Pig and Khao, New York NY

Pig and Khao is serving up Filipino-Thai-accented Southeast Asian fare in NYC. A unique fusion that I was eager to try so my party of 4 made a reservation for dinner. We were seated towards the front of the restaurant with a view into the kitchen.

What we got:
- Sweet and Sour Cilantro Soda
- Sizzling Sisig
- Chili Pan Mee
- Khao Soi
- Hainanese Duck
- Coconut Rice
- Jasmine Rice

My Favs:
- That coconut rice was AMAZING and a perfect pair to your sizzling sisig
- The Hainanese Duck with duck fat rice

Final Thoughts:
If you're ordering the Chili Pan Mee, note that it is a peanut oil noodle so nuts can't be removed and though I didn't try it due to an allergy the rest of my party enjoyed it. The sisig was crispy and had a kick of spice that was paired well with the coconut rice. We've had better Khao Soi elsewhere as the portion size was on the smaller end with little soup and noodles. The duck rice was crispy and decadent.

This people are doing something right.everything was amazing nice vibe and services as well

Last week, my husband and I went to Pig and Khao. This was last minutes reservation. I thought he was able to make 6pm dinner, but turned out he didn't. So I changed to 645pm reservation. I showed up 30 minutes earlier because I thought I can sit at the bar and having a cocktail while waiting for 6: 45 and reservation and my husband.

When I arrived and realized that they don't have a typical bar, but I asked them anyway. The host offered to sit me at the table so I have a cocktail while waiting. Turned out I had two:)

When my husband arrived, he wanted to sit at chef counter. So we asked, and they were able to accommodate us.

We decided to go with restaurant week menu. That was so much delicious foods. We had to take some home because we couldn't finish them all at one seating. Here are the dishes that we had:
-Pork Belly Adobo
-Sizzling Sisig
-Green Papaya Salad
-Sinigang Shrimp
-Isaan Steak
-BBQ Baby Back Ribs
-Coco Rice
-Donuts with pandan custard
-The second desert, I forgot the name

We will definitely be back here soon.

I love this restaurant. I've only been twice, but both occasions were exceptional!

This time, we got the papaya salad, brussels sprouts, pork belly adobo, chili pan mee, and isaan steak. The papaya salad, brussels sprouts, chili pan mee, and isaan steak were 10/10s.

The pork belly adobo was the only item that we didn't love. Compared to the other dishes, it felt underseasoned, but that isn't to say that it wasn't also tasty!

Came here with friends to try a variety of their dishes. Sizzling sisig was a favorite. The restaurant is pretty small but the service was great overall!

Amazing cocktails. The people working there were kind and attentive. The food was amazing but it needed some additional freshness component. Dishes were plentiful and definitely meant to be shared. We had the halo halo for dessert and my boyfriend was just taken aback from the originality of it. One thing we would change are the sweet plantains, maybe they needed to be roasted for longer, but overall everything was amazing and we loved it.

Great restaurant in LES. I came for restaurant week with some friends and we tried a lot of the menu. Drinks were great (I had the smoky Paloma) and they had a few mocktails as well. We agreed that the pork belly adobo starter was our favorite and the chicken curry noodles were a close second. We did think the ribs were tender, but the sauce was overpowering. Ricotta donuts for dessert were super light and the lemon cream sauce was delicious

Food was absolutely amazing! Super quick service! Can be very loud in the restaurant- but atmosphere is great!

Loud, cramped but you're there for the food. Sizzling sisig isn't like the one I get back home in the Philippines but it's a Modern take on it. Flavorful and I finished it all. The sinigang isn't the sour soup you're thinking of. (It tasted ok). Bottomline, go here for creative renditions of Asian food.

All in all, I was quite let-down by Pig & Khao, I walked in expecting it to be the epitome of Filipino and Southeast Asian food, and instead I was met by sub-par dishes and inauthentic recreations of beloved Pinoy classics. My friend and I ordered from their NYC Restaurant Week Menu which cost $60 per head, so quite the disappointment.

First Course: Pork Belly Adobo and Brussel Sprouts - not much to say, the Adobo was tasty.

Second Course: Sizzling Sisig and Khao Soi - (note: I personally did not try the Khao Soi noodle soup) however, the Sizzling Sisig was quite disappointing, it couldn't hold a candle to even the most basic of Filipino kainderias Pork sisig. Between the lack of actual sizzling and the utter blandness of the dish, both my friend (a fellow Pinoy) and I were quite let down.

Third Course: BBQ Baby Back Ribs and Isaan Steak - the Ribs were cooked thoroughly and the sauce was a bit overpowering, I found that the meat was lacking in flavour. As for the Isaan Steak, it was pretty good!

Dessert: Turon and Ricotta Donuts - the Turon deserves an A+, it was delicious and contained the traditional blend of banana and langka (jackfruit), however I was a bit disappointed to see it lacked the signature melted sugar glaze. The Ricotta Donuts were alright.

Drinks: Iced Vietnamese Coffee - fairly standard, quite sweet, delicious.

As a Filipino and as a Foodie, I had high expectations for Pig & Khao as a well-rated restaurant that touts an interesting fusion of Filipino and Southeast Asian dishes. Certainly the various features of it on Instagram and food rating websites lent to my heightened expectations for the restaurant.

The atmosphere was quite boisterous with the high volume of customers, and the music was more suited for a bar/club than it was for a sit-down restaurant. Kudos, however, to the incredibly attentive staff!

This restaurant was on a list of "must try places" during restaurant week 2023 in NYC. Perusing their available menu online, I was intrigued that there was Filipino food dishes that seemed authentic despite the whole restaurant being a fusion of Southeast Asian countries. Their menu has influences from from Filipino, Viet, Thai, and Burmese cuisine. As a Filipina I was excited to try them out and restaurant week was the perfect excuse to go with their offering of a 3 course dinner with dessert, $60 per person.

Upon entering you're promptly greeted and seated. However, one major thing to note is the severely limited space in this restaurant. We were seated towards the back tables right across from the open kitchen bar. The tables between customers are so close together that you need to physically move the table in order for the person sitting on the booth side, to enter or exit their seat. Talk about claustrophobic and annoying. Make sure you suck in your stomach and rear end when getting out of the booth or you might knock someone's water glass over.

Another thing to note is that the interior is super dark, and the decor/style is very industrial and urban, further adding to the gloominess of the space. The darkness is probably to distract you from noticing your place setting and table are dirty.
Sticky wooden tables, wiped down with dirty rags thus giving it that sticky residue. Plates are plastic, all of the edges pretty beaten up. My plate upon sitting down wasn't fully clean and had curry sauce dried on, so I swapped it with the table next to me with a seemingly cleaner looking plate. Fork had dried left over rice stuck between the prongs. Just didn't use it throughout my meal and was glad I had chopsticks at least.

With regards to the food, which I had hoped would redeem the fact that I was clearly not too fond of this place after seeing the less than clean table and place setting, was abysmal. Pork belly adobo had a very citrusy background in the sauce, pork belly cuts had varied levels of fat and weren't very crispy. Would've tasted better if they just cut off all the fat to begin with. Second course I tried their sizzling sisig, and it's basically just more pork belly but this time cooked on a hot plate so it comes to your table sizzling with a raw egg. The raw egg and hot plate were the only traditional part of this dish. Sisig is made of pig ears and pork jowl traditionally but I understand that most of NYC clientele isn't exactly keen to eat pig extremities aside from the more popular pork belly cut. This dish was still lacking in flavor, and was just sizzling for me. Even the raw egg could've used a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Their baby back ribs were covered in a strong sauce and came with a side of some sort of cabbage slaw. Again a big miss in flavor and visually boring with 3 ribs and a pile of cabbage on another plastic plate. Isaan steak was cooked medium, again where's the seasoning? Salt?

For dessert, 2 ricotta donuts covered in sugar and a lemon custard to dip it in. The only dish that was delicious in any sense, however, my donut had some sort of unidentifiable food particle in it? Looked like some grassy butt end of a fruit that got stuck in the batter and was cooked into the donut. I took a picture of it, but luckily my second donut didn't have any hidden bits in it.

Overall, this place was super disappointing. Over $120 for a mediocre meal served on cheap plates. My plates at home from Costco are 10x better quality. If you're gonna be cheap about your plate ware, just serve paper plates. Which will be more sanitary than these chipped plastic ones that you aren't even cleaning properly. I don't recommend this place whatsoever. You can eat from real plates somewhere else, for MUCH cheaper with better seasoned food. Hard pass even for restaurant week. Unless you like grimy places, by all means. But as a microbiologist, I wouldn't touch that table again even if you paid me.