RESTAURANT REVIEW – ISLA PILIPINA

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Isla Pilipina Restaurant is a Lincoln Square restaurant located at 2501 W. Lawrence Avenue in the Family Plaza. It’s really easy to get there on public transportation too, either by bus (Western or Lawrence) or Brown Line. The restaurant is very casual and has a pretty homey feel to it.

I personally had never had Filipino food before so this was a lovely adventure. I have to admit that the food is amazing. They say on their website that “We are cultivators of authentic Philippine cuisine through creativity, nature, life and love.” The restaurant is BYOB. It’s highly recommended that you have a reservation on weekend/busy nights so you don’t have to wait.

I’m in a BYOB group that meets once a month and this was our choice recently. We ordered almost half the menu so we could taste as much as possible. I came prepared with suggestions from several experienced Filipinos who helped me pick from the online menu as well as the reviews I found on Yelp. You definitely need to try the Lumpia Shanghai. We had one order of 20 and ended up getting another order – so delicious!  We tasted two of the pancits on the menu. Regardless of which pancit you choose, you cannot go wrong. We decided to stick with house specials and were not disappointed. The Longanisa (Filipino sausage) was a crowd hit. Also the Mixed Adobo was something new that most of us had not tried and we were so happy with the choice. We finished off our meal with Halo-Halo. I have to admit that I never thought I would enjoy “A refreshing medley of crushed ice mixed with fruit and bean preserves topped with ice cream and leche flan.”

Of course our choices could not have been as great if we didn’t have the help of our servers. The staff at Isla is fantastic. They let you know how long the dishes will take to prepare so you are ordering to keep the service going at a good clip. They also let you enjoy your meal in a relaxed way without rushing.

The price range per person is from $11-30. With the portion sizes being so large, you could probably stay within the $20 per person range and BYOB. Definitely worth the try.

CATHY MALLERS & DEAN’S TEAM CHICAGO