Three R’s Filipino Restaurant & Grocery

Once again went to this little hidden Gem
I forget this place is here I found it a couple years ago by accident and recently the better half is working on Montrose so I keep driving by here
Had to stop in yesterday and get some Chicken Adobo, I also got the Fresh Lumpia which is kinda a Filipino version of a spring roll and it comes with a Garlic dipping sauce oh it was good, and the Abodo here is perfection, the staff here are great and will help you to understand what they have and make some choices if you don’t the food too well, the Perk with Green Peppers and Pineapple (sweet and Sour) was very good to I have not had a single thing here that I didn’t like so far and I have eaten most things they offer

To Ronald M.(the son of the owner) It doesn’t let me respond back to my review, so unfortunately I have to start a new one. Yes, this is Bernadette, I am writing from my daughter’s email. First off THANK YOU, if I would of spoken to you and you replied back to me on the phone the way you replied back on here. Believe me, I would’ve NEVER even took the time out of my day to write anything on here. Yes we were talking a different dialect, which I think, you do not understand, because if you did, you would know that I Am not lying about ANYTHING I said. I have known your mother for a very long time, I have been going to Three R for years. I know that Is her business and that is exactly why I asked to speak with her personally when I found a hair in my food. But the outcome obviously wasn’t what I (or any random customer) would’ve expected. She did question me to make sure it was a hair in my food, did NOT apologize nor offered anything if I returned. She Hung up on me. That is the TRUTH. Very rude and unprofessional. I would NOT be wasting my time on this page, if it were a lie. BUT I do want to thank you for the offer. I appreciate the apology. Like I said, I was just trying to inform, I didn’t want ANYTHING back from it.

As a Grocery store for Asian/​Filipino goods in a pinch, this place is OK. It’s generally overpriced but that’s what you get for not wanting to haul your ass to Argyle. As a turn-​turo (literally point-​point in Tagalog) their ready to eat foods are very disappointing. The pork adobo is so greasy and the pinapaiitan and the diniguan was icky. Both had no real meat, just the organ meats which just seems cheap. Also it’s super vinegary. I don’t know who’s cooking but seriously, chill with the suka already. Once, I got some rice there and there was a hair in it. So some hairnets would be good too. The fried fish is Ok, but make sure to check that it’s fresh because sometimes it’s just dry and sitting there for awhile. The empanada is alright but it has raisins which I’m not crazy about so depends if you’re pro or con sweet/​savory. They do have some good homemade desserts here too but pricy like the food.
It is mostly Mexicans here so that’s kind of weird for a Filipino store. There is one Filipino lady, older, I think she’s the owner. Not very friendly and has that sour milk face you never want to see before you’re going to eat something. Lately, I’ve just skipped this place and kept driving down Montrose to Rubys (call first! to make sure they are open). The people are nicer there and the food is much better and more affordable. If I need groceries, I haul it to Uptown by the Argyle grocery marts or Unimart if I don’t want to drive that far.

I’ve been buying lunch here for the past 2 – 3 years and I always get the FRESH LUMPIA together with the combo. I just noticed that through the years the ingredients has become less and less. All it has inside is carrots and this white vegetable plus one lettuce. It’s a really SAD version of fresh lumpia that I grew up eating. No peanuts, no chickpeas, no shrimp or any protein. And last week I decided to give it a try again and I noticed the brown SAUCE no longer has GARLIC that helps give flavor to it. So I’m just plain disappointed. It might be little things to them but if I don’t see any improvement I will never come back will never recommend this place

A tad untidy and they re-​sell Aldi products at a higher price (cooking oil, et al and there’s an Aldi down the street where you can buy it for $ 2 less). Simply amazing. They did put new shelving in so that helps a little. Food is really fatty at times and I don’t mean the 5g kind. There can be lobs of fat on the meat that you need to manually dismantle. Typically, and unfortunately, this is how a lot of Filipinos eat (I am one). There are times too though when it’s pretty good so it’s a gamble. I don’t eat there in the summer because of all the flies that enter the place and end up regurgitating on everything. If you want Filipino food in a clean environment sans flies, go to La Isla Pilipina nearby on Lawrence.

Hit or miss, I agree with Lesley A. But the 5 stars are solely for when I discovered the empanadas on a «hit» day. I never really cared much for empanadas before. If you go on a «miss» day sorry (there are such days) but hopefully there will be more «hit» days for me. Don’t go here for the incredible, plump, tasty, sweet empanadas so I never run out when I get the craving for them.

HIT OR MISS. The question is, are you feeling lucky? With all that money you’re spending here?
My family and I have frequented Three R’s mostly during my childhood, then stopped when it was taken over by non-​Filipinos, and now it’s Filipino run again.
Just when we thought it was A-​OK, the restaurant serves me a NASTY batch of pork barbeque in sauce. Sauced Filipino barbeque is one of the best foods on the planet, but it’s supposed to be sweet and a little tangy. This stuff was spicy, the meat was kind of hard as if it was old, and we actually had to throw it away.
Compared to other Filipino establishments, the food here is also more expensive.
Regardless, their turon (plaintain eggroll) is not half bad. I also like their laing (Filipino style cream spinach with fish or pork). They have a lot of other offerings too in addition to their convenience store.

OK, life threw me a curve ball today and once again I found myself in this area and the restaurant I intended on eating at was closed. So rather than ride 2 busses home on an empty stomach I decided to give this restaurant another try to see if my oninion of this restaurant would change or not.
If Unilocal would allow me I’d rate this restaurant 3 ½ stars, but unfortunately that’s not possible so I feel that at least for me it’s closer to a 3 than a 4 star experience so that’s how I come up with the 3 star rating. Although I’m rating it a 3 star kind of place I will probably stop in again and try some other items on their menu. Go ahead and give it a try, hopefully you’re taste buds will disagree with mine and you will be blown away.
My meal today started out with poncit. This time I found the poncit to be more flavorful and good. To be truthful I can’t say it was the best poncit I’ve ever eaten, but I did find it to be good and I can see where others might disagree with me and feel it is better than my assessment of it.
For dessert I had 4 large longanisa (sp?) sausages that I dipped in their vinegar dip. I know eating that as a dessert probably qualifies me as certifiably weird, but hey I love the stuff and to me it’s a great dessert. It was very good!
After all that I was pretty stuffed, but I tried a bite of the adobo pork I’m saving for supper tonight so I’d know how it was before writing this review. I found it to be very good and I’m looking forward to chowing down on it for supper tonight. It was a little greasey and my preference would have been that it have a stronger adobo flavor, but of course others may find it to be great for their preferences. Overall though like I said it was very good and I wouldn’t mind ordering it again.
Once again I found the service to be quite friendly. Friendly service is always appreciated and they seem to be consistently friendly so kudos to them!
Overall this was a real good experience and I will return at some point in the future.

These guys now park a «bahn mi» food truck downtown during the week, so I thought I would give them a try. Specifically I tried their vegetarian sandwich, which only had cucumber, carrot and radish (and mayo). Compared to the superior bahn mi sandwiches at Nhu Lan (which come in several vegetarian varieties that include some form of protein), the Three R’s sandwich was a big disappointment. From now on I’ll just brind Nhu Lan sandwiches to work.

Tried the longanisa pizza which was like a Lou Malnati’s deep dish butter crust with longanisa instead of sausage. It was also very filling. The Turon and empanadas weren’t too bad either. Once again, The pizza alone will have me coming back for more. It’s also byob so you could have a beer or two while watching the Bears. It’s a cute restaurant and adjacent store.
They should create a tocino pizza since they are doing the fushion thing.
Fyi, the pizza’s are only available at night which is not too convenient for me.

I’ve been coming here before but eversince i moved, it was simply out of the way. finally had to come by for a quick breakfast, i had the beef tapa tocino and longganisa, it was the combo so it came with garlic fried rice. then they asked me if i wanted the egg, ofcourse i like to have the fried egg how on earth would it be tapsilog! Went home sick vomited and had trips to the bathroom it was the only meal i ate the whole day.

Echo the rude lady behind the counter… I thought I was gonna be the first to comment about that… A while ago there was an Ecuadorian dude trying to tell me what ingredients belong in sinigang? –giving me a serious ‘tude. Come on now! I am a Chicago native and I grew up around the corner from this place. I recently got back from So Cal and must say that the majority of Filipino restaurants out in Cali are heavenly, clean, delicious and VERY polite. We need more options out here in the city.
This place is REAL Filipino home cooking. It’s just not good though.
I remember when it was easy to get good Filipino food.
If you are new to our cuisine, perhaps you should eat at someones Lola’s house to get your first impression.
It didnt used to suck over there until the employees got rude and their grocery in-​stock position was so hit or miss.
Go look at their meat and fish counter… thats where they get the ingredients for the cafeteria. Yikes.

liss and i stopped in to buy some ingredients to make lumpia for a dinner party. 3 r’s is a small store, but we were able to find everything that we were looking for, including at least three different kinds of lumpia wrappers (which is desirable). …but there was no garlic! how am i supposed to make delicious lumpia w/​o garlic? (fyi, they carry pre-​prepared lumpia that’s ready to fry in case you don’t have enough time to make them from scratch.)
also, i’ve had much better ensaymada. the ensaymada that they carry is too doughy, and as a result, the sugar to bread ratio is uneven. — - the bread could be a lot more light and fluffy.

I think some of you Unilocalers have been a tad overly critical of this joint… ME TOO! LOL
Two sections of this place. Store with all the Philippine Delicacies you can ever imagine. Along with your standard needs: Chicarons (pork skin with suka packets), pandesal (bread), ensymada (sweet bread), tocino (sweet pork), longanisa, bangus, Yan Yan, Need I go on? Its a lil dirty but considering the amounts of people who go in there on a daily basis, I don’t blame them. Maybe they should hire another dude where his sole job is to clean the store and greet people. ‘Cuz apparently the chick in the restaurant part doesn’t like to be friendly (read below).
The restaurant part is where I have the issue. First of all what the bloody hell is wrong with the sour faced hispanic chick serving up our food? Why does she give me attitude and never… NEVER…smiles. She gets a little snippy with the custies too. I saw her snapping on the sweetest little lady about pricing. Last I remember, she was in a customer service environment. Good thing the food was good. Its cool, they have all these ready made dishes. You pick ‘em. Pay. Sit down and eat.

First of all, what are the 3 R’s of this place?
Just your typical hole in the wall Filipino store. I guess I’m just used to the bigger Filipino supermarkets that you find out here in California. But I felt that the grocery part of this place was pretty dirty, unorganized, and unappealing. The lady who was working there had curlers in her hair which my cousin and I found unappetizing (maybe she was going to a party).
The restaurant part was more clean and the food looked somewhat appetizing. But the mood in the place was pretty somber. There was about 15 people in the place (about 81% of the folks were wearing nurses scrubs, which made it more stereotypical Filipino) and it was dead quiet. Everyone at the place just ate and didn’t say a word to each other. Plus everyone was staring at us (maybe it was our California aura. I don’t know). But we just felt a cold reception here so we decided to go down the street to another Filipino joint called Rubys (and that was complete opposite and very lively and awesome food).
They should change the name to 3 C’s for Cold, Comatose, and Curlers in the hair of lady who works there.”

3 R Filipino Grocery and Restaurant is a great place for authentic Filipino food. There are 2 sections of the store. One side is a grocery and the other is a restaurant. Some of the dishes they have are kare-​kare, beef steak, lumpia, and my all time favorite chicken adobe! Everything is sooo good here! The food is priced just right (only $ 6.00 for 2 sides and rice). In addition, they are very generous with their portion.
Anyone alike Filipino or non-​Filipino that had a chance to eat here know that they will never be disappointed. I found that Saturday has the most variety and food is freshly made.
In the grocery area I shop for fresh mango nectar, snacks such as wasabi peas (Get these in your Jewel Osco and you will be priced doubled!), shrimp chips, dried mangos, and you will love the Pan de Sal (filipino slightly sweet bread) made fresh daily.
Thank god for a little culture in Chicago. I hope this place will never go out of business. I would be really disappointed!

3 R is a Filipino grocery store with an attached restaurant. I used to go here often for Filipino staples like dried noodles for pancit, fish sauce, frozen lumpia, ube & macapuno ice cream, baked goods, milk candies, and much more.
The restaurant is turo-​turo style (a.k.a. the Filipino cafeteria). There are no menus, so you just point to the food on the buffet table and the woman behind the counter will package it for you. I usually order the lumpia, palabok, fried milkfish, mungo, and turon.
The last time I went, the owners had changed (they weren’t Filipino), and the vibe seemed different in there. I would still go back, though, if I were in the neighborhood.