Kusina Dabaw — Restaurant in Davao City

Dabest gyud ilang siopao! And there’s no other way to say it.

Kusina Dabaw is one of Davao’s oldest restaurants and treasured gems. They serve Chinese-Filipino dishes. They are famous for their siopao and lomi. In fact, every time I dine at Kusina Dabaw, majority of the tables always have those two specialties together. wink

One time, we decided to order chicken mami and arroz caldo para maiba naman. The chicken mami was.. the broth lacked flavor. Even the condiments (patis and pepper) failed to save it. BUT the arroz caldo was good. The ginger was there. The thickness or “lapot” was perfect.

The special siopao w/ salted egg is a MUST in every visit. About 5 inches big—big enough to fill an empty stomach. The dough is fluffy. The meat is flavorful. AND THE BEST PART: it’s always served hot and fresh. We’re definitely getting what we deserve. 🤤 I highly recommend!

And of course, the lomi. It’s guaranteed sulit and busog lusog. Great for any time of the day, best during rainy weather.

I also commend the place itself. It’s neat and clean. Although it may get cramped during peak hours but I think that’s okay. It’ll give you that 90s Filipino/Davao vibe—a good nostalgia.

As mentioned, the place really gets busy during peak hours, but the staffs do their best to accommodate all their customers’ needs and requests. They are well-trained employees, so don’t worry about receiving bad customer service. Moreover, a little kindness and consideration wouldn’t hurt on our part. Hmm?

The only issue with Kusina Dabaw is that they don’t have proper parking spaces for its customers, but you can always find one along the street and it’ll only be a walking distance. Just a friendly reminder: be a good, responsible driver. Dili magpataka’g park. :)

Last but not the least, they...

if you don't have nostalgic memories about this place, don't expect a good dining experience here.

over-priced, really low value for money, unsanitary buss out practices.

for 180 pesos I got a beef mami bowl that is the size of my hand literally. beef is tough and chewy. soup is nothing more than salt and beef seasoning. MAS Masarap pa yung noodles sa kalsada.

seafood guisado is just lomi without the soup. very chewy and thick lomi noodles were used. tipid na tipid sa rekado. 2 pieces of shrimps, 3 pieces of squid tails. less than a handful of vegetable bits. parang Yung mga pinagtabasan ng pusit tsaka gulay lang ang hinalo.

salted egg pao was the only saving grace. Just the size of my fist so not that filling. the meat ball is flavor is very close to authentic and the salted egg yoke is legit. Basically it's just bola bola sioapoa. the bun has a very weird light blue tinge. i would assume it's from food coloring to keep it from yellowing since they have dozens of trays already precooked in the store front racks.

buss out cart is basically a big plastic drum. no cover, no sprays etc. makes you think na parang kanin baboy lang din kinakain mo dun.

bottom line, don't eat here if you don't have happy memories of the first place. you won't make new happy memories here. never...

I ordered through maxim delivery, so I can't say anything about the service and atmosphere. I ordered the lomi for one, pork asado siopao and salted egg siopao. The siopao itself was great, it was very big ( forgot to take pictures ), and the dough itself was very soft and fluffy. The filling, I would have personally preferred if there were a bit more though. Also, based on personal preferences, I didn't like the salted egg siopao very much but the pork asado was really good. The lomi was just a pure simple lomi without any frills to it, however it tasted...