Kubo Kitchen Filipino cooking and a drive-through window

SHOT ONE. A full order opened on the passenger seat: rice, adobo, two lumpia, the plastic fork still in the bag. Daylight through the windscreen. This is what people actually see first.

SHOT TWO. The pancit pan mid toss on the burner, noodles in the air, hands in frame. Motion, steam, not a plated studio shot.

SHOT THREE. The window itself from the driver's side, sign legible, someone leaning out with a bag. Establishes that there is a drive-through, which nobody expects.

Most people who pull up here have never eaten Filipino food, so the whole menu is written out.

Not translated into something else. Just told plainly: how the name is said, what it tastes like, and what is going to be in the container when you open it in the parking lot. Nobody should have to guess at a window with a car behind them.

Start here

If it is your first time, these three are the ones to order

Chicken adobo

ah-DOH-boh

Chicken braised slowly in soy, vinegar, garlic, bay and cracked pepper until the sauce is dark and thick. Salty and sour at the same time, which is the whole point of it. Comes over rice. This is the dish every Filipino household argues about, and it is the safest thing on the board.

$13

Lumpia, six

LOOM-pyah

Thin fried rolls of ground pork and finely cut vegetables, about the width of a finger, with a sweet and sour dip. Not a heavy egg roll. If you have ever wondered what the tray at a Filipino party disappears first, it is these.

Pancit bihon

pan-SIT BEE-hon

Thin rice noodles stir fried with cabbage, carrot, a little chicken and pork, served with a lemon wedge you are meant to squeeze over the whole thing. Mild, savoury, no chilli. The dish that gets ordered for the table.

$12

The rest of the board, in the same plain terms

Everything is cooked to order, so nothing here has been sitting. The busier dishes are set larger below because those are the ones people ask about at the window.

Sisig

SEE-sig

Chopped pork, crisped hard on the flat top with onion, chilli and a squeeze of calamansi, served on a hot plate that keeps cooking on the way home. Rich, sharp and sour, and easily the strongest flavour we make. Order it if you like things loud. An egg cracked over the top is a dollar more.

$15

Lechon kawali

LEH-chon kah-WAH-lee

Pork belly simmered soft, then dropped in the fryer so the skin blisters. Cut into blocks. Comes with a dark, slightly sweet dipping sauce.

$15

Kare-kare

KAH-reh KAH-reh

Oxtail and vegetables in a thick peanut sauce. Mild on its own. It comes with a small cup of salted shrimp paste that you stir in yourself, a spoon at a time, until it tastes right to you.

$17

Longganisa and garlic rice

long-gah-NEE-sah

Short, sweet, deep red pork sausages with fried garlic rice and a fried egg. This is breakfast in the Philippines and we make it all day because half the orders on a Saturday morning are for it. Sweeter than any sausage you are used to, and that is not a mistake.

$12

Turon

too-RON

Banana and jackfruit rolled in a wrapper and fried with sugar until the outside goes to caramel. Two to an order. Eat them in the car while they are still hot, not later.

Halo-halo

HAH-loh HAH-loh

Shaved ice with sweet beans, jelly, purple yam and a slab of custard, drowned in evaporated milk. The name means mix-mix, which is an instruction. Summer only, and it does not travel more than about ten minutes.

Rice, sides and what a family order looks like

Steamed rice: $2
Garlic fried rice: $4
Extra lumpia, three: $4
Atchara, pickled green papaya: $3
Family tray, feeds five or six: $52

Prices are illustrative for this mockup. The family tray is two mains, a full pan of pancit, a dozen lumpia and rice, and it needs a day's notice because the pans are not sitting in the back waiting.

The window is a real drive-through and it works like this

Pull up and order at the window. There is no speaker box and no app. If you are not sure, say it is your first time and you will get talked through it.
Everything is cooked from the start, so plan on eight to twelve minutes. You will be asked to park in the two marked spots rather than hold the lane.
The bag comes out to the car. Rice and sauce are packed apart, and the crisp things are packed loose so they do not steam themselves soft.

Open four and a half days, and closed more than most people expect

Kitchen hours. Last order goes in fifteen minutes before close.
Day	Window
Monday	Closed
Tuesday to Friday	11am to 6pm
Saturday	11am to 3pm
Sunday	Closed
Trays, large orders and anything you want held	(816) 555-0132