ASAP Mabuhay Bar & Grill

Such a delight to have filipino food in Halifax! Simple and delicious menu, their buffet had a fair variety of filipino favourites. Bonus, you get mango ice cream or rice pudding for dessert — there is always room for dessert, even after a hearty buffet meal. Very friendly staff, they know many of their patrons by name. Will return for sure!

This is a great little restaurant if you’re looking for something other than pizza and donairs in this area. Authentic Filipino food served buffet style cooked fresh Tuesday to Friday LUNCH ONLY. If you like Chinese or Thai cuisine this is very similar but nothing too spicy or exotic.
This is the same location where Rocky serves up Barbequed pork skewers Friday and Saturday nights to the drunken masses.
Service is fast and friendly and if you don’t see something you want you can just ask for it.
Do try the homemade mango ice cream for dessert!

I love this place for a delicious, filling meal. The owner is super sweet, the food is fresh, it’s a buffet so you can choose what you want to try and how much of it you want, and the price is extremely reasonable. You’ll see people from all walks of life here, including judges, lawyers, business people, students, etc.

I tried it. I LOVE IT.
So a friend recommended this place last week. My friend and I checked out it out today after we went to Fujiyama for Sushi and it was already at capacity. Best thing that could have happened to us!
First, let me start with the service. The waitress was a sweetheart and I wish I could have taken the cook/​owner home. She was not only so sweet, but she had so much pride in her food and she really just wanted to make sure we had the best of everything. The veggies were getting low when we got there so she made sure to let us know she was going to make some fresh one. Then sent our waitress let us know when they were ready. She was friendly and helpful, telling us what to have with plum sauce and what to have with vinegar. «This is not Chinese food,» she said. «We make everything fresh. We make everything from scratch.» They even make their hot sauce from scratch, so she told me. So we listened to her suggestions and off we went with our loaded plates.
So this is my first time having Filipino food and it was right up my ally, literally. I would describe this as comfort food at its best. Fresh, hearty and flavourful, nothing processed, no additives. There was a noodle dish, a rice dish that were just your garden variety fried rice and noodles but good. There was a chicken dish that was so moist and tender, the chicken just fell off the bone. There was a beef dish with pineapple that was also super tender. There was a curried shrimp with green beans. There was a sweet potato cake that was complemented nicely by the vinegar. We had dumplings and spring rolls which were also really tasty. We went up for seconds but we really shouldn’t have. So FULL! My friend capped her meal off with homemade coconut ice cream and mango ice cream. i confess to sneaking a spoonful. It was good.
The ambiance of this proverbial hole in the wall is warm and cozy. It might be a little dated but that adds to that feeling that you have discovered a hidden gem that no one else knows about. We tucked ourselves away and a small little table for a good chat and laugh. While we were there a man came in with his friend and some kids to celebrate his birthday. I got the feeling they were regulars. Well, it seems that they were not the only ones that are regulars. This place is so hidden it seems that only the regulars know it exists and strive to keep it that way.
As we were leaving we spent some time taking to the owner. I see from some of the other reviews her name is Luda. I told her about all the good reviews I read about her. She seemed unaware. She said many of her customers have been coming for years and bringing their friends. It seems this sweet little place survives by word of mouth. So when you are craving a heartier lunch that feels like it was home cooked just because you were coming visit Mabuhay. You will leave with a full belly and a smile.

What a joyful experience this restaurant was! Excellent food, all-​you-​can-​eat and everything is fresh and delicious! Service was great. This was me and my friend’s first time here and now we plan on coming back once a week.

For years I have been a drunken fan of Rocky’s amazing pork kebabs. It took a while for me to realize that there is an actual restaurant behind that late night BBQ oasis of meat on a stick and even longer for me to go there, but earlier this summer, I finally corrected that.
ASAP may be the definition of a hole in the wall, but once you enter its small door and go downstairs, it’s actually kinda nice. With arched doorways and trees and plants, it’s quite welcoming and more upscale looking than you would expect for a lunchtime buffet.
After my friend and I sit down and order drinks, we meander up to the buffet counter where a friendly lady describes our options and serves up what we request. I get a plate piled high with fried rice and noodles, a ginger chicken and sweet potato dish, pork and chickpeas dish, spring roll, sweet potato patty and dumplings. I try to feel like less of a piggy by assuring myself that one no eats light at a buffet. It works… a bit.
The food is a nice change from the Chinese buffets that I’m used to. The dominant flavour of the rice and noodles is garlic, fortunately I’m a big garlic fan, although I prefer my noodles to not be chopped and be long and more manageable with chopsticks. The ginger chicken and sweet potato was a unique take on the often bland and generic sweet and sour chicken, with big chunks of sweet potato and pineapple in it. The spring roll is crisp and fresh, although the contents mostly pull out in a couple bites. Being a huge fan of potato patties for breakfast (a package permanently resides in my freezer), the handmade sweet potato patty is a fried disk of taste bud win. The dumplings are probably my favourite part of my sizable meal — they have a great pork flavour that is complimented by water chestnuts and green onion and have a nice soft texture. Capped off with some mango ice cream, my belt was strained to its limits and it is times like this I’m glad I don’t have a car and am forced to walk off the food baby that was residing in my belly.
Judging by the number of reviews for this place, ASAP is a place that flies under the radar for more people than just myself, and with the delicious and unique foods that they have, they definitely deserve to get more recognition… ASAP. *tumbleweed blows by*

A VERY belated review for one of Halifax’s hidden gems, nestled in the infamous Pizza Corner (which I’m glad to say now offers so much more than pizza!). Perhaps I am biased, having enjoyed Ludy’s amazing cooking since I was a child, but seriously… I challenge anyone to disagree. You won’t find greater bang for your buck than this all you can eat lunch buffet.
You are sure to delight in this wonderful sampling of traditional Filipino fare, with regular items like chicken adobo, pancit noodles, fried rice, and spring rolls (I’m warning you, these are wickedly addictive). When Ludy says, «Come o-o-n…get some more!», you won’t say no. And every now and then you might be lucky and get to sample some really special treats, like her stuffed chicken lollipops. OMG… to die for.
How can I not plug Rocky”s famous (and delectable) shishkabobs, served hot off the BBQ until the wee hours for all those hungry club crawlers! You gotta give it up for Rocky and his team who tirelessly brave the elements to bring us this perfect hit-​the-​spot late night treat. You know you can buy Rocky’s marinade and attempt to make these at home yourself, but he must have the magic touch ’cause it just ain’t the same.
Note: The restaurant tends to close for a few weeks during the winter (this hard working couple certainly deserves the break!) so you may need to hold out until the spring to visit the buffet, but believe me it’s worth the wait, so keep this place on your radar. You won’t be disappointed!
Hugs to Auntie Ludy and Uncle Roque! xoxo

I have an unabashed love of this place.
It’s a tiny, kind of (literally) underground, blink-​and-​you-​miss-​it joint that serves what is generally considered to be the death knell of a decent meal: the all-​you-​can-​eat lunch buffet.
But this isn’t your average buffet. You want to go back for more. Not because you want «your money’s worth», but because you want more chicken adobo (chicken slow simmered in vinegar), pancit (noodles), those golden little lumpia (Filipino spring rolls) and most of all the ukoy (veggie fritters). You must have more.
To be fair, it’s not always perfect, but that’s more of a question of the food being served buffet style. Sometimes your chicken or pork can be a little dry, as all the sauce has migrated to the bottom of the tray. The dumplings are good but not mind blowing. And you have to ask for patis (fish sauce) but once you do, you get an extra smile and they always remember you and your standing order of patis.
The best time to go is in the summer when all the cruise ships are in town. All of the Filipino staff who work on these ships come in for a taste of home and that’s when the really good stuff comes out. Soups, stews (such as the famous Dinuguan, a pork stew thickened with blood) as well as sinigang and even the occasional balut for a snack (a delicacy of fertilized and hard boiled duck eggs. Not for the faint of westernized hearts).

I’ve eaten there a few times and I’m quite impressed. The food is tasty and authentic and the price is reasonable ($ 9 for students — $ 10 general). Options are limited but they cover a good variety of Filipino food. I’m definitely going back.

Wound up here for lunch buffet. Really good eats, hot sauce with plum sauce is a nice blend, not a ton of variety but made for a tasty lunch and a nice alternative.

So I didn’t end up eating here today but I did venture in to get the dirt on this tiny, underground restaurant.
They serve a lunch buffet, which costs $ 9. If you’re a veggie, it costs $ 8 — but there’s not a ton to choose from. The woman cooking and serving was helpful, and pointed out the herbivore options. There was a rice dish, a veggie dish, and something else which was colorful and looked appetizing. There were quite a few meat options, as well as spring rolls.
The space is neat. You venture down a few steps from street level to find the buffet, and then head down a few more to find the dining area. I liked the vibe, however wasn’t moved enough by the options to sit down and dine today.
There were a number of people noshing, which always bodes well for a restaurant so maybe I’ll be back. I’ll save my top star ratings until I get a chance to actually eat their cuisine!

The correct name of this restaurant is «Asap Mabuhay». I stopped by for their $ 9 lunch buffet at around 1 pm. This was my first visit to this Filipino restaurant. The ladies in charge were extremely friendly and provided an authentic experience.
However, the buffet was short on options and the quality of the food was low. Our rice was burnt and the noodles were dry.
Perhaps Mabuhay is good at other things that I didn’t try yet (like kabobs), but I wouldn’t recommend the lunch buffet.