Kabalen Restaurant — Restaurant in Toronto

This is going to be a long review—part rave, and mostly a heartfelt rant—about one of my recent visits to a Filipino restaurant I’ve come to truly love for its homecooked, authentic, lasang lutong-bahay Pinas kind of flavor. & I should mention—this will be my first ranting review ever, which says a lot about how much I care about this place and the experience I had.

Let me start by saying: I highly recommend Kabalen. Their menu captures the rich, comforting, & unmistakably Filipino taste that I believe even non-Filipinos should try and enjoy. It’s one of those places that proudly showcases our culinary identity, and I’ve had several amazing meals here.

However, during a recent Wednesday evening (April 9 6-7pm), after a long day of work in North York, I suggested to my husband that we have dinner at Kabalen. Luckily, the place wasn’t crowded. Which made me hope for a smoother, more relaxed service.

As we approached the food counter, I was pleasantly surprised to see a new hotplate combo on display. It caught me off guard—in a good way—because I already had something in mind to order, but the combo was so tempting that I had to pause & reconsider.

One of the three ladies at the front initially assisted me kindly. I asked, “Ate, pareho lang ba yung gusto ko na dish sa combo?” and she explained it clearly and politely. But since I was still a little undecided, I told my husband to go ahead and order first while I thought it over. A few minutes later, once I’d made up my mind, I turned to her & said, “Sige Ate—yung ito na lang…”—but to my surprise, she looked past me & instead asked my husband, “Anu pa, Kuya?” despite me clearly trying to speak to her.

At first, I brushed it off, thinking maybe she was just trying to manage the flow of customers—or maybe my husband was still mid-order, & she didn’t want to get confused. But when he was done & I gently tried to chime in again, she responded, without even looking at me, with a curt “Sa counter na lang…”—& it came with a noticeably cold, “buwisit” kind of energy. It felt dismissive & unnecessary, especially given that there were only us and one other couple there.

Now, I’m not sure if they follow a “one server per person” policy, but in our past visits, we were usually assisted by just one server for me & my husband. & even during this visit, I noticed only one server was taking care of the other couple’s order as well. So it didn’t appear to be a matter of being short-staffed or overwhelmed. It honestly felt like she was intentionally being & rude.

This isn’t about singling anyone out, nor make this feel like a personal attack. Maybe she was having a rough day, maybe she wasn’t feeling well. We all have moments like that. But then again, I also think— this is CA, & while food service jobs may not always offer the best pay, she’s most likely getting a good one. At the very least, that should be enough reason to treat customers with basic courtesy.

What made the experience even more disappointing is that many of my friends & relatives visiting from across CA are all praises how kind and accommodating resto servers here—especially in TO. & that’s why this moment stung a little more—it happened at a Filipino restaurant, & with a fellow Filipino. It’s not what I’ve come to expect or hope for when dining in a place that feels like home.

That said, I want to sincerely commend the rest of the team. Special thanks to the friendly cashier who took my orders with a smile, & to the wonderful servers upstairs—Ms. Cynthia & the Kuya who was working alongside her. Their service reflected the kind of hospitality that Kabalen is known for.

Please know I’m sharing this not to shame anyone—but to raise awareness. I trust that this was a one-off moment, & hopefully, I’m the last customer to walk away with this kind of experience.

Despite the bump in service, Kabalen remains one of the best Filipino restaurants in TO, & I’ll continue to support them for the food and the culture they proudly represent.

Cheers to great food, better service, and always striving for ...

Went here today, and saw that $20 buy1get1 meal, and decided to pick the liempo and squid. The taste was pretty much bland. The squid was not completely cooked inside that I can taste and feel the slimy feeling on my mouth when I tried to eat it. The liempo was just really bland, nothing special. The rice, nothing special, it’s just white rice on yellow / turmeric color. Serving size, not so good at all.

And it took them more than 30 mins to give those 2, where 2 other customers that ordered B1G1 were served first before me even though I bought and payed mine first. I had to ask twice where my order was.. and the cashier even asked me to see my receipt when I was just standing next to her (right side of her) and she also knew my name and order. Very disorganized from my POV.. of course I didn’t give any attitude since they were serving me my food, I don’t want them to try and mess up with our food just like what we normally see on tv or movies when customers gives bad behaviour towards the ones serving them food.

back in 2019 when we catered for 3 dishes of meat (cannot remember) and a vegetable, and pancit bihon, they also f*cked up our order and gave our pancit order to the other customer who ordered on the spot. We were so pissed that we called earlier to say we’ll be 15mins late to pick it up due to traffic and it was winter back then. They acknowledged, but that’s exactly what they did. And they gave us an attitude too and let us wait for 35mins to get a new cooked bihon with less toppings. We opted not to make the review back then, but fast forward to now when I decided to try as maybe something’s changed, nope.. Same disorganized setup.

I also ordered 2 dishes with rice, and I would recommend this rather than that $20 B1G1 promo. Not worth the money especially if the promo is no longer being offered. The 2 dishes with rice is $13+ (plus tax). But then again, the serving size was not like before even on the rice.. I guess they’re cutting cost.

Will I go back again? Maybe .. maybe not.. I’ll opt to try the nearby place. That Salo-Salo gives good portion and I liked the...

My friend and I were in the area so I suggested to have lunch at kabalen. When we came in, there were no tables but I saw outside that they have patio. I asked if we can dine in. One of the associate (guy), asked one of the front associates and said we can eat upstairs.

Because it’s Friday and it’s lent, we wanted to eat something without meat. They don’t have much selections that can be combo. Their fish are big ones. My friend ordered combo of pinakbit and rice. I had the palabok and king fish. Of course mine wasn’t a combo as we paid $27 dollars for two lunch. One combo is $8.99 so mine was the rest.

I asked the lady that was serving me if I can have that as combo, she said I can and she presented it on a plate, while she’s serving me, another associate is asking her if the palabok she’s giving me is small and she replied yes, I know the lady serving me out it first in a small container before transferring on a plate. Then she also questioned about the king fish. I don’t think it’s good for her to question her co-worker while serving me doubting whatever she’s serving me. I did not interfere and just let it go but it didn’t look good for the lady serving me.

When we went upstairs and eat, we were very disappointed with our food. The pinakbit was cold, even the fish and the palabok was just warm. This is not even late. It was only 12:20 noon it’s the pick of lunch. The food should be hot. The palabok was not good also. After a couple of spoon, I stopped eating. Being a “True” Kapampangan I know my food. My friend who is not kapampangan said, I thought your food is good? I didn’t mind the taste but big issue here the food are cold. Will I go back there again??? My answer is no. I see this restaurant when I passed by and I kept on telling myself, I will try it and because it’s “Kabalen”.

Will I recommend it. What I can say is see it...