Kuya Lord — Restaurant in Los Angeles

I took the time to read many other reviews prior to writing this and there's a lot that people complain about regarding Kuya Lord that are either out of the Chef's hands or are objectively incorrect.

First of all, to the people saying this food is "too" expensive. This is sit down restaurant quality food in a fast casual setting. The food is made to order (it's not sitting under a heat lamp all day waiting to be plopped onto a dish) and you can tell the ingredients are high quality and fresh. I believe the pricing is absolutely reasonable considering the quality, portion sizing and the fact that our usual order from Taco Bell that used to be like $15 or so is now over $30.

Second is the parking situation. Anyone who chooses to go to a restaurant at Western and Melrose in Koreatown without expecting a horrendous parking situation is out of touch. The parking situation is not the Chef's responsibility and your lack of foresight regarding the parking situation in a busy intersection in Hollywood should not be his problem.

Third is the size of the location. I wouldn't consider a restaurant of this size to be a major "eat in" operation, rather I expect a majority of their business is take away. If you show up expecting this to be a restaurant with a host who seats you, you'll be disappointed. A lot of this is just down to setting proper expectations and/or doing your research before showing up. The seating room is small, so just plan to either wait for a spot to eat or to take it to go.

Last I want to give Chef Maynard a huge shout out for showing up and responding to some, frankly, ridiculous complaints and entitlement from patrons. This is a small business that went from a popup to a brick and mortar and they have my respect for that.

So on to my personal review:

Ordering: I ordered for pickup to go on the website around 6:00pm and was informed my food would be ready by 6:30pm but I would be texted if it was sooner. The website was also super clear that their turn around time on average is 30 minutes, so expecting anything faster is sort of unrealistic. I got a text at 6:15pm that my food was ready so we walked over and picked it up.

The location: The shop is small, lively and smells amazing. You can see the food being prepared fresh with real charcoal and fire. This food is made fresh upon order and the taste and quality reflects that fact. We took our order to go and walked the 10 minutes home smelling the most amazing smells from our bag of food.

The food: We ordered a Tapa bowl, a Litson Manok bowl and a calamansi pie. The servings were generous and between the two of us we had more than enough meat and sides in our bowls. The Tapa bowl consisted of a generous portion of tender, well marinated savory prime short rib. This was hands down my favorite component of the meal. The Litson Manok is a generous serving of a quarter of a chicken and was smoky and tender and the fried egg on top was so tasty with the rice. The sides were also notable in my opinion. The garlic java rice was very, very good and particularly yummy from the Tapa drippings, I mean, who doesn't love beefy rice? The tomato cucumber salad was refreshing and well marinated. I usually don't like tomatoes, but I'll eat these anytime. The green pickled papaya is something I've never had before, but if you pickle it, I'll eat it! It was slightly sweet with a vinegary bite that enjoyed. The calamansi pie was lovely and a large portion that I couldn't finish in one sitting (my partner didn't have any). I don't think I've had calamansi before but it was a fantastic lemony-lime flavor with almost tangerine undertones. The curd was thick, sweet but a bit tart and I'm unsure I'll be able to have key lime pie again without thinking about how good this pie was. The crust is graham cracker and there's pandan whipped cream on the top.

Overall impression: You can tell the Chef only uses high quality and fresh ingredients, cooked with love. I'd absolutely come here again and I'd also recommend it to friends.

*Note: This is a shorter version of my...

James Beard award winner is a reason to try this place especially since good Filipino food is not easy to find. Unfortunately it doesn’t live up to its award. Ordered a staple, Pancit Sotanghon noodles with grilled prawns and fried pork belly, because that should be a good test. It wasn’t a complete fail as the fried pork was perfect, but the noodles were so salty I couldn’t eat them all even with the chopped cabbage mixed in, and the prawns were not fresh which was evident not just from the taste, but the meat being stuck to the shell and the mealy texture. For a quick lunch maybe you can find less salt than the noodles and have delicious pork, but at $30 for a lunch tray, it’s not worth what you are getting. Go to Max’s Restaurant in Glendale for better Filipino food. The location is horrible for parking and the restaurant space is really small and crowded, so I didn’t even wanna eat there and got takeout instead. I can’t judge other things on the menu, but have multiple reasons not to go back.

TO THE MANAGER'S RESPONSE: First, as a restaurant manager who responds to all negative comments with a snarky response, Chef Maynard should fire you for the horrible PR you are generating that will have a negative impact on his business. Second, I take restaurant reviews seriously. I have eaten all over the world, including Manila, and know good food. Third, In your effort to be right, you apparently didn’t take note of the fact that not a single negative comment from me was about Chef Maynard’s talent as a chef, but how the restaurant is run, the seating, parking situation and the portion size in relation to the price, which by the way, would not have mattered to me if the food was prepared to Chef Maynard’s standards. Quality control is the #1 job of a restaurant manager, so you have failed and can’t recognized that you are the problem that needs fixing, not the reviews. I clearly was disappointed that I was not able to experience the chef’s food because good Filipino food is hard to find in Los Angeles and I am very familiar with the cuisine. I want a James Beard awarding winning Filipino chef to succeed in L.A. Finally, you assume that I had a hero’s journey making it through the entire meal, but let me correct you on that fact. I would not eat old mealy shrimp for any reason in any restaurant. It went in the trash, as did the overly salty noodles, something that didn’t need to be posted in the review because my reviews are not about being mean, but being accurate. A good manager takes constructive criticism to improve, but since you are right about everything, improving is not an option for you it seems. Thanks for letting me know you have no intention of fixing the problems and I have no reason to...

Went with my Filipino boyfriend for the first time today. Ive seen few recommendations about this place on an online article (while looking for a place in LA that has inihaw) and on IG, so I had high hopes. Obviously, any kind of hope was too high for this place. Note: Im not Filipina, but Ive had my fair share of Filipino foods, because of my boyfriend.

The tray that apparently can serve 2 is barely enough for 1 and that's $45. Each drinks (we got a bottle of Mexican coke and sparkling water) $5, so that came out to be $60. If the food was good, I wouldn't feel so robbed, but the food was not even good. It's close to being bad. The roasted pork belly barely had flavors (even the sauce that came with it barely had flavors), the rice was too little AND with barely any flavors plus too overcooked (which is kind of hard to achieve..), noodles that I heard was "one of the best" (whoever said that obviously doesn't know ANYTHING about noodles....) was overcooked as well.

Despite the fact that the tray was too small for us, both my boyfriend and I didn't finish the food (yes, it's that worthless). I was almost mad that we came all the way from the Valley for this (altho it's not THAT far, it's still a drive and there are quite a few good Filipino restaurantsnear our house in the Valley), so we decided to go to a Korean restaurant nearby since we came to ktown to fill my empty stomach.

Overall: very bad. Food: Bad. No flavors and most are overcooked. Ambiance/seating: Wayy too small. Very uncomfortable Service: The person taking the order isn't exactly the nicest person in the world + everything is self-serve (therefore, I did not tip. What for?) Price: WAYYYY too overpriced Parking: very difficult to find one

Anyone who ever gave good reviews or said good things about this place obviously needs a palate cleansing, cuz even my Filipino boyfriend didn't like it and he is NOT that difficult to satisfy (he's a very understanding person when it comes to food/not very picky).

Verdict: neither of us are ever...