r/CebuRestaurantReviews

Kalipay!
📍Astra Lifestyle Center, 2/F, AS Fortuna St., Mandaue City
🕐 opens 11am
MOP: cash, card, Gcash
Parking: naa sa Astra mismo
Cuisine: Filipino

Quick thoughts just to get this out of my head. Kindly note sad nga bag-o pa ni nga resto so that may be the reason why the food is as will be described.

What we ordered:
🍛 Crispy Kangkong (₱250): overflowing, crispy with good mayo. Portioning was so big I could probably make a laundry business out of it. Bidli lang kadugayan. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🍛 Baked Scallops (₱330): butter to scallop ratio was very imbalanced; mas nagdaghan ang butter and gamay ra ang scallops. Mura'g ang butter ang akong gisuwa lol ⭐️⭐️⭐️
🍛 Lechon kawali (₱380): Standard fare in that the skin is crispy, the meat is juicy. Flavor-wise, ok ra man siya. My gripe is gamay lang gyud siya for the price we pay. Mas daghan pa man siguro sa Chikaan. Five slices of lechon kawali for ₱380? That’s ₱76/piece! ⭐️⭐️ naka-order na lang ko'g lain, which leads me to —
🍛 Sisig Baboy (to share at ₱390): Worst order of the day, I fear. It smelled very gamey, even with the kalamansi and the egg mixed in. Nagdaghan ang tambok when you taste it. We all just tried a spoonful and left it alone. ⭐️
🧋Agua Fresca: per my sister: it's trying to be too many things at the same time that it's all over the place ⭐️⭐️
🍨Halo-halo grande (₱290): Lami ra ang ube ice cream but the tapioca pearls were not cooked ⭐️⭐️

Did not taste the following but anah akong sister and my dad nga lami ra:
🍛 Tortang Talong (₱195)
🍛 Pompano (₱550)

Other things to note:

🖊️Service: Staff were attentive, food was served on time. They served us mini pnadesals while waiting for our order. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️**** Pricing: Mahal for its taste and port**ioning. ⭐️⭐️
🖊️Aestheti**c: Very modern Filipino. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️ menu is on their IG page

Verdict: Wa kaayo mi nalipay sa Kalipay. It's probably because they just opened, but we're not going back anytime soon.

I went with family, ten of us, so this review covers a range of dishes we tried together. Expectations were decent going in, but the food didn't quite deliver.

Restaurant name: Humba Heaven

Location: Busay, Cebu City, 6000 Cebu, Philippines

Poto sikwate - 2.5/5. Not close to my favorite potohan, and the sikwate was just good enough — nothing that made me want to order it again.

Humba - 1/5. Way too much sourness for my taste. I couldn't taste the sugary, savory balance that humba is supposed to have. It just tasted off.

Meat (of the humba) - 1/5. Not tender enough at all. For a dish that's supposed to melt in your mouth after slow braising, this fell short.

Poto mango with humba and fried rice - 1/5. At Php 395, this was way too expensive for what you get. The fried rice wasn't even good — way too oily. Not worth the price tag at all.

Now for the other metrics:

Location - 5/5. Great spot for groups, excellent view. Easily one of the best parts of the whole experience.

Willingness to comeback - If it's just me, once is enough. I wouldn't go back on my own, though I could see myself tagging along again if the family wanted the view.

I had high hopes for this restaurant because it had a michelin sticker on the door.

We went there as a group of 12 (2 sep tables of 6 people each). So my review, despite having only 1 photo will be a quick review of various items I tried from me and my companions' orders.

1. Lechon sisig (my order) - 1/5⭐️ I thought it would be something special or unique. But nope. Its just ordinary lechon bits with 1 sunny side up egg and slices of sili. At Php 550, this was a waste of money. It felt like I could just buy a portion of lechon at sugbo mercado, and cook sunny side up egg at home and tell people this is from "atoah".

2. Lumpia shanghai - 1/5⭐️ it tasted so ordinary like carenderia lumpia shanghai. Im giving this a 1 star because it was only 3 pcs (around 2 inches length each) then at php 250.

3. Chicken bbq - 1/5⭐️again tasted nothing special. You could safely compare to the levels of Manginasal or Ribshack. But with a 3x price tag. By this time everyone at the table was thinking, "what is there to order that taste worthy of the michelin tag?"

4. Deconstructed Turon & Tiramisu cake - 3/5⭐️ this gets extra stars because it was the only thing that actually looks aesthetic while the others were so plain. It was more like artwork instead of food. Again visuals > taste.

5. Pork bbq - 1/5⭐️ - 3 sticks around 4 inches of meat per stick for php 250. It was soo firm and dry inside. I was hoping it would have some special marinade or what, but nope. Just plain again.

6. Plain rice - 1/5⭐️ this is rating is purely bec of price, its 89 for 1 cup. 120 for 1 cup of garlic rice. Youd think it would be like long grain or jasmine rice, nope.

After these poor food items, let me give a generous rating to the following metrics;

Location - 5/5⭐️ within IT. Easy to locate Large free parking.

Service - 10/5⭐️ waiters greet you properly, a quick raise of hand, they come automatically, water is refilled automatically without asking, and here's the funny part. The food were so plain at the end, but in the beginning if you ask them what they recommend, bestsellers, or what a certain dish is, they will explain it with nice sentences, fancy words, BUT you can clearly tell, they arent proud of their own descriptions. Its like if you had a 1000 essay homework, and your actual content is 200 words, they will make up the rest with bunch of adjectives to make it sound longer 🤣 I would probably consider getting a car, condo, or insurance if they were the agent selling to me.

Willingness to comback - 0⭐️

Mifan Kitchen - Dimsum & Chinese Restaurant
📍2/F, AKU INN, beside Yolo Spa Massage, 3 Archbishop Reyes Ave, Cebu City, 6000 Cebu
🕐 7am-10pm
MOP: cash, card, Gcash
Parking: limited parking in front of AKU INN
Cuisine: Chinese (leaning more on Cantonese)

Disclaimer: I am not Chinese, not Chinoy, and not even that much of an enthusiast, so just wanted to give a heads up that I am writing this from the perspective of a Filipina with limited experience with Chinese cuisine. Cannot vouch for authenticity kay di ko Chinese lol

Per Google translate, Mifan (米饭) means "Cooked Rice" or "Heaven's Mansion". Mifan identifies as itself "authentic Asian cuisine", which is quite broad, but if you look through the menu, it does have some Filipino dishes (like patatim), and then it leans heavily on Chinese, particularly on dimsum and Cantonese cuisine. There is some Sichuan (like málà XLB), and Cantonese (clay pot rice) but the menu does not have Hainanese-style items.

What we ordered:

🥟 Beef and Wonton Noodle Soup (₱280): tender beef, rich and flavorful broth, with noodles that are a bit stringy/bouncy. Dumplings were very filling. Really good combination of flavors, anah akong SO mao daw ni ang iyang dugay na gipangita nga beef and wonton noodle soup ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥟 Mapo Tofu Claypot Rice (₱260): Ordered this kay mapo tofu got featured sa shokugeki no soma 😂 Topping is made of tofu, minced meat and veggies. Lami ang toppings but it's not as spicy as I thought it would be (mapo tofu is from Sichuan cuisine, salamat shokugeki no soma for the crash course lol). Sakto ra ang rice to toppings ratio. Also, some people may not be a fan of the texture of the rice kay soft siya sa taas but slightly dukot siya sa ilawm. Dukot is a preference of my mom, but not mine, unfortunately. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥟 Lotus Bun (₱150 for 3): this is the sweet version of the lotus bun which is a traditional dim sum bao stuffed with lotus seed paste (as opposed to the folded savory lotus bun version). Bun was soft and the filling was sweet but not too sweet. I'm rating it high kay lisod ra ba kaayo pangitaon ang lotus paste dinhi sa Cebu 😭 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥟 Xiao Long Bao (₱180 for 4): good soup, tasty meat filling. We also really like the vinegar used! Lami pareha sa XLB sa Fung's ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥟 Asado Siopao (₱180 for 3): smaller size but it comes in a set of 3. Good meaty filling, no pork fat that I can see. And it has quail egg! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

🥟 Calamansi Juice (₱120): generic

Other things to note:

🖊**️Service **: generic service, neither outstanding nor poor. Kindly note though that we came here a bit early. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Their Google reviews indicate that they do have some problems with service when it's busy, though.

🖊️** Pricin**g : It's more affordable than I thought. General pricing can be compared to that of Eat Fresh, though some items are even cheaper (and a couple of items more expensive!). ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
🖊️Aesthetic : Ok lighting but everything else is not a standout. ⭐️⭐️
🖊️ menu is on their FB page

Verdict: A hidden gem and another resto I can go to if Fung's or Eat Fresh is full. Actually, I'll probably check this one out first before I go to either Fung's or Eat Fresh. 😆