Our two free days in Cebu were days where we did not have firm plans on what to see or do. We had initially listed 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 staying in Cebu. As it turned out though, the wife had 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 involve more or less the same things we’d already been seeing on this trip. So both potential activities got dropped, and we spent Days 09 and 10 essentially relaxing and lazing around in the hotel, stepping out only for meals and a bit of 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 doesn’t mean we can’t still find mediocre or even bad food — we’ve been keeping our cuisine expectations fairly modest when traveling. And our takeaway after 10 days in Cebu is the same general observation as in Japan: it’s perfectly possible to find both decent and pretty bad food in this city.
Our notes on the four places we dined at in SM City Cebu over 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 giving them 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 after a lunch where we tried a variety of bibimbap dishes, 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, 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 since the pandemic have become extremely expensive — per-head expenditures of SGD60++ are pretty common these days — so we hardly go to them anymore at home. Vikings was priced at 1,038p (~SGD24) per 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 buffet spread we’ve ever seen, surpassing even that of the Royal Caribbean cruise we went on in 2022. There’s local, Western, Chinese, Japanese cuisine, and a massive section dedicated to desserts. As it was Father’s Day, I also received 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 seating that starts at 7PM (we opted for the 5–6:30PM sitting). Our summary: at 1,038p, it’s pretty good value for money, considering it would be nearly impossible to find something similar range-wise in Singapore these days.
Total damage: 4,152p / SGD95.
Ramen Dojo (Japanese)
Our Day 10 lunch place, as we were curious to see how the Filipinos would handle ramen. We tried several of their standard ramen sets — with beef and miso soup bases — and concluded that it’s about food-court standard fare: 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, which isn’t that far from ramen restaurant chains in Singapore — so we expected 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 pizza 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 — though it was still a modest 4.0 rating.
Still, we went for it and ordered a 14″ Shakey’s Special (probably sufficient for three people), along with an additional 9″ Glazed Bacon pizza. Both pizzas were passable but nowhere near the better ones we have back home — for example the kids’ favorite at Suntec City, Peperoni Pizzeria.
The restaurant was really busy, and while we got a table immediately, we waited quite a while for the pizzas: about 30 minutes for the first and another 20 minutes for the second.
Total damage: 1,420p / SGD35.
