{"id":21369,"date":"2019-09-06T19:55:24","date_gmt":"2019-09-07T00:55:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=21369"},"modified":"2019-09-06T15:56:42","modified_gmt":"2019-09-06T20:56:42","slug":"dinner-date-with-the-hubs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/?p=21369","title":{"rendered":"Dinner Date with the Hubs"},"content":{"rendered":"

We finally got around to checking out Lola’s Bistro, our friend Michael Abay’s restaurant. It’s been open for a couple of years but, since we don’t live on the Northeast side of town anymore, it wasn’t as convenient to go. After trying their food, I regret having waited so long to find time to check it out.<\/p>\n

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For those who don’t know, lola<\/em> is a Tagalog word that means grandmother so the restaurant’s name basically means “Grandmother’s Bistro.”<\/p>\n

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When we went last Friday, we got there early enough that they weren’t busy. It could have been the holiday weekend also. Perhaps people were doing end of summer cookouts so the restaurant was unusually slow. Either way, we appreciated not being around a mob of people.<\/p>\n

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The restaurant isn’t very big. The interior is nicely decorated and, though they have enough room to accommodate larger groups, it still feels somewhat intimate.<\/p>\n

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My delicious drink…<\/p>\n

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We didn’t put the bartender to the test (I ordered their rosie peach sangria) but the bar seemed to be well-stocked.<\/p>\n

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Here’s the specialty cocktail menu.<\/p>\n

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Here’s a glimpse of the food menu.<\/p>\n

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Lola’s does nice touches like complimentary breaded artichoke hearts (below) at the beginning of your dining experience and little shortbread cookies at the end.<\/p>\n

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Brian didn’t care for these fried artichoke hearts but I thought they were great.<\/p>\n

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For our starters, we got lumpia<\/em>, chicken skewers, and pork belly boa buns.<\/p>\n

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All three appetizers were great but the pork belly bao buns (pictured above) were definitely our favorite. The best way for me to describe this is if the Filipino siopao<\/em> (steamed dumpling which consists of a sweet white bun filled with meat) and Vietnamese banh mi<\/em> (baguette sandwich with pickled vegetables) had a baby. It was so good, I would go just for it.<\/p>\n

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You’d think three starter dishes would be sufficient, and it was, but we really wanted to try one of the amazing entrees. Everything sounded delicious but we had to go for the chicken adobo. It’s a Filipino dish that Brian and I both enjoy.<\/p>\n

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Lola’s beautiful rendition of the adobo tasted as good as it looks. I have never had chicken adobo presented as magnificently. But the dish was definitely not all looks with no substance.<\/p>\n

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All of the unmistakable, delicious adobo flavor was well represented. We are far from food experts, but Brian and I were both very impressed.<\/p>\n

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We shared a slice of their delicious cheesecake for dessert. As with everything else we tried that night, the presentation was impeccable. We enjoyed every last bite.<\/p>\n

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Of course, we took a couple of obligatory selfies.<\/p>\n

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Here’s a pic of the little shortbread cookies (which remind me of my favorite cookies from the Ambassador Hotel in Kansas City that I used to stay at) that I mentioned earlier. They’re the perfect meal finishers.<\/p>\n

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Before we left we took a pic with the owner, Michael Abay.<\/p>\n

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This was one of our most memorable dining experiences from start to finish — great service, amazing food, and lovely ambiance. We will definitely return!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We finally got around to checking out Lola’s Bistro, our friend Michael Abay’s restaurant. It’s been open for a couple of years but, since we don’t live on the Northeast side of town anymore, it wasn’t as convenient to go. After trying their food, I regret having waited so long to find time to check […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[84,1731,27],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21369"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21369"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21390,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21369\/revisions\/21390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brubakers.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}