Kuta Bistro

Im down for all the businesses here trying hard to make it. It takes hard work to make it in this day and age. If a business has a good product, I’m game to try and maybe even be a regular at purchasing that product like i do quite often in the area where i live. I have to add that timing can be everything which brings me to yesterday 3÷24÷15 at 515 pm as i was trying to order and have food for family by 6pm.
I called first at 5pm and there was no answer. Ok they open at 5 and I may be jumping the gun so let me go there and compensate for Filipino time. I get there and door is locked.
Maybe there was an emergency. Maybe just my luck they are on vacation. There was no sign on the door for any of that…
So i give them 2 stars for this experience and
I will gladly change this if they are open when i attempt today and look its 515…
Update. Called 3÷25÷15 520pm and no answer but there was a request for remote access code.

So I ordered at 8 pm yesterday. I got a call 1 HOUR AFTER I ordered from kuta and they told me that they don’t have the entrée I ordered and asked if I can order something else. The second entrée I wanted to order WAS NOT AVAILABLE either. I ended up choosing another entrée. I asked when the new delivery time will be since they neglected to call me earlier to inform the unavailability of my first choice. They told me my order should be ready around 940 pm. I waited and waited until 1005 pm (over 2 hours after I ordered!) I called grub hub to complain bc THEY NEVER SHOWED UP WITH MY FOOD. So I waited over 2 hours on food that I pre paid online and it never showed up. This is my first time ordering from this restaurant and I will
NEVER order here again. 1. Waited over 2 hours food 2. The food never showed up. 3. NEVER received a call from the restaurant about any delays and was actually assured of a delivery time 4. Tried calling them multiple times 2 hours after I ordered and no one picks up the phone. Don’t eat here. They obviously don’t care about their customers. Also, I just saw another review from another customer that mentioned his order not being delivered after he ordered. What horrible customer service. Grub hub tried to call them after I made a complaint the night I ordered my food and they even apologized and said they couldn’t get a hold of the restaurant and they ended up refunding my order which I PRE PAID w a credit card online.

Ordered online, never received food. Another customer lost.

I LOVED going to Kuta Bistro 1 or 2 years ago with their fine filipino food and upscale, clean ambiance and great service which is an extremely rare thing to see in a filipino restaurant in SF. When I saw they were on grubhub, I HAD to order delivery. The food came within their stated time of an hour to an hour and a half. ALL of the food was well-​packaged — not one item was missing. (If you want rice/​spoons/​forks/​knives/​plates/​napkins, you may have to put them in the instructions although I did not need any of them. Rice is necessary for eating your filipino meals since it helps sop off fats and sauces and helps cleanse your palate as well as provide filling, so make sure you have it at hand.) The deliverer was friendly.
I LOVE their kare kare. Filipino families like mine rarely cook it because it’s hard to make and expensive and I usually only see at home on my birthday or other special occasions. Their kare kare was very large in volume but didn’t have oxtail — they use tripe and other pork/​beef meat. I had 2 orders of kare kare and they give generous servings. The 1^st one didn’t have many vegetables except bok choy, but the peanut stew was very thick, warm and flavorful. The next day, I ate the 2^nd order. The 2^nd order had lots of string beans and many oxtails and was just as thick and flavorful as the 1^st one. Make sure to have lots of rice on hand to soak up all the wonderful peanut stew sauce.
The halo halo (literally means «mix mix») dessert was also very large, sweet and very good with ice cream on top, lots of ice & milk and the usual jellies and beans and langka added on the bottom, all of which you’re supposed to stir together from bottom to top.
I would DEFINITELY order again even though it’s pricey and doesn’t open until 5pm since filipino food delivery in SF is non-​existent (at least in my area), especially for GOOD filipino food.
The last time I went, I ordered their lechon (fried pork) and the serving was generous and tasty. You should make sure to cut up the big pieces of lechon into smaller pieces with a very sharp metal knife before you eat it since filipino families and eateries don’t in general serve it in smaller bit-​size pieces. It goes well with sweet and sour sauce or a good barbecue sauce Try a lot of their menu and i would be surprised if there isn’t anything you would find tasty unless you’re on a strict diet.

Name another Filipino food place in San Francisco that’s better than this?
NONE!!! exactly that’s what I thought
to all you people who read this review your so easy to believe the negative comments and don’t realize that They are very racist towards my race (I’m Filipino but I’m born and raised in San Francisco and have been San Franciscan all my life) and I’m proud to finally have a real authentic chef /​culinary certified chef cook my food that is authentic Filipino food instead of jollybee haha (yes I said it I’m Filipino but I’m born in San Francisco and I’ve never had better authentic Filipino food than this in San Francisco period)
Those people say «it’s alright» name 1 authentic Filipino chef that went to culinary school and cooked better than this restaurant in «San Francisco California??» Exactly «N-​O-​N-​E»
Again None! (you go to the restaurant and got other nationalities cooking the food like its genuine haha) so if you want the best «authentic chef /​culinary chef certified made, authentic chef /​culinary cerfied cooked Filipino food» then please give this place a visit if your ever in San Francisco California :) trust me
I recommend chicken sisig, and the most unique dish is the tofu sisig :) again when you go to other Filipino restaurants in the Bay Area it ain’t no where near cleaner than this place is. Trust me walk into other Filipino restaurants in San Francisco and look at your surroundings. I’m a clean freak and I hate watching my surroundings when I eat my food worrying about bugs crawling around (this place ain’t got no bugs crawling around) Yeah I said it this place is clean. I bet if you walk into another Filipino restaurant in San Francisco you’ll see old chairs, tables, kitchen wear and walls the color of yellow from all that cooking oil which is indeed gross with kuta bistro none of that old /​dirty crap or worrying about bugs. You walk into a place you feel you can sit down and enjoy your food instead of hoping your not going to wake up sick the next day. Again go ahead and eat at another Filipino restaurant in San Francisco that’s cleaner than this place you’ll know what I’m talking about if you even dare to go to another Filipino food place in San Francisco other than kuta bistro. But again all you really need to do is give this place a go when your craving sisig or whatever Filipino food you like
If you only get lumpia here and claim the food is alright then your racist towards Filipinos like me. Your tongue needs to see the doctor because your taste buds are broken. Lol
You gotta try the tofu or chicken sisig instead of ranting the food is ok and not the best. I eat the more tasty dishes instead of just an Americanized popular dish. You rant about 1 food item and haven’t even tried another dish to even talk smack about what real clean /​authentic culinary chef certified made is all about.
Trust me if you get the tofu sisig /​chicken sisig your gonna wanna keep coming back to this place no matter what. I can’t stop buying the tofu and chicken sisig when I eat here. It’s just that good so good I’m glad San Francisco finally has a very clean and organized authentic Filipino restaurant that has a chef that actually went to culinary school to serve up very very very tasty authentic Filipino food. Amen
Just talking about this place makes me want to buy some tofu sisig and the chicken sisig

Incredible lumpia Shanghai! Crispy, flavorful with a zesty sauce with a real spicy bite to it! I loved the fact that they stayed open slightly later as I ordered take-​out over the phone! Super friendly staff and lovely dining room setting. I discovers this place from all of the excellent Unilocal reviews. They even have a Unilocal check-​in special, so check it out! I’ll definitely be coming back for more!

My first time I’ve ordered here and I would order again. 11÷25÷24 and Im buying last minute thanksgiving items at night, safeway nxt door. I decided to give this place a try but I got delivery instead. Ordered the basic chicken adobo, delicious & lumpia shanghai, (hella good and plumper&better than most!) Would definitely order again/​dine in next time.
As for the service, really nice friendly, efficient, accommodating, & THEY DELIVER (FAST)!FINALLY!
THANK YOU Kuta Bistro for the delicious meal and excellent service

Absolutely love these folks to the max.
To be straight, I’ve only ever ordered delivery. But based on the delivery service and the food I’ve had, I would definitely go to the restaurant if I were nearby. The delivery is ALWAYS super fast (like 45 minutes faster than the estimated grubHub time) and the driver that always comes is so nice and friendly. Like I can’t even do him justice in this review. He’s just a normal down to earth dude that quickly remembered me from the first time. Each interaction, always so brief, is so genuine that I want to invite him in and hear about his family and become friends. But of course I’m stoked to be getting my food and my mind is somewhere else and all of a sudden I’m more awkward than usual. But he gets it and is a nice guy anyhow.
I always get the Lumpia Shanghai, and it’s banging. The Adobo is fantastic and always reliable. The Kale Laing is comforting. The Kuta Special is excellent and filling (can’t finish it in one sitting, though I would be disappointed if they downsized it.) The fried chicken is moist, tender, crispy, and has great flavor.
Everything is a great value.
Here’s the thing about this review: of course it’s fast (it’s Filipino food and quick to prepare), and you’d expect it to be cheap, and you’d want them to be nice, and of course it’s gonna be comfort food… It’s just that these guys know exactly who they are and they execute every time. And that’s something I can appreciate and deem worthy of 5 stars. These folks are hella rad.

We’re the only customers here and it took 25 minutes for the food to come out. That aside, food is mediocre and the server can use some work with her customer skills. I wouldn’t be surprised if this restaurant is gone within 2 years.

I was scared coming here because of all the negative reviews about them sharing space with a vape shop in front and restaurant in back.
They must’ve listened to Unilocal reviews, because seems like they moved the vapor shop to the back or something. Hardly noticed it at all except for the sign on the wall over a table. No smoke no vapor in the dining area at all. So that being said this place was pretty decent. Everyone in my party seemed to like it. I thought it was pretty average filipino fare, nothing outstanding but nothing bad either.
Service was also decent and nice.

I’m assuming this place is new — and I’m glad that there is another Filipino restaurant in actual San Francisco (& not the outskirts). The thing about this area (outer mission/​excelsior) is that it’s blooming with new pop up restaurants and I have a feeling it will soon be a destination for good cheap eats.
I’ve only been to Kuta once and I went with the Kare-​Kare. My boyfriend got the tofu sisig. I was pleasantly surprised at the tofu sisig — it’s very modern for them to have a vegetarian friendly dish like this. Both dishes are were priced in the $ 10 – 15 range, which for the portion we got wasn’t too bad.
Service was a bit on the slow side. I’m thinking it took maybe 25 min for our food to be served. This doesn’t seem very long, but we were the only 2 people eating in the restaurant, so it seemed like a while especially because we were hungry!
I hate how they served the kare kare first. Then the rice came about 5 min later. Then the sisig came another 5 min after that. It would just be better if all the food came out at once. Or if the rice came first, then our dishes. The kare kare wasn’t as hot (temperature wise) as I’d like it to be. I feel like it was left out for a bit before they served it.
I’ve had better kare kare (like at Ongpin in South SF), but it was okay. The sisig was interesting. It was a nice dish, but trying to make a meat dish vegetarian, is a tough task. My boyfriend said it was just alright.
I wouldn’t mind trying their other dishes to see if there are better choices. But first impressions are hard to break. Service was kind of blah and food didn’t leave me feeling as satisfied as I’d like.

It was clean and nice looking when we arrived. But the service was very disinterested and the food was nothing special. We had the shanghai lumpia which was good but we ordered it as an appetizer and it arrived long after our entrees were delivered. For our main dishes, we had the calamari adobo and bangus sisig, both were okay.

Had high expectations due to reviews, sapple sapple.
— Ambience: totally ruined by the vapor shop in the front half of the restaurant.
— Service: ordering was slow, but clean up was much faster
— Selection: somewhat limited, especially with half the items not available
— Portions: decent, but unclear from the menu
— Flavour: ok, nothing to write home about
Overall our experience was very lukewarm, starting with the vapor counter right at the entrance. This is not a separate sectioned-​off area, it’s literally part of the dining room (see photo). As a group of non-​smokers, this immediately threw us off.
3 out of 4 of our first choices were not available, so we had to order something else. Given that the menu had 15 items on it at the most, it seemed really odd for a weekend evening not to have things in stock. Both sisigs that came out weren’t even sizzling, with the egg barely cooking. The bone marrow soup (bulalo) is $ 15 with enough broth for 3, enough lettuce for 2, and enough meat for 1. Lumpia was good, but that’s pretty hard to mess up.
They were skimpy even with rice, and we were the only customers there, so it wasn’t due to being too busy. I’m not sure how this place could have such raving reviews, but they definitely would have to update their menu, get their kitchen in order, and rid of the smoke shop for me to give them another chance. There are plenty of new restaurants that have opened in the area, with better food and service, sorry, Kuta.

Ratchet.
Several weeks ago, my friend posted a pic on FB of a chick wearing a micro hot pink dress, lace pantyhose, giant gold hoops, leg warmers and hideous 8′ clear stripper shoes with her toes hanging off the edge like eagle talons.
Understandably dressed IF she was working a pole but waiting in line at a medical lab!!! What the heezy?
That’s exactly what I thought walking into Kuta Bistro…
Fruity vape smoke welcomed us through the doors with a vape bar inside the front of restaurant (yes, you read right). While waiting for the staff to clear a back table we requested, I noticed a display of beauty products in a glass case, toys scattered on a side table, several baby seats, an electronic keyboard, karaōke machine and various tchotchkes scattered around. The owners seem to be also having a family dinner at the table behind us. Very peculiar.
Trying to remember that we came here for the food, we perused the menu ($ 7-​$ 15) which had the typical Filipino offerings of lumpia, adobo kare-​kare, lechon kawali, and pancit. No msg is used as they said (I didn’t have a reaction). Portions are large so we had plenty of leftovers enough for two other meals.
Do note that the online menu doesn’t list the current prices. Make sure to use the Unilocal $ 15 for $ 25 deal.
A must order is the Bulalo Soup ($ 15) which had gigantic chunks of beef shanks that were incredibly tender:
. The broth was filled with rich beefiness from the marrow yet it was very clean. This soup totally hit the spot on a cold SF night. Don’t forget to suck out all that delicious marrow from the bones:
.
Equally excellent was the Pork Sisig ($ 16) which arrived on a hot sizzling platter that crisped up the edges of the meat:
. I loved that they use the yummy nasty offal bits like pig ears and jowl which is what legit sisig is made with. With a squeeze of lime, the sisig was a perfect blend of savory and tangy. A tofu version is available for vegans and vegetarians.
Because no Filipino meal is complete without carbs (which is why I don’t eat it often), we also ordered the Pancit Bihon ($ 10):
. Think stir-​fried vermicelli noodles with shrimp, chicken, cabbage and onions. You can also order it «canton» with chow mein-​like egg noodles or a mixture of both.
Service was just as odd as the atmosphere. I was really confused about who worked there and who didn’t because various people who were eating dinner behind us either took our order or delivered our food. Service was otherwise typical of any other Asian restaurant. Don’t expect attentive service and water refills unless requested.
Kuta Bistro’s food alone is 4 – 4.5 star worthy so it’s such a shame that they have a identity crisis. When I’m paying to dine out, I want to be able to enjoy my meal free of any nauseating fumes… not inside a Balikbayan box within a Willy Wonka factory.

Like the other reviewers I was also strick by the eclectic vibe of this place. The décor in the dining area was quite nice: simple but elegant decorations, nice plates, tables, chairs and the like. But it was also weird because the other parts of this place didn’t meld to we’ll with a restaurant that was trying to look elegant. There was a vapor bar in the front (packed with folks) and random beauty products being sold in the back. That was more in line with their «Kuta» name (I guess) bit not the «Bistro» part.
Also, I hate to say it, but the service was really bad. We showed up 15 minutes after it opened for the day and we were the only customers and they were still prepping the place as if it wasn’t ready to be opened. Also the waitress came back twice saying they were out of a specific dish (even though they just opened). The pork sigsig was brought out, nice and sizzling, but they didn’t bring out the rice for another 15 minutes so the sigsig got a little cold.
I’m not gonna knock them to hard because running a business is hard, especially a family business, and everyone as trying their best. I’m just not sure everyone else will be that understanding.
But this is a four star review because of their food. Their sigsig was some of the best I’ve had (much better than Thai Power, Kadok’s, Tselogs and House if Sigsig) and their sinigang was perfect.

I love this place and will definitely recommend to my family & friends. Home cooked food with a touch of class. Serving is good. Price is pretty reasonable and it’s soooo delicious! My favorite is the Bangus sisig and Crispy pata!

Best chicken sisig and tortang talong I’ve had yet! Friendly and warm service with a clean and welcoming environment that feels a bit like home.
The vapor store isn’t as intrusive as I thought it would be after reading reviews so don’t let that scare you off if it did. It just occupies a counter on the side, which oddly doesn’t look too out of place. It’s not my thing, but it’s even appealing to accidentally glance at in the peripheral every now and then in the middle of conversation and grubbin’. If you’re into that stuff, then it’s definitely an added treat.
I’m definitely coming back to support again. Buy the Unilocal deal and give it a shot!

This is a warm homey place serving good, inexpensive filipino food.
Kuta has a small concise menu of your standard filipino fare. They offer well sized portions which translated to leftovers on all my visits.
Had I written my review after my first couple visits I would have given them 4 stars. Kuta now has SF Vapor occupying the front corner of the restaurant. I personally don’t smoke cigarettes, e-​cigarettes, or vape pens. On my last visit I ended up sitting in a vapor cloud for the entire evening. While it may not have been tobacco smoke for me it was still a smelly combination of juice vapor that made my dining experience less than enjoyable.
As long as SF Vapor occupies this space I will no longer eat here.

Love this place. Classy feeling, but home-​y!
Great service. Owner is attentive. Mother is the chef!
Food = fabulous and had so much leftovers that it lasted for two more meals! I loved the special noodle dish! Two types of noodles and a bit of everything in it.
Prices = reasonable. I did use their deal which was impressive!
Service = fabulous.
This place, unfortunately, is very new and needs more clientele! Support a local joint NOW!!!

This place is fantastic. The owners are great people. The food is very authentic but this is not the typical hole in the wall Filipino restaurant. Let me tell you, I tend to have low expectations for Pinoy restaurants because Filipino food doesn’t always translate well to the restaurant experience. But this place serves it up with the attention and care your mom would.
The sisig here is very popular, but I ordered the Pinakbet. Don’t tell my mom, but Kuta’s Pinakbet rivals hers! It was just right. Hit the spot dead nuts on. My friend ordered the turon with ice cream and oh my goodness – heaven.
Great food, great folks. Do yourself a favor and stop by.