Tried eating here on a non busy day. Front service ignored us the whole time for more than 15 mins while talking to another group about catering. And the other couple servers just passes by and ignored us for the same amount of time. Food looks good but if that's how they treat their customers it's not worth it. read more

Today is Mother's Day so we called an order for pick up exactly at 12pm since we have been craving some Filipino food. Some lady answered and asked us if we can hold to take our order. We were on hold for the longest time until we eventually got through the door to ask what happened, how come no one took our order. Come to see that the lady had the phone hanging and actually taking other people's order through another phone line. We understand that it's a busy holiday but it's not right to keep your loyal customers ( or any customers) hanging. We will never support this place again. I hope Kalesa staff go through a class for customer service. They badly need it read more

Authentic Filipino food with HUGE portion size! This restaurant really knows how to prepare deep fried dishes. The Crispy Pata and Crispy Dinuguan were as CRISPY as advertised! They also do party sized take out. Popular dishes sell out quickly on Sunday (no Kare Kare for us!), but none of the dishes disappoint. read more

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What kind of shady joint you guys are running here??? The poster beside the door tells you to wait in the car. They told us it's going be an hour, the current customers inside just sat down to eat and they're just gonna call us as soon as a table is available. We wrote our name on the list, our phone number and the time we got in. That's fine, we weren't that hungry yet but I am definitely craving for bangus sisig. We'll just wait in the car. An hour later and no call but we decided we're just going to wait by the door because it might be any minute now. You know the most effed up thing we found, there are several peoples' names crossed off the list below us! It's just the 2 of us but there are a few couples who already went in before us. The last couple that was crossed off only had to wait a few minutes. I don't know how long some of them waited but they definitely put their names down more than 30mins after us. We asked them why and how this happened but NO APOLOGIES NOR EXPLANATIONS whatsoever. An old lady just pointed at a free table. Like she's annoyed we even had the gall to ask her an impertinent question. By this time we're hungry, we already waited an hour, the craving for bangus sisig is strong and we don't have any pride nor principle apparently. In we go. Hoping they'll probably just make it up with some good food. It's our first time here but I've never met a bangus sisig I didn't like. You know what, for the first time, there it is. The first bangus sisig that didn't pass my incredibly low standards. It's so sour! I can even forgive that it doesn't have any creaminess regular bangus sisig have but for the love of God, WHY IS IT SO SOUR??? And I almost choked on a large fish bone. Pictured evidence attached. They even managed to ruin garlic rice which any decent Filipino restaurant can do properly. Why are the grains so hard and dried out? One can only hope I'm making this stuff up. The grilled pusit is probably the most edible but I can't possibly praise its mediocrity. It's tasteless and it looks grilled but weirdly enough it doesn't taste grilled. By this time, I'm already about to burst in tears in frustration. But the cherry on top of this steaming pile of Saturday evening these folks are ruining for us, is the topnotch service. Insert sarcasm here. The old guy who helped us treated us like we walked in his dining room uninvited. The ONLY friendly tone we got from him was when he gave us our bill. Hoping for a nice tip after this whole shitshow eh? I AM DONE. Even after all these horrible treatment, of course we tipped. 18% might even be too generous but because unlike them, we are actually decent people. The worst Filipino restaurant we've ever been to hands down. THE WORST. There's no redeeming quality whatsoever. The slice of lemon in the room temperature water seems like its mocking you even. I'm sorry but that's just my honest opinion. We gave them all the chances throughout but sadly, the only thing going for them is the shameful lack of Filipino restaurants in the area. Any mook can open a mediocre Filipino restaurant as its competition and they would probably blow this place out of the water. Well it's safe to say we are never returning and we are definitely going to encourage everyone we know to stay away from this place. read more

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We haven't been to this place for years now and the food remained the same. Good portions and attentive service after we got seated. No one greeted us when we walked in for at least 5 minutes - the lady was too busy on the phone and didn't even give us any eye contact or anyone seem to be care to seat us or greet us. Once we got seated, the staff came to take our order. We ordered a few common dishes and was disappointed that they didn't have my favorite dish - palabok. We ordered way too much food for two people - total of 4 dishes since I want me bff to try it. Her first time trying flippino food. -pancit canton (3/5) -Lechon kawali (3/5) -pinabek (3/5) -ukoy 4/5) I would come back here again and hope they will have my fave dish! It's obvious this place is authentic since most of patrons are flippinos. We also ordered garlic fried rice! - read more

Beef mechado is definitely one of a kind. Service is good. Serving is good to 3 to 5 people. It taste like home. Hopefully they can also serve Filipino street food like kwek kwek, kikiam, and fishballs with manong sauce read more

Kalesa - Bagoong rice, Beef Mechado and Bangus Belly Sinigang Dessert: cha cha and halo halo - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

Food continues to be delicious and consistent. What you need to know when eating here is that if you're a party of 3 or more, be prepared to pay gratuity. We were caught off guard after receiving our ticket with 20% gratuity tacked onto the bill. I had to explain to my daughter that it's not the amount of food that you order which determines the gratuity, but rather size of your party. 3 -4 in your party = 18% 5 or more = 20% Quite disappointed in this. I think all gratuity should be determined by quality of service which was pretty good but not 20%. We weren't having a large birthday party like the folks currently next to us. They have about 15 in their group. To make matters worse, they add a section for "tip" on top of the receipt even though you were just forced to pay a gratuity. Isn't the gratuity already part of the tip? ‍ read more

I've only been to one other Filipino restaurant in the SJ area, so there's not a lot that I could compare my experience to but I quite enjoyed dining here (minus the 1+ hr wait on Sunday)! I have to say, the servers here are more attentive and friendly, the food was delicious, and there were so many birthdays (and birthday songs going on) that it made this place so fun and lively. My husband and I ordered the dishes that we're most familiar with (lumpia, longsilog, tocilog, and halo halo) and was not disappointed, although I kind of wish they had a hot sauce caddy so I could add some kick. My SIL ordered sisig (my first time trying this) and it was delicious! Our table also ordered palabok but no one at our table seemed to like that, which is great for me because I love palabok (although I've only ever tried it at Jollibee and Red Ribbon lol). You bet I took the palabok home and ate it for dinner. Oh, speaking of which, the portion of the noodles is pretty generous. The rice plates were decent size-- my husband finished his tocilog plate but I couldn't finish my longsilog so I took the leftovers home. I'm already thinking about my next visit here and I honestly don't know what I'll order next time because I just want to try everything! read more

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The vibe is authentic Filipino restaurant! Marie kindly greeted us. We ordered a bunch of dishes to celebrate a couple of birthdays! Bottomless Kalesa Pandan Ice Tea was fantastic! Mechado. Love the flavor! Savory! Kare kare. Creamy peanuty goodiness! Crispy Pata. This is my fave! Kalesa delivered humongous cruchy pieces of pure delish! Chicharon Bulaklak. mmhmm. Pairs perfectly w/ San Miguel! We were fighting over the pieces. Sizzling Bangus Sisig. Yes! What a perfect way to have fish. Sitaw Kalabasa Sa Gata. Masarap! Sizzling Squid. So flavorful. Grilled to perfection. Garlic Bokchoy. Fantastic on its own. Even more amazing w/ the Kare Kare sauce...shhhh. Sinagang na Bangus Belly. Ladies loved it! Dinakdakan. Yes. Yes. Yes. The men loved this! Bagoong Fried Rice. So different and amazing. The side of meat and mango were just superb! Steam Rice. Staple. Pancit Palabok. Wow. I loved the authentic flavor. Sinigang Na Baboy. The fave of one of the young ladies. San Miguel Light. Refreshing and pairs perfectly w/ Bulaklak. Such a fabulous meal. So satisfying. Such great folks for company and conversation. Fabulous service...then the super duper topper! The AMAZING sound system came on and Marie & staff brought out the tamborine and ice cream w/ a candle! Hoorah! What a Happy Birthday indeed!!! Would order everything again! Salamat, Marie! Woohoo! P.S. the food, company, & convo was soooo good I forgot to take pics! read more

*this review is based solely on the food since I ordered through doordash* I was feeling super sick and found myself craving sinigang. I ordered from Kalesa on doordash and I was very happy with the food I received. Firstly, I was surprised with how big the portion was. I got two big sized containers filled with soup, vegetables, and pork belly. They were very generous with the vegetables and the meat as well. Secondly, it was delicious! I like my sinigang to be very sour and they didn't disappoint. It paired really with rice and was the perfect comfort food. I definitely recommend and will definitely be trying more items on their menu! read more

Nice place to celebrate with a group. Service was attentive. Filipino staple dishes were solid . Recently ordered trays for take out and food also solid. Parking is easy. read more

It's so hard to find a decent Filipino restaurant, and glad I came across this one. Luckily for me, it's just down the road to my new place. We ordered the sisig, kare kare, palabok, bagoong fried rice, and lumpia. It was a lot of food for 3 people so there was plenty to take home at the end of our meal. We basically finished off the kare kare, there was probably only one chunk of meat left. So yummy! The sisig had a good barbecued/grilled taste to it. I probably could have gone with out the palabok, nothing too 'wow' about it along with the bagoong fried rice. They kept all the ingredients separate with out mixing it all in. read more

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TLDR: Food is AWESOME! Service is Great and attentive; but can be busy. Ambiance is fine.. nothing to complain about. The food here is honestly so amazing. We had Lumpia Shanghai, Crispy Dinuguan, Crispy Pata, Sizzling Sisig, Boneless Chicken Adobo, and Chicken Inasal. Drinks were Sweet Pandan Iced Tea. The Pandan Iced Tea didn't have alot of Pandan flavor but BOY was it refreshing! It was sweet and a tiny bit tart which really went well with the mounds of meat we ordered. The Lumpia Shanghai is crisp and hot and is great with the sweet spicy sauce! Delicious meats inside with the best texture. Its really the best. Now between all the entrees, I will do a quick order from best to... least favorite. 1) Chicken Inasal 2) Crispy Pata 3) Crispy Dinuguan 4) Sizzling Sisig 5) Boneless Chicken Adobo From top to bottom: Chicken Inasal REALLY has that charred smoked bbq flavor that stuck with me specifically throughout the week. Its slightly sweet, smokey and a real treat with or without rice. Honestly i can have 2 of these Crispy Pata is a must, its like Chinese Crispy pork, but its like a portion of leg. Super tender meat inside, super crispy skin outside Crispy Dinuguan is GREAT with rice. It is blood, so if you dont like blood, not for you, but I do and i love how it can make grilled meats more meaty! highly recommend The Sizzling Sisig is GREAT too, tied for 3rd place, but i dont get blood often so had to give it to Dinuguan. But the sisig comes sizzzzzzzzzzALING! and has chopped jalapenos and garlic to spice it up. GREAT dish, a must have Boneless chicken Adobo was also good, but I think every asian country has a version of this type of meat. Its like Chinese Hunan Chicken or Viet Thit Kho. So not super impressed by this one specifically, but is still a good dish The waitress was so nice too, I asked for refills on endless pandan iced tea and DID SHE REFILL! I kept getting refills till the end of the meal and SHE EVEN GAVE ME ONE TO GO! I am such a fan of the ice tea and the waitress and this type of family vibe! So fun~! Great place! read more

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0 stars if anything, truly almost ruined a celebration that I was almost late for, thank goodness for my cousin being helpful and picking up my order since it couldnt be ready in time when I had to pick it up Long story short, I had placed an order for April 5 (Sat) for 3 food tray items, and the lady at the front Sonia I believe was her name was very rude to me and said "you were supposed to pick it up yesterday! we had it scheduled for April 4th" Like what? NO we placed the order for the 5th, She then proceeded to say you will have to wait 20 minutes for your order, in which case I couldnt, the event I had to show up to is time sensitive, luckily my cousin was available to pickup my order in time for the party at the cost of them missing a chunk of my celebration Tip for her: verify the date with your customers so you avoid this discrepancy read more

Tried fish sisig for the first time ... tasty, but pork sisig is still my favorite! Service is fast, and they check on you regularly. Love the Christmas Spirit in the restaurant ... tastefully done, not over the top. Merry Christmas! read more

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We had an enjoyable lunch. Everything we ordered was tasty! Moreover I appreciate the cleanliness of the place. They were preparing for a catering but it didn't feel chaotic. Staff members were hospitable-- not surprising though. Parking can be challenging. read more

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Came here with my parents for the first time last week! There were a handful of large parties, but the wait wasn't too long. Actually, throughout the meal, service overall was paced well and our server was very attentive. We ordered the tokwa at baboy, dinuguan, nilaga, and finished off with the halo halo. The tokwa at baboy was so good - I forgot to take a picture! The combo of the rich, fatty pork and the crispy tofu, both dipped in the vinegar/soy sauce was well balanced and delicious! We also loved the dinuguan and nilaga... All the dishes had very generous portions - we came home with leftovers. Finally, we had the halo halo - so glad we ordered one and split among the three of us. It was huge! It had the perfect ratio of beans/fruit:milk:ice cream:flan. Perfectly refreshing and not too sweet. One thing that I wasn't expecting during our visit.... The place is beautifully furnished, has a classy ambiance... but twice they celebrated birthdays with really loud bday music piped through the speakers... literally the bday songs lasted at least 5 minutes and was jarring and overly disruptive. But it was funny and isn't going to prevent us from coming back...! Lol Just need to remember never to tell them when it's our bday! read more

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I frequently see gatherings of Filipino families waiting outside of Kalesa, and I've always wanted to make the foray into Filipino food, so I stopped by with family right after it opened for lunch on a weekend. We were seated quickly, and within just a few minutes, several long tables filled up with family reunions. It seems like these tables can be rearranged for larger events, and Kalesa also does catering, so it seems like they're well equipped to serve large parties. We ordered several items: Garlic rice - smells fragrant, but doesn't actually taste as strongly of garlic. Maybe my tolerance is too high Sinigang - reminded me of a sour, tamarind-based Filipino tom yum with big chunks of pork belly. Not bad and interesting to see all the familiar veggies in a soup - green bean, bok choy, tomato, eggplant. Lechon kawali - I really like Hong Kong style crispy pork belly and was hoping for something similar, but this felt like it was deep-fried for too long and was dry inside Lumpiang shanghai - pretty good, exactly like a mini King Eggroll Sizzling sisig - this was the favorite for our taste buds. The pork has a great charred flavor, and the sweet, tangy, and savory sauce caramelizes in the sizzling plate and mixes perfectly with the garlic rice. We loved the finely diced jalapeno and onion that cook with the rest of the pork, adding a bit of sweetness and spiciness to contrast the pork. Overall, it was a meat-forward experience and not a bad intro to Filipino cuisine. Definitely would order the sisig again and curious to try the blood stew and other seafood options in the future. read more

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Me and the whole family love the food here. My kids are picky eaters but they loved everything that I ordered. Did not go into the restaurant but to go only. read more

employees were amazing. gigi thank you po. everyone involved in kalesa thank you for making this happen! food was great and service was beautiful! i recommend this place. they do reservation and you are well taken cared of! will do this again! THANK YOU read more

Kalesa - 40th birthday - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

the service was great‼ the guy was/is very nice, attentive, & gets ur orders right‼ the food is delicious they have the best okoy...it is fresh, not greasy, 3 square pcs, lechon kawali, sinagang, pancit bihon, kari kari, bangus....all delicious the dessert, ice cream & fried bananas were good also their halo halo‼it's a bit pricey, but iam a firm believer of the saying, " u get what u pay 4", the ambiance, service, & delicious food is well worth spending extraif u want 2 pay a little less, go 2 "nayong filipino...same owner, same delicious food, mainly turo turo style‼ annabella pidlaoan read more

We loved the service and food. We had the boneless adobo chicken and pancit canton. The steamed rice was fragrant and fresh. read more

Kalesa - Boneless Chicken Adobo and Steamed Rice cup - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

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My friends and I came here and were able to be seated immediately. Menu has a large variety of food to choose from, from soups to rice dishes to noodle dishes and dessert too! The ambiance is nice, it can get loud due to large parties, they are family style dishes and all food came out quickly. read more

I absolutely love this restaurant. I've been a handful of times now. The portions are large, the dishes are delicious (they are the same from home!), the location is fairly safe, the restaurant is clean and the service is impeccable. I love eating here. My favorite is lechon kawali, the Turon and the halo halo! I've had several of their other dishes and have been quite satisfied. The pancit bihon I thought could use some extra flavor, but it was still pretty good. It is still a little bit expensive, so I mostly come in to treat myself after an especially stressful or long week. Still recommend for sure! read more

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Kalesa is currently my Lola Lily's favourite restaurant. For over a year now, she has been choosing this place to eat at when in town because she likes their KARE KARE (Filipino oxtail peanut stew). Since such mention, Mom and I had been wanting to try them out and finally visited for the first time for a family event with Lola on Saturday, 4 March 2023. Venue: 3 stars. Located in Milpitas' Crescent Square, Kalesa offers plenty of free parking and neighbours such as Walgreens, bubble tea, tutoring, dental, and other merchants. Even on a Saturday afternoon, we had no issues with finding a closeby spot to park. The restaurant is a standard unit of the shopping center with its exterior looking no different than the other establishments except that it occupies a corner spot. Inside, the small foyer can give one the impression that they are entering an exotic place with tropical decor. The dining room, though, is just a big, plain room of tables with white tablecloths and gold banquet chairs. The most interesting decoration is the carved brown wall that hides the kitchen from the dining room. Anyone who is looking to be immersed in a beautiful setting of island decor like the Milpitas Barrio Fiesta (permanently closed) will be disappointed. Service: 4 stars. Since we were a party of a little less than forty persons, with the exception of dessert, all of our dishes were pre-ordered. Upon seating, our servers took our drink orders and then started to bring out our various plates. The staff was friendly and nice. Food: 3 stars. Lola Lily likes to go to Kalesa for their KARE KARE...which is interesting because Lola makes THE BEST kare kare. Naturally, Mom and I were curious to see how Kalesa's version would compare to Lola's. The verdict: Lola Lily's kare kare remains unbeatable. Kalesa serves a decent KARE KARE, though, with a good balance of meat and vegetables and the sauce is of a nice consistency. Peanut flavour could be taken up a notch or two, in my opinion. On the flip side (no pun intended), the saltiness of the accompanying bagoong (Philippine condiment made of shrimp paste) could have been a lot less strong. My kids are not fans of pinoy cuisine, so the only thing that they could eat was the LUMPIANG SHANGHAI...even though these fried egg rolls weren't very crispy (Mom was disappointed). Surprisingly, my boys didn't even like the CRISPY FRIED CHICKEN which I enjoyed. The LECHON KAWALI (fried pork) was crispy and the sauce was tasty. The Sago't Gulaman (Filipino version of a sweet boba drink) was ok, just super filled with crushed ice and not enough of the actual beverage to drink. Less ice would have been better. I didn't touch the PANCIT CANTON because the noodle dish looked completely unappealing, the PANCIT PALABOK was good, though. I missed out on the HALO HALO ESPESYAL (Filipino dessert consisting of a medley of fruit and beans, topped with shaved ice and ice cream), which was no biggie since I'm not really into dessert, but it did look good. Overall, the food wasn't bad, but it wasn't fabulous. I have had better food, even tastier kare kare, at other Filipino restaurants. Will we return? If we are with Lola Lily, probably. read more

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I've been a long time customer and probably would try not to go there or order anymore. Adding 5% Tariff Recovery doesn't make sense! Tariffs are already charged when goods came in from out of the country. They have to explain what this "5% Tariff Recovery" represents. They've already increased the price and a mandatory 15% tip if you dine in. So that would be 20% additional to the total when you dine in. Whoever thought of that adding the tariff % is the person responsible for the decline of customers. read more

My boyfriend and I had our first experience here and it was fantastic! The food was incredibly delicious and flavorful, especially the ube ice cream, which was a standout. We enjoyed the BBQ chicken, bittermelon, and curry, and everything exceeded our expectations. The ambiance was pleasant and inviting, and the service was excellent. We're looking forward to returning and exploring more of the menu. Thank you for a wonderful dining experience! read more

Kalesa - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

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Maaaan, service here is good. I've been here a handful of times, & they've never failed to provide fast, efficient, & AMAZING Filipino food. Okay, I am really not exaggerating - Family Style, and portions are large. I ordered the white rice & they've mentioned it could feed 6 people. Soon as it came out, that plate could feed at least 12 people. We had to take the rest home. "Mind you there were 6 of us." We ordered the lechon Kuwali, Kare Kare, pansit, ukoy. I've had the sisig, diniguan, and Bangus belly on previous visits.. I can't wait to go back! I really gotta warn ya though... in our country we call it "putok sa leeg" or "Putok batok", haha. It pretty much describes that the food you eat will be hearty. I should of took pictures!! Ok next time I will. They have fresh coconut water, they have "Mais Con yelo", it's a dessert made with corn, shaved ice & milk.. and also halo halo. It can get loud, but it's pretty fair. Very family oriented restaurant. Carpeted, lit well through natural lighting, they have bathrooms, & the food comes out quick. By the way - if you're ordering the crispy pata? It's an actual crispy pata if you look it up on google, so you'll have to cut it up yourself and all. It's a large pig leg or hoof. read more

Came here for dinner because we had a positive experience before. This time around, the food was good but we waited more than half an hour for our food. Everyone around us were getting their food and we were seeing take out orders coming out. It was not busy. The appetizer and the other dishes arrived at the same time. Our server was a tall mid 30s? guy and he was chatting with the guy at the front and never checked on us. We were planning on ordering takeout and he came back and asked if we still want to order. I started asking how long will it take? But before I can even finish talking, he answers, okay I'll get the check for you bad walked away. I still gave them 18% tip because I know that's shared with others. But we always tip 20% and above if service was excellent. I hope this is a one off. read more

Amazing food and good customer service!. Haven't had good filipino in awhile and they did it!

Great Filipino food in Milpitas. The food is always "on point"!! They also do catering. I only wish they would bring back the "Sunday brunch AYCE"!! read more

This was my first time here and immediately impressed by the ambiance. We ordered kare-kare, lechon kawali, halo-halo, and coco cha cha, which all was delicious. Service was friendly and delivered promptly. read more

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my boyfriends family took me here for the first time! this Filipino restaurant is decently sized and good for big parties. looking around, all the other tables were large groups just like ours (8+ people). it must be a common place to celebrate birthdays because there were at least 2 bdays while we were eating! they play happy bday in filipino and english the food is pretty decent here - my favorites were the BBQ chicken and the palabok but honestly I enjoyed all the dishes. we ordered family style for the table which is what most groups here do they also have dessert- I'd recommend the halo halo or the fried turon read more

I was craving bicol express so badly and had to have some. The bicol express was sooo good! I just wish it was spicy, it didn't have any spice at all. The portions here are also really big! The service was really good and fast as well. read more

Kalesa - Spicy Pork Bicols Express - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

I came here for a family gathering. To be honest I don't know a lot when it comes to Filipino food. The place is moderate in size but worn out. We called a few days ahead and made reservations. The staff was very nice and accommodating. We ordered pancit, lechon Kawali, palabok, fried chicken, ukoy, pork sisig, sinigang, white rice and garlic rice. Everything came out quick and it was hot. For dessert we had the halohalo and ube ice cream. Everything was delicious. It looks like they do alot of catering because there was tons of trays of food waiting to get picked up. Two things I was not happy about 1) the bathroom smelled terrible. I didn't use it. Only went in to wash my hands and 2) saw a staff member with blue latex gloves on sticking her finger in her mouth trying to pick out something. I'm hoping she was not handling the food. Will I come here again? Maybe read more

Amazing food. The team were very nice. The food service was very quick. The waiters attended to our needs.

It was my first time here and it definitely won't be my last! Kalesa has been on my list for awhile and we were finally able to give it a try! We came on a Saturday night and it was quite crowded around 7pm. There were two large parties there but they were able to seat us fairly quickly. We ordered a bunch of dishes and enjoyed! Sizzling sisig was so good and flavorful. Garlic rice was amazing! Kare kare was well seasoned. Lechon and tofu were the perfect mix with the sauce. Only dish that wasn't quite to my liking was the chicken adobo- too salty. So many other dishes to try so I'll be back. The hospitality and service was top notch! read more

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Took my visiting Mom and Sister here. They enjoyed the pinakbet. Definitely will come again when in-town again.

Kalesa is one of my favorite Filipino restaurants. The place has a nice decor and very well spaced. The food here is delicious, too. I recommend their pork inihaw and chicharon bulaklak. read more

Great delicious Filipino food. I always get pork sisig here when we're craving it or for parties. Food is served family style.