Baby's Kusina + Market — Restaurant in Philadelphia

Let me first introduce the establishment. It's a restaurant named Baby's Kusina + Market in Girard Ave, Philadelphia PA that serves filipino food with a modern twist.

Even though I'm giving them an overall low rating, it's not because of the Food. Their food was great and mostly delicious. But all the great food was soured by the inefficiency of some of their staff or the inefficiency of the system they follow from food ordering, food preparation, and fulfilling orders. And unfortunately these inefficiencies led to a very unpleasant customer experience.

Note: The following happened Feb 15, a day after the Philadelphia Eagles Championship parade in Philly.

Their food are available on specific times of the day (see pic of their menu), "Brekky" for breakfast is available until 11 am. Ulam for Brunch/Lunch is only available from 11 am. Anyway, I'm mentioning this as we arrived at their place at around 10:30 am and we were excited to try their food (we always look for local filipino restaurants whenever we travel to a new place). Since it was only 10:30, we were only allowed to order Brekky (Breakfast) food. That's perfectly fine with us and we ordered "Rich Tita" and a variety of donuts (see pictures - We were still excited to take pictures at that point). And again, the Food was great.

At this point we decided to wait until 11 am so we can try their "Ulam" or brunch/lunch food. The line for ordering food was starting to get long so we thought "the food must be really good", so we decided to order everything in the Ulam Menu (5 items). We were able to place our order at 11:20 am, and that's when everything went south 😒.

We were sitted at the 2nd floor of the establishment, and we noticed the orders of those who placed orders after us were getting served. So we thought maybe because we ordered 5 items. 40 minutes passed, and we still didn't get any of our orders. Meanwhile you would see staff serving food to other customers. Almost an hour passed and we followed up our orders from one of the staff. We were told that one of items we ordered, the Crispy Sinigang, was not available. So we were assuming that the rest of our orders can be served. More than an hour passed and a lady (not sure if she is the owner or manager) approached us and "apologetically" told us that because of the delay and the unavailability of one of items, they will refund us the whole amount of our order and will still serve us the food. That's all fine, but if only 1 item out of the 5 that we ordered is not available, why can't they serve the other 4 items on time? We eventually got our food around before 1 pm, about an hour and a half after we placed our order.

They did refund the full amount of our order, but in my opinion the apology was insincere and was only done primarily to ease the tension, but not because they are about to lose a customer. I really hope I'm wrong, and if the apology was indeed sincere, then thank you.

I would still encourage others to try this place as they do serve great food. I see that they have a number of followers in their social media pages, but hopefully that doesn't go their head, and that they will treat everyone as an important customer who they cannot afford to lose. And I'm always for supporting local establishments, especially those that serve...

I'll start by saying I truly understand that this place is new and does have great potential but there are a lot of things to be worked out before it gets there.

For one, the wait. I truly don't understand why the line moved so slowly, as the menu isn't so big and you don't wait for the food when you order it. In the end, we waited 40 minutes to get to the register which in most instances we would have just left. Luckily, the seating is more available so getting a table/seat isn't as difficult as you may imagine (because again the slow service isn't because there are a ton of people filling the place).

The menu itself left a bit to be desired. We were there for lunch, which meant that the breakfast menu and the app menu (including the lumpia we definitely would have ordered) were not available. That left essentially 5 dishes: 2 fried chicken dishes, one pork belly dish (sold out...womp), a tofu dish, and a mango salad. We went with the cirpsy sinigang and gising gising. The former was really fine. I wasn't totally sure what to do with the broth it comes with and there isn't much to it beyond the cabbage, rice, and chicken but we enjoyed the chicken. A bit underwhelming for $18.50. The tofu dish looked much more appealing aesthetically and I did appreciate the texture of the tofu but in the end the flavor was a bit lackluster. We grabbed one of the strawberry pastries which was light and fluffy, like a croissant. When we asked what the other things were the cashier provided the names, which were dishes we had never heard of, and no further information, as if we really should just know what these things were. Also, I'm not totally sure how we ended up spending $50 for a cafe meal.

Everyone seems to get the matcha drink. This was fine, pretty standard. The food was delivered to us which was nice but the drinks were not, so I found myself going up and down the stairs a few times. Another comment on the space itself, this may be just specific to me as I'm a fairly tall person, but there really should be signs about the dangers of hitting yourself. At one point I hit my head on an exposed pipe and multiple times I hit my head on the low ceiling. I understand that these aren't things that can necessarily be changed but I think a warning is warranted.

In the end, I would probably wait a few months for this place to figure itself out rather than rushing to be one of the first...

Okay imma go off real quick (in the best way❤️) because baby’s really deserves its flowers. Here’s an in depth review:

Baby’s is an incredible Filipino small business that I’ve been coming to since they began their pop up events in summer of 2023, and they hosted my graduation dinner as a private event. Every time has been 10/10.

They’ve served various amazing dishes and drinks since the beginning, but it’s only gotten better as time goes on.

(Photos include discontinued items and food from my private event).

They keep in touch with traditional Filipino cuisine while exhibiting a modern and personal twist. Almost everything down to the butter is house made and it shows. You can really taste the difference. The bread and pastries are made fresh every day and they’re so soft and fluffy and flavorful. The cheesy beshy and mango salad are my go-to menu items. Saturday donut day is unbelievable you cannot miss out! They have vegan and gluten free options as well!

The drinks are to die for. My favorites are the matcha (vibrant green ceremonial blend, so fire) and the shaken espresso, the coconut addition is so addictive and I used to be a coconut hater. They also serve rotating weekend and holiday drink specials, which the Manila Fog was my favorite so far which was an April weekend special!

The staff is welcoming and always smiling and laughing with each other and the customers, which makes you feel welcome as if you’re walking into your friends’ home. They are always willing to explain the menu items if you have any questions and even educate on the Filipino culture and inspiration for their dishes, which makes it even more special.

My private event went so smoothly; we had a decent say in what dishes were going to be on the menu; they were very mindful of what foods we preferred and did not. the hospitality was above and beyond and the food came out in a timely manner. They allowed us to decorate and gave us a VERY reasonable price for a private event that closes the restaurant entirely. BYOB was a nice touch as well, since their drinks make for solid cocktail bases. Highly recommend you book for a private event.

Absolutely give this place a try, everything on the menu gets 5 stars AND they’re coming out with a new menu soon which looks actually insanely good I cannot...