While walking on the streets of Khalidiya district in Abu Dhabi searching for a store to get a new shirt to replace the “soaked-in-sweat” shirt I wore after a long walk/jog at corniche, I bumped into one distinct restaurant just beside the mosque in Zayed The First Street at the back of Lebanese Flower Restaurant. It can be recognized as truly Pinoy as its name is similar to one of my favorite destinations in the Philippines, Cebu. Cebu Restaurant simply offers Pinoy style cooking at Abu Dhabi’s busy district. The restaurant occupies a small two-storey building. On the first floor is the turo-turo section where you could order the ready cooked meals. More tables are found on the second floor with LCD TV mounted on the wall showing ABS-CBN TFC programs. With its size, it could accommodate perhaps around 30 people.

Cebu Restaurant is located in Khalidiya District, Abu Dhabi beside the mosque and at the back of Lebanese Flower Restaurant.
Cebu Restaurant offers a wide array of Pinoy dishes from the usual breakfast meals like tapsilog, bangsilog, hotsilog etc., their sizzlings bulalo steak, tanigue, pusit, chicken fillet, and their seafood-based dishes like sinigang, sweet and sour fish fillet, ginataang tilapia, bangus (grilled/daing) among others. Chicken meals are likewise served such as inasal, tinola, kaldereta and adobo. But I also found out that they offer not so Pinoy like chicken cordon bleu, orange-ginger chicken and terriyaki. Beef meals include humba, steak, kare-kare, nilaga, sinigang, bulalo, kaldereta and even papaitan. Desserts like halo-halo, biko, maja blanca and biko are also available.
So what we got for our dinner? We ordered their recommended dishes, probably their best seller. We got sinigang na hipon, sizzling tanigue steak, chopsuey, beef steak and grilled bangus. Their food is typical Pinoy with perhaps infusion of their own cooking style. Admittedly, what we had savored were similar to other Pinoy dishes we had previously tried. But, we did enjoy our dining experience knowing that it is one of those that carries Filipino identity in Abu Dhabi.

The restaurant’s sinigang na hipon (AED 22). Not that I didn’t like, but I prefer a bit sour. This is okay with Syaoran, though he said his mother’s sinigang is still the best.

Beef steak (AED 20) – thinly sliced beef cooked in soy sauce and calamansi juice with sliced potatoes garnished with onion rings.

Inihaw na bangus – grilled milkfish stuffed with ingredients like ginger, onions, garlic, tomatoes etc.
“Have it the Filipino way” is Cebu Restaurant’s slogan. It tries to bring Filipino culture closer to the Arabs while at the same time offers our kababayans Pinoy home-cooked food at affordable prices. It is but best for Pinoy expats living in Abu Dhabi or Pinoy tourists visiting the place to support our own. Ika nga, tangkilikin ang sariling atin.
Cebu Restaurant
Zayed The First Street, Khalidiya
Beside Lebanese Flower Restaurant
Telephone: 02 665-2886