KUBO — Restaurant in Belfast

The restaurant is located inside a mall, easy to find. They have nice, tidy sitting area with soft music playing in the background making the place a good ambience for people who want to have a chill dining experience. What you see in google search for their menu is exactly what you can order when you get there. We ordered Chicken Afritada, Filipino pork bbq and Kubo Jolli Chicken. Chicken Afritada is okay. I can taste the tomato sauce but not really the chicken afritada I was expecting. I never knew that fine beans can be part of it, No carrots and no bell pepper so I guess it’s a different version, a bit oily. The tastes was okay. The Filipino pork bbq was good, it was soft and a bit charred which makes it look like real Filipino bbq. I loved the sauce perfect with the soft rice that comes with it. The Kubo Jolli Chicken was 9/10. The name of the dish is probably just a name and incomparable to Jollibee chicken because it’s totally different fried chicken. If you are expecting Jollibee like fried chicken, this is not what you’re looking for. The chicken was crispy and tasty. The sweet soy sauce makes it more delicious and perfect pair with the soft sticky rice. No dessert menu when we were there. I didn’t find the lady in the counter/ receptionist warm and friendly which is opposite of what we have in our Filipino culture. She had this blunt affect which makes us feel unwelcome, not even a smile when we get in. Would be understandable if the place was busy but it was just us in the restaurant at that time. When I asked her if they serve coffee, she engaged and gave me recommendations which I find the gesture as good customer relation especially for customers who are not locals. One thing I notice as well, she flipped the “OPEN/CLOSE” sign of the restaurant to close while we were still inside the restaurant. I find it a bit odd because we were still sitting in. Then she also pushed the bucket with mop from the inside door (kitchen place) to the actual dining area which made an impression that she wanted to close the restaurant sooner and wanted us to leave. Although words were not spoken but her actions were loud enough that we decided to just leave the restaurant. Overall experience in Kubo Belfast was just okay. Going back? Maybe, but won’t travel again just to intentionally dine in there. We normally get excited to dine in a Filipino restaurant when we travel but it wasn’t the case. Please also update the photos in google so it will be more realistic to Filipinos and other customers looking for...

Later edit bellow.

1st picture what we got 2nd picture menu 3rd picture what should have been as per their cover picture.

How it went: The staff is polite and approachable. The food: Spring roll (lumpia) was with a very salted pulled pork but diferent from the famous filipino adobo. In the menu appears banana ketchup, but we didn't get it. We got soy sauce +vinegar, Vinegar + half chilli slice (not spicy) and mayo but was not pinakurat coconut mayo. The bay garlic rice was just plain rice with a sauce poured over, which tasted as soy sauce. When you say filipino pickes, I think about atchara, but we got semi pickled red onions and cucumber slices. We got 3 pieces of crispy chicken (decent) , the grilled pork on skewer was good, but not filipino flavour. The vinegar dip was not spicy. Your presentation picture did not resemble in what we got, not even 20% ( no grilled corn, no mango, no lime ( we got half of a quarter lemon slice), served in a paper box, not on a banana leaf as in presentation, no tomatoes, no packchoi cabbage. Price paid 16£; price over quality, presentation and serving conclusion: way overpriced. We were a group of 5 filipinos and we all agreed on this. Would I eat here again? Not in the current presentation because the food does not resemble the presentation picture or the description of the menu.

Later edit: since you came with a response and a clear explanation I'm willing to change my 1* rating and give 3 stars as I understand that you have your own approach to the menu and recepies. However, it did not taste authentic filipino and we came from Dublin, especially for filipino flavours. The picture I refer to is on the menu, beside the description of your actual presentation of what we expected. That picture should resamble what you're serving. I still stand with my opinion about atchara, the drippings and price over authenticity.

I forgot to say, 2 stars for atmosphere due to broken zips to multiple pods, dirty bathroom, broken toilet paper dispenser and non functional hand dryer.

Next time I go to Belfast, I will make time to re-review your menu and I'm willing to give the 5 stars if deserved. Thanks for...

We're from Scotland first time in NI for a few days vacay. After we did the hop on hop off bus tour for our first day. At lunch we were looking for Jollibee just so we can compare with Glasgow and Edinburgh but didn't know there's none in Belfast so we found Kubo. We ordered pork barbecue and fried chicken both with rice. It was really nice we loved it. Ordered sans rival for dessert which tastes amazing.

The service was just hmm okay so giving it 2 stars. We didn't know if the lady at the counter took offense by being asked if she spoke Tagalog as she responded in a cattish way 😆. I understand she's maintaining speaking English since it's a English speaking country but I found it quite strange the way she responded. She was actually more friendly and all smiles to the local people but not to us. I actually don't know now the more I think of it now if she was even Filipino 😂However, one of the staff went up to speak to us and ask how the food was and was so friendly which is more than we could say for the lady.

We enjoyed the food nonetheless. We might dine in again if we come back but I would just do a quick lunch,...