Kabayan Grill Filipino Restaurant — Restaurant in Kissimmee

So I drove an hour and 15 minutes to try this place out. Filipino restaurants are hard to find unless you’re in the city! So let’s start with the bad. The restaurant should be cleaned a little more often I peeked and the kitchen looked nice but the common area needs work. I also spoke to an employee about something that occurred and he said “I’ll let the owners know” regarding sanitation etc.

I think their restaurant could also capitalize in investing on fountain drinks instead of cans, and adding more exotic juice drinks and Filipino brand sodas.

The menu is small which is great so you won’t be confused or overwhelmed by all the food they have.

But let me say the food is incredible! I definitely recommend this restaurant and would have received 5 stars ⭐️ if they had more drink options and they could work on the problem I told the gentleman about.

I ordered a lot! The prices are reasonable! I had the milk fish, fried quail egg, stuffed buns pork & chicken, hearty beef/ox/buffalo soup, fried pork skin, crispy pork foot, halo halo (I wish they had put a little more condensed milk less ice) but still it was very good, leche flan and fried banana.

The food was the major winner here! The pork foot had so much meat crunchy, juicy not over cooked.

The fried pork skin wasn’t burned and after the crunch it would dissolve in my mouth! Very tasty.

The quail eggs so good they taste like regular chicken eggs but tiny and the breading they used had so much flavor I didn’t need to dip them in any sauce!

The stuffed buns where to die for the meat was properly seasoned and the bun itself had taste it wasn’t bland. The sauce they used really enhances the flavor of an already flavorful dish.

The soup was the best! Flu season - Covid etc. Soup is for the soul and health! The broth was so flavorful it wasn’t watery it was potent and you could see a little of the beef fat which wasn’t too much. The meat was tender and so good. I’d say the soup was the star ⭐️ many restaurants don’t focus on the broth! And just dump meat inside but this was seasoned and boiled well. GOOD JOB

THE MILK FISH so that’s a hard ingredient to find it has a strong fishy smell to it but it tastes pretty good. I’m Hispanic from an island so I’ve eaten many types fish since the sea provided my town with so much! The fish wasn’t bad but I just felt like milk fish is so skinny not enough meat. I like a nice thick juicy fish I can put my fork in and have a chuck of meat come out this one was pretty thin. The taste was good but idk if I’d purchase it again.

Leche flan wasn’t bad but I am Puerto Rican so we have something similar flan de queso and I wish theirs was a little thicker and not so hard. Our flan isn’t as hard and creamier. But it was good 😊

Halo halo I would add more milk I felt the ice overpowered it a bit.

Fried banana was good

Over all cleanliness gets 3 stars Price gets 4 stars Food taste 5 Customer service 5

PS. Made videos but since I can’t post videos...

I This is an edited review from last year where I gave them 4 stars, but I am updating it to 5 stars. The only thing lacking last year was the server’s attitude. On our recent visit, everything was excellent as before, and this time our server Kay was very sweet unlike the one from last year. Also, Chris came out several times and was delightful. Attitude makes the difference. For two adults and two children we ordered french fries, 2 orders of rice, 2 orders of lumpia, 2 siopao, sigsig, lechon kawali, liempo w/rice, pancit, crispy pata, and 1 halo-halo. Kay was accommodating to add a small table at the end of our table because of all the dishes we ordered. No need to go to the Philippines for authentic Filipino food because it’s all right here at Kabayan Grill.

Leaving my previous review above where I gave five starts with update below from latest visit.

1st the Beef Bulalo is totally not worth it. New server “Vanessa was more interested in inflating our bill than giving honest recommendations. Not to complain about the price cause everything of course is inflated everywhere but for what you get for what you pay and the taste is not good so I cannot recommend it and suggest to avoid it. After lunch, Vanessa suggested halo-halo and we said we do not like their haloX2 and really it’s hard for us to finally find haloX2 anywhere actually to soften the blame but she still continued pushing it until we had to give her a hard NO! I guess we started off with a strange encounter from Vanessa by her reaction when I asked what happened to Kay and is she still there because she was very sweet. Later in the conversation, she said she is not Kay, She’s Vanessa like she took offense. Strange cookie indeed. Also, Chris came out briefly to adjust the TV without a hello or smile or anything. Kind of a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde because sometimes he’s friendly and sometimes he’s stonefaced. I’m actually having trouble justifying ever coming back here again actually. A little bit of déjà vu and twilight zone mixed and food was just so so taste wise and portions getting...

Overall review: Came here with the girlfriend for Filipino food. This place is basically a mom and pop place and is very authentic. Food is cooked well, not too dry, not overcooked, great food. Most customers are Filipino and it seems this place brings back most of their customers and with good reason. The owner is very friendly and welcoming. Prices are pretty good in comparison with other places that I have been and everything is well deserving of checking out.

Food: 4/5 --Pork Adobo was good but I feel like I would have enjoyed the chicken more. It was flavorful and included a heaping of rice which is a great compliment with the adobo. The pansit was my favorite, noodles came with veggies and little pieces of chicken and shrimp. The bangus is a traditional Filipino dish that our friend recommended to try and it was good. Worth trying, personally I needed a little bit of fish sauce with it as it was bland but overall it was cooked well. We devoured the three dishes and it left us filled and satisfied.

Price: 4/5 --Pork Adobo $7.95 --Bangus $13.99 --Pansit $8.95 Total around $36 with tax and tip, filling meal for 2.

Atmosphere: 4/5 --I wouldn’t say the setting of this area is anything special. It is more of a local mom and pop restaurant from the looks of it. Kind of small maybe about 8 tables max from what I remember.

Service: 5/5 --Service was great. The manager/owner (I think) was very kind and asked us more about where we were from and thanked us for eating at the establishment. He was very friendly and that definitely made it...