Kabayan in Tagalog (the national language of the Philippines) means "fellow countryman" and it was in this spirit that we decided to check out this restaurant. I'm not a native of the Philippines but being part Filipino, I grew up with a lot of the food and it's always been a sort of comfort food for me. Unfortunately, there's only one Filipino restaurant in all of Melbourne (what's up with that?! My former city of 250,000 had 10 of them!) and it's all the way in... Cairnlea?
So we dusted off the car and headed out to the western suburbs on a chilly Saturday afternoon, all the while hoping that I could find a little taste of "home" in a suburban shopping centre at the corner of Ugly McMansion Road and Sprawl-tastic Boulevard. To start, this place is pretty darned cheap. For $9.50, you get two sides, a scoop of rice and a canned drink. It could very well be the most affordable meal in all of Melbourne.
I tried the beef stew and the sisig. My partner also had the beef stew and a chicken curry dish. What I was really hoping for was chicken adobo, but they had run out by the time we got there (I guess you have to get there early for the good stuff). However, they did have lumpia shanghai (spring rolls) so we ordered a plate of those for an extra 5 bucks.
Overall, I have to say that it wasn't bad. Everything tasted pretty decent and my decidedly non-Filipino partner even liked it too. I'd definitely go back. It's certainly cheaper than a trip to the Philippines.
By the way, there's a place to get your car detailed in the shopping centre car park and they only charge $45! We brought it in to get detailed before going into the restaurant; by the time we had finished eating, they were done - and they did a lovely job too. read more