Hong Ning Filipino Restaurant and Grill

I’ve been going to the old location since forever but something about this new location just somehow made Hong Ning 100 times better. the art work was beautifully displayed and the vibe of the restaurant from the food to the furniture (tables/​benches) really made me feel at home. I truly felt like I was eating a home cooked meal in the Philippines with each bite of every dish. everything was beautifully prepared and the food was great. Come by if you’re missing some authentic Filipino food and dessert.
also, staff was very polite and helpful!
will be back again

im sure the food is good when hot… but Christ the service is SLOOOOW!!! Come on guys get a clue… get it together. im a fan of the food (being filipino and the closet filipino resto in the area)… but hello… pay attention to the customers and speed things up and turn those tables!!!
fyi your salted egg and tomato salad… very disappointing!!!

Came to this restaurant a week ago Sunday. The food was tasty, the ambiance was themed, and the people were super nice. I cheated, as I knew what to order as I have Filipino friends, and they told me what to get.
Let me tell you, if your coming here, i would highly recommend that you only order 1 appetizer, we ordered 2, and were stuffed before the entrees arrived.
Great food, warm environment, and friendly service. Price was good.
I will definitely be back again.

You don’t find a lot of Filipino restaurants around the suburbs. This one is a good find. Food is awesome. One of the servers tend to be so rude but I noticed he’s nice to regulars. STILL GOING BACK tho. :)

They’ve gotten better since moving from the old location on Bloomingdale and Army Trail. The seating area is much more spacious and decorated. There’s a host/​hostess at the front to welcome you, and the service staff are much more diligent than before.
There was a problem with a recent take-​out order. There was no large crispy pata, only small size, but the server simply switched from large to small without asking me first. It’s a good thing I called back a few minutes later; otherwise I would have gotten an order that was too small for my group! Fortunately, I was able to adjust the order, and the manager agreed to a discount for the trouble!
Prior inconveniences aside, they are improving and I’m happy to be a frequent customer! My family has gone to this place as long as I can remember since childhood.

Fact 1: The Philippines has over 7000 islands, is the second most polylingual nation on earth after Papua New Guinea and cuisine-​wise is as varied and diverse as the cultures that have influenced it from the Spanish to the Chinese to the American, et al.
Fact 2: despite being proud of the awesomely diverse culture, just about every Pinoy/​Pinay dining at a Filipino restaurant secretly expects the food coming out of the kitchen to taste EXACTLY like mom’s, lola’s or tita’s.
Fact 3. Ain’t no way a Pinoy/​Pinay that is dining w mom, lola or tita will admit that the restaurant food is better. That would be suicide.
Given these undisputed facts, it is a testament of quality to Hong Ning that they’ve been able to thrive for almost 2 decades from its original humble store front in Glendale Heights to its current locale in an area that has a large Filipino community full of home cooks that think they’re the latest incarnation of Iron Chef Pilipinas. Hong Ning has stood the test of time bc it’s good Filipino food period. If you don’t like the food here, you might just not appreciate Filipino food. Yet. Give it a few tries before you give up bc sometimes people need some adjusting to unfamiliar flavors.
Anyhow, if you haven’t tried Filipino food, this is a great place to start. The food here is better than some nationally recognized Filipino spots I’ve been to around the country. Entrees are inexpensive and I suggest coming with a group of at least 4+ so you can try a lot of things (BBQ!). The service I’ve had here has been above average especially for an Asian restaurant (no shade thrown… You know what I mean!) and especially since the last time I was here it was with a rowdy group of 20+ picky ass eaters who ditched their moms, lolas and titas bc they didn’t want to hide the fact that they were really enjoying the food. A lot.

Hong Ning has upgrade their location! I can’t believe they have been around for almost 20 years. The décor is very nice and the restaurant is spacious. This is where Vietnamese Bistro used to be and hopefully Hong Ning can make it last. There aren’t many choices nearby by for Filipino food, so any location is a good location.
Hototai Soup $ 7 — Clear broth easy to eat soup
Kamansi $ 9
Mixed Chicken and Pork Adobo $ 10 — One of my favorite dishes here. Savory and delicious.
Large Rice $ 3

I’ve been here a few times and love it. I’ve never had a single bad experience here.
If you’ve never had Filipino food it may be best to stick to the skewers and rice which by the way taste just as good as the skewers you can by on the street in Manila or Makati.
I highly recommend this place if your looking for some terrific Filipino food!

I am glad I chose to visit this place without consulting the Unilocal reviews. I feel obligated to detail our lunch, and our experience which is not (at least as of this date) reflected in the restaurant’s current rating. Lunch — crazy good. We had a garlic rice, which I must learn how to recreate, as it was insanely good. I did the adobo chicken and my lunch partner/​nephew did a fried pork belly dish with shrimp paste. Holy cow, it was all so good. Service was splendid. I have tried to come here twice before but the line/​wait was too long and I gave up. I am so glad we did lunch, and I will be back again, probably this week.

Frankly, I’m surprised by the bad reviews of this place. Either we went on an extraordinary night, or those who didn’t like this place have never eaten at a «real» Filipino restaurant. Most of the bad reviews spoke of bad service or finding hairs on food. Granted, we weren’t cowtowed to in Hong Ning as we’ve been in snootier places that we enjoyed half as much, but I had no service complaints and the food was fantastic.
Which is another thing: many reviewers weren’t impressed with the food. Again, maybe we went on a night where the best chef from the Philippines was substituting for the regular guy… but somehow I doubt it. My guess is that either Chicagoans are pampered by the only really great Filipino restaurants in America and are therefore spoiled, or they don’t know Filipino food at all.
I have eaten at many a Pinoy restaurant, both here in LA and in various locations in the Philippines, and the only place in which I have eaten that comes close to the wonderful food I had on Luzon and Palawan was right here at Hong Ning. Now the review.
I was in the mood for pork in a big way, and with Pilipino food that almost always means fatty pork belly. We had the liempo, the crispy pata, lechon and sisig to satisfy that urge (and then some); in addition we sampled the pancit and chicken inasal. Everything was delicious. The pata was divinely crispy but not crunchy; the liempo was tangy, saucy and tasty; the lechon had thin, crisp, succulent skin and tender yet juicy meat with appropriately light seasoning and the sisig was the best I’ve had outside of the Philippines, even if it wasn’t made from a pig’s head (as is traditional and fantastic, for my likewise ignorant American friends). The pancit bihon was just fine (I’ve had better, but that was in Tayabas) and the chicken inasal was unexpectedly tasty: delicate seasoning so as not to overwhelm the flavor of the chicken, and the single large breast we received was unusually juicy and tender for grilled chicken. I couldn’t do better myself – and I’m a damn good cook!
This is a good place for Whities like me to introduce themselves to Pinoy foods (a thing I strongly recommend for those planning on visiting the Philippines, or those who just love good food and to say hell with the calories), mainly because everyone working here speaks English. If you expect 5-​star service, go to some snobbish French bistro for inferior food and the ass kissing you require. Regular folks will like it here just fine.

We been here yesterday Sunday 10/25/2015.and it was packed around noon time… we waited for at least more than half an hour for our available seating. but understandable because it is weekend and Sunday when lots of Filipinos coming from attending church masses. So, anyway we have been a fan of this restaurant ever since from their first location in Army trail Rd and Bloomingdale Rd corner. But now they have a new location at Carol Stream area corner of North Ave and Schmale Rd.
One order that did not stand out for us is their Kare-​kare beef was a bit kinda thin for the peanut sauce. it needs more peanuts and make it thicker. We should taste the peanut but not this time. Everything else that we ordered are delicious. I’m sure we will be back every now and then.

great small business restaurant

I’m not sure how I feel about giving them 2 stars, but I am willing to give them another try… another time and hopefully it will bump it up a little. And it is also my first time having Filipino food, and I was so disappointed.
I’ve never been to the old location, but this one is spacious and the décor is interesting. When you first walk in, it smells delicious and you can’t wait to sit down and order.
I had ordered a kare kare. It is a braised oxtail and tripe in a «peanut sauce.» First off, there were no «peanut» present in the sauce whatsoever. like none. The tripe were big pieces and uncut, so it is a little chewy to bite. They were also not cleaned well, therefore it gave off a fishy smell. The oxtail were okay, the meat fell right off the bone so it was easy to eat. Overall, the dish was very bland and under flavored. It looked like a curry, and I was hoping it would taste like the sort. but it didn’t.
My boyfriend got the pritong tilapia, basically it is just a WHOLE tilapia deep fried. They also served it with their «house spiced vinegar.» The fish… was fishy. Because it was not rubbed in any spice or flavoring, the fish was very fishy. Their sauce seemed like it was just soy sauce mixed with vinegar because there were no «spice» to it.
Our meal was served with rice and some sort of fish or shrimp paste. I have eaten my fair share of fish and shrimp paste. I mean, Vietnamese people know how to ferment their shit man. I digress, anyways… the smell of that paste was so pungent. The taste was delicious to the bland meal, but I could not get over that smell. I did not find it very pleasant.
I am also wary at the fact that they CHARGED me for rice, like really? RICE for crying out loud.
I was not impressed with this place, seeing how many of my Filipino friends boasted about this place and how salty Filipino food can be and how EVERYTHING was delicious. smh.

Update review: Decided to give it another try. So what changed?
1. They now have a hostess in the front receiving!
2. The waitress asked us about our drink preference and menu selection within 5 minutes upon seated.
3. This time, we were able to eat!
We ordered Lomi, Calamares, Crispy Pata, and Kare Kare.
Our group had fun especially we chose HongNing to celebrate my husbands Birthday.

I have been making the drive to Hong Ning for the past year and living in the northern suburbs it is quite a drive. The first time we made our way there, they forgot three orders. The second time, we waited for a halo halo that was never to come. I just don’t know why my wife likes the food here but to each his own taste I guess. Previous reviews state the lack of attention of the servers to the customers which I kept pointing out to my wife. The servers are just «aloof». They just don’t understand that if they don’t take care of the business, they just might end up looking for another job. My wife is thinking of trying the new place and I’m still in the process of trying to change her mind. Best of luck to the owner who doesn’t seem to care about customer service.

I hate to do this, the food was ok. But two human hairs in two different things is too many. Never again.

I wanted to order food for lunch and just pick it up and go. I asked if they could fax me a menu with the prices and they said no. We also asked if we could order in advance and pick it up and they said no. It took me 45 minutes from my office, go there, order food and go back to the office. They definitely were not very accommodating.
We get back to work and share the food with co-​workers who have had Filipino food before. I asked them how they would rate the food and their response was… we’ve had better and the food was very bland. It wasn’t as good as what I expected it to be after reading some reviews and watching the video. Over all I would rate their food a 4 out of 10.

Good food, slow service but not as bad as previous customers made it out to be.
We started with a hearty bowl of lomi soup which is made with thick pancit rice noodles, assorted meat, and a beef gravy. Warmed the bones on a cold fall day.
We moved on to the salted fish & chicken fried rice and 3 sticks of chicken barbecue a la cart. The fried rice is my favorite!
Good value for the price. We have leftovers for lunch the next few days. Definitely coming back again.

New location at Carol Stream: spacious and looks clean; Filipino Decors on the wall give a nice touch of nationalism.
Food: We came for lunch on a weekday to avoid the weekend crowd. We ordered pretty much the main traditional dishes: crispy pata, beef soup, pata tim, fried rice, halo-​halo, kare-​Kare, pinaputok na bangus. The servings were satisfactory. But overall, the food lacks flavor, the meats could be more tender, and needs more time for flavor to set in. The pata tim was one of my greater disappointments — the hocks tasted gamey, and wasn’t cleaned/​shaved well of pig’s hair. Kare Kare was tough, and lacks the usual creamy flavor of the dish. Fried rice was … A little on the hard side. The owner was around talking to a few patrons, said Hi to us at the beginning but never came around again. If he had taken the time to ask us about the food, we would have told him.