Kamayan Fiesta Filipino Asian American Cuisine — Restaurant in Virginia

Update 2024: this is the equivalent of Spirit Airlines of Filipino restaurants - there’s always extra fee for everything; for example if you ordered anything beef then there’s a beef upgrade fee; if you need utensils then you’ll get charged with utensils fee unless you just eat with your bare hands; if you want to dine in the restaurant and use the chairs and tables, you’ll have to pay for chair and table convenience fee; in the summer if the A/C is on you’ll have to pay the comfort fee, just to name a few…Over-priced. Better hold on to the wall when you see your bill. You will be sticker SHOCKED and pass out, fall to floor with a heart attack! Service always in slow motion like in the Matrix movies. Staff disorganized and panicked when store is full on the weekends. Imagine you’re in Krusty Krab and SpongeBob is the one getting your orders and payment. For example: cashier lady is also the server, phone operator getting orders, chef, store manager and maybe even toilet cleaner. Prices are way marked up by at least $2-3 and definitely more expensive than other Filipino stores in the area. It’s like the 500 peso “turon” that they served in the Philippine Senate many years ago. WARNING: Watch out for the many exclusions, “upgrade fees” and staggering “3.99% debit card fee” whereas should only be 0.57%! Lady cashier in charge passed the blame on the debit/credit card processing company. Classic it’s them and not us. BBB pls look into this… At least food quality and store cleanliness above average. PS: please stop calling your customers “Kuya” when you’re obviously 20 years older and do Filipinos in northern Virginia a big favor by removing the Philippine flag on your wall until your store truly reflects the Filipino values of matapat, marangal at makatao…if you even know what...

We love trying Filipino food so we were excited to find this ‘hole in the wall’. Unfortunately this place is not super friendly for those who are new to the cuisine; there’s a counter where you can pick and choose the food but nothing’s labeled. Thankfully, the lady was able to give us a brief explanation of everything available. We chose the three entree option with pancit noodles, bicon express and adobo chicken - all with garlic rice, as well as a side of lumpia.

My critiques on the meal:

• Garlic rice - flavor was good but a lot of the rice was dried out and crunchy from either sitting out too long or using two day old rice

• Pancit noodles - lacked flavor, didn’t really taste like much, 95% noodles and not much of anything else

• Bicon express - liked the flavor of the pork bits and the amount of spice but it had a pool of oil sitting on top

• Adobo chicken - was good and loved the flavor but they only gave four small pieces

We were saying how everything would taste so much better if the food was cooked to order, rather than bring batch cooked in the morning and left sitting out in warmers all day. The lumpia was semi cold and soggy :(

We ended with a halo halo, which was the saving grace for this meal. Really yummy and big portion (I guess they have to for $13!) but it’s def one of the best halo halo we’ve had in DMV area.

Would we go back? Most likely not but it was worth a try. We may check out the other locations in the future.

Side comment: I went to use the restroom in the back and as I was going towards there, one of the worker men was coming out of the restroom. He saw me and started smiling sheepishly??? I was confused until I went in and saw that he had urinated but did not flush ……....

I always stop to eat here whenever I go to Costco since it is located on Backlick Road. I read all the negative reviews that are fake or out of prejudice from people who have not tasted the food from here. I have been to this restaurant since it opens during COVID. It is the best Filipino food in Fairfax County.

It is a reasonable price. If you go to Pinay Kitchen in Woodbridge, you will find terrible food at $14 for the same sweet sausage, eggs, and rice for $10 here at Kamayan. It is mom and pop owner, not McDonalds. I go and see that she is helping other customers. I wait patiently to get good food and service from a family run business with 3 workers.

I lived in til I drove here to eat once in a while of as often as I can. I love port and sausages. Her fried eggs are better than my own cook fried eggs. I ask for soy or fish sauce, and she will give it to me.

As a regular customer, I have not seen one ant or coachroach since the restaurant opened until today, 21 March 2024. And, I never get upset stomach here. I even bought pork and drove to my foster mother in Fredericksburg. She likes it and asked me where I...