Where to eat in Cebu? -1

IF you find yourself in the Queen City of the South

anytime soon, get your palate ready for the adventure

of a lifetime. Aside from the lechon and the infamous

barbecue stalls, Cebu offers a wide variety of good

food that will leave you licking your lips. And the big, spot-hitting bonus--food

in Cebu is quite inexpensive. So splurge. For once, forget that diet. Live. Your

taste buds will love you for it.

Patio Isabel

Old Banilad Road

Banilad, Cebu City

Patio Isabel is a very Filipino restaurant. It reminds me of Kamayan, with a

more old-fashioned feel. The food is superb, I was ooh-ing and aah-ing all

throughout the meal. The aroma of good food wafted all over. We had a whole

feast in front of us. Sinigang, tortang talong (eggplant omelet), fish, baked

mussels, steamed shrimps, fresh lumpia, squid, sliced green mangoes with

bagoong. The table was also laden with all kinds of sauces.

Since I love anything crispy, the chicharon was a winner for me, along with the

tasty, crispy beef ribs and nilasing na hipon. The flavorful chicken pandan

(chicken parts wrapped with pandan leaves) was a delight.

The desserts were also good. The leche flan was rich, but not too sweet. Even

their iced tea was good. Mozart recommends their buco pandan shake. I

loved their guinomis (sago and pinipig in coconut milk).

To my pleasant surprise, everything on the menu was very inexpensive. Only a

few items went over P100. Families may even order set buffets for P480, P580

or P680.

Now, back in Manila, I still find myself dreaming about the garlic rice and

chicken pandan.

Fast-food chicken just doesn’t cut it anymore.

Yo! Latino

The Village

CCTC Cebu City

Dab smack in the middle of The Village is Yo! Latino, a bar-restaurant that

lives up to its name. With the orange interiors, wooden tables and chairs, lit

candles and Latino music playing, you would almost expect Antonio Banderas

to come popping in any time.

My first visit to this restaurant, which is run by food connoisseur James Gaite,

was late Wednesday night--and it was almost full. There were a lot of people

outside, dining al fresco.

My next visit, on a Friday night, was for a full-blast dinner. There were even

more people. Eat we did--a lot. We ordered four different kinds of appetizers.

The Calamares Fritos (P80) was really tender and was served with good tartar

sauce--definitely not the kind that comes from a bottle. The Gambas Al Mario

(P120) was a hit for the spice hounds. The Champignones Al Ajillo

(P80)--mushrooms cooked in a variety of spices--was also good. My favorite

appetizer was the quesadilla (P120)--slices of soft tortilla filled with mozzarella

cheese and chorizo bits served with barbecue nachos. It was bursting with

flavor. You wouldn’t be able to stop at just one.

While many decided to try the spareribs (P220), I chose the Lemon Grass

Chicken (P140) to be different. It was served with the restaurant’s special rice

and a really, really spicy sauce. The chicken was tender--the flavor was almost

delicate. I loved it. The others gave the callos and the lengua the thumbs-up.

You may order dessert from Soap, the chill-out bar next door. Although their

crepes were a bit small, the tiramisu was a big hit.

Yo! Latino is open from 6 a.m.-2 a.m. every day.

Blue Ripples

Buot, Punta Engano

Mactan Island, Cebu

Some people can be very meticulous about food. They want only the freshest

and the finest there is. If you fall under this category, you’ll love Blue Ripples.

Not exactly the easiest place to access, the long drive to this restaurant is

bumpy. But the food is worth the rocky travel.

Once you get off the car, you can smell the sea in the night breeze. After a

rickety walk down a narrow wooden plank, you stand on a wooden landing

built atop the Mactan Channel. Surrounding you are netted water areas filled

with different sea creatures. Fish, crabs, shrimps, shellfishes--and yes, they are

alive. They are swimming, they are snapping, they are floating--unaware that

they’d be your meal for the night.

You choose, they catch it and you tell them how to cook it.

This, of course, is the more expensive way to do it. That night, crabs went for

P450 per kilo, shellfishes were P60 per order and the fish was P750 per kilo. If

you want to save a few pesos, you can always order from the menu. But doing

it this way is an experience.

You can choose between eating on a floating bamboo raft or at the restaurant

itself, which actually looks like a big old house with scenic windows.

We opted for the house. It’s more practical, they said, in case someone wanted

to use the bathroom.

Since the place was empty that night, save for us and a few others who were

dining on the rafts, the service was really good.

Despite the restaurant being famous for live seafood, the menu has evidently not

been neglected. There are so many choices that your head would spin. They

have endless lists of beef, chicken, pork, seafood and vegetable dishes. They

also have noodles and snacks for light eaters. Now that we definitely weren’t.

The clams we ordered were gigantic--I even brought home a shell to show off

to my grandma. The grilled pork (inihaw na baboy) was good--very tasty. We

had sinigang and chicharon. We also had lapu-lapu cooked in two

ways--grilled and deep-fried. The fish was so fresh--I still close my eyes now

to remember it. Cynthia was right when she said, "It just slides down. Walang

aftertaste."

Poise forgotten, we attacked the crabs with our bare hands. They were so

meaty, it was heaven. We had half of the crabs steamed with garlic and the

other half cooked in chili sauce. Everyone made sounds of pleasure as we ate

nonstop. We had fresh mangoes for dessert. The food was so rich but the good

thing about it was that even if you ate a lot, you didn’t feel like you were about

to burst.

The whole meal--and it was a feast, no understatement there--only cost us

P3,400--and all six of us were big eaters. You wouldn’t get seafood that fresh

in Manila for that amount. There you go. One more reason to love Cebu.