BILAO
Permanently Closed
Authentic Filipino comfort food, home-style cooking, with favorites like kare-kare.
Authentic Filipino comfort food, home-style cooking, with favorites like kare-kare.
"Bilao is a Filipino restaurant on the UES, and if that weren’t useful enough in the land of bland pastas and overpriced steaks, they also open at 8am. Keep it in mind for a quick breakfast or lunch date in the area—we can guarantee the food is great, even if the restaurant itself is indiscernible from any run-of-the-mill takeout spot. Navigate to the silog section of their menu, which pairs a bunch of different grilled meat options like tocino and grilled beef with a fried egg and garlic rice. " - neha talreja, nikko duren
"Bilao, referring to the basket for drying rice in Tagalog, was one of those restaurants that was born in the midst of the pandemic. The menu consists of greatest hits of the cuisine with breakfast, lunch, and dinner offered. Favorites included a fish congee called goto, kare-kare (an oxtail stew thickened with peanut butter and bobbing with green beans), and a sizzling sisig incorporating hog ear, jowls, and liver." - Robert Sietsema, Eater Staff
"Filipino restaurant Bilao was started in 2020 by frontline nurses who wanted a restaurant with all-day breakfast near the Upper East Side hospital where they worked. Some two years later, the restaurant continues to serve comforting dishes like porridge with tripe or chicken adobo to those in the area. Available for takeout and delivery." - Eater Staff
"About one-third of all foreign-born nurses in the U.S. are Filipino, with many residing in New York. And this new Filipino restaurant — strategically located near the Upper East Side’s hospital row — was founded by three of them. If you want to break out of your morning-meal rut, do as the early-shift staffers from Weill Cornell and Memorial Sloan Kettering do and tuck into a silog: the traditional garlic-fried-rice-and-egg dish, variously topped and garnished. (Try it with the sweet Pinoy sausage longaniza.) Or end your own evening shift with a bowl of kare kare (oxtail-in-peanut-butter stew) or the sizzling platter of pig parts called sisig. —Robert C. Sietsema" - Eater Staff, NYMag Staff
"Bilao is one of the only Filipino spots on the UES and they open at 8am, so keep it in mind for a breakfast or lunch date in the area. Opened in August 2020 (cue the applause), this casual, sit-down spot also gets busy during weekend brunch. And if you respond well to things like tender pork and joy, you should check out the “silog” section of their menu. It has a bunch of different grilled meat options - like tocino and grilled beef - paired with a fried egg and garlic rice." - Nikko Duren