Kabayan Filipino Store & Cafe

Kabayan Filipino Store & Cafe in the Dallas area of Texas.

A shop and diner that began when owner Greg Villanueva’s brother needed a job. Villanueva also owns Press Ink, and when the opportunity arose to open a new shop two doors away, he decided to open a Filipino store. Press Ink is a printing service that works with shirts, banners and signage.

Filipinos come from as far as Fort Worth, Gainesville and Oklahoma to buy Filipino goods at Kabayan.

“Not only in Lewisville, [Filipinos] are everywhere here in the metroplex,” he said in the lobby of Press Ink. “There’s no Filipino store like that in the metroplex. This is the only Filipino store.”

Some Asian stores have Filipino items, some don’t, Villanueva said. Everything at Kabayan is Filipino.

The shop sells items such as sauces, marinades, jarred fruits, frozen dinners, noodles, cosmetics, chips and Goldilocks pastries.

Kabayan serves halo halo, a mixed tropical shaved ice dish, as well as alternating dishes throughout the week. Sometimes on holiday weekends it serves lechon, a whole pig prepared on a spit, by the pound.

The line for lechon looks like Best Buy’s on Black Friday, Villanueva said. It would cost about $400 for a household to get a whole pig and make lechon themselves.

Villanueva is known as Jojo in the Philippines. “Kabayan” means “fellow countryman” or “of the same country.”

Villanueva and his family moved away from the Philippines 15 years ago. They lived in a trailer in Flower Mound, which was more rural at the time, because Villanueva’s brother lived nearby. Eventually they moved to Lewisville because it was a busier area.

Villanueva plans to open a larger Filipino market that accommodates other Asian communities.

Kabayan is at 2305 S. State Highway 121 in suite 165. It is open 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday. It is open Sundays from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

(972) 798-3030

Note that they sell the Manila Gold brand of calamansi, which is made by Ramar Foods, the company that pirated the Magnolia Ice Cream and Pampanga’s Best brands from the Philippines. Boycott!!