Cabalen

Good food and can’t beat the price. 9.99 during the week and 11.99 on weekends. It’s a no brainer. The Kare-​late was the best item, the chicken was Fresh and crispy.

My parents and I had a late lunch here after they picked me up from the airport. We didn’t know this was a buffet place so we were really excited. Good selection of dishes but very disappointed with the desserts. Prices for lunch buffet are great and the service is good. They’re attentive to the dishes they need to refill. Lots of seating and TV entertainment is available. Parking can be tricky but if you get lucky, there are good spots right in front.

Came here for lunch today and was impressed with their food. Lunch buffet is $ 10. My favorites are the kare kare (tender meat), dinuguan (not fatty) and buro with steamed veggies. They also have buko juice and melon juice included in the buffet. I noticed their food is in professional warmers and was hot, they must have listened to the reviews. All in all, I like and will be back.

As a bodybuilder I’m a fan of buffets since I can construct plates that adhere to nutritional constraints I have set for myself. I came across cabalen today and was thoroughly satisfied with what they offered, especially considering their very affordable price range.
The venue is also very nice and clean

Burong isda with boiled greens, and fried fish! is very Capampangan! Manyaman abe!

Been here 3 times. Each time we happen to come in during slower hours of the day after lunch rush. Food was consistently restaurant quality. Delicious and inviting. Kept warm and replenished. Atmosphere was relaxed. OPM music delightfully played in the background.
Servers gave us one-​on-​one attention, cooked us made-​to-​order sisig dishes, and refilled our drinks and serving plates without difficulty. I don’t think we will ever want to come during a lunch and dinner rush. Having a meal needs to be a satisfying and relaxing experience. Far too many fast food places around already.

The diniguan is a bit too salty, and its my favorite. soup was salty as well… I drank so much water, so i didnt really get my moneys worth. I had more water than the food. If i had known I’ll be having water as my main course, i could have just gone home and have a buffet of water.
Will i return, peolly not, my first time here and prolly my last.

Cabalen specializes in Filipino cuisine from Pampanga. Since my mom is from Pampanga, I’m used to good Kapangpangan food. While Cabalen is not as good as home made, it hit the spot, especially for the lunch price of $ 11.99.
I have been there several times and they have a pretty good selection. They offer beverages like buko juice, canteloupe juice (just like my Lola’s) and sago. They also have a variety of soups to choose from. My fave is the lechon sinigang. It has just the right amount of tartness that I crave. I will usually gravitate towards their kare kare, especially since they serve it with bagoong (shrimp paste). I mean how can you eat kare kare without it, right? I’ll wait until they refresh the buffet table and swoop right in for choice pieces of oxtail. Other faves are the sisig (sizzling beef ckeek), bistek (steak with onions), fried chicken, pansit, dinuguan (chocolate meat), chop suey, adobo, binagoongan (pork in shrimp paste) and pochero (chicken in tomato sauce.
I literally roll out this place since I eat so much.
While I generally like their food, their desserts are a different story. There are many varietes they could choose to serve, but it’s as if they don’t put any effort into it. They seem to have the same ones over and over again and the quality is sub-​par.
This lack of effort extends to their service as well. Filipinos are such a warm and gracious people, especially Kapangpangans, but you don’t feel that here. Servers are pretty non-​existent, especially when you’re looking for them. The people who refill the buffet dart out from the kitchen and quickly retreat back. I was expecting to feel like I was visiting relatives or a friend’s house. It’s too bad because the restaurant is beautiful with traditional and modern touches which blend together perfectly.
If I’m back in the area, I would certainly put on my fat pants and indulge. But I would do so knowing their shortcomings and won’t expect too much.

Was looking forward to this, but didn’t have big expectation given fellow Unilocaler reviews.
Y’all right.
Overall, food was subpar. There are many Filipino restaurants in the area, and you’re probs better off at those. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good buffet, but this one you may want to pass on.
As many other reviewers have noted, the hot food was only luke warm. They may need to power up those heat lamps. Could not even tan freckles. As my Filipino motherly companion said, «First thing about restaurant… Must have good rice. This is not good rice, that’s why there are no customers.» Lechon is burnt too, major downer.
On the bright side, the Buko juice was cold, refreshing, and coconut-​licious! :)
Sorry Cabalen. You’ve let me down.

Food wasn’t good at all. It was a bit cold even if they have the warmer/​s.
We came for dinner but the food tasted not fresh, more of like left-​over from lunch.
The crispy spinach was not crispy at all. The white rice was hard. The fish fillet was soggy and very sweet. Lechon kawali was burnt and there was only 1 piece of calamari left– since it was around 7:45pm, I thought they would refill but not and they still close at 9pm– there was plenty of time.
I thought it would be busy given it’s a Saturday night but only a few tables were filled, that says a lot for the business.
We’re not coming back!

The place where you want to go with your family for a treat… Been here withy fambam (The Paylago family). Abe, Tess, Lardyboy, Nique and of course our one and only daughter, Loren… Been here for a couple of times…

Went here for lunch yesterday. They have a great location on San Mateo Ave. It was my second time going to Cabalen. It’s a Filipino buffet, and when you’re going to a buffet the expectation is that the quality of the food will be sub par because they’re having to mass produce the food at a fast rate to keep up with the buffet. Well this place is no different. The presentation of the food looks really good, but there wasn’t much taste to any of the dishes that they had prepared… Except the adobo, which was a little bit too salty. One thing that I do really like about this place is that they have a halo halo bar, where you can create your own halo halo. That was pretty good. They seemed to be a little understaffed. The workers were working hard and doing the best they could to make sure that everyone was doing ok.
Overall, I feel as though I’ve had better experiences at other Filipino buffets. 2 Stars for Cabalen. 1 for the halo halo bar, and 1 for the hard working staff.

Nice interior. Liked their food BUT it was served cold. The kare kare was beginning to taste spoiled. Service was ok the day we came.
Not sure if we want to come back.

Buko juice is great.2 flavors-​purple and white. My bill stated that item as Gulaman at Sago. Great location too.
They also have a TV inside entertaining visitors playing filipino reality shows. Server Nida was very slow and extremely disrespectful though. In fact quite embarrassed to write but I want to keep my Unilocal elite followers and friends informed and prepared.
If she is your server, please walk away.

What a nice surprise to find this in the middle of San Bruno. Food was quite good, just didn’t understand why the cashier was in a rush to have me pay for my meal (then after realizing that you don’t do that while your customer is still eating, apologized and said that I could continue eating).
Though I was already bothered, I paid, then continued. My favorites were the buko (coconut) juice that is part of the buffet, the pancit (which is like palabok, but isn’t), and the lechon sinigang (which I’ve never had before).
I wanted to like the sisig, but unfortunately, it wasn’t crispy and was a huge gelatinous glob in the heating tray.
A decent place, but the price point is a bit over the actual quality.

We love our buffets, no matter what cuisine it is, but being a Filipino buffet just hit us closer to the heart… and stomach!
We’ve been here twice and each time was different. The first time, we went on a Sunday right when they opened. They were still filling the buffet with items but the main staples were there such as rice, adobo, dinuguaan, pancit, and kare-​kare which was so good! By the time we were halfway done, the buffet was complete, including the lechon, crispy pata, and the other meats, as my Auntie would say is, «killing me soptly.» The food was decent, not quite the best I’ve had but, I appreciated the variety of items. But man, there were a lot of pork based items, we hella felt it the rest of the day.
The second time, we went during a Sunday afternoon, worrying it was going to be packed, the resto was maybe ¹⁄₃ full. The selection was different than the first. This time there was binagoongang rice, pork adobo, kare-​kare, vigan pinakbet (pork), paksiw (pork), pancit malabon (pork rinds on top), bbq chicken, bbq liempo, lechon kawali (pork) and fried chicken. Again, the keyword: pork! But, I must say their fried chicken was hella good! Some Lola blatantly cut in front of me when they brought out the fried chicken and even turned around and gave me a dirty look. SMH. Buffets certainly bring out the worst in people, no matter how old.
The service is friendly, they manage to keep our water glasses full but, they sure take awhile when it comes to replenishing the buffet. The price per person is pretty decent and I’d say is worth it considering the variety. One thing I just don’t understand are who are the people in the b&w pics all over the wall? I know they’re celebrities but talk about ego problems cuz the pics are old, just look at the hair styles.
Overall, we’d go back to Cabalen but not as frequent, maybe just a twice a year thing, as we just can’t handle all that porky goodness.
#WhyNoPictureOfBabe?

I’ve been here a few times and it’s really hit or miss. More miss than hit. Today was the last straw. The food just didn’t taste right. they had a macaroni soup that was spoiled. They don’t do any of the sizzling plates except for the sizzling tofu sisig. The rice was crispy from being out for too long. The desserts aren’t very good either. Not recommended. I’d rather wait for Fort McKinley’s lunch or Sunday brunch buffet.
The workers here I feel are lazy. They always say they won’t accept a coupon or 5 star special when they feel it’s too complex to handle. Worst service ever!!!

Filipinos don’t just eat… we feast! If I were Merriam-​Webster, Inc., I would add «Filipinos» as a synonym for buffets. It is such as accepted fact. «Cabalen» is the term that the people of Pampanga (a province from the Central Luzon region of the Philippines) would use to refer to each other. However, the restaurant is not limited to Kapampangan cuisine; it offers a wide variety of traditional food found throughout the country. Ironically, one of their most popular dishes — the Lechon Cebu — is actually named after an island from the Central Visayas region.
The place has a very good vibe; you also won’t be smelling like lechon or sisig when you step out. They don’t use those boiling-​water-​warmers to keep the food hot; however, the downside is that the heat lamp is not enough to serve the purpose. So the master plan is to make sure you get the food as soon as they bring it out from the kitchen, especially the Crispy Kangkong (water spinach). The keyword here is «crispy» and it becomes meaningless if the food has been out there for some time. If you succeed in getting it while it’s hot, just make sure to add the aioli sauce. Each crunchy bite is fantastic.
Just like every Filipino gathering, there has to be the Pancit (noodles), Kare-​Kare (stew with peanut sauce), Dinuguan (pork blood stew), and Adobo (don’t tell me you need a translation for this). While these were decent, it was the Lechon Cebu that needed my attention. It was not the authentic lechon the Cebuanos do where they roast a whole suckling pig then chop it into manageable pieces, but I bet you won’t care when you see how crispy the skin looks as the pork belly lies on the countertop. Another thing of note is the Inihaw na Pusit (grilled squid) — well-​seasoned and so tender!
They have different types of Sisig (seasoned chopped meat tossed in onion and mayonnaise) but they were out of the lechon one so we had to settle for the pork face and ear version. Sad to say, their recipe was so bland. Taking a page from how we do this back home, I asked for some Knorr liquid seasoning, calamansi (or lemon), and hot sauce. Add this, add that, and there we go — it became edible! Experiment on blending these ingredients to your taste. You can make it work, too! By the way, you can order your sisig on a sizzling plate. Much better that way.
There is a dessert section with a Halo-​Halo station but with limited ingredients. I did not go here because my idea of dessert was to go for a few more slices of lechon.
Overall, Cabalen makes for a good eat. It just didn’t have the needed kick to earn another star. For the love of lechon, I know we will be back here if we’re within the area. Mabuhay!!!

Came here with family; nice atmosphere, very clean, staff is very friendly and accommodating. Food has a good variety, with a lot of traditional and common Filipino dishes. I particularly enjoyed the palabok, sinigang, and chicken afritada. You can tell that the food is fresh.
The difficult part of buffets is keeping the food hot. It was warm under the lamps but gets cool pretty quickly by the time you begin eating. The roasted chicken was a bit dry. Also, parking can be tricky on the street, so be aware.
Overall a good location. I am torn between three and four stars, but there wasn’t enough of a «wow» factor for me to allow that fourth star.

When I heard about this establishment I was curious to see what it had to offer. It was my aunt’s bday yesterday and she decided to have it here. I haven’t been to a Filipino restaurant in a long time and it’s also a personal decision not to only because my mom already cooks the best TO ME.
Now I found out this was also a Filipino Buffet! So this was unique to me! This was something I always wanted to attend to. Here it was. This restaurant has lots of seating space, a clean environment, and decent service. There are two flat screens from both ends of the restaurant that plays Filipino musicals/​channel. The buffet bar is formed into one L-​shape. It starts with two different soup based dishes; Sinigang and this noodle soup. The the cold bar comes, serving pickled veggies. The following rice and main course dishes come next. Dessert is at the end of the L bar.
Here is my input. The titles of the dishes should have a short description of what the dish contains rather than keeping guests clueless. There shouldn’t be a dish of pork rinds; this is a waste of space. There should be Filipino garlic-​style fried rice other than plain white. In the dessert bar, I think the condiments need to be up close rather than putting the whole arm inside. There isn’t enough space to put ice inside your cup or scoop items from the back. It’s too small of a space. The Halo-​Halo bar is very unique! this deserves a star for sure! I also think this restaurant should have a whole pig/​lechon that should be set up for guests to have the experience of picking at their own meat. If this happens, more guests will come and spread the word! (If Asian buffets can have hanging ducks and whole chickens, then why not a whole suckling pig here at Cabalen?)
The design of the place is great and works for this small downtown region of San Bruno. I can’t imagine a more spacey place to hold this buffet in this downtown. The service is good too! they come frequent for refills and for whatever else. I’d def recommend this place to more people but it’d be much better with the suggested ideas. The management is good too! the team overall does a great job refilling the buffet and catering to the guests.
I don’t really have a problem with the food. It’s more of having more selection and a better description of what it is for non-​Filipinos. To me, Cabalen is more of a taste-​testing place rather than a final destination for new regulars. I think with a little more work, this place can have the potential to be the next big thing here in the area. It’s the simple stuff that will create that much hype. Thanks!