Bag of Beans Cafe & Restaurant — Restaurant in Chula Vista

This is a new Filipino owned restaurant that boasts a different take on the Filipino cuisine. They have been opened about 3 or 4 weeks. First of all the menu prices are that of a high end restaurant. I must say the portions are small and the sinigang overall is disappointing so is the short ribs adobo. The sinigang didn't have the vegetables they put as ingredients, just a small piece of egg plant a few pieces of green beans and 4 pieces of pork ribs with barely any meat on it. I can make better sinigang: no okra or spinach, egg plant (tiny little piece) for a bowl good for 2-4 people they listed these ingredients but looks like they ran out of ingredients. Then the short ribs adobo don't taste anything like adobo, I can only taste the soy sauce no vinegar or laurel leaves or peppercorns as was part of the ingredients. The drinks arrived late and so we already finished eating and I still didn't get mine so I cancelled it. The Seafood medley was not labeled to have chili flakes or spicy? It was spicy so don't order it if you don't like spicy. In fairness, they took it out from our bill. The lechon kawali is again a small portion only 2 people can finish it so is the adobo. Also, if you are allergic to shrimp don't order the lumpiang shanghai since the only one they have has shrimp. They were able to take the shrimp out from the pancit which has more ingredients than noodles. It's not proportioned nicely. So we took the leftover ingredients since they barely put any noodles on it. They like the drinks, the fettucini is on the dry side not enough sauce and bland no taste. Also, you have to order rice as the only dish with rice is the adobo. Since it is summer and the patio doors are open. we experienced authentic Filipino dining with uninvited guest, flies . The service was good, our server Carolina and Von were apologetic. Carolina kept her smile despite the long service and mistakes made on the order. They don't have enough ladle for the soup. They only have 2 for the entire restaurant and we ordered two bowls of the sinigang. Some lady was nice to give my grandnephew a free pastry. The lady in the pastry area , Hayley is kind and very sweet. She took our family picture. Von took some feedback about our experience. Parking is free since it's in a strip mall. Enough tables, we reserved but the restaurant is huge. The bathrooms are clean so that's a plus. My overall experience is not satisfied with the food as I expected more from the reviews in the Philippines. The drinks menu has no sago, gulaman and most of their drinks are the coffee, macha and mocktails. I know this is supposed to be a fusion but I expect more Filipino items on the menu. I guess the breakfast is more geared to Filipino cuisine. Lastly, the name is bag of beans so you expect that they will open early for coffee and pastries. They open at 9am only the neighboring office can benefit from it. I suggested they open early. Overall, the service is good but the bar took a long time to get us our drinks.

My recommendation is to wait for this restaurant to get their act together and get settled before visiting it. I would say give them 2-3 months to complete their menu and supplies like ladle. If I decide to come back maybe 3 months or will try their breakfast. This review is not to put the restaurant down but to let people know what to expect. Hope this review helps those looking to try this restaurant. Our bill is over $250 for a party of 7 adults and 1 child. My sister paid but that's what I guess the cost with all the items we ordered. Average price of dish $30 and appetizer $17-28, entree $20-34 depending on the size you are ordering. The portions are small so any party over 5 people should order 2 of each like the sinigang, adobo, lechon kawali and...

Opening day was yesterday 8/8 and they ran out of food at 7pm so we were not able to get in. We tried again the next day 8/9 with a dinner reservation. Our experience could be better. Although we were seated right away the food service was slow. It's a sit down restaurant not a buffet service like in Tagaytay. Food came in trickles. Rice came in way ahead of the entree so it was cold when we were about to eat. Some of the food served didn't match the menu. We ordered lumpia and lechon kawali for starters but the lumpia was served last. The Lechon kawali starter was a disappointment because it was small and didn't have a taste. Also it was supposed to be a starter but it came with rice and kimchi. Yes kimchi. It would've been nicer if it was atchara to complement the Filipino dish in a Filipino restaurant. On a good note the lumpia was tasty even though it was small. The lumpia presentation if you look at the posted photos are not consistent. Some were tied, untied, and some even had a flower. Anyways for entree we ordered the short rib Adobo and herb crusted salmon. The short rib adobo was good. It's tuyong adobo with tender meat. The salmon though was a miss. It didn't have any taste. There's no crust on it and the cream sauce didn't taste lemon like it's supposed to in the menu. We tried almost all the pastries/desserts out front to have a taste. All were below expectation especially the sansrival. The Sansrival tasted like white chocolate macadamia cookie but instead of macadamia they used cashew. Dulce de leche banana tart tasted like banana with condensed milk. Ube cheesecake cookie had purple color with cream cheese inside but it didn't taste like ube. Ube tres leches was just a tasteless purple colored soaked cake. The raisin bread was dry. The only decent one we liked was the fruit strudel. For drinks the Matcha latte was good. Tito's Day Off Adobo cocktail served with bay leaf didn't have the adobo taste we were expecting. Maybe it was really, really faint? Pandan latte at least had a hint of pandan flavor. Overall the food was below expectation BUT I remain hopeful since they just opened. The ambiance is good. It's a $$ restaurant. The wait staff are nice and apologetic hence the 3 stars. I suggest to match the menu with the food being served and hire more people in the kitchen. We will give this place a chance again in the future. PS Somebody posted a Google 5 star review before the grand...

We came here on opening day, and while I expected it to be busy, I did not expect it to be this disorganized.

We were given a wait time of 45 minutes, but they only tracked it on a piece of paper with no phone number or text system. This meant we had to wait inside with limited seating in the front. It ended up being over an hour before we were seated, and another family told me they had already been waiting for 1.5 hours. What made it more frustrating was that I could clearly see empty tables in the dining area.

When we finally sat down, we ordered the lechon kawali, sinigang, kare kare, and a matcha. Our waiter mentioned that the soups were larger portions than the entrees, so I ordered one to share with my sister. It took over 30 minutes for the food to arrive, and somehow we got our food before the family that had been waiting longer than us. Looking around, hardly anyone had food at their tables.

About 20 minutes in, we were given complimentary bread rolls. Five minutes later, our appetizer (lechon kawali) and matcha came out. The lechon was okay, but serving it with kimchi felt like a strange pairing. Another 15 minutes later, our entrees and soup arrived. Since the waiter said the soup was shareable, I expected extra bowls, but none were provided. Rice had to be ordered as an add-on, which is fine, but it came after the food, about 10 minutes later, so we were just sitting there waiting again.

By then, I was tired of all the delays and asked for a container to pack the sinigang, but the one they gave only fit about 1/3 of it. Since our waiter was not very attentive and we had to ask for many things while waiting, I approached a woman in black who was going around to each table and seemed like a manager to ask if they had a bigger container. She told me that was the only size, but moments later our waiter brought me a larger one, and the manager looked confused.

I understand it was opening day and they had a soft opening before, but you would think they would be more prepared. Based on our experience and other reviews, they were not. I will not be coming back...