Adobo Express (Filipino) [Pictures]

LTH,

Met the ever interesting Cathy2 and Mike G, along with Mr. Personality, Mike's 3-year-old son Liam, at Korean Garden Buffet for lunch yesterday. As I parked I noticed Adobo Express and thought, just what we need another chain Southwestern fast food joint, but thought I'd check it out anyway. Soon as I walked through the door I realized I'd read Adobo as adobe and, yes, this is exactly the type of place Chicago needs.



Adobo Express is a spotless, friendly place with deliciously fresh looking steam table items (yes, I know, seems a contradiction in terms)


Small selection of grocery items, mainly dry goods.


Comfortable area for eating-in, though I suspect the majority of business is take-away.


The two people on duty yesterday, Ron and Imee, were very friendly and happy to answer questions, which for me is a real bonus as I am not in the least familiar with Filipino food. Imee gave me small taste of Laing, taro in coconut milk, which I thought quite good. The Laing had a slight salty note which would match perfectly with rice.


Adobo Express, which also serves breakfast, opens at 7:30am, Imee said a popular breakfast among Filipinos is Tapsilog, stir fried beef w/fried garlic rice and fried eggs.


Of the prepared items shrimp w/coconut milk and the pork belly looked particularly good.


Adobo Express, which has been open about 2-months, stocks a number of different snacks, crackers and chips. My favorite, from packaging alone, is Ribbed Cracklings w/salt and vinegar. "Beer match series of snacks are cut in big, bite-size pieces. Flavors were selected specifically for a beer drinkers enjoyment." Not only ribbed for our pleasure, but perfect for beer. I bought a few packs, but have not tried them yet.


I really liked, though as I mentioned, I have not eaten there as of yet, Adobo Express. Friendly, clean, inexpensive with ample parking. Adobo Express has just jumped to the top of my must try list.

Lunch at Korean Garden Buffet, you ask, quite good, in fact, better than I remembered. Korean Garden uses live charcoal, has a nice selection of meats for grilling and a myriad of cold and warm items, including 5-6 types of kim chee. KG's physical space seemed much nicer than I remembered as well lighter, more open with the fish pond, which they have always had, but never seemed to work, gurgling happily away with fish swimming brightly about.

Enjoy,
Gary


Adobo Express
5349 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
773-293-2362
7:30am - 8pm
Closed Tuesday

Korean Garden Buffet
5347 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60625
773-728-1249

Wow...thanks for letting me know about this place Gary. I will be heading there for breakfast or lunch this weekend if I can...I will report back.

Finally! A Filipino place that doesn't look weird to bring your caucasian friends into.

This style of service, called toro toro in tagalog, is popular all over the Philippines and there are a few in the Chicagoland area. The reason you probably haven't seen many of them is because they're in the BACK of the Filipino store.

Notably, Three R's on Montrose has the toro toro service in the back, and is usually pretty busy with Filipino customers eating there. I think you just had to know a Filipino who could bring you there. Places like Three R's, also, are a little hard to navigate without some prior experience or a Filipino buddy. It's nice to see that Adobo Express has a welcoming, comfortable space and easy to decipher menu (or at least staff that's willing to help you out!)

The selection in toro toro places change pretty much daily, which I like as well.

3 R's Oriental Store
2712 W. Montrose
Chicago, IL 60618

Gary, I'm glad you posted on this new spot. I stepped in a few months back on one of my family's many, many visits to Garden Buffet, but the steam tables were not up yet. PS, in the West burbs, the new Unimart at 75th Street and I355 has a very nice steam table setup also.

You and I had had what appears to have been the rare disconnect when it came to the Garden. I'm glad that it came around for you. I think they have spruced things up a bit, and the fish pond, particularly the many turtles, is great for the kids. In fact, I'll emphasize that Korean restaurants, Garden in particular, are an excellent kid-friendly option in Chicago -- particularly if you eat late, as does my family. It's a festive, family/large group place. And I like to have some bacon, tripe and mackerel with my beef. The Garden makes this easy and affordable. The only downside is no dolsot bibimbop. The many chigaes and porridges make up for it, though. I can't ask my son where he'd like to eat anymore, because no one can top the spectacle of live charcoal at the table. If it were up to him, we'd go to a kalbi joint every night.

JeffB wrote:You and I had had what appears to have been the rare disconnect when it came to the Garden. I'm glad that it came around for you.

Jeff,

Well, we are on the same page Korean Garden wise now. I quite enjoyed lunch the other day and, not only, for reasons of ambiance.

Enjoy,
Gary

gmonkey wrote:Finally! A Filipino place that doesn't look weird to bring your caucasian friends into.

This style of service, called toro toro in tagalog, is popular all over the Philippines and there are a few in the Chicagoland area. The reason you probably haven't seen many of them is because they're in the BACK of the Filipino store.

Notably, Three R's on Montrose has the toro toro service in the back, and is usually pretty busy with Filipino customers eating there.
The selection in toro toro places change pretty much daily, which I like as well.

I know basically nothing about Filipino food, but I agree with the above - about
good food in the back of stores etc

There is one in Niles too - it was discovered and reported on by JoelF here:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.ph ... ight=pinoy

The post may not have gotten any responses, Joel, but rest assured some of
us were reading and appreciate it Iam in the area quite often, its basically
on Milwaukee between Dempster and Golf - looks to be just a store from
the outside. But after Joel's exploration, Ive stopped by a few times for snacks.
The empanadas are good (I did put one in an over for a few minutes, unlike
Joel, and It *was* improved And the banana egg rolls are very good
too - those too have once gone in the oven for a few minutes, and then
been topped with ice-cream, and were brilliant (actually, I lie, they werent
topped with ice-cream - they were topped with a little bit of Kopp's Vanilla
Frozen Custard Thats at least half the reason they were so good I
suppose.

This spot also has some steam-table type dishes, though probably not
comparable in quality to the one you mention above, or even this new
spot. It does change every day though, and they seem to have 4/5
dishes that obviously are being picked up by Filipino's for dinner on the
way home from work. I was once there on a Sunday afternoon for a
minute or two, and the stuff available was bigger in variety and looked
really good (and was about 5 bucks a pop, too)... but I had just eaten lunch
unfortunately, so didnt pick any up, but swore I would be back. Havent
gotten around to it yet, though

Thanks to Gary for the news above - the breakfast especially looks
interesting (dont think the Niles location does that), and an interesting
combination too.

c8w

c8w wrote:The post may not have gotten any responses, Joel, but rest assured some of us were reading and appreciate it

C8w,

It's long been my theory the more complete a post the less likelihood of a response. For example, Joel's post had a definitive beginning, middle, end and clearly laid out the important points. Aside from 'really interesting' or 'thanks for the info' there was little to which one could respond. Another example of this would be Erik's M's recent Los Angles posts which are interesting in the extreme, but leave little room for response.


There are over 400 posts on LTHForum with no response, which is not necessarily an indication of interest or import.

I do want to point out that, like my British Empire theory of franchise restaurants, the above theory is, at best, loosely formed and subject to multiple revisions.

Speaking of Pinoy, I've been once, ordered a few prepared food items, but never got the chance to taste them. I had asked the man behind the counter if I could take a few pictures, he responded with a shrug of his shoulders and OK. I had only snapped 3-4 pictures when, out of a back office, came a raging pit-bull of a woman in full head-of-steam angry mode.

She wanted to know what I was doing, which I explained, and I also pointed out I had asked permission to take a few pictures. She flat out did not believe me and became increasingly convinced I was a.............Hell, I don't know what she thought.

I've taken thousands of pictures in restaurants and groceries and this was one of the few times anyone has gotten so angry with me. Our unpleasant interaction ended with me leaving the store making a mental note never to return to Pinoy, of which I am sure the lady, who may have just been having a bad day, agreed.

Enjoy,
Gary

I just had lunch at Adobo Express and had the beef stew and spare ribs. This is great quality food for such a small price of $5 for a combo meal compared with those greasy preservative laiden low quality chinese takeouts. The place had about 6 people in there at the time and all seemed to be enjoying the food and nice atmosphere.

Good place to check out for nice quality food for a low price. Very nice find goes out to G Wiv for posting about this gem.

/polster

Hi,

One of my closest friends is Filipino. We often eat lunch together and occasionally breakfasts. Every once in a while it is a Filipino breakfast we will enjoy. Always we eat garlic rice, which uses up leftover rice from the day before. You heat oil, chopped up garlic which you fry briefly then add the rice. To accompany the rice, we always have a few eggs with a sausage or fish. These are Longaniza or Red Filipino Sausages which is a sweet sausage compared to our savory American breakfast sausages. Just as often, she will serve cooked fresh fish or even a dried fish.

Yesterday when I walked into Adobo Express for lunch with my Moms, I was disappointed to read breakfast served until 10:30. When I looked over the steam table, I saw this single fish under the heat lamps. I inquired if the fish was leftover from breakfast, which caused the server’s head to shoot up. I inquired if there was any garlic rice left, he smiled offering to make me a fresh batch.

My brunch yesterday:


I never had soy sauce added before to my garlic rice and maybe it could have had a stronger garlic hit. Altogether I was more than happy with my Filipino breakfast, which I washed down with coconut juice.

I will be back with my friend for breakfast sometime soon.

[post addition: I forgot to mention there was Filipino television on for our entertainment. There was an Adams-Family-style Dracula movie, which was highly entertaining despite not having one clue what they were talking about.]

Regards,

Hi- I have been trying to respond to this for a couple of weeks since I visited Adobo express. Being born and bred in Manila, I was very intrigued when i saw the posting since I was really hankering for a traditional filipino breakfast. And I wasn't disappointed- I had the tosilog while my friend had the longsilog (more on what they are below). Traditional filipino breakfast is breakfast meats or fish, garlic rice (with or without soy sauce- both are acceptable methods), and fried eggs (over n easy!). At Adobo express, the breakfasts come also with a little bit of "atsara" (or filipino chutney made up of pickled papaya, carrots, garlic, etc.)- wish they had more of the atsara on the plate to be honest.

In the picture above, the dishes listed under breakfast are as follows:

tapsilog- dried beef (tapa) with eggs and garlic rice;
longsilog- filipino sausage (longanisa) with eggs and garlic rice, i think they use the sweetish, plumpish version, not the jamonado (there are a ton of filipino sausages, with every region, having its own variation);
tosilog - dried pork (tocino) with eggs and garlic rice;
bangsilog- milkfish (bangus) with eggs and garlic rice- this is probably what Cathy had, and the milkfish is dried out, or daing;
sarsilog - sardines (sardinas) with eggs and garlic rice- this probably uses canned sardines, so please don't expect fresh ones;
tibangsilog- smoked milkfish (tinapang bangus) with eggs and garlic rice;
tigalsilog - smoked mackarel scad (tinapang galunggong) with eggs and garlic rice- the "galunggong" is almost like the national fish of the Philippines.

If you haven't noticed yet, the names of the breakfast items are comprised of the first syllable of the breakfast fish or meat, the first syllable of sinangag (or garlic rice) and the last syllable of itlog (or egg)

Hope this helps- and hope more people go to Adobo express for authentic filipino breakfast. Now if they will only serve hot spanish chocolate or filipino coffee (called barako)

Thanks G Wiv for posting about Adobo Express. This was actually the post that introduced me to this awesome site when I googled "Adobo Express" over the weekend.

I went to Adobo Express sunday for a quick lunch. I'm filipino and sadly, I wasn't too pleased with the portion size. I spent about $13 on pretty much nothing. I had a combo meal with consisted of rice and 2 entrees from their steam table. I got 2 pcs of adobo pork and a spoonful of pork sinigang, which is a tamarind flavored pork stew with few greens. A can of pop was almost $1 each (What?!) and for dessert, I ordered halo-halo, a shaved iced treat topped with fruit, custard, ice cream and evaporated milk.

I didn't think the food was worth the price paid, but I must say the place is cute and quaint. It's very clean and relaxing. I would probably eat here again but I'd probably order the entrees separately so I don't end up paying for a plate of white rice which I already have at home.

Thanks again for sharing this place and your pics!

I was waiting for other filipinos to comment! I usually never eat a place, unless I see or have it recommended by people of that nationality.

You're missing out on some swell Erik M-recommended Thai food.

foodie1 wrote:I went to Adobo Express sunday for a quick lunch. I'm filipino and sadly, I wasn't too pleased with the portion size. I spent about $13 on pretty much nothing. I had a combo meal with consisted of rice and 2 entrees from their steam table.

Foodie,

Myself and a friend had Adobo's rice and two entree lunch today. I had very flavorful goat stew, he beef adobo, we both had breaded/fried pork chop, a nice sized and flavorful chop.

Our total cost was, same as your's, $12.90, including two sodas and tax, and struck me as a pretty darn decent deal. While it's true the stew portions are not huge, the food is fresh, people nice and, as you said, Adobo Express is as clean as a whistle.

I realize we are both agreeing Adobo is a nice place, just wanted to mention, from my perspective, it's a fair price for what is offered.

Enjoy,
Gary

o man. forget the adobo ****, the celery beef, the fried fish, and the banana ketchup, etc. the money shot:



filipino style shaved ice w/ coconut jelly, grass jelly, red beans, evap. milk, strips of mango, sliced of banana, scoop of mango ice cream, etc. overwhelming. ALMOST as good as good as the mango pudding shaved ice @ Shau Mei on Valley Blvd, in Alhambra, CA.

waiting for others to arrive, I saw indications of the Garden Buffet/1 yr anniversary dinner aftermath all over the parking lot - lil blue round stickers with handwritten numbers (largest of which read '77' - out of 79?).

as far as price, after the $40 lunch for 4, someone (a West Coast Filipina) casually voiced: "a lil bit pricey". And I mostly concur.

So Gary - have you had a chance to sample the Ribbed Cracklings? Does it pair as well with beer as the ad copy says?

Kman,

Haven't tried the ribbed beer chips yet, but now that you mention it................

Note to TonyC: No offense to Peter D, wearing dark glasses due to recent eye surgery, but your Adobo Express dining companion is a heck of a lot better looking than mine.



Enjoy,
Gary

TonyC,

before I went in to the LTH party I had thought to myself I would try out the halo halo at adobo for desert (of course after garden buffet, it really wasn't an option).

I'm somewhat inexperience with filipino desserts - are the halo-halo and the shaved ice two different desserts, or different names for the same thing?

Halo-Halo and shaved ice are the same. Here's a link if you interested on finding out more about this desert. I'm sooo craving one right now!

http://www.seasite.niu.edu/Tagalog/Taga ... o_halo.htm

When I went to Adobo Express, I ordered the Halo Halo Supreme or Deluxe (which included pieces of flan/custard and ice cream)....which I thought was NOT worth $4.95. I'm better off making halo halo at home for far less! Besides, halo halo is something that's best enjoyed eating from a glass....this place served the supreme/deluxe version from a bowl...which takes away from the comfort feeling of eating it the traditional way. JMHO.

Actually, I preferred the bowl when I ordered the Halo Halo Supreme. I felt I got more content than if it were in the traditional cup. Yes, $4.95 is a little steep for ice, milk, and some fruit pebbles.

The day I went, my son wanted the Mango Smoothie (that was all he wanted when going to the malls in Philippines). For whatever reason, they didn't have the ingredients or couldn't make it. <shrug>

We bought some dinuguan (favorite filipino blood dish) and took it home. It was light on the grease factor, and wasn't too overly strong tasting. For anyone who has eaten dinuguan, they'll understand.

The grocery items were about 5% more than if bought at a real oriental grocery store, which is fine, because they need to make their money somehow. ie: Three Horse Jasmine Rice is $11/ 25lb sack vs $12/ 25lb sack at Adobo. If you're buying a few items, great, but stick to the bulk purchases at the regular stores.

As I eat nothing but Filipino now, we stopped by Adobo Express tonight; the back room is really nice, kind of club-like, almost:



I spotted something I’d never had before (always an allure):



So I got one of those:



We also got a lot other stuff, like sinigang, a sour soup of tamarind-tangy broth, eggplant and pork:



Here’s the big platter o’ stuff, including (from noon going clockwise) mungo (a rare vegetable dish of mung beans), beef kaldereta (or do you say caldereta), chicken adobo, beef heart, pork steak, ground pork, pork adobo, and in the center chicken liver (mounted, I believe, with a pearl):



I found my favorite Filipino-Russian beverage:



The sweet, citrusy calamansi juice proved a delicious envelop for the vodka, which itself was a good complement to the slightly sugary pork and chicken adobo. The mungo was a fav, and one of the few non-potato or rice vegetables.

The kaldereta started me thinking that ALL Filipino food might be comfort food. To prove that theory, I must continue eating it...

David “Positively Pinoy” Hammond

David Hammond wrote:

Your plate looks like it came from a steam-table selection. How does it work? All-you-can-eat buffet for single price? Paid by the pound? Point and they'll dish up and charge you a-la-Panda-express-combo-meal-like?

Jay K wrote:Your plate looks like it came from a steam-table selection. How does it work? All-you-can-eat buffet for single price? Paid by the pound? Point and they'll dish up and charge you a-la-Panda-express-combo-meal-like?

They had about 8 items on the steam table, so we got a little container of each and took them home (what you see in the pic is the plate I made for myself at home -- hey, I'm no photo stylist ).

Hammond

David, David,

Between talking to you yesterday and these pictures...I think I'm going to have to have munggo for dinner tonight. I've never been sure if this is just a product of me growing up eating Filipino food, but all of it is comfort food to me.



It seems like you've been tracking down more hot food than grocery or snack items, but the next time you have pandesal, you have to have it with liverwurst. Growing up, I think my dad occasionally made little sandwiches as merienda with spam and pandesal (besides occasionally frying up some spam to eat over rice for weekend breakfast), but that wasn't appealing to me at all--still isn't. However, liverwurst on pandesal...besides being an afternoon snack at home, it was a standard roadtrip snack for summer vacations.

happy_stomach wrote:It seems like you've been tracking down more hot food than grocery or snack items,

There was an impressive snack food section at Adobo Express:





We also came across this item:



The young Filipina behind the counter told us that it's "for making wood smooth or for putting on custard." The label suggests it's also good on siopao, and several other things I didn't recognize (knotty pine, maybe?).

Hammong

David,

Since you are interested in all things Filippino presently, then mark your calendar for October 13th. The authors of IACP award winning book Memories of Philippine Kitchens authors Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan are speaking for Chicago Foodways Roundtable.

Regards,

If you can find it, you ought to try some babingka. This custardy baked pudding is one of the best comfort food desserts ever.
Also worth noting....Hong Kee on Argyle does a Filipino style noodle soup which is outstanding. Not on the menu, you have to ask. I know several Filipinos who trek in from the NW burbs regularly for this dish, which they can't find anywhere else.

David Hammond wrote:We also came across this item:



The young Filipina behind the counter told us that it's "for making wood smooth or for putting on custard." The label suggests it's also good on siopao, and several other things I didn't recognize (knotty pine, maybe?).

David, I came across a more explicit version of this item at the Unimart in Niles this morning. It's lye water! I guess if you're "in the know" you can save $.09.

lye water? i never heard of this so i looked it up. here's what i found:

http://www.dh.sa.gov.au/pehs/PDF-files/ ... heet05.pdf

how in the world is this used in cooking? what's it taste like?

sorry, but this just baffles me.