Cebu residents may be able to fill you in on other options, here are some I did and enjoyed a lot

-Rent a private boat for sunset cruise. Unlimited drinks, dinner included, and entrance to an entertainment show later. Reasonable price

-Daytrip or more to Bohol (1hr with ferry), there's lots to do there and you can hire a guide if you want. On the island you can rent a bike or an ATV, unless you have own car with the guide. Riverboat cruise on floating restaurant is fantastic in addition to all the sights

-Skywalk/Edge Coaster at the Crown Regency Hotel is pretty unique and cool

-Poker/gambling at the Waterfront casino

-Nightlife at Mango Sq., there are some regular bars/disco and some degen ones

-Dinner by the beach at Shangri La Resort, it's quite nice there. There are also some very good seafood restaurants which serve totally fresh food (they keep live giant prawns/lobster/squid etc, magnificent)

Need any assistance I can get with my ipad 3g and the globe microsim. Having trouble getting ipad and sim programmed. I can't get a smart microsim where I am.

Yeah, this is the area I disagree with most of the other guys here, the most on.

In every other area, transportation, room, nightlife, etc. etc. sure you might have to make some sacrifices in quality of life, when on a budget, but food is the one area you can do cheap, and still maintain full quality and taste.

You don't even have to bother with cooking your own ****. Just go to 711 and stock up on nuts and other good protein sources if you want some food to munch on between sessions.

When you want full on meals, just head to any of the Filipino open restos for cheap, tasty food.

There aren't too many of these in the center of Makati/Ayala where most of the foreigners live, but once you venture out into Filipino filled areas you will stumble across an endless area of these. You can get dishes of rice + whatever for less then $1. They are full, hearty, tasty meals, with plenty of options for whatever your particular taste is.

There are also cheap burger stands all over the place, where you can get two burgers for 50 - 75 cents total. I suggest getting the double burger at Minute Burger and the cheese burger at Angel Burger. Not a huge fan of burger machine personally.

You can also find plenty of places to buy cheap produce. It will be fresh, I've never ended up with rotten fruit or veggies, even when purchased from street side vendors.

I'm willing to make concessions to these guys in other areas, but in food, for sure, you can eat plenty, tasty, and healthy (or not so healthy as you may prefer,) for no more then $3 per day.

^711 though is around 25% more expensive than the supermarket, worth to note for the life nit.
Mercury(drugstore) will be significantly cheaper than 711 and ministop as well. Useful to remember as these are often packed nearby

I would say it depends on pickyness in food taste. Probably 80+% of western foreigners do NOT like filipino dishes at all, especially the average ones in the street - more so if they are skeptical about kitchen hygiene. It also depends on body build and how much fuel the person needs. Servings are MUCH smaller than in the west. A Norwegian friend of mine who was taking some offshore exams, used to order 3 dinners for dinner because it wasn't enough for him. Adapting to smaller portions is easy though.

I think general no-name burger joints aren't great and yeah chicken can cost as low as or lower than p70/kg, sinadomeng can be like 30 per, then just ship some spice. And there you have like 4 super easy and quick meals for ~ p20 each. I'd rather do it like that because I don't like type grilled liver nor random pork limbs + egg that much.

Last night in Thailand, early flight, manila by lunchtime BOOM!

You don't like pig's feet? What about chicken heads? Surely you like the tripe soup...!?

LOL, in the city north of Cebu City where I stayed, the food was my biggest disappointment. I have had great Filipino cooking back here in the states, and I am told I was in the wrong region for the tastiest food. Everything taste much the same, as the only spice in common use there was MSG.

Westerners need to beware of many of the market/street restaurants. Food courts have these types of restaurants as well. The common practice is to cook mounds of everything, set it out on display, and let the customers point to what they want. Seafood and chicken has often been sitting out in the tropical heat for five hours.

You can comfortably nit by on $5/day for food.

ya when i worked with the philippinos they would bring in some food at times.... never saw anything i liked

though when i went to my friends house she had cooked some pretty tasty stuff up but im not sure that was actually PI food

poot how long you gonna be there? i was gonna send you a pm but i got scared that either me or my comp may get a virus

my favorite "filipino" foods i had while i was there were chicken pancit, sinigang with rice, milk fish, and the standard pork and rice dish's were pretty tasty too. but i found some other dishes to be too salty. but every single fast food shop i LOVED (jolibee, mcdo, chow king, greenwich, kfc, shakeys) and its so much cheaper. and free delivery. so overall i love food there.

Mang Inasal is great, unlimited rice

Jolibee is unappealling in my opinion. The fries are really good, but they don't have mustard and pickle (Filipinos generally don't like that taste...too bitter) and the burgers taste a bit mushy.

mcdo=McDonald's I guess? Hamburger is actually more expensive in the PI.

Chow King is king! My favorite common fast food joint there. Tons of great stuff for relatively cheap. They change their menu somewhat frequently, too.

Greenwich I found better than Pizza Hut in the PI. I don't like Pizza Hut much...it doesn't taste the same, but I don't know what's different. Greasier but drier at the same time? lol, dunno. Greenwich is decent pizza, tho.

I don't much like KFC in the U.S., but their menu is somewhat different in the PI and I really like some of their rice bowls and other stuff.

Shakey's was good, but expensive compared to the rest.

There are some great restaurants in the bigger malls that are relatively cheap.

Ayala Mall in Cebu City has Khubla Khan's (sp?), a Mongolian BBQ...all you can eat for $3.50.

There are endless supplies of various restaurants in some areas. They are often fun to try, but a lot of them have the same general foods.

I really missed Chinese buffets (American style, besides the Mongolian BBQ) and mexican restaurants. They have a taco stand chain in Cebu. They are OK, but not the greatest.

I was surprised to find a place with great gyros at Ayala Mall. They have an area with about fourty restaurants.

I'm sure there were great restaurants that I overlooked, but it's often hard to find them. They are scattered throughout town and people usually don't seek them out, so they cannot tell you where they are or what they are.

I ate there once, in Bacolod...yes, it was good and nicely priced.

Jollibee spaghetti is the nuts

Mangina-sal is my go to when I'm not eating at home. Pizza hut in ph is amazing (tuscani), but maybe it's b/c I came from a long time in Thailand which has terrible pizza. It's better than any other pizza in ph and their other dishes are really good too, cheap and is a nice sit down restaurant. I'm def gonna check out the bbq place at ayala in cebu, thanks John.

nutsflopper you used to live in Manila right or was that only for a short period of time. How do you find Cebu life in comparison, does it suit you better? What's the best thing about Cebu in your opinion?

Best chain pizza for me would be yellowcab's New York's Finest (then add some of their crispy wings too) together with pizza hut's tuscani. I just have sample size 1 on Greenwich.
Jollibee Spicy Chickenjoy > *.*
Chowking I go for their lauriat combo and halo-halo obviously

I like Burger King a lot more than Mickey D, there are few branches. These I know
SM Marikina, Glorietta 4, Makati Medical and I think one in Robinsons Ermita

Taco Bell in Gateway is pretty bad IMO, but maybe all of them are like that - dunno

If ever in Puerto Princesa, try their Chicken Inato resto. It's very good chicken bbq! It's also the only place in the Philippines I have seen wasps/bees

whole day food just cost me 230php here in cebu.

Guys anyone uses utorrent with smartbro is ir really fkn slow???

I lived in Manila for a couple months, almost all my time in Eastwood w/ Pat. Cebu suits me much better than manila. The difference is the same as any smaller city compared to its huge super densely populated counterpart of the country, like chiang mai to bkk. It's way more laid back, less traffic, pollution, space and trees in between buildings and such, people are more personable etc. It is still a big city though and has all such conveniences, nightlife, and pretty much w/e else you can think of. I also totally forgot about yellowcab, on par with pizza hut tuscani. meatlovers ftw

Yellow Cab Pizza, best pizza chain option you will find. Keeps well on the desk of my hotel for midnight snacks!

Jollibee is pretty good just stay away from the burgers. The spicy fried chicken is great. There was a promotion at a Jollibee on Taft Avenue Malate with the chicken spaghetti... One piece spicy chicken with chicken spaghetti = THE NUTS.

Mang Inasal, quarter light or dark chicken, the nuts when its warm. Very disappoint when they serve it cold (I take away). Had a talk with Manager, now warm 90% of time. The stopped the garlic rice ("phase out" as manager put it). I loved the garlic rice... I hate having to pester them for the lime or soy or the single pepper. I know I am not Philippino but let me live a little!

KFC, fresher and tastier than in the states. They have a spicy version which is crispy and spicy. They only have lame crispy here in the states.

McDo, ok if you are pressed, the only fast food that actually tastes better in the states... (that and Pizza Hut) The fried chicken is actually ok and is seasoned with a bit of pepper.

Anything out of Manila Bay Cafe. For some reason their food is expensive but good.

Random food thoughts...

Chicboy > Bar-B-King > Andoks > Mang Inasal
Papa John's > Sicilian Express > Pizza Hut > everything else

I think the 4G (???3G) Internet from Globe and Smartbro are fine options. Both are $25 each or so (last I knew).

I researched cable before (Sky Cable), which advertised extreme speeds, but most users reported that is was rather slow at peak times--and it's expensive. Does anyone else have feedback on their cable services and locations?

LOL, that was the first thing I ate their and I almost decided never to go back. Haha, Filipino spaghetti is a big different...sweeter, maybe? I don't like it! YUCK!

They had a great fried chicken sandwich for a few months, but discontinued it.

How was Eastwood, I mean like was it uncomfortable riding up with a girl in the elevator along with the average resident etc...??? I keep thinking it won't quite be like a hotel where they damn near expect that to be happening...

what? who cares what ppl expect?

Curious about life there away from the tourist areas. I dont want to be uncomfortable etc. But I guess it won't matter, degens been degening there way before me...

Anyone want to meet up in cebu??? for coffee/julianas? lol ? im 26