Zul Cafe and Grill

Having moved from my mom’s house for a new job after graduating college this past May, I’ve been yearning for a taste of my mom’s Filipino cooking. After typing “Sinigang” into Google maps (my favorite dish), I found that this establishment was only 20 minutes away from my new home. Let me tell you, the cooking at Zul Cafe and Grill is up to par with my mom’s cooking (of course nothing can ever beat mom’s cooking, right?) My Filipino taste buds are very happy that this place exists. The hot food is great, there’s a variety of snack options to purchase, and the staff is very friendly. I even chatted with the owners for a while during my first visit here and you can tell they are dedicated to their business. They’ve earned my regular patronage, as I’m sure they will earn yours. I highly recommend visiting!

This was my second visit and for our first time here would have rated this place 5/5. Maybe we visited on an off day but I didn’t enjoy our experience as much the second time around. Came in with my kids, ordered three boba teas (one strawberry and one taro and passion fruit black tea)…my kid’s strawberry milk tea wasn’t sweet at all, my passion fruit tea was too sweet to the point that I couldn’t drink it). They do have a nice selection of Filipino snacks, tried the shrimp chips and the crispy fried chicken skins, both of which were delicious. Ordered the grilled shrimp with rice for my kids to share and the pancit Bihon for me. My order took 40 Minutes, by the time it was ready my kids had finished eating and were ready to go and I had already had some of my kids’ shrimp and rice (which was delicious and quick to arrive) so I ended up taking it to go/ not eating it. The restaurant is literally someone’s house that’s been converted into a restaurant, so you come in order downstairs and then head upstairs and your food is delivered to your table. It is delivered in takeout trays and they bring you foam plates and plastic utensils. We were the only people eating in on Friday around 12:30 but the restaurant seemed to be busy with takeout orders. I thought the food was good,but the service was just ok and the drinks were a miss. I wish someone communicated that it would take 40 minutes for my dish because I would just have ordered something else from the menu in that case. I feel like I wasted $70 on a lunch and ended up sharing a few pieces of shrimp with my kids, not ideal! I would visit again because I think the food is good but probably just get takeout!

Absolute Gem. This was completely off our radar as we were coming through lower Connecticut. We stopped in looking for a quick(er) bite. NO idea we would be getting some top notch Filipino food. The staff was very friendly and helpful, and our food came out pretty quickly. We got the eggrolls (which are huge and delicious), squid balls (very tasty) as well as the BBQ chicken. This chicken was juicy, tender, and had great flavor. Thoroughly enjoyed every single bite. Highly recommend, will come back if we are ever in the area again!

We ordered from Zul Cafe for a work event. The team worked with us to select the best menu. Everything was prepared on time and nicely packaged for us. The food was a hit! Thank you for the delicious food!

We brought a large party in for the dinner experience in house. As such Gladys and her staff, were overly attentive. All of our meals were delicious the chicken and pork barbecue, the lumpiag, all clean delicious food. Next time, we use our QRC code and take out. Good luck to the team for New Haven expansion!