Excerpts from netnews.pgh.food: 2-Nov-94 La Filipiana by Kathleen M. Shanks@andre > I am not exaggerating about the time. > > That said, the food was very good. I would recommend it, because I hope > my wait was an isolated incident. > > Anyone else have similar/dissimilar experiences here? > When we went, we were the only customers. But the only staff person was the owner--she gave us water, gave us menus, fetched the ingredients, made the food and served it. So it wasn't fast, but it wasn't slow either. On the other hand, if she is used to one table at a time (her place is an attractive hole in the wall, in the middle of no where), she can hardly employ helpers. I think she will "survive" bc this is her hobby/love. She has this place off the beaten track bc she can't afford the rent of Sq. Hill. So she doesn't have to break even, but clearly she can not afford much of a staff, if any. Sree's foods btw is also a hole in the wall and the owners are the cooks and servers. There are two of them, but little places are basically victims to unanticipated crowds. --Lynne
Pittsburgh, PA
La Filipiana
The A. wrote: > > I personally feel that Spice Islands Tea House or the Thai Place on > > Walnut is better value for money. But then, I generally prefer food on > > the spicy side. Your tastebuds might be calibrated otherwise. I used to frequent Spice Island about a year ago. Their quality and service have since deteriorated significantly. Two of my friends had some kind of food poisoning from eating there. The food is very mediocre and the people are sometimes rude, especially one of the owners, a middle aged woman. I do not have any intention of returning to Spice Island, especially since I've recommended it to many people, who have not found it to be that great an eating experience. Thai Place is pretty good, but on the expensive side. Another restaurant to try out might be Jaya (the Malaysian restaurant on Bellefonte). The food and service are both very good. If you like spicy food, it's worth a try. As for La Filipiniana, I've heard a lot of wonderful things about it. I will probably try it one of these days.
Someone wrote: > > The A. wrote: > > > > I personally feel that Spice Islands Tea House or the Thai Place on > > > Walnut is better value for money. But then, I generally prefer food on > > > the spicy side. Your tastebuds might be calibrated otherwise. > > I used to frequent Spice Island about a year ago. Their quality and > service have since deteriorated significantly. Two of my friends had some > kind of food poisoning from eating there. The food is very mediocre and > the people are sometimes rude, especially one of the owners, a middle aged > woman. > I do not have any intention of returning to Spice Island, especially since > I've recommended it to many people, who have not found it to be that great > an eating experience. > > Thai Place is pretty good, but on the expensive side. > Another restaurant to try out might be Jaya (the Malaysian restaurant on > Bellefonte). The food and service are both very good. If you like spicy > food, it's worth a try. > > As for La Filipiniana, I've heard a lot of wonderful things about it. > I will probably try it one of these days. > > -- > [email removed] agree with the Spice Island comments. After hearing many good things about it we were sadly disappointed. Our favorite remains Thai Garden on Atwood Street. They will spice it up for you and we have never had a bad meal there. I am surprised not to see more on it in this group. If you get a chance, try it out. The Royal Pad Thai is great as is the General Tsao's'.
after reading the posts about La Filipiana I decided to check it out. It quite "out of the way" in a part of lawrenceville i never knew existed (5300 block of Butler St). but don't let that keep you from going. i remember people saying that you should call ahead because of the limited cooking resources they have but i was surprised to see that they had many tables, all of which were empty when we arrived on a saturday night. We asked for food recommendations and we got 2 orders of mini-eggrolls with a delicious raisin sauce and 2 orders of something similar to chinese bao (steamed bread with something inside). For entrees we ordered chicken adobo, which our waitress claimed was the most traditional philipino food, a stew with banana hearts, and a seafood pancit (thin rice noodles). the adobo was great and the others were good, although a little on the bland side. I was expecting their food to be spicy. we had a little desert sampler which was good but small, but since they were complimentary i can't complain. dinner for 4 came to $50 plus tip for 3 entrees and 4 appetizers. BYOB. i recommend going to this restaurant, especially if you enjoy mild food. the owner/chef came out when she was finished cooking and was very gracious as was the waitress. it is a charming place, check it out!