Food: Places to Eat in Cebu City

Here's one of my overdue posts: a review of the foods we had and the places we dined in while we were in Cebu City.

To be honest, I wasn't all that excited to stay in Cebu City, having learned that it looks just like Manila. Citylife is what we're escaping from, so I think it beats the purpose of having a vacation if we'll stay in the same environment. But staying in Cebu City can't be helped so I shifted my attention to the food that we'll eat, rather than places that we'll go to.

Here are the places that I put in my list of Cebu-City-must-eats.

1. Zubuchon or CnT Lechon or both
2. Mooon Café
3. Casa Verde
4. Larsian
5. Feria Restaurant (Radisson Blu)

But as fate would have it, things didn't go as planned: we weren't able to stay in the first hotel that I planned to stay in, and we were only able to eat at Larsian, Mooon Café and CnT Lechon.


Larsian

Pork Barbeque, Pork Liver, Chicken Isaw, Grilled White Marlin

A glorified barbeque-han, Larsian is a cluster of carinderias serving mostly barbequed meats. When we entered the compound, we were overhelmed by the number of barbeque stalls to choose from and the peddlers who were trying to sway us in their directions. I wasn't able to research which stall serves the best barbeque. It was still early and most stalls were empty, so we ended up choosing the one that already has diners.

Pork barbeque comes in cheap at P5.00 per stick, but once you see how small and thin the meat slices are, you'll realize that the price isn't really that much different from that of your neighborhood barbeque vendors. Other meat skewers range from P10.00-P50.00. Some also offer fish slices which are more expensive.

Eating is kamayan-style (you eat with your hands), and our server gave us plastic gloves to keep our hands clean while eating (but mine was punctured by the stick, so goodbye clean hands) . Taste is generally good.


Mooon Café

It's a Mexican-inspired restaurant, with colorful rustic interiors that play well to the Mexican theme. Think color-blocking: Orange, blue, yellow, green  I love the vintage-looking fountain inside the restaurant! The branch where we ate is at the Ayala Terraces. Service was fast and friendly. Food was very good and prices were reasonable.

Since it was our first time to eat here, we went safe and ordered the bestsellers. Although I'm not sure how authentically Mexican the food is (it doesn't claim to be a true-blue Mexican restaurant anyway), I love the combination of flavors and spices that are prominent in many Mexican-inspired dishes.

 

Fish Mozzarella Melt: Love the cheese!



Spaghetti Ala Gamba: This is my favorite. A nice combo of garlicky, salty (Parmesan cheese), and buttery flavors.

 

Jalapeno Diablo: Waiter said it's just mildy spicy, but it packed a punch.
For non-chili lovers: You'll survive if you skip the slices of Jalapeno peppers.

Mango Juice with Mint leaves

CnT Lechon

Cebu is famous for their lechons (roasted pig), and among the popular Lechon Cebu purveyors is CnT Lechon. Since I haven't had any other Cebu lechon, I can only compare it to Manila-stye lechons. And I can definitely say that it is much, much better.

Cnt Lechon, or what's left of it. We were so hungry I forget to take a picture before we eat.

From SM City Cebu main entrance, we crossed to the opposite of the road to the yellow building with a sign that reads Cnt Lechon. But we're not sure where to enter, the place looked like a parking space. A kid told us that there's a stair leading to the second floor. Ayun naman pala.

What greeted us upstairs was a canteen-style restaurant with a small mob of people who looked like they were calling out their bets (1 kilo! 2 kilos! 3 kilos!). The counter is divided into two, a dine-in order area and a take-out counter but we couldn't figure out where the take-out line ends and where dine-in line begins. So I just asked D to fall in line and bahala na, while I took a table and waited.

The wait was long because there were so many people and I couldn't see the line moving at all. And when he finally arrived with our lunch - a half-kilo lechon and pieces of puso rice - we were both famished so we wasted no time in devouring the famous lechon.

My first impression was it's saltier than what I'm used to. Well, that's what the vinegar dip is for. In Manila, we are used to having lechon with a pork liver gravy sauce (sarsa ng lechon) because the meat is bland. But in Cnt Lechon Cebu, the meat is salty so you have to counter it with vinegar.

Actually, I wasn't impressed with my first authentic lechon Cebu and couldn't see what people are raving about. But when I had another lechon in Manila a few weeks after we came from Cebu, that's when I began to appreciate Cebu lechon. The salty meat is really not just salty, but it also had absorbed the essence of the stuffing used during roasting, so there other flavors, albeit faint. It tasted fresh, and you can eat it on its own without the sawa factor.

As for the lechon that we bought in Manila, we weren't able to finish it. It's not good at all. The reason why D bought it was he was subconsciously hankering for Cebu lechon, and thought that any lechon can satisfy the craving. But he's wrong and we know now why the authentic Cebu lechon is superior than most lechons in Manila.

Food: Don Henrico's Ristorante at Festival Mall, Alabang

I haven't eaten at Don Henrico's for years. So when I saw a 50% off deal at Ensogo (P500 voucher for only P250), I immediately bought 2 vouchers and planned to dine at their Festival Mall branch in Alabang. I was able to after the Holy week, together with my husband and my parents.

Upon entering the restaurant, the first thing I noticed was that it looked old and dull and tired. It was mid-afternoon and there were only a few diners inside. I asked for a table for four and we were led to one with 2 two-seater couches facing each other. There were large tears on the couches and everything just seemed to have this worn out vibe. Obviously, the interiors was kept un-updated for a long time.

So not having any interesting piece to focus on, I set my eyes on the menu. First, I informed the waiter that I'll be using two Ensogo vouchers. I inquired through phone beforehand and was told that to be able to use two vouchers per table, it will be a one item per voucher transaction. To maximize the use of the vouchers, they suggested that each item must be at least P500. Hence, we ordered 5 pieces of Buffalo Wings (P560) and a family-size Supreme Pizza (P540). We also added a regular size Seafood Pesto Linguine (P280) and 4 glasses of different flavored drinks.

I forgot that Don Henrico's Buffalo Chicken Wings are BIG (almost as big as other restaurants' quarter chicken). But the taste was as good as I remember it. The sauce that coated each piece provided a strong, sharp BBQ flavor on the outside of the chicken, which others might find overwhelming. I did so I scraped off the sauce first before I take a bite. But the inside was a juicy, tasty soft meat, reminding me why the wing is my part favorite in a chicken.The best way to eat this is to dip or dab a few drops of the ranch dressing onto the chicken for a balanced smoky-sweet-salty-sour flavor. We didn't have rice, but I imagine this would go perfectly with it.

The pizza was delightful as well, as I could note the freshness of the toppings used. Although I wish we had asked for more cheese. The crust tasted fresh, too and I thought it nicely offset the flavors of the pizza sauce and the toppings. But my Dad, who is fond of thin-crust pizzas, found it too thick.

We liked the Seafood Pesto Linguine the most. The blend of creamy-white and Pesto sauce, perfectly-cooked seafood slices and al dente Linguine noodles lent a rich, full-bodied flavor to this pasta dish. The combination of Pesto and white sauce offered a refreshingly new and wonderful treat to our taste buds. Despite the creaminess of the sauce, it didn't have that umay factor.

Overall, we enjoyed the food and was overwhelmed with the large servings.We only had 3 dishes but it was more than enough for all 4 of us. We brought home half of the pizza and 3 pieces of Buffalo wings. The wait staff were also very friendly and helpful and using my Ensogo vouchers was hassle-free.

Our total bill amounted to P1,700+, which means that I had to shell out an additional P700++ cash. If only they didn't have the 1 item/voucher rule (when using more than 1 voucher per table), we could have ordered the smaller serving size of the pizza and the Buffalo wings, and added another dish for more variety. But yeah, rules are rules and I think the P500 worth of savings is good enough.

Food: Giligan's Restaurant at Festival Mall, Alabang

Giligan's Restaurant at Festival Mall in Alabang is a go-to place for after-office dinners, gatherings and light drinking sessions. I can't recall how many celebrations were held here when I was still employed in my old company. Just that there were too many -- birthdays, promotions, girls' night-outs, bosses' dinner treats, get-togethers, informal meetings. Thinking about those makes me kind of nostalgic now.

The best thing about this restaurant is the cheap but great food and the laid-back easy ambiance. It's a grilled-sizzling type of restaurant as most of their menu fares are cooked that way. It's not too noisy and they don't play blaring music so you can still hear each other clearly. But it's not quiet either that you'd be shy to make loud noises because the restaurant is bustling with sounds of other people having fun.

I remember that we would often go here in big groups (more than 20 people), talk loud, laugh our hearts out (sometimes while pounding our hands on the table) and just have a great bonding time with everyone and not be concerned about disturbing the tables around us. Because chances are, they are having a good time themselves and usually don't care.



I still go here, after I resigned from work, sometimes with my husband, sometimes with my family but mostly during lunch hours when it's more quite. The food is always good, the serving sizes are big enough and the prices are affordable. We even held our pamamanhikan in one of their closed rooms for a more private gathering (not really pamamanhikan, but the getting to know of our families before we got married).

Just recently, we ate here to sort of celebrate my dad's birthday. It wasn't a planned dinner, they just went to buy some groceries and my husband and I were actually somewhere else. Then they asked us to come to Festival mall for dinner. And the celebrant wanted to eat at Giligan's.

We had the following:

Chicken Lollipop

I've had this numerous times before and was a little surprised that it was flat-out tasteless. Obviously, the chickens and the breading weren't flavored.

Fish Fillet with Fries

It's still good. It has the right crunch outside and the right softness and juiciness inside and the mayo-tartar dip that came with the dish was a good complement to the dish. Although I noticed that the serving size was reduced.

Grilled Salmon Belly

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to taste this one so I can't comment on it.

Sizzling Mixed Seafood

This one I was looking forward to as it was the first time we ordered it. But I was disappointed when it was served. It didn't look appetizing and the taste was just mediocre. I didn't like the black sauce, obviously had squid ink, that the seafoods were swimming in. And by seafoods, I mean few slices of squid, fewer mussels still attached to half the shell and much fewer pieces of shrimps. The only redeemable thing about this dish is how soft the squids were, which only meant that they were cooked right.

Kare-Kareng Gulay

I love Kare-Kare and this wasn't the best Kare-Kare that I've had but it was good enough considering it had nothing but vegetables. The peanut butter sauce was very flavorful albeit a little sweet than I preferred. I think this was intentional so it would counteract the saltiness of the bagoong (shrimp paste). But I think it would do well on its own.

Prior to this dinner, my husband and I went here quite a few times and had the other "usuals" like Sizzling Pork Sisig and Pork Barbeque. 

Overall, I could say that the taste of the dishes (including the ones I featured here) had retrogressed although somehow they managed to keep the prices, only slightly higher, if not almost the same as they were years ago. In trying to stay affordable, they sacrifice a little of the quality of the food, which I guess is inevitable.

Food: The Old Spaghetti House at Festival Mall, Alabang

It's been years since I ate at The Old Spaghetti House. And I know why. The last time I ate there, I was with my husband. I already forgot what we had then but I remember that we didn't like the food that much, and the experience didn't warrant a return visit. But just recently, we were at the Festival Mall in Alabang (me, mother and husband  -- and you could probably tell by now that we frequent this particular mall a lot). It was past lunchtime and we're quite famished, and the first restaurant that we saw was The Old Spaghetti House. So despite a disapproving look on my husband's face, we went in.

The branch in Festival Mall has a small dinning space inside, but they also have a space outside, if you want to dine al fresco. The interior is decorated with rustic furnishings lending a countryside appeal to the restaurant, which makes it kinda homey and intimate -- perfect for those spur-of-the-moment on-a-budget dates.

Food: Pho Hoa at Festival Mall, Alabang

Living in the south of the metro leaves us with fewer convenient choices in as far as good places to eat are concerned. We are usually limited to restaurants inside malls, that is, if we prefer somewhere near and accessible to public transport. So when Pho Hoa opened a branch in Festival Mall in Alabang, Muntinlupa City, I thought that finally, here's a chance to see what the rave is about.

I've been seeing Pho Hoa branches in SM Megamall and SM Mall of Asia whenever we go there. And because the sign says "Vietnamese Noodle House", I've been wanting to try their food but never had the chance. We always end up choosing the other new option, the one that offers safer and familiar food choices, like pizza and pasta, burger and fries, BBQ grills, Chinese food. Dishes like that.

Pho Hoa shares a space and a whole crew with My Thai (not sure if they're sister companies or what) and has this energizing hot pink and lime green theme, which at first glance, looks more like a hip girl's clothes shop rather than an Asian restaurant.

It was late afternoon when we went there the first time, and the restaurant only had a couple of customers. As expected, I ordered a noodle soup, Seafood Noodle Soup (which I will review on a separate post). My husband wanted to try one of the rice plates, but I convinced him to get the Vermicelli Bowl (chicken, veggie and fried spring rolls) instead, thinking that it is plate sampler. But when it arrived, it was a salad.

Food: Pepper Lunch at Robinsons Mall, Ermita Manila

I normally don't write restaurant food reviews. The reason? I always forget to take pictures of our food whenever we eat out. But I resolve to change that and try to document and review as much of our eating adventures as possible.

So lemme start with our lunch last Tuesday at Pepper Lunch in Robinsons Mall Ermita. The first time that we ate here was courtesy of Standard Chartered. We came from my prenatal checkup at UPMC. And since it's already near Robinsons Ermita and I had two P4,000-worth credit card receipts, and not to mention that I needed the exercise then, we gave Pepper Lunch a go. It's free lunch for 2, why wouldn't we?

Anyway, we ordered, or perhaps the more proper term is "claimed", Teriyaki Pepper Chicken with Egg and Beef Teriyaki with Egg (both included in the Standard Chartered promo). We also ordered an additional Pepper Rice while we have one dish served with steamed rice.