Krystal’s Cafe

Great filipino food and the dessert is the best! I dont remember the name of my dish but they all sounded good. I would go again and i probably will because my filipino friend lives by there and he also loves it too.
The building isnt anything spectacular but its still a nice place-​its cozy enough. The prices are cheap too and the portion is a good size. I didnt finish mine.

Krystal’s Café NO LONGER EXISTS !!!
Momofuku Noodle Bar has occupied the space for quite some time.
There goes our chance to enjoy our meals under an authentic Filipino setting of people karaōke’ing.

I’m not sure if they still have bands play here. The siopao and cakes are great! It’s an ideal place to start the day since they’ve got a decent bakery.

Go for the Ube. Four stars for that, otherwise the food is 3 stars as is the service. Be aware that they close early on Filipino and American holidays. It’s Labor Day weekend. They are closed, closed, so sad no weekend ube for me. I can’t say enough about the cake here.
My friends got a massive cake roll to bring to my birthday party at Medieval Times at my request. Mmm, yummaaaay. Glorious in all its purple majesty. Keeps me coming back for more. ’nuff said.

The real reason I give this place 4 stars is because of the invisible Karaōke singer.
So, me and my friends are eating, and then the karaōke screen comes up with the usual graphics of some Eastern European woman in the 1980’s dancing in a bowling alley while «Close to You» from Karen Carpenter plays. The words come up on the screen, and you can hear a Filipino voice singing,
«Why do birds esuddenly appear eberytime you are near, just like me, dey long to bee KA – lows-​tu-​yoooo…»
Cool, right? but we’re looking around, there’s no singer, but it sounds live. Obviously they have some sophisticated connection thing going on where the karaōke is also viewable in the kitchen so they sing back there and don’t need to deal with the crowd outside.
It was HILARIOUS. If you haven’t heard Asian people singing karaōke, you haven’t lived.
My friend in college actually made me make her a copy of my Dad singing «My Way» because she thought it was so hysterical.
The Filipino food here is ok. It’s not my family’s cooking, but if you want to eat Filipino food, here it is. I like the fresh lumpia. It’s homestyle cooking so don’t expect fancy décor. For real Filipino food, you must trek out to Jackson Heights, but let’s be realistic here.

KREES-​TALLS, as the Filipino women would call it, has excellent food. Service is nothing special, but sort of typical for it being a Filipino restaurant. We arrived w/​a party of 6 and just ordered everything family-​style, which came out to less than $ 20/​person. Definitely order their chicken BBQ & pancit palabok! This place is highly recommended for authentic Filipino food, but don’t expect the wait staff to be on their toes refilling your drinks or remembering what you ordered.

I’m hard pressed to give 5 stars to any Filipino restaurants, growing up in California, I grew up around the best and freshest ingredients. That being said, I’ve been to Krystal’s several times for lack of better Filipino eats in the city. A few pluses is that they have a decent choice of of typical Filipino party food (various kinds of pancit, lumpia, leche flan, etc.), so if that’s what you’re looking for, they’ve got it. They also have breakfast, choice of meat/​fish, eggs as you like them, and rice (traditionally garlic fried, but they stopped doing that). For those that have never had Filipino food before, I’d suggest going to Grill 21, but if you’ve had it before, welcome to the party.

the service here was poor and disappointing. the menu isn’t too extensive, but it has the usual stuff. we ordered some sinigang (which was pretty fabulous, but i wish there was more broth) and pork adobo. pouring all the liquids ontop of the rice is always a must– but their eggrolls, pollabok and pancit were greasy and just undelightful. i’ve had better at family parties and debuts. the portions were pretty horrible, too. for those prices i thought there would be a nice presentation or taste to them. i’m surprised of all the high scores and raving reviews of this place. well, everyone’s views are always different. anyway, maybe i’ll try it again– but it’s not my go-​to place for filipino food at all. i’ll just crave it for a year until i visit my friends’ familes in the westcoast. lol.

If you have a serious hankering for Filipino food and want to stuff your face and widen your girth, come to Krystal’s for their $ 7.95 all-​you-​can-​eat buffet lunch. They have a good selection of standard Filipino fare on the buffet line, incluing kare-​kare, adobo, and sinigang. Don’t forget to save room for dessert — a slice of mocha roll (my personal fave) or ube cake. Of course, if you don’t have immediate room for dessert, you can just hang around and digest awhile before heading back for more. The waitstaff are friendly and attentive and understand that you can’t keep a Filipino away from the buffet line for very long, so they’re very good about refilling the food trays. Also, they don’t seem to care how many times you go back for more (and you’ll probably want to, against your cholesterol’s best interest).
Word to the wise: on some nights, Krystal’s ups their Filipino authenticity and brings out the karaōke mic, which diners can take turns with. Some diners definitely take advantage of this and belt out tunes as if it’s their living room, which can be very disruptive to your own dining experience. But if you don’t mind hearing some poorly sung Filipino ballads while you eat (for nostalgic reasons, perhaps?), then it’s all good.

You can’t beat Krystal’s for Filipino food. Eat the longsilog for breakfast — I haven’t had pork sausage like this since I was ten years old visiting my aunt in her basement-​storage-​room-​turned-​apartment in LA. The chicharon bulaklak and paksiw na lechon will have your doctor kicking and screaming at your blatant disregard for your cholesterol level. The bittermelon in the pinakbet has just the right balance of crispy freshness and cooked meatiness. Inihaw na tilapia tastes just like the way my mom used to cook it in the garage to keep the smell from getting trapped in the carpet or the plastic-​covered couch. Oh my, is that leche flan gracing the top of my halo-​halo? Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus and his Filipino wife taught him well. If you grew up with the smell of your mother’s cooking in the air, four aunts who battled it out on the karaōke machine for the highest score and grandmothers who gossipped about your gangbanging cousin and straight-​A older sister you have just found HOME.

Authentic Filipino food in a homey setting. The food is filling and delicious and the desserts are even better. I love the flan and the halo halo. There’s also a bakery with great snacks for take-​out.