Kilig — Restaurant in Seattle

It pains me to leave this negative review but it is what it is.

Not sure if I heard my wife correctly when she said that this new restaurant was a collaboration between chef Rhabbie of the short-lived Bunsoy (which I really enjoyed) and the legendary chef Melissa of Musang (one of my Seattle favs) but our first visit to Kilig was a letdown.

We ordered the bulalo, pancit lug lug and a cup of rice to share. Service was quick, wife's kimlet cocktail was really good and my San Miguel beer was ice cold. Also, cute interior. That's about it.

The pancit lug lug was watery so the sauce didn't stick to the noodles (I could have mistaken it for pancit lag lag, tbh.) I had to scoop out the sauce from my plate after each bite. Worse, we could barely taste the watered-down sauce. I'm guessing the noodles weren't drained well enough before serving? Sad because I really LOVED Musang's lomi. (I know, I know, two different dishes but still.)

As for the bulalo, even though the charred cabbage was tasty on its own, serving it in the soup ruined it for us. It didn't even taste like bulalo soup! And why did it feel like our bowl was only popped in the microwave before serving? Shouldn't bulalo soup be served piping hot?

The biggest disappointment was the rice. It was so hard (undercooked?) that we didn't even touch it anymore after one bite. How a Filipino joint not know how to cook rice properly is beyond me. I even joked to my wife that maybe they used NFA rice from the Philippines to make it more authentic. (Lowest quality of rice.)

Lastly, what is up with the automatic 20% gratuity? I'm all for fair wages and usually tip between 15%-25% but the mandatory 20% tip even for just a table of 2 really...

I'd like to be able to give a higher rating to this place-- I like Musang, which is another restaurant opened by one of the founders of Kilig. However, the food we chose was just... salty. It was beautiful to look at, clearly crafted with care and elegance-- someone made sure to include many colors in its presentation... but it was just salty. There was no other flavor. For context, we ordered the Adobong Pusit and the Canton with shrimp. The Adobong Pusit is made with cuddlefish ink and squid, so I expected a bit of brininess, but certainly not from the Canton. At least the Mushroom soup was decent-- though I was a little annoyed at having a whole section of corn-on-the cob in there-- how am I supposed to eat that without using my hands? The server never once looked at me in the eyes-- just my partner. Doesn't feel good to be invisible. Finally, the restaurant has this policy on tipping: "Kilig includes a 20% service charge to all guest checks. The service charge is retained by the house. Kilig distributes 14% to both the Front and Back of the House employees in the form of commission. The remaining 6% is distributed to employees benefits. Tipping is not expected, but greatly appreciated." I like the idea of everyone making a living wage, but I'm pretty resentful of having to shoulder it as a customer. Isn't that something the restaurant should just provide for...

We really wanted to try this restaurant as it is one of very few Filipino restaurants in this city saturated with other Asian cuisine restaurants. We ordered the Pusit, Beef Mechado, Balaw na Hipon and Adobong Sitaw. I was quite surprised that rice, which is the staple starch for Fiipino and Asian meals, was not included as part of the price for the main dishes like Beef Mechado which costs $32.00, and Balaw na Hipon, $30.00. The Balaw na Hipon was the best tasting of all the things we ordered.

The adobong sitaw would have been a side dish at other Asian restaurants, here it costs $18.00 and the serving was very small, it was also very salty.

We were charged $8 for 2 servings of rice, which, again, should be included in the prices of main dishes which cost $30 and $32.

Our bill for the 4 dishes plus two servings of rice, Before taxes and the 22 percent service charge was $114.00. With taxes, service charge of 22 percent (and tip which was optional) came out to $158.75, which I think is quite overpriced compared to other Asian restaurants in the area. A family which lives on minimum wage in Seattle would never be able to afford to eat here.

They should consider including at least one serving of rice with dishes that cost $30 and $32, and if customers want more rice, they...