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Kalesa

3.6 (1.1k reviews)
Closed • Closed
Updated 1 month ago

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KALESA ATMOSPHERE

What's the vibe?
Moderate noise
Classy
Casual
Happy hour specials

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Recommended Reviews - Kalesa

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Chicken BBQ (3 pcs)
Janice H.

My family and I come here for good Filipino food. I love their Bangus Sisig, it has so much flavor. I very much like it more than the pork Sisig. Also, I'm in love with the Beef Kaldareta, the taste feels just so homey like a kid again. Their Bulalo is very good and they give a lot of meat. Most Filipino food restaurants tend to use a lot of MSG, but I don't taste that at all in Kalesa's food. We've had small and large parties here and the waiters are always fast and very nice.

Pork Sinigang
Alisa B.

Pork Sinigang was a hit! Extremely large and tender pork belly chunks. The soup was perfectly sour and the vegetables were generously portioned. Eggplants and green beans were NOT soggy! Loved the daikon. Very delicious. The Tokwa't Baboy was a miss for me. The Lechon Kawali was very fatty, but a little too crunchy in my opinion. Lacked flavor too. Very little seasoning. Tofu especially was bland. Definitely dunk everything in the vinegar! Sizzling Pork Sisig... I had mixed feelings. There was a lot of flavor going on, to the point it was growing too salty. Some fattier pieces were tender and great with rice! Other pieces were really dry and tough in texture. I imagine the fish sisig would be more enjoyable for my preferences!

Bulalo
Kristine S.

Finally had dinner here with my bf on a rainy day. The bulalo hit the spot as we both wanted soup. We ate all. For dessert we had the coco cha cha. A good alternative to the halo halo. Definitely worth having. Service was good and when we went there was plenty of seating and parking spaces. Would definitely come back to eat other dishes.

Marc T.

Had an excellent time here eating with a group of friends on a Saturday night around 7 pm! It's part of a plaza in Milpitas and it's the only Filipino restaurant there. There's lots of parking so you don't have to worry about that. It was so bright, lively, and decorated for the holidays. We were sat immediately and there was a 70 year old birthday so we got to see the restaurant in full spirit and cheer. The restaurant is great for family style celebrations with long tables and so much space. We ordered 4 dishes: - Rice of course to go with the meats! - Sinigang: the national soup of the Philippines! It was done so well, with a great sour taste that cleanses your palate after eating oily foods. Lots of veggies and good portions of meat. - Tofu and Fried Pork: so crunchy and great pairing with vinegar sauce. - Pork Sisig: my absolute favorite with a good portion of diced onion. Loved all of it from the food, the service, and the atmosphere!

Cebu litson from kalesa
Maria C.

I ordered several food for my grandson 1st bday for delivery, they are on time! Food is good, typical filipino dish such as pancit, lumpia shanghai, garlic rice, reg rice, chopsuey, pancit, spaghetti, mechado and cebu lechon. Our visitors love and enjoy the food only thing is the mechado little disappointed due the meat is hard to chew, (chewy and rubbery) lots of left over. The rest all gone, except the mechado.

Erin P.

Food As always plenty of food that was top notch, we did family style for a family party and everything was good, very filling, well priced. We had everything from crispy pata, sinigang and more. Dessert serving of halo hall with ice cream was also a generous serving. Ambiance This place is usually busy and packed since it's popular. Service Standard wait staff as expected.

Chicken inasal
Annabelle R.

Craving filipino food this past weekend, with not many places in the area open after 6pm on Sundays (many not open at all on Sundays), we ended up at Kalesa. This is a rare filipino fine dining establishment, with plenty of items to choose from on the menu. We got the beef bistek, pork bbq, chicken inasal, and some steamed rice for takeout. Staff provided very friendly service, and we were accurately quoted a reasonable 20-25 minute wait for our order to be ready. The chicken inasal was a bit dry but had good flavor, the beef bistek was saucy with tender pieces of meat and lots of onions which I love, and the pork bbq had a good amount of meat on the sticks, slightly charred, with a nice balance of sweet and smoky, though a tad salty. Overall, I was happy with the quality and taste. But with such a hefty price tag, you really gotta blow me away, and I didn't think the value was quite there. The fact that they don't offer individual sized portions or plates for anything but breakfast kinda sucks. And even the silog dishes are $20+ after tax. On the bright side, we ended up with lots of delicious leftovers to last us several days.

Melissa N.

forgot to take many pictures as i was engulfed in conversations but i highly recommend coming with a group so you can try a bunch of different things family style! the food was very flavourful and staff was great, very kind and also very funny (it was a birthday and they do it up!)

Lechon Kawali
Kevin R.

Ordered sisig, lechon kawali & the garlic rice. Highly recommend all of it! The service could've been better but definitely would come back.

Kare Kare
Ed S.

Whenever we're in Milpitas, Kalesa is our go-to place for Filipino food. We came on a Saturday and noticed a big Birthday celebration; the place was reserved for almost 50 people. We're only a few who were able to get a table right away. If you're planning on dining here, call or make a reservation so that you won't be surprised by a waiting time especially if there's a big celebration they are hosting. We ordered the daing na bangus and Kare Kare. The Kare Kare is generous in serving. They have a lot of oxtail and they are tender. The bangus is fresh and cooked right. We always enjoy Filipino food whenever we come to Kalesa. The service is also fast and excellent.

Waiting  bench
Net A.

Really so famished so this hit the spot!! Very elegant looking spacious dining area. Tables covered with dainty cream linen and place setting of white ceramic dinner plate and utensils kept inside a small brown bag on top of paper white disposable table napkins. Amiable server gave a stellar service! Ordered TOCILOG breakfast served with pieces of pork tocino , 2 fried eggs and a cup shaped garlic fried rice ! Meat was tender and savory ! Gotta have veggies so the SITAW and Squash with shrimps in the coconut milk gravy was very creamy and delicious!! Now can't skip the LECHON KAWALI...pork belly slap with crunchy skin !! For 3 people with the large servings there were still leftovers to go!! Will definitely be back to try other dishes like SISIG, KARE KARE and DINUGUAN !

Wei Y.

Tried Filipino food for the first time--not really my thing. Sizzling Sisig (2/5): First impression? Salty. Second impression? Dry and tough. Some fatty bits were a little better in texture, but overall it was just too salty and dry for me. Crispy Pata (3/5): The portion was huge--two giant pork knuckles. The skin was crispy, but in a super hard way that made it tough to bite into. Not the kind of crispy I was expecting. Sizzling Bangus Sisig (3/5): The fish was minced and cooked with onions and chili, and the crispy skin was laid on the bottom. The seasoning was quite sour--okay at first, but it got overwhelming after a few bites. There was also a half-cooked egg on the side... not really sure how I was supposed to eat it. Overall, the food wasn't really my style, but the vibe in the restaurant was great. A few tables were celebrating birthdays while we were there, and the staff really brought the energy and made it fun. If you're into rich, meaty, and bold flavors, it might be worth a try!

Ginataang Kalabasa at sitaw (squash & string beans with coconut milk)
Bienvenido A.

Big dinning area. Can accommodate about 70 people. This place do catering. Ok reception. Great service. Good flavorful grand ma kitchen food. Lechon kawali was super crispy yet not burned. Squash/string beans with coconut milk was my favorite. Tocino/sunny side up egg and garlic rice (Tapsilog breakfast plate) was good.,Came in at 11:00 am when they opened and still served. Sago (tapioca) on the gulaman drink was hard and not fully cooked. Colorful presentation but disappointing taste. Not sweet enough. Overall, it's still worth coming back.

Pancit palabok, rice, sigsig 10/10

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9 years ago

This was the only filipino restaurant that serves pancit malabon. Their ukoy is superb! Good alternative to Barrio Fuesta.

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17 years ago

The breakfast buffet is pretty good. You can count on it being your only meal for the rest of your Sunday.

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Page 21 of 28

Ask the Community - Kalesa

Will they have an Easter Sunday Buffet in 2026?

Is this place still open ? No one is answering the phone

Do you still have Sunday brunch?

No more

Do they serve buffet on weekends? If so what time?

Nope

What are the choices for their Sunday breakfast buffet?

Typically they have arroz caldo (rice porridge) with all the fixins', I.e, crispy garlic, hard boiled egg, green onions, etc, scrambled eggs, tocino (sweet pork) or tapa (fried beef), rice, and some other vegetable. There are times I've gone and… Read more

Are there a good amount of vegetarian options on the menu?

If you're a vegetarian, don't come here.

How much is breakfast buffet?

$19.99 adults and senior, $12.99 kids (height 28"-42")

Is kalesa closed every wednesday?

It is closed on Tuesday, not Wednesday.

Is this an all day buffet?

It is not buffet. It’s a sit-down, order from the menu restaurant.

Do they offer to go? Specifically the halo halo?

Yes, you can order to-go.

View All 19 Questions

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Isla Restaurant

Isla Restaurant

3.8(1.4k reviews)
6.3 mi
•$$

Its a very wonderful experience! First off, parking is huge!…read more That day is my sister-in-law father's death anniversary. We called in on a Monday night, no hassle, no need to book an appointment for the party of 12 people, less hassle. We ordered our food and the waiter is so nice to tell us that we have a free appetizer! Which we had fried tofu (they have other options too). We got the unlimited rice which is cool for people who love to eat rice. Bad side? Our order got a little mishap, the kitchen forgot one of our order Chicharon bulaklak, but we never mind cause we are already full. But, that's less money on the management. One note, for people more than 6 people, you are being charged for service fee (so watch out). Secondly, cause we are regulars here, the food we had now is not as good as flavorful as we had before. Better retrain the kitchen for the betterment of the taste. All in all we had a blast! Thank you people on the floor to make that happen!

The food here is good, but it's a bit on the pricey side in my opinion…read more We had a family dinner, party of 11. Fun times...so much so that I forgot to take pictures of the food! The only one I remembered to get was the Halo Halo, which was a little over $10. So that alone should give you an idea of the prices. (Side note...I attended a gathering that catered from another Isla location and just like the San Bruno location, the food was really good)

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Grill City - halo halo

Grill City

2.4(148 reviews)
3.3 mi
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Certainly not a 2.4 (the current rating) but not a 4 either. Still I'm going to give it a 4…read morebecause it's not bad at all and I love the portions for the cost. But it just wasn't great. I'm still searching for my "go to" Filipino restaurant and this isn't it. It would do in a pinch though and if you're hankering for some skewers of meat, you could definitely do worse. FOOD: Good but not great as I said before. I did enjoy the chicken skewers but found the pancit lacking. The rice...was okay. Pretty good actually. SERVICE: Loved the portions and it was packaged well so good marks for that. COST: For the portions, the cost was very reasonable and honestly, if the food was a bit better, I would give it even a higher score.

Grill City is located inside Seafood City, a Filipino supermarket, which makes it a convenient stop…read moreespecially if you're already doing grocery shopping. For my meal, I ordered the grilled pompano, pork sinigang, and dinakdakan. The grilled pompano was decent and cooked nicely. The pork sinigang was good, and the broth had a solid tamarind flavor that was not too sour. That said, it was missing some of the veggies such as string beans, eggplants, tomatoes, and okra. The dinakdakan was really good, with a nice sweet and savory taste. The customer service was good, but overall it was slow, so it helps to plan for a bit of a wait. On top of that, the surroundings were clean, and there's plenty of parking.

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Grill City
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Halo halo

Ems Kusina - Pop-Up at South San Francisco

Ems Kusina

4.2(58 reviews)
18.2 mi

Ambience (5/5) - Pinoy Karaoke + the smell of Ihaw, what else could you ask for? Beer, siguro sunod…read morena yan hahahaha. Food(6/5) - Any Filipino will tell you, it doesnt matter if Ate is in South SF, San Jose, and now Hayward, people WILL drive to eat her food. Isaw, Pares, Sisig, the Elusive Empanada na palaging paubos na, pati yung Inasal masarap walangya. Amazing food, this is coming from someone born and raised in the PH. Best Pinoy food in the Bay! Owner (10/5) - Nako pag may nakita kang palibot libot na sexy, alam mo na si ate yun. Jokes aside, ate actually is at her location all the time, mapafood truck pa or Brick and Mortar na. Very humble, and I cannot be more happy for her, she gets to take her shot at a permanent location now! tl;dr - Pumunta ka nalang, you wont regret it.

Saw on my social media feed about this place and realized it was the same location as Toto's grill…read morewhich closed many years ago. Was excited to find out another Filipino business taking over. I've had my fair share of tusok-tusok experiences in California and I mean it when I say that I am happy this place opened up. I think prices are pretty fair for a bbq stick in the Bay Area. They carry pork bbq, hot dogs, intestine, kwek-kwek, bettamax, pig ears, etc! Although I wish they had fishball or squid ball for even more variety but thats ok. They provide a marinade to brush on while you grill your own BBQ and provide vinegar and another sweet sauce for you to dip it in post-grilling. Overall, the flavor is really good and you can't really go wrong. They carry other items on the menu in which they serve to you such as sisig, pares, siaomai, empanada (available weekends only), lumpia, melon juice, etc. And yes they have rice! I wish I took pictures of the food we ordered but the kids got to it first while we were bbqing. We went on a Thursday evening so it wasn't too crowded but they still kept the party going with karaoke and music. I could imagine the place being full on weekends. The parking could also get tricky in that area if full too. They take cash, Zelle, and card (with surcharge). The grill is located inside in the center of the restaurant so it gets pretty smoky inside even with all the doors open and vents running. So expect to smell like delicious bbq coming out lol.

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Ems Kusina - Pig stomach, pig ears, chicken intestines, and chicken feet.

Pig stomach, pig ears, chicken intestines, and chicken feet.

Ems Kusina - Liempo

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Kalesa - filipino - Updated June 2026

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