Our two free days in Cebu where we did not have firm plans on what to see or do. We did list down two activities: more island hopping for snorkeling, and also a family-oriented water park resort – both places weren’t far from where we were in Cebu. As it turned out though, the wife pretty much had her fill of snorkeling and water-type activities in general, and observed from the Klook activity page that the island hopping outing would be involving more or less the same things we’d been seeing this trip. So, both potential activities got dropped, and we spent Days 09 and 10 essentially relaxing and lazing around in the hotel, and stepped out only for meals and retail therapy at the SM City Cebu mall next door.
Which is just as well, since this post would then have to be about food! Since our 2022 Japan trip where we wrote that just because we’re in Japan, it’s not as though we can’t find mediocre or just bad food, we’d been keeping our cuisine expectations low. And our take-away after 10 days in Cebu is in same general observation as in Japan: it’s perfectly possible to find decent and also pretty bad food in this city.
Our notes on the four places we dined at in SM City Cebu these two days!
Itaewon (Korean)
The wife and daughter are big lovers of Korean food, the boy is fine with it, and me, not really a fan. Still, I’m not one to say no to things without having give it a few tries first, so we checked out a small Korean cuisine place at the third level of the mall. Itaewon has pretty good reviews for the authenticity of its Korean cuisine, and a lunch later where tried a variety of Bibimbaps, the family experts concluded that the fare was pretty good, and for me, passable. The daughter quipped though that the Korean food stall at Nex Food Junction still does it better though, especially the Bibimbap gravy. Total damage: 1,394p/SGD32.
Vikings (International)
Vikings is an international buffet restaurant that is apparently also a huge buffet chain in the Philippines. Buffet spreads in Singapore of late since the pandemic have gotten extremely expensive – per head expenditures of SGD60++ is pretty common these days – so we hardly go to them anymore at home. Vikings was at 1038p (~SGD24)/adult for a weekend dinner, so we happily gave it a shot. Our main comments: it’s a huge spread – and range-wise, the largest spread we’ve ever seen, surpassing even that of the Royal Carribean cruise we went on in 2022. There’s local, western, Chinese, Japanese, and a huge section on dessert types even. As it was Father’s Day, I also got a little chocolate cake on the house. The buffet is pretty mass market though, and the restaurant was filled to capacity, with more people waiting outside for the second dinner that starts at 7PM [we opted for the 5 to 6:30PM sitting]. Our summary: at 1038p, it’s pretty good value for money, considering that it would be literally impossible to find something similar range-wise in Singapore these days. Total damage: 4,152p/SGD95.
Ramen Dojo (Japanese)
Our Day 10 lunch place, on account that we were interested to see how the Filipinos would handle ramen. We tried their several of their standard ramen sets – with Beef, and Miso as soup bases – and concluded that it’s about foodcourt standard fare: i.e. passable, nothing to shout about, and the soup tasted nothing like what one would get in equivalent places in Japan. The ramen sets were about 450p/SGD10.50 or so, so not that far from ramen restaurant chains in Singapore, so we expect higher quality than this. Our summary: eat here if you must satisfy your ramen cravings when in Cebu, but manage your expectations.
Shakey’s Pizza Restaurant @ SM City Cebu
We were craving for pizzas for Day 10 dinner. There were five pizza joints in the mall: including a Pizza Hut, an S&R New York Pizza, and a Shakey’s Pizza Restaurant. Of these, the latter seemed to get the best praise on Google – but it was a not terrific 4.0 review score even. Still, we went for it, and had a 14″ Shakey’s Special which is probably sufficient for three persons, and ordered an additional 9″ Glazed Bacon pizza. Both pizzas were passable but not anywhere near the better ones we have back at home, e.g. the kids’ favorite at Suntec city, Peperoni Pizzeria. The restaurant was really busy, and while we got a table immediately, we waited a fair bit for the pizzas: around 30 minutes for the first, and another 20 minutes for the second. Total damage: 1420p/SGD35.
