Kumbira Cafe & Grill — Restaurant in Melbourne

This welcome new addition to the Melburnian-Pinoy foodie scene is an amazing amalgamation of the "restobars" of my hometown 🇵🇭 and the extremely good coffee of the place I call home now. 🇦🇺

We were greeted with a very warm smile as we walked into the café, and informed the wonderful staff that we needed a table for two on a warm spring afternoon. We felt hopeful as there were patrons queued up for their coffee (we knew that we were in for a treat)! ☕️ We were then seated at the restaurant upstairs, a beautiful, light and airy area with good music and cool airconditioning.☀️

The drinks came in nice and quick, with the ube latte a perfect mix of authentic Filipino ube and (because we chost to) awesome coffee beans. Had one sip of the ube milkshake and was instantly transported back to my childhood! 🥰 It wasn't too sweet, very creamy, and refreshing! The pork liempo was very soft and served on a bed of kangkong (water spinach). The sauce was rich enough and the meat did not need the usual "suka't toyo." The sisig and the turon 🍌(banana spring roll) were also cooked with traditional recipes. My wife loved the bone marrow fried rice, but I was too full! 🍚Fortunately, the portions here are massive - we had more than enough for takeaway. Will have the rice as "baon" for tomorrow's lunch at work! A huge thank you to the team for making our Tuesday night dinner date a...

No idea where to begin. Outstanding and phenomenal.

I've had a couple of things off the menu (it's my goal to try everything on the menu ever since I had the Chicken Inasal).

A few of my personal favourites:

Seared Tuna Kinilaw (perfect palette cleanser as one of the servers told me) Chicharon Chicken Chicken Inasal Spear (love having a giant spear to myself) Beef Brisket Sandwich (Never had such a juicy sandwich) Garlic Bone Marrow Fried Rice Braised Sticky Pork Belly Grilled Trevally (was a special but HAD TO mention because I hope the chef sees this and brings it back!)

There's so much more that I can add! So rich and flavourful!

Everything from the food to the drinks to the service feels like it comes from a place of genuine love and care. The staff are wonderfully kind too, going out of their to make sure customers are satisfied and on top of any problems. I've had the owner approach my table (and I've seen her approach other tables too) just to ask how everything is and have conversation. This is where it feels less like a job and more like a family environment where you're being welcomed and served in someones house. If I'm being honest, I've never been to a joint where customers are so prioritised. Goes to show that good management reflects on the staff too.

Keep it up Kumbira Cafe & Grill! May you...

Me and my Filipino partner have been trying different places to eat at. Im knew to eating Filipino food and their culture. First of all the Filipino people are so kind and very different to any other culture I know. Now about this place. We were going to go back to another restaurant in Werribee but I wanted a new experience so we looked on Google and found this place. U walk in and first see the kitchen where the food is prepared. The lovely staff escorted us up stairs and we sat near the piano on a stage. The atmosphere was great and music playing in the background ( not the piano ) and the lighting and decor was great. Then we ordered our food and it was amazing. My partner who is a chef at The Wharf Shed in Geelong was loving the food and even asking about it. ( btw he cooks for me and I love everything he makes for me. ). After we ate all our food we paid our bill and then one of the staff members walked us out and we even chatted to the chef about the food and the ingredients. So I can’t recommend this place enough and will be definitely going back. It might be our new go to place for special events like my partner’s birthday in October.

So please go and enjoy the new restaurant and meet the wonderful staff there.

( Btw I forgot to take pic before we started eating cause the food...