday.
I've been coming here since I was a kid. They have plenty to choose from at breakfast including tocilog, tapsilog, and my favorite, longsilog (sweet longanisa sausage). This comes with a scoop of fried garlic rice or pancit and a fried egg ($5 total). This is far from healthy, but it sure is tasty. Back in the day, you would get 2 heaping scoops of rice, but they've weened it down to a conservative single scoop. BUMMER. An extra scoop is $0.80. If you want to get another dish instead of the fried egg, pay an extra $0.75.
During the afternoon, they extend their lunch and dinner selection, which often includes sinigang, barbecue (Filipino-style kebabs), adobo, kare kare, dinuguan, lumpia, and much more. The menu changes everyday depending on the availability of ingredients. Most likely, you'll have the best and freshest choice if you arrive earlier in the day.
The food is very traditional, which is why you can get a similar meal all over Jersey City for about the same price. I prefer going here because they have some parking, which is always at a premium in Jersey City these days, and the vast selection of desserts in the bakery. They also sell bubble tea and halo-halo if baked goods aren't your thing.
The cafe consists of about a dozen tables with a flat screen on the wall always tuned to The Filipino Channel. The tables are always clean and the condiments are plentiful – vinegar, banana ketchup, conventional ketchup, vinegar, sweet chili sauce, vinegar. Yes, we like our vinegar!
You'll have to bus your own table afterwards (toss trash into the garbage and stack your plate with other dirty dishes), but for just $5 for a plateful of delicious Filipino fare, you certainly can't complain!