Grill 21

This is a cozy little place on 21st Street. If you've tried places like Krystal, or Elvi's, this one is much better. Best sinigang na hipon in town. The owners - Henry and Marissa Beck - are friendly and very accomodating.

One of the better places to sample Filipino food in the city. Nice preparation too.

I love this place. It's a little bit of a walk for me, but it's totally worth it. I have not gone to any other restaurant in the city any more that I have to this one. You know why? Great food at great prices. I love the Lumpia Shanghai. If you go, you have to try that. That's really a hit or miss food. And they definitely hit. It's second only to my mom's version.

Food - This place has mediocre homecooked food seved in a white square plate. Lumpia shanghai is like the one you would have at your tita's party including the bottled sweet and sour sauce. the filling of the lumpia was barely there and all you could taste was wrapping. The lumpiang sariwa was pretty muich bland. The kare-kare was also pretty bland for a dish that has supposed to have a peanut sauce flavor i barely tasted it. Lastly, for a place named grill 21 they didn't have that many grill items on the menu. I did try the grilled skewered chicken which was ok but I think it needed more sauce. But chicken is chicken maybe the pork would've been better. Service - The service is your standard Filipino restaurant service, nothing special. Value - The prices were fairly reasonable if you could find them on the menu. The menu was not aligned prices rolled down to the next line. Also, if you are not Filipino it could be intimidating to order since it doesn't tell you what the dish is and what's in it. Atmosphere - The place is quite small (~24 seats) so if you have a big party you might have trouble fitting in. They did have a couple of tables outside for the summer. The murals on the wall were interesting... made it feel more like an Italian restaurant than Filipino. Bottom Line - An OK Filipino restaurant... marginally better than the turo-turo Filipino fare that's out there in NYC.

It was only by chance that I walked down 21st street and managed to be drawn into this cozy little restaurant. Its hidden, but is definately worth the search! Coming from a filipino family, nothing really feels like home unless its lola or mom's homecooked meal, but Grill 21 definately has it down. The place is small, the waitresses are sweet, the prices are great (for manhattan) and you can never get enough of the food. The plus is that the staff and the owners are usually always ready to have a friendly conversation!

I'm originally from San Diego and have been looking for a more authentic filipino restaurant (in the city). I am confident to say Grill 21 is the place. The friends I brought, who never ate filipino food, loved it as well. Good price (for the city) especially for the 8 of us. And the service was great; they were really nice and ensured we were satisfied... and we were!

First of all, the service at Grill 21 CANNOT be beat!! Our server was very helpful explaining the dishes. The chicken adobo was great and the halo halo was perfect! They also have San Miguel beer, which is something that I couldn't find anywhere in New York! I will definitely be coming back to Grill 21 with tons of friends!!