M-3 Philipino on Kedzie

Walking north on Kedzie from Irving Park, on my way to City Noor for falafel, I passed a small storefront with a sign that read "M-3 Carryout or Dine In". The heat, my hunger, and this surprise on a chow-sparse stretch of Kedzie all combined to encourage me to check it out and save the longer walk to City Noor for another day. I peered somewhat embarrassingly through the window and had mixed feelings. The place is downright ugly - horrible hospital-white walls, old broken-tiled floor, ugly plastic chairs, square tables adorned with styrofoam place settings, and a generally dreary look about it worsened by the bright florescent light. On the positive side there was a large (taking up maybe a third of the restaurant) open kitchen with a friendly-enough-looking guy working his butt off amidst steaming pots and rather enticing smells which I could take in from outside. What the heck, I thought - if it's awful, or if I get sick and die, hopefully I'll at least make it home in time to write a report on LTH.

It was far from awful. For less than five bucks I had a generous helping of adobo chicken and a decent portion of tocino (cured pork) served over white rice. The adobo chicken was falling off the bone tender and very flavorful, with a nice balance of vinegar and spices, which from what I could gather consisted of bay leaf, cloves and/or cinnamon, and some sort of chile. The tocino, which I'd never tasted before, was good too. It was siumltaneously sweet, acidic, and just a little spicy. This is not doctor-recommended food, however, as I could feel my arteries clogging from the relatively fatty pork.

The tables have a couple of bottles of different hot sauces, including a homemade vinegarry concoction with what seemed to garlic and onions. I liked it. The food was freshly prepared and held in a steam table by the cash register. Also on the table was some sort of fish in adobo and some kind of sausage links, both of which I'll try to check out soon.

M-3
4313 N. Kedzie
No idea of hours or phone number

glad you liked it... its one I would recommend, if you can't get filipino home cooking.

yes, it's not exactly pretty to the eye, but all their focus is on their food and they do it decently. sometimes, the food is a little bland but that might just be me and my filipino taste buds comparing it to home cooked meals.

bars on the windows, place papered over, for sale sign on the door.