Here is a short list of some places to get good food when you are tired of the fare from coffee shops and local or international chains. Many of these places have all a good story to tell in the years we have discovered and revisited these places. The list does not include the bastions of high cuisine (you can get that in your published guides). The places are where the residents of the area go to be consoled or restored by spending their hard earned-money on the district’s food icons. These restos fulfill hearty appetites with soulful dishes that define favorite tastes and recipes that represent their area, their abode, and the existing food culture of the place. Don’t forget to drop me a note if you enjoyed the food.
DAVAO CITY
Known to be the fruit bowl of the Philippines and now increasingly popular with its rising popularity in the areas of chocolate, coffee, and the myriad varieties of durian, Davao is also a popular area for seafood and a hub for fish culture.
AHFAT
A Chinese restaurant in the Victoria Plaza area that combines Chinese technique with the local produce and seafood, the restaurant’s winning favorites are pata tim (braised pork trotters and shoulder with its deep flavored dark gravy) and garlic steamed mollusks or crustaceans. On certain seasons they serve pigik which is a delicate flavored, soft fleshed white bass type that spawns in Mindanao rivers.
BANKEROHAN MARKET
Early mornings are getting a cup of thick, hot, traditional cacao called sikwate eaten with a dollop of putomaya or purple sticky rice. One can be more adventurous and try the “kinutil” or a mix of alcoholic coconut toddy with hot chocolate that starts the day of the market hands or baggage boys. The concoction is laden with legends of machismo. Don’t forget to grab a well ripened and intensely sweet and candy like calinan pineapple before heading back to the hotel.
FAMOUS
Situated in Acacia St, Famous has old Chinatown specialties like quekiam or minced Chinese sausage; sate spiced noodles (satemi), and other turn-of-the-century recipes when Chinatown food used Spanish terms for their dish titles. This restaurant is most famous for a soup noodle recipe called Gulami, a spicy, aromatic soup of tripe and innards scented strongly with cloves, pepper, and chili. This is one of the older places that serve a Filipino signature on its evolved Chinese dishes.
MARINA TUNA
Situated in Lanang, this restaurant specializes in tuna, other large gamefish, and seafood. This is because the owner owns a fishing fleet. A good menu for the visitor or first timer is to have the Tuna 10 Ways menu.
BULCACHONG
An after-hour pit stop before heading home, this place fulfills hunger pangs with a rich bowl of stewed tender carabao meat complete with bones, cartilage, and connective tissue enriched by lemongrass and spices as aromatics, a nod to the past when times were hardy and people were thrifty. A ban in the ’70s did not stop this mode of eating, as it is embedded in this culture. A spritz of chili, calamansi, soy sauce, and vinegar on the soup and meat forces one to have more rice to tame the richness of this stew-soup.
DOODS IHAW IHAW
On Roxas St. near the rotunda is a place typical of streetside hawkers in Southeast Asia. This is roughing it up and not for the squeamish, tuna collar (panga) or tuna belly is grilled to perfection, and one wonders why the source of these relished tuna parts cannot serve and cook it the way Doods, his wife, and in-laws grill it to a magical juicy state.
TAGBUAN
This place on Tionko St. never seems to run out of people. It serves up dishes representative of Davao and its outlying provinces, like ginataang pantat or catfish cooked in turmeric, coconut milk, and spices. The food here lends itself to two choices of carbs, rice, or beer. Enjoy classics like kinilaw (Mindanao style ceviche), balbacua, and pinaputok (grilled coral snapper wrapped in banana leaf and foil).
FARMER’S MARKET
Here, one can indulge in several varieties of durian including the holy grail of durian aficionados called Para sa pari (for the parish priest). One can compare the different nuances and do a durian tasting of different varieties.
FROG KAFFEE
A newly opened craft coffee place which definitely serves a serious cup of coffee roasted on premise.
YELLOW FIN
What started out two decades ago as a driver and bodyguard’s eating place is now two major restaurants in Torres St. and Ecoland with a couple of smaller branches. Yellow Fin captures the richness of tuna and its parts such as ubolubol (esophagus cartilage), bagaybay (sperm sacs), or bihod (caviar). Its version of greaseless fried chicken is still the best because despite it being fried to a crisp exterior, one can still taste the chicken and not the oil for frying.
LITO’S GRILL
This is not just another ihaw-ihaw or chargrilling place. There is a good selection of fresh items ready to be seared over smoky charcoal grill; the menu shows a good representation of peripheral Visayan and Mindanao favorites. Staff is impressive as they anticipate your needs and are highly alert but not intrusive.
PERS SATTEE HAUS
This place serves authentic Tausug sattees with tamu or leaf-wrapped rice cakes that absorb the tasty gravy that floods the tiny skewers of marinated meat. Tiyula itum, in chicken or beef short ribs form, braised in blackened coconut cream, is a true winner for this Matina Pangi eatery.
PANABO PARADISE ISLAND RESORT
Though not in Davao City but a few minutes away by ferry, this Samal resort has a wide and and varied menu with great Filipino and Spanish selections and great cooling desserts such as halo halo variations.
BINGGOY’S GOURMET
This quaint little restaurant with its dainty surroundings has offerings like lengua and steaks. For breakfast it has homemade chorizo that this place has been serving for years.
DEMITASSE
Located on Torres St., Demitasse has good coffee and equally good pastries. Service is cordial and attentive. Savory items from the menu are reasonably priced which makes this a favorite among locals.
ILOILO
My favorite breakfast practice among the Ilonggos is the consumption of soup during breakfast. I had a chance to stay long in front of the La Paz market where we would just cross and enter the market for breakfast.
NETONGS
Surprisingly there is an air-conditioned restaurant inside the La Paz Market. One has the option to have a large bowl of batchoy noodles laden with slivered pork, sliced offal, and enriched with a spoonful of bone marrow. The other alternative is to choose some freshly cooked viands with rice and a fresh vegetable soup called laswa.
MADZ
On a nearby lane in La Paz Market is this coffee shop that serves the old-style, cloth-filtered coffee where the perennial boil with the grounds efficiently extracts the caffeine and keeps you charged up without hunger pangs for the next meal. Choices are light, medium, and strong. The coffee got us so charged up that we skipped lunch working in the kitchen all wide eyed.
PAMPANGA
One of our culinary capitals, but why is it that there are very few Kapampangan restaurants here? The hard fact is that Kapampangan are critical and always compare food with their treasured family recipes or what is simply done at home. A few native restaurants have become institutions and I wish new Kapampangan chefs would open more restos serving traditional family cooking.
EVERYBODY’S CAFE
A third generation family-owned restaurant on MacArthur Highway, San Fernando. The place serves recipes that show farm cooking and ingredients such as frog adobo and its high cuisine counterpart where the clean stomach lining of the frogs are stuffed with garlic sausage. Fermented pork and carabao meat are offered together with more elitist morcon and embotido.
MILA’S
Located in front of Town and Country subdivision, Mila’s is well known for a crispy sisig (chopped pickled pork jowls) and a limited selection of home specialties such as fiddlehead fern salad foraged from Mt. Arayat and crispy pata (pork hocks).
BALE DUTUNG
Bale Dutung presents lechon done in a myriad of ways in one colossal lunch. This is in Villa Gloria subdivision and reservations are a must because they only prepare for prepaid customers.
SUSIE’S
Located at Nepo Quad, Angeles, Susie’s has the best and finest assortment of Filipino and Kapampangan rice cakes and puddings. Delight in a pure carabao milk pudding fragranced with lime zest called tibok tibok or noodles with annatto shrimp and smokes fish called pancit palabok. Bottled preserves are also sold together with an excellent version of bottled crab fat.
BATANGAS CITY
This city is known for beef, coffee, chocolate, and seafood because of its vast coastline.
JORJANE’S
Coming out of the expressway and going to the city center, Jorjane’s is a good stopover for traditional-style bulalo. The huge shanks are simmered in large pots outside on wood fire, which accounts for the rustic and country flavors served in this pitstop.
MEGA LOMI
This eatery at the National Road, Barangay Alangilan is set on a small hill with a native nipa style hut surrounded by al fresco tables and chairs. Its lomi is truly tasty and reasonably priced so the townfolk treat themselves to a hearty bowl of noodles.
WA NAM
Across the new Batangas City Market is an age old institution serving classic Chinese panciteria fare. This style of cooking is fast disappearing in Manila’s Chinatown, which gives many a huge nostalgia trip when sampling the archaic Chinese style food here.
CEBU CITY
A citadel of Visayan arts, language, culture, and cuisine. Being one of the main cities in the Philippines and a center for tourism growth, Cebu is characterized by a multiplicity of cuisines because it has become a new home for several foreigners who are charmed by what it offers.
MATIAS
An eccentric handpainted sign probably just bigger than a legal envelope roars that this place on Fortuna Avenue needs no introduction to the locals who fancy eating a variety of skewered meats and fish grilled over smoldering charcoal. Flavors are simple, natural, and sometimes highlighted by an all purpose sweet soy glaze that transforms the skewers into delectably smoky bites balanced, given more umami by a dip of coco vinegar, chili, calamansi, and soy sauce. These up front flavors of glaze and wood smoke are rounded out by little chunks of rice cooked in diamond or triangular shaped sachets of woven palm fronds made in house called puso. The natural container releases its leaf essences to give a creamy, grassy flavor to the rice. This kind of hearty eating is characteristically Visayan and is so representative of basic Cebuano fare, whether rich or poor. If new concepts of dining dictate that you pick up food with your hands to ground you with what you are eating, this has been totally practiced here for the last number of centuries.
CONCHINGS
Now opening in different upper middleclass areas, Conchings was in the reclamation area near the SM Mall selling whole charcoal roasted free ranged chicken marinated in lemongrass and the native lemon basil called sangig. Though a little tough, this free ranged chicken is full flavored and is perfect for eating with leaf packaged rice called puso.
OYSTER BAY
A large outlet is located in the reclamation area before one goes up the bridge to Mactan. What is fascinating are the reasonably priced oysters fished out of an aquarium and spider shells (saang) recommended grilled that gives off delightful, briny flavors. Lobsters are always available but like in any cosmopolitan city would be pricey.
KUSINA UNO
In Panagdaet is a favorite after-drinking place where one can combat inebriation by having a bowl of Cebuano style boiled beef shank called pochero. This is one of the best interpretations of this hearty Cebuano dish.
ORANGE CARENDERIA
Near Lahug is a small restaurant serving alternative Filipino ingredients like bagaybay (tuna gonads). It is also known to put special touches to Filipino dishes that the more modern cosmopolitan set in Cebu has accepted, breaking the monotonous and repetitive Filipino restaurant dishes that seems to be based on “best sellers.”
CNT LECHON
One cannot leave Cebu if one has not sampled a true Cebu lechon. Redolent of lemongrass, tasty leeks, and seasalt placed in its cavity and roasted to a crisp dark amber over charcoal. The main outlet is in Guadalupe.
TATANG’S
Tatang’s among the lechon rolls is the tastiest and most flavorful upon tasting the roasted belly meat. The outlet on Wilson St. has a small dining area and always has on premise, freshly roasted lechon rolls. Other dishes worth ordering are the lechon wraps which parallels to the Peking duck wrap.
ZAMBOANGA
Zamboanga has a great potential as a gastronomic destination. A great mix of Spanish, Malay, Muslim recipes have syncretized with the local produce for unique recipes.
ALAVAR’S
This seems to be the place to greet or bid guests goodbye with its exotic seafood like the Curacha crab that is pristine and meaty. A lot of seafood is smothered with a delicious Alavar sauce. Exotic pickles like seaweed and bongga made from palm flowers completes a unique culinary experience with a true Zamboanga stamp.
JIMMY’S
Satti is customarily a breakfast item chargrilled on the spot and served with rice cubes cooked in palm leaves drenched in a sweetish sauce as an accent.
KEO’S
A bastion of Tausug cuisine, Tiyula itum cooked in burned coconut cream sprinkled with toasted grated, spiced coconut is a true winner eaten with festive kuning or turmeric rice. Other Tausug dishes would be fish or chicken preparations with turmeric and ginger.
BICOL
I was lucky enough to have to have met Gov. Joey Salceda and Bryan Jao, the creative minds behind the long running Culinaria Albay, one of the major activities behind Daragang Magayon, a month long cultural and culinary festival in Legazpi City. The volcano, from which many legends abound, has given fertile soil to the farmers and foragers for delicacies and crops.
LIGAO
Like sunflowers lining the road, puto or rice cake makers who steam the rustic rice cakes stuffed with macapuno and raw sugar in plain white or purple yam or ube version dot both sides of the highway.The sellers are gracious enough to even give you a sample of their product and are very descriptive about their recipe procedure to add that provincial romance to the delicacy one is eating.
GUINOBATAN
Longanisa and other pork products is the specialty of this town. Well known producers of their garlicky sausage are Ravago’s, Nate’s, and Sean Susan who give quick demonstrations on the preparation of this cottage product.
TABAKO
This is the home of one of the most beautiful, swimmable, clearest, and most accessible falls in the country with totally cemented roads, parking space and pathways that lead you to this piece of Albay paradise. A stopover for good home cooking is Martha’s Kitchen, as well as Ishiaya for Japanese fare owned by actress and chef Aya Medel
DJC
The tuna center of Albay and a lot of prime tuna can still be procured here. A stopover at DJC Halo-halo topped with their smooth leche flan and done with homemade ingredients is a must and a gastronomic pilgrimage to those on the road.
CAMALIG
This is the home of pinangat, stuffed parcels of taro leaves cooked in coconut creme with the spicy curd of the coconut collected as it floats on top of the pot while braising, topped on this dish for extra richness. Advanced orders for premium versions with more pork or crab meat with young coconut (inolokan) is suggested.
AYANNA’S
A restaurant that should be part of a visit to Polangui. Chef Benson makes one of the finest renditions of laing giving the dish a tang with an addition of tart and plumy libas leaves. The squid Bicol express is another dish that is not to be missed.
CENA UNA
This is a century old restored house in Daraga with Albay cooking and ingredients given some creative twists such as laing pasta, pako or fern salad, tinutungan chicken breast.
COLONIAL
wonderful homemade ice creams and their iconic one is their sili that is served in 3 stages of heat.
LEGAZPI
The capital is well known for its rows of Pili processors such as Albay Pili. Worth mentioning is a private dining place in a house near the fishport called Alamos, where you literally dine on choice seafood in the family dining table while the family members nonchalantly watch tv in the living space. One of the best versions of Kinunot or flaked skate or stingray in coconut cream is at a place called Layag. It is recommended that one orders take out as there is quite a wait.
QUEZON
Quezon provides an interesting dimension to coconut cooking and coconut products such lambanog.
ANTIGUA PANCITERIA
One of the very few remaining places serving Filipino-Chinese fare in the style of the early 1900’s. Antigua is located in front of the old Lucena church. One of the most popular dishes is chami, a most revered snack of sauteed noodles in this province.
PALAISDAAN
A restaurant surrounded by ponds where you can choose your fish and grill it or fry it to a crisp exterior. Other hometown recipes featuring courses richly cooked in coconut cream are the mainstays of this restaurant.
VILLA ESCUDERO
On the border of San Pablo and the first town of Quezon called Tiaong is a living museum of early Filipino country life, complete with serenaders singing classic love songs and carabao pulled carts. Lunch is on a restaurant fronting a waterfall where one feels the light rush of cool water on your feet while eating barrio or farm cookery.