Kalesa occupies a commercial strip with 3 boba shops And a Taiwanese chicken shop. Inside dining area is vast. walls decorated with Xmas items, other pics. Not uber fancy, more upscale than most Filipino eateries. Was greeted by host upon entering, assigned a table. Got a menu. Ordered soon after. Offerings: drinks, desserts, sides, vegetables, noodles, soup, seafood, chicken, pork, beef, all day breakfast, appetizers, "what's good"...individual dishes are of different cooking styles... Eats: crispy pata (24.50)-deep fried pig trotters/knuckle -seldom see this, choose this over lechon kawaii -very crispy skin. Tender, juicy meat with thin layer of melted fat. Some Fats are monosaturated good fat. -pata doesn't taste marinated, natural flavor. All flavoring comes from the soy-vinegar dip. * decadently deliz. For health reasons, once a week is enough. Garlic rice (4) one scoop -had nuanced flavor like the others. Wouldn't re-order. Halo halo espesyal (7.50) -2 scoops of ice cream on top, shaved ice in middle. Beans, fruits, gelatin on bottom. Deliz. -ate it along with crispy pata. Didn't wait till after. -nice mix of rich creaminess with the rest. Shaved ice an annoyance. Should have scoop it out sooner. *prices dining in is lower than online ordering.. October is Filipino American History Month -commemorates the lst Filipino appearance (via Spanish Navy) in the U.S. on 10/18/1587 at what is now Morro Bay, Ca. read more

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A great spot to have some good Filipino food. We like coming here with our family. The portions are good and deliciously made. The service is quick and the staff is kind. They do sweet things for birthdays. We ordered our favorites, pancit, Kare kare, crispy pata, bulalo, bulaklak and halo halo. The bulaklak is my all time favorite. Great crunch and flavor! Kare Kare is very creamy and has a lot of meat and veggies. We had to take some food Togo cause we couldn't finish it all since we saved room for halo halo. read more

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If you are looking for a Filipino restaurant, this is the best in the area! They cook Pinoy dishes so well and with huge servings too!

Dining area is clean. Tables are close to each other esp if you are sitting in the middle. Service was good, they were nice and friendly. Then came the food..... Sisig was hard and dry. We all got a small spoonful each when it came out and no one touched it again. Felt more like 1-2 day old reheated meat. Better to get beef jerky sticks. Pancit bihon was definitely all BIHON. Barely any meat or veggies. No taste, very bland. Bihon was pale. Kare kare pata had a good taste except for it should be called green beans kare kare. Half a pata and tons of green beans. The whole bottom of the bowl was filled with green beans, a few pieces of eggplant. Bistek, good soy lime flavor. Good portion of beef. This was probably the most enjoyable out of all the dish. The stars are for service and the place itself. Food was a let down. read more

The food is great no matter when you go. The people are amazing and treat each guest as they the person is the only person in the restaurant. I will take my family there to celebrate my birthday in July. read more

First time trying a Filipino restaurant! The interior is nice and kind of homey and the servers were great. Will do a quick breakdown of all the food ordered but favorites were definitely the Pork Adobo and Halo Halo for dessert. Kare Kare (6/10): The peanuty flavor was good but I think I'm a little biased against this dish because I didn't think the oxtail and choice of veggies were that palatable. Thankfully my girlfriend seemed to enjoy it a bit more for the oxtail but I wouldn't order it again. Pork Adobo (8/10): I loved this as my main entree, so juicy and flavorful, but the only downside was it's super salty. Portions are huge though and I would order again. Large Garlic Rice (9/10): I didn't realize "large" would really mean this enormous plate of rice. The closeup picture really doesn't do it justice as I tend to devour 2 cups of rice on my own, but this would have easily fed 4-5 people. The flavor was delicious, it's not just rice! Halo Halo (9/10): We savored this dessert for sure, you get a touch of flan, Ube ice cream, and some jelly-like ingredients that im ignorant on. It's a really nice blend of different textures and flavors, definitely get it! Overall, Kalesa has got me craving Filipino food again after writing this! read more

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Love Kalesa!! First the customer service is exceptional yes, you might have to wait to be seated, but that says a lot and worth it! I will wait to eat the food because it's so fresh and delicious. Can't wait to go back with my family again!! read more

I ordered food for our Christmas dinner, paid almost 300, and I was really disappointed. I ordered crispy pata which was overcooked, bbq was burned, the only dish that my family enjoyed was dinakdakan. The rest was not up to par read more

We visited on a Saturday night and found parking quickly in the plaza parking. We ordered the sagot gulaman and it was too sweet. The calamari was good as always with vinegar-y soy sauce and a creamy tartar sauce. We ordered the pata, crispy pork, which was good with the sauce, the squid was good really chewy and I liked the char flavor, bangus sisig was really good very flavorful definitely recommend. I also really like the Chop suey vegetable mix and the grilled chicken both flavorful as well! The staff was helpful and the food came out fast. The ambiance was aesthetic. read more

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Horrible good. Pancit had hard pieces of chicharrón, tiny shrimp from a can. and non-existing chicken. But it boasted the three of them. Yuck! Too expensive for a poor quality fish. read more

Met up with a friend that really likes this restaurant. We had lunch and order a few items. what we ordered and rating: - young coconut water 5/5 really good. felt like i was in vacay for a min -pancit 3.5/5 it was pretty good but, a bit salty -lumpia 3/5 good, tiny -fish fillets 3/5 definately didnt expect it to be good -halo-halo 4/5 was really good and shareable overall, the food is good and i had a good experience! read more

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I met a couple of friends here for dinner, and we decided to split everything family style: - dinuguan (5/5) - pork sisig (5/5) - pancit bihon (5/5) - Lechon kawali (I did not taste this dish myself, but by the looks of it, it was really good and everyone else enjoyed) - pandan iced tea (5/5 especially if you enjoy four seasons drinks) - garlic rice Our server was extremely attentive and made sure we had everything we needed. The food was absolutely delicious and came in huge portions so we had plenty of leftovers. The restaurant was clean, parking was easy, and I loved the family friendly atmosphere. We'll be back! read more

The food there is good but theyre on the pricey side of thangs but its ok in this economy you know the service is good as well if you are craving for some filipino food go here read more

Looking forward to starting our weekend with a Filipino dinner on Friday evening. We picked Kalesa in Milpitas on a recommendation. I have to say that we were disappointed in the food quality. Rice was undercooked Kare Kare was not hot Lechon was not as crunchy. We were looking forward to a good filipino dinner and top it off with a halo halo but the disappointment of the food led us to not ordering dessert. Not sure if they were understaffed or had equipment issues but it left an questionable impression on our dining experience read more

Delicious food! We had a family style dinner and I tried the kare kare, pancit palabok, crispy pata, sisig, lechon, and the garlic fried rice. All very delicious food and very authentic. Service was good. This place is VERY CROWDED, so make a reservation. Even with the reservation, you will still have to wait a bit. Would love to return again for more someday. read more

Kalesa - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

Service was excellent. Gigi was very personable and attentive to our needs making sure our drinks were always toped off!! Ambiance was nice. Tables were not too close to each other and noise level was tolerable. Food: 1) Crispy Dinuguan - very tasty and pork was not fatty. 5 of 5 2) Pancit Miki Bihon - flavor was slightly bland 3 of 5. Seemed like it was missing something but could not figure it out 3) Pinakbet - kind of soupy and we liked as it was not too salty. 4 of 5 4) Chicken Inasal - flavor was spot on so 5 of 5 5) Crispy pata - excellent 5 of 5 6) lumpia shanghai was slightly over cooked 3 of 5 7) calamari was also spot on so 5 of 5 We know what to order at the next visit and we look forward to having Gigi service us. She is great and we really enjoyed interacting with her!! read more

Kalesa has been a great spot for catering and large parties for our family. The food is traditional like homemade and tasty! The staff was helpful w/ our group of 30 on a Sat night. Previous they catered for us for 75 people. Parking is easy w/ a lot outside. read more

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Many mixed feelings, but I also have the sense that on their good days it's a solid pick for legit filipino food. That also being said, they don't really give much guidance on what their food even includes so for newcomers like myself it's a bit opaque (and our server wasn't helpful in sussing things out). Willing to give it another try, but the experience definitely could be improved on. Parking is at the very least a ready thing as the lot is quite wide open so it shouldn't be hard to drop by and try things out. Service is something of a mixed bag and it's sometimes a bit confusing as to what to listen to. We were told by one server to just sit tight for a second, then told by another to write our details down (with phone number), then get told by a third we could sit immediately. Talk about whiplash. Our server that took our order didn't seem interested in helping us figure out the menu and which ones had (shell)fish due to my brother's allergies...so we just eyeballed our dishes. When I asked them later about the unidentified paste with the Kare Kare, they didn't seem too apologetic for not telling us ahead of time it was shrimp-based. ==Kare Kare - 2.5/5* If you eat it with their shrimp paste it's probably closer to a 3.5, but without it it's honestly a pretty underwhelming dish. The shrimp paste seems to have *all* the salt you need, and probably a few heapings more. It was honestly kind of tricky figuring out how much to put in cause it's so strong. But if you can't eat shrimp and assumed it was only beef it's extremely bland and the peanut flavor is really muted. Veggies were fresh, but felt rather undercooked for a stew, especially the eggplant. The stew texture was reasonably thick, but didn't really help when the flavor was just not there. ==Sizzling Sisig - 3.5/5 Reasonably good juicy pork bites, albeit with a few minuses that didn't sit great with me. The platter, while hot to touch, wasn't sizzling anything and yet the meat was generally half burnt on the bottom. A bit of charring is fine, but burnt bits messes up meat a lot. This next thing might be a cultural differenec, but it was also served with diced raw onion and green pepper, the former of which gave a really strong bite I wasn't too fond of. Definitely would prefer it just to have been cooked and it'd be so much better...which might've been more likely to happen if it was more sizzling, but it was also served on top rather than on the bottom. Pretty solid value either way, since it's a positively massive serving. ==Garlic Rice - 3/5 It was perfectly fine to eat, but just didn't seem all that special for a cup of rice with fried garlic bits tossed into the mix. Portion size + price is up so my brother and I split a single 'cup'. ==Halo Halo - 5/5 Honestly the meal's saving grace. Undeniably good, despite being rather different from our typical dessert fare. The ube ice cream melting around the shaved ice and flavoring the beans and jellies made for a wonderful blend as we munched through. read more

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One of my favorite Filipino restaurant in the bay. Been going here since I was a kid and it has never failed to bring the best tasting food. The service is great and I love all the staff. Great place to eat with your family and friends. read more

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Came here a couple times with my family. Overall, the food feels like home! Tastes as if my grandma cooked it in the kitchen. My only reason for 3 stars is the place is a little small and everyone is kind of close to each other. Also some of the glasses and silverware looked a bit dirty so had to rewipe them. Other than that, definitely check it out for the food! read more

My bf took me to Kalesa for my first time trying it as we were nearby the area. We never really get filipino food outside as we already have them at home, but this was a great time to try the place out. We went on a Monday so it was not busy at all, and the service we received was super speedy and chill. I'm super indecisive when it comes to ordering and I can say that Kalesa's menu made it even harder for me to choose since everything looked so good. If only I could order and have a little bit of every single thing on the menu. I am Filipino so I've had 90% of what the menu has, but it is definitely different seeing many of the foods introduced by the Philippines in one sitting. Makes you wanna order more than what your party can eat! We decided to order their sizzling sisig and their sitaw kalabasa sa gata, which is basically a veggie stew with string green beans and squash in coconut cream. The sisig was a 5/5 as the cut was more thick and bigger compared to how other Filipino restaurants do it, and I loved that because it felt more savory to eat. The toppings also had a great ratio with the meat and the serving size was bigger than I expected! With the veggie stew, it was a 4/5 as I love anything with coconut cream and the veggies were a perfect pair to the cream, although it could have been a little less salty. Overall, the meal was delicious and filling. We also ordered their halo halo for dessert because obvi it's mandatory before heading out! It was perfect for the hot day in Milpitas and I was impressed with the amount of jellies and toppings they put. read more

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I don't usually eat filipino food so I was super excited to try this place out. The prices are great and portions are huge. Busy for a Friday night but my group was able to get seated right away. Fast service. Garlic rice is a must. I could just swallow it all. I love garlic rice. The sisig silog is probably the best I've had! Big portion and had the grill taste to it. Pancit was not so much, but too lemony. Not enough shrimp for what you're paying. Crispy pata was just a no.... Smelt like pig and I was not about that. Too fatty but not the restaurants fault. Just a fatty foot. Halo Halo - Expensive for lots of ice. Some of the best flan I've had. The workers here are sweet. Even after they closed and I was in the parking, I knocked asking if I could use the bathroom and they let me back in. read more

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Much better if I'm the one who cook,all food that i ordered is zero ratings,maybe I can apply as their cook,even 1 star is hard to give,by the way it's my husband's bday today...not very happy read more

We had a company lunch here to welcome a new employee. There were about 14 of us and we each ordered one item. We had had enough food left for a few days of lunch left. Everything we ordered was great tasting and included rice. There service was excellent. Only took a few photos. read more

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We came to eat at 4pm. The place was not packed which is good. We're Filipinos and the food confused us.The taste is not there. All of their dishes lacks umami. The pancit malabon had bits of squid that is so rubbery. It also has bits of pork that seems old and as hard as a pebble. This was our second time eating here. The first time was not impressive however we gave it a second try. Now we can say we're not going back.The taste of their food lacks a lot of things. Our server was an older guy. He is nice but he's serving 4 other tables. There are other servers around and they were just passing by us, the lady servers kept checking at their faces on the big mirror on the wall and never saw that our glass was empty. Nobody bothered to ask if need more water. This is very basic in a restaurant and then again they failed. So frustrating to get a service like this in a Filipino restaurant. read more

3.5 stars. This restaurant has been around for years. Parking can be challenging because it is a small lot supporting all the restaurants and businesses in that strip mall. Most of the time, the service is friendly and attentive. Tocilog: Tocino + SInangag + itLOG (sweet cured pork + garlic rice + fried eggs). Sweet, savory, and addicting pork. The garlic rice was good. The fried egg had nice crispy edges. Longsilog: LONGanisa+ SInangag + itLOG (Filipino breakfast pork sausage + garlic rice + fried eggs). Similar to the above, but will a sweet pork sausage that you savored to the end. Kare Kare: Ox tail chops & vegetables in peanut sauce. Bagoong on the side. The ox tail was meaty and plentiful. But, the peanut sauce was not what I was expecting. I am glad I tried it, but it was not a flavor profile for me. Beef Bistek: Tender slices of sirloin beef sauteed in lemon soy sauce and topped with sweet onions. Honestly, I really can't remember. I was having so much fun with our friends. I know the waitstaff recommended it. Crispy Pata (2 Pcs): Deep fried pork hock with their own vinegar based sauce. Crispy, crunchy skin. Some parts of the meat were dry while other parts were good. The sauce was a delicious dipping sauce; tangy, tart, and garlicky. Sisig: Their Signature Dish. Diced grilled pork with special sauce, onions, and jalapenos on the side. Just put it all together, mix and enjoy. This was good but a tad salty for my taste. Halo Halo: Medley of fruits and beans with shaved ice & topped with choice of mango, ube, avocado & langka ice cream. The first time I had this here, it started my appreciation of it. Now, whenever I see it at other places, it makes me want to get it! Such a delicious and rich treat! Reminds me of Vietnamese che but with more sweet goodies in it. read more

We came for dinner at 6:45 pm on Thursday 3/07/24 and were turned away. The posted hours on Yelp are 11 am to 8 pm (see photo), but we were told they close at 7 pm, and their kitchen closes at 6. Who TF closes their kitchen at 6 pm? We truly believe the front desk lady lied to us as the couple ahead of us had just placed a takeout order. To close a kitchen at 6 is ridiculous. Some people are just getting off work at 6 or stuck in traffic. This is Bay Area. This is the real reason why some restaurants don't make it. They don't want the business. Kalesa clearly made it known they didn't want ours. read more

Kalesa - 3/07/24 Apparently, they close at 7 not 8 at listed here. - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

Always really good experience. The Kare kare and sisig is really good. The crispy Pata and caldaretta is super good too

Yummy authentic Filipino food. We enjoyed our dinner here and service was great as they seated our large family of 20+ The kids enjoyed the special music when the waitstaff delivered our birthday dessert. Love the halo halo!! The staff was also patient with us as we rearranged furniture as we took some family pics right before the restaurant closed. Definitely will be back!! read more

Kalesa - Pinakbet - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

I ordered party trays for a bday celebration. All of the food are salt laden except Kare Kare. I threw the left over Pancit Bihon- super salty. 2-3 guests had swollen ankles when they got home lol. read more

My parents often seek the comfort of Filipino food, whether for takeout or dining in. This restaurant holds a special place in their hearts, especially for my dad, who passionately recommends it whenever we plan to eat out. Their fish sisig is a delight, and the beef mechado and beef nilaga, along with all the soups on the menu, are truly exceptional. You can always count on their lumpiang Shanghai, which is my son's favorite! read more

We made a reservation for a family event. The first server was good, a gentleman who constantly checking what we needed. And then a woman took over to bring our food on the table. She got an attitude when we asked for rice. We had to get up and find our server since she didn't come back and checked on our table if we needed napkins, water or anything else, whatever. I don't think she's happy with her job either. She just disappear, we're suppose to order more food but lost appetite how she treated us. The worst thing is they just automatically add 20% tip when the server doesn't even deserved to get tip with the bad service. Ambiance was okay, since we had early dinner reservation it wasn't that loud. Food was okay, the pancit needed more flavor, the kare kare is all bone and watery. The buco pandan is missing flavor. Flan is just okay. read more

I ordered halo-halo since it's warm today, but I was really disappointed. The ube and avocado ice cream tasted old and had an icy texture. This version of halo-halo was very different from what I expected--it only had gulaman and only a few strips of macapuno. The leche flan wasn't creamy at all. Service was also poor. The staff didn't smile and came across as very unapproachable. I wouldn't recommend this place if you're craving authentic Filipino cuisine. read more

just ordered today june 19 recd delivery at 12:10. it's guisado and lumpia shanghai. sad to say we're sooooo disappointed the pancit taste weird like burnt and smell burnt . lumpia is soggy . I hope you won't serve this kind of cooking. oo read more

Kalesa - Pancit guisado - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

The sisig silog was good for me because it was mostly the meaty part and not the fat, it had a kick to it which i like. The garlic rice was plenty, i didn't order the eggs. The lumpia was fresh and crunchy and very tasty.. glad that it wasn't salty. I took out one star because i absolutely thought their items on the menu was a little overpriced. read more

Kalesa - Sisig Silog - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

I haven't been here in awhile and today met up with old friends and new friends. The staff here are nice, friendly and accommodating as I remembered. We ordered several dishes and portions are big! I remember how good their kare-kare (oxtail peanut soup) and pork sinigang (hot and sour soup) are. They didn't disappoint! The food comes out very quick! read more

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

We called ahead to make reservations for four. My family and I were there for a birthday dinner. We ordered an appetizer, Calabasa with shrimp & beans, and pancit. For dessert, we shared a halo halo. Everything was delicious! read more

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A staple if you've lived in the bay, this is the place to take your relatives to when they're from out of town. Recently our latest visit changed all that. Came in on a Saturday and it wasn't crowded so it was a win for us. Glad to know they've managed to keep afloat despite the pandemic. For a party of 4, we were seated right away. As an appetizer we ordered the Ukoy which came out pretty fast .(good too because we were hungry) Three huge pieces enough to feed 4 people, it came with sukang to dip it into. It was on the sweeter side which threw me off since I was expected a more vinegar taste. Regardless it was good. Then we ordered the Filipino Spaghetti and Pancit Malabon, and this is where the quality went down. Both dishes upon arrival were cold. Typically when we come here these dishes are hot and steamy. We ended up flagging a waiter to ask them if they could heat it up and or swap it out for a new one which they did. You can see that the spaghetti is cold because the cheese didn't even melt. Our other dishes such as the Sizzling Sisig and Chicken Inasal were just as we expected it to be and tasted great like it did those other times we've been here. Lastly, after we boxed everything up and signed the check. It's as if they forgot us, because we waited probably 20 minutes before they came over to ask if we wanted the check again. Had to tell them we were currently waiting for our card read more

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It's hard to find a decent legit filipino restaurant that makes good food. This place definitely does it for us, it's just a bummer that it's so far from us! It makes the visit worth it. I normally cook my food so it was nice to eat filipino food that I didn't have to cook! We ordered the bulalo, kare kare, sisig, crispy pata, and pancit bihon. The bulalo meat was tender, but I wasn't a fan of the flavor of the soup. I made bulalo a few nights before and I preferred mine. I love kare kare and my mom makes it delicious. There's nothing like your mom's cooking, but the kare kare here is not too bad! The veggies were a little tough and undercooked. I'm not sure if they use actual peanut butter or a powdered mix for the kare kare sauce but it tastes a lot different than my mom who uses actual peanut butter. The sisig was amazing and I don't know anyone who doesn't like crispy pata! The halo halo definitely hit the spot! It was the perfect day to get it because it was so hot. Overall 4/5 stars because service was pretty quick especially since they were busy. And the food was not too shabby! Probably one of the better filipino restaurants I've been to. read more

Kalesa - Kare kare, bulalo, pata, sisig - Filipino Near Me - Milpitas, California

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