Kalami Cebu! - A Gastronomic Guide to Cebu

Marco Polo Plaza Cebu recently opened a new food and beverage outlet named Hai Shin Lou or Seafood King.  This Chinese restaurant is actually a branch of a famous Makati restaurant of the same name.  Hai Shin Lou aims to be the benchmark of Chinese restaurants in Cebu and they surely have the pedigree to do it. 

Today is March 25, 2017, and if you are a Cebuano foodie then the most important event today would be the opening of Tim Ho Wan at the Upper Ground Level, Mountain Wing of SM Seaside City Cebu.  It is the restaurant's 7th branch in the Philippines and the first ever outside Metro Manila.  Cebuanos can now enjoy the famous Baked Bun with BBQ Pork that helped Tim Ho Wan (Mongkok, Hong Kong) earn the coveted star in the 2010 HK and Macau Michelin Guide.

Even if I am not Chinese, I can always feel the Chinese influence in our country especially here in Cebu.  This influence is so strong in me that I love watching dragon and lion dances, and the fireworks.  I even eat tikoy and wear red during Chinese New Year.  I also read my Chinese horoscope.  I am definitely not Chinese but I love celebrating the Lunar New Year with them.  This year, I will be celebrating the start of the Year of the Rooster at Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino.  I recently previewed the Chinese New Year Menu at the hotel's Tin Gow Palace that featured Yee Sang or Prosperity Toss and I learned something that might just make me luckier in 2017.

 Call me old-fashioned but when it comes to food that I crave for when I live away from Cebu, Dim Sum from Harbour City is on my personal Top Ten list.  I just consider steamed rice with some spring rolls and siomai as the best lunch option on some days.  This love goes back to over 25 years  ago when I discovered this type of food in the old Ding Qua Qua near STC in Mango Avenue.  Even up to now, I always associate this type of food to good times with family and friends.

I am a big fan of Chinese food and I am also fond of eat-all-you-can buffets.  One of my favorite Chinese-themed eat-all-you-can restaurants in Cebu is the Grand Majestic Buffet.  The name Grand Majestic to Cebuanos is synonymous to excellent Chinese food.  Grand Majestic has been serving high-quality food for decades.  The restaurant is in the Grand Convention Center.  Last year, there was a major renovation in the Grand Convention Center and when it reopened, a redesigned and updated version of the restaurant started offering an awesome buffet.

Last month, a former agent of mine wanted to meet up and have lunch somewhere in Ayala. We planned to meet at Gold's Gym so I ended up passing by the new wing of Ayala Center Cebu and I saw that the iconic Cebu Chinese restaurant Majestic has opened a new branch at the mall.  It has been a while since I last ate at the popular Chinese restaurant, so I decided to eat there with my agent.

What's the best value eat-all-you-can restaurant in Cebu? One of my high school buddies celebrated his birthday recently and he wanted to meet some of the boys of our high school batch. We all wanted to eat something that reminded us of high school. Something we call "old school".  Way back in the 1990's, one of the most popular restaurants that we frequently ate at during the weekends was  Ding Qua Qua .  Ding Qua Qua's location then was beside Rustan's in Mango Avenue.  The place was known for its dim sum.  The most popular dishes were steamed rice, siomai, lumpia shanghai (spring rolls), and hakaw. Steamed Rice is not your ordinary rice, this is a specialty. E very Cebuano knows what steamed rice means.