Kalesa Grill To Go

Well today was my last time I’ll ever go there. $ 11.34 for a 2 item combo, one beef and one chicken item. I asked why, the beef is $ 3.00 more (this is a small half pint size). The beef was tough so $ 3.00 more is mind boggling to me. Why did my chicken smell like paint? I think I’m going to be sick ewww! This place use to have good food and great service when they first opened up a few years ago, but the last 2 out of 3 times, just horrible!

The table smells like «paksiw» i had to wash my whole arm, and their faucet was clogged then outside the restroom there was a bucket of im not sure if it was a soup or used oil, but the good side is the hopia its good.

Food was too greasy and didnt look too fresh. I probably wont be coming back. Dont recommend it.

Pretty good food for the price. Got the lechon and chicken adobo with half and half on rice and pancit. Also am order of lumpia. Plenty of items on the line for the good ol point and pick style of eating. Some items are not a part of the combo, so could not try the bisteak. Sauces for the lumpia and lechon were a little bland. But that’s just one mans opinion. Service was spot on. Will be back.

I really liked the Lumpia and Pancit here. Ive had a girl make it for me home made for the past couple months and it got me hooked. Unfortunately she started work full time and wasn’t able to make it anymore; I came here as a last resort. The lumpia wasn’t as meaty as hers was but it was still pretty good. The pancit i really liked, very moist. The food here IS NOT precooked. My husband had to wait 30 min for the pancit to be made and 10 for the lumpia (whoops lol) So as a FYI you might wanna call ahead and order so you dont have to wait! =)

If you rated this restaurant more than three stars, then I would assume that you either haven’t tasted Filipino cuisine in a while, or you haven’t tasted it at all, or you probably did, but your wife or husband sucks at cooking, which made you think that food here is that great.
Kalesa Grill is a fast food/​turo-​turo restaurant, meaning all the food have been precooked earlier, and probably been sitting there out in the open hours before you even go there, unlike regular restaurants where they cook as you order. Therefore, this restaurant will be rated as such. Much like Panda Express should not be ranked against a regular Chinese restaurant.
Food here is not bad, but really nothing to brag about. The taste, compared to other Filipino fastfood restaurants does not really stand out, however, nothing to complain about either.
Service is average, you order, they give the food, you pay, you sit, you eat. The ambiance is also average. There are some decorations that depicts some Filipino culture, but nothing attractive or even a point of conversation.
If I’m close to the area and hungry, I would consider eating here, but if not, I definitely will NOT drive that long just to eat here. This restaurant exists and is available, and that’s about it.

Honestly… I really love the food and service. It really felt like home to me! I think the owner was helping me, and was really nice and very attentive and helpful with selections. I’m ½ Filipino and do not know a lot of the other food they had, but they had all the food that I love. I am so picky when it comes to Filipino food because I only love my mom’s and auntie’s food. The pork adobo melted in my mouth. The lechon was so crispy and juicy! The pancit was just like how my mom makes it! Sisig was really good too. I’m picky with lumpia and though it was okay. My husband loved it. The food quantities were more than expected. The prices are decent for what it is. Halo halo was amazing. I asked if he could leave out the bananas because I am allergic to them and if they couldn’t do that, it would be fine. The guy was super nice and he said he would do that.
So now you are thinking «why 4 stars?»
Well…1. For people that are not familiar with Filipino food, it could be confusing and intimidating on what to order… There is really no menu to look up at when you order. That is really the only thing that bugged me.
But other than that, me and the husband will definitely be back! We inhaled our food.

I love Kalesa grill! It’s definitely a restaurant that will make you feel like your at home. Love the the family atmosphere there. I just moved to Oxnard from Washington state a month ago and so glad I found a Filipino restaurant that reminds me of moms cooking. Their turon, sinigang, and afritada are my favs!

We were passing through Oxnard doing a job for one of our clients when we stopped at Kalesa Grill and yes, there is another one in Oxnard! I, being the lover of the Halo Halo at the Canoago Park Kalesa Grill, I tried theirs. OMG, dang, that was so yummy not to mention it was a hot day and felt good going down my throat. My husband and I shared it and their food looked so good but I just wanted the Halo Halo (my favorite). The service was great, didn’t have to wait for it, since there wasn’t anyone in line just people sitting and eating. I sat and enjoyed the Halo Halo with my hubby and then got in the car to go on toward our destination.

If you want the best pansit palabok in town i will definitely recomend this filipino restaurant. Its really good.

Kalesa Grill is a fast food, cafeteria-​line restaurant. The staff is attentive and service minded. They offer mainline Fiipino entrée favorites such as Caldereta, Crispy Pata, Pancit, Fried Fish, Breakfast favorites, Menudo. They also offer Mamon, Halo-​Halo and more. It’s a nice casual eatery. Try it.

I am faithful to this Filipino restaurant. I like it. They serve a different variety of traditional food every day and have a great selection of sweets as well. The staff has always been accommodating to me whether I was alone or with a big party. Their food has always tasted, looked and smelled fresh and the combo prices are not absurdly high. I am a big fan of the beef steak with potato and onion, sisig, chicken adobo, pork sinigang and palabok with lechon. The restaurant is not huge BUT seems well taken care of for the customers. Tables are always clean, there are plenty of seats and the restaurant also supplies a water machine for those who don’t love soda and juice with their meal. All in all, I am a happy customer spreading the word about tastey Filipino food at Kalesa Grill Oxnard :). If you have yet to, give it a try.

They have friendly service and good food all the time. Only place I know in Oxnard where you can get Halo Halo.

After many years of having no decent Filipino food restaurants despite a considerable Filipino presence in Oxnard, Kalesa Grill changed the game here. They set the bar for food quality in Ventura County that every new Filipino vendor has to surpass. A variety of fresh Filipino dishes that taste delicious are always available for lunch & early dinner. Just in case mama or nanay isn’t around, this is a worthy authentic alternative. The common favorites are always available: Lumpia, Pancit Palabok, Filipino BBQ, Lechon Kawali. They rotate the hot food choices so you may not see the same options every day. They have the MOST delicious Turon (deep fried banana with slither of jackfruit covered with lumpia wrapper & carmelized), best I’ve ever tasted. They offer breakfast all day. The longganisa served here is «de recado» style (vinegary, not sweet). Staff is friendly, affordable pricing noted, good quantities of food given. We visit often and this is our spot for Filipino catering. We’ve never had a bad experience here and food quality has consistently been good. As we say in Tagalog, masarap dito! (Its good here!)

There’s nothing that really stands out from Kalesa Grill compared to other Filipino restaurants, but it is a good place to go to in Oxnard for Filipino food. The food is pretty delicious and the people are friendly. They have a lot of different dishes, drinks and desserts to choose from. I especially like the chicken BBQ, buko juice, palabok and sinigang. If you’ve never tried Filipino food, this is a good place to start.

I ate lunch here today with one of my coworkers. I’ve never been here before and really didn’t know what to expect… considering I don’t know much about Filipino food with the exception of lumpia and pancit. I ordered a combination plate with rice and pancit, chicken adobo and vegetables. The vegetables I had were cooked in some type of fish paste which sounds strange but the taste… WONDERFUL…soooo good… I could eat those vegetables all day. The chicken adobo was flavorful and the pancit was delicious. I ordered a mungo hopia which was some type of pastry which was good. Also had a peach smoothie… that too was delivious. My coworker had the pork blood dish which he could not stop raving about plus some dessert which I believe was coconut milk, potatoes and bananas which was good.
I’ll definitely come back here again to eat. The staff was nice and quite helpful trying to explain the dishes to us considering we didn’t know what the heck we were doing or ordering!

I’d rather cook than eat here!

I heard about this place but never really tried it until my uncle asked me to pick up some pancit palabok. This place looks like any typical Filipino fast food place. They have the combo deals and of course you can’t go to a Filipino place without desserts in mind. The food is pretty good and the service is fast!

The food is just ok. Service sucks and they up charge you for everything. By the time I got my lunch it was almost $ 11!!!
Go to Kay Tsarap Tsarap instead. Better food and service.

Americans can probably find a Japanese or Chinese restaurant within two or three blocks from them if they live in the suburbs or the city. But seriously, how often do you get to go to a restaurant to get a taste of the Philippines? And I’m talking authentic Filipino food — not just the typical adobo chicken and lumpia!
Kalesa Grill is a very small restaurant that serves your food in to-​go boxes whether or not you are eating in or taking out. Because of this, you can already tell that their portions are guaranteed to be more than enough for one person!
I have had their diniguan (aka chocolate meat), which is a pork blood stew that is filled with other pork fattiness, but still delicious! And if you’re sitting there going, «Ewwww! Pork blood! Chocolate meat! Gross!» Don’t hate it ’til you try it! It’s good stuff but bad for your health since it’s all sorts of pork.
I also ordered their lechon kawali that tasted fresh, crisp, and warm. It tasted so good with a side of Mang Tomas sauce! I also made sure to get an order of their garlic fried rice which is really a simpler form of the fried rice you can get from other fast food restaurants, but it’s really just garlic without the peas, carrots, and, excessive amounts of soy sauce. Their pancit palabok (the orange noodles in my pictures) is kinda plain, but not bad.
They also sell Filipino drinks here including the sago at gulaman, melon juice, and halo halo! The sago at gulaman is a drink composed of tapioca pearls and jelly. And the liquid it sits in is composed of mainly water and brown sugar. Very sweet when chilled and fun to eat! The melon juice is like shaved melon in sugar water. And the halo halo is actually eaten more as a dessert! It has ube ice cream, a chunk of leche flan, red bean, coconut jelly, and a bunch of other stuff and it’s supposed to be mixed in the sweetened evaporated milk mixture. All these drinks are so yummy and refreshing especially on a warm, sunny day!
If you want to know where some authentic good Filipino food is at, make sure you stop by here! When you get here, it may look small and tiny, but the food will give you a run for your money.