Lovely’s Kitchen is a small Filipino pop-up restaurant in Madison, Alabama that opened last year. Lovely’s is located inside the Reflections Lounge on 8694 Madison Boulevard. They have frequent and flexible business hours from Thursday through Saturday from 9AM to 3PM, and on Sunday through Wednesday from 11AM to 7PM. The restaurant serves a variety of foods on a menu that you can take out, or dine in at the cozy lounge. In the late evening, this space is reserved more adults, but it’s a normal restaurant during the day.

Based on personal experience and frequent visits, the kitchen serves authentic Asian foods from scratch like lumpia, pancit noodles, sisig, chicken adobo, sweet and sour chicken, rice, sinigang, and more! Lovely’s Kitchen doesn’t only serve food in a buffet line, but halo-halo is available to order. Quoted from https://www.bonappetit.com, “From the Philippines—the name means “mix-mix” in Tagalog—the refreshing dish layers shaved ice and condensed milk on top of all sorts of ingredients for an end result that packs in lots of contrasting textures, from chewy to crunchy, creamy to sticky. While components vary, you’ll find some common add-ins at most halo-halo carts and bars: jellies, flan, macapuno, palm seeds, sweetened red beans, shaved ice, ube ice cream, fresh fruit, toasted coconut flakes, pinipig.”

Lovely’s Kitchen is a successful restaurant that is getting along well business-wise. Imelda Walt, a food server at Lovely’s Kitchen stated, “Business is doing well.  I have a lot of hours, and there are lots of customers.” 

Lovely’s Kitchen is also quite popular and all kinds of cultures and diversities come to visit the lounge. “A lot of customers from all over Alabama, even Vietnamese people come here. We are popular and patronized by Filipinos,” Imelda says. 

Data shows that a large percentage of students have yet to try Filipino food. Based on a survey answered by Bob Jones students, 76.2% of the students who took the survey have not tried Filipino food, and 23.8% have. On the bright side, 59.55% of the students who answered the survey are willing to give it a try, and 33.3% say it is a possibility. 

If you are looking to try out some sweet and savory Filipino foods, Lovely’s Kitchen is the place for you!