iloilo food

In our stay in Iloilo, I have a chance to visit Seafood Island Northshore Grill twice when I was there. I always come with my big family and what Seafood Island offers is one of the current food trends in the Philippines: Boodle Fight. Boodle Fight is a military type of eating where a long table is prepared where all the food mixed together is placed on top of banana leaves. You often eat using your hands but of course you have the option to use utensils too.

Davao Gulf Boodle 1,485.00Php

Look at this beautiful spread. This serves pork bbq, grilled squid, steamed shrimps, grilled tuna laman, grilled imbao, shrimp & pomelo salad, late salad, kinilaw na langka sa gata, grilled talong, salted egg, grilled tomatoes, kalkag rice, bagging rice and crispy dulling rice. This also serve this with chicken wings inasal but on that day, they were out of chicken wings nasal, they replaced it with chicken adobo. We particularly like the pork bbq and chicken adobo. I like the grilled eggplant and langkang gata. The food was really spectacular but I guess the magic was on the fun of eating the boodle feast, the sharing and having so many types of food spread out before you. You will realise however that it has more rice that viands so it would also be good to add some ale-carte choices.

Classic Crispy Pata 395.00 Php

We added this to our boodle feast. It was good portion which serves a group of 6. It was a little too dry though and taste was mediocre. It was not oily but there were more bones than the meat itself.

Garlic Seafood Delight 783Php

Another occasion, I went to Seafood Island with my parents. It was a holy week and we were avoiding eating meat. So got the Garlic Seafood Delight which only serves seafoods. It has stir-fried squid and tanguigue, steamed shrimps, clams, mussels and crab tossed in fried garlic, white wine and chili, ensaladang late, plain rice with crispy dilis. It was sadly a very dry food. I hardly got any of the viands in the spread except for the rice. Good thing, we got two types of crabs to add to our meal.

Salted Egg Crab 810 Php

I love anything with salted egg. It was very flavourful and juicy. The crabs were fat and fresh. I was glad we ordered this one with the boodle feast.

Crab Szechuan 810 Php

I may like the creamy sauce of the Salted Egg Crab but I like this crab even better. I love the sweet sauce with a little bit of tang. I was happy to drizzle the sauce in the white rice. The crabs were fat, fresh and juicy like the Salted Egg Crab. I ate so much that time because of the two crabs.

We also got Mangga’t Bagoong (95 Php) but honestly my tummy has not room for it. My mother doesn’t like it that much. We took home most of the green mango and the people at home devoured it in a few minutes. They love it! We are a family of green-mango lovers. Well, maybe except for my mom, hehe…

Seafood Island is a great place for family gathering where you can have fun, binge on a lot of Pinoy grilled dishes and play with your food. They may need to improve more in their taste and freshness when it comes to their boodle options. But overall, it is still a good alternative for a different type of restaurant for a big group with big appetites.

Seafood Island Northshore Grill

Atria Park District

Iloilo, Philippines

Tel Nos: 3353392

Mobile no: 09158136678

I have lived in two foreign countries and I have enjoy living in both places. But Iloilo City will always be home to me.

Coming home to Iloilo City after a longer stay in different countries made me appreciate some things in my hometown that I never appreciated before.

Credit: www.pinterest.com/GSiaton

1. A LONG QUEUE OF TAXI

I love that when I go out in a mall in Iloilo City, there will always be a taxi waiting for me. There is a longer queue for taxis in a mall than the queue for the people getting taxis. If I am going somewhere from home and I am reluctant to use our family car due to my unreliable driving skills, I can just call Light of Glory or ZTS, give our code and a taxi would be on the way in a few minutes. I tend to have some challenges in getting taxis in other countries even if I do have a number to call for their services. And the queue for taxis in other places tends to be very long.

2. BAGGAGE COUNTER IN MALLS

I am surprised to learn that other countries don’t have baggage counters. It is very helpful to have a place to leave your heavy stuff or bigger purchases to roam hands-free for some more shopping bags in malls. I tend to buy a lot of groceries which leaves me with armful of grocery bags. I often would bring my little trolley for grocery on a Sunday but coming from work to do grocery, I couldn’t bring the trolley, a baggage counter would just be great. I also bring lots of bags from work so it would be nice to leave some of them in a baggage counter.

3. ANYWHERE IN 5 TO 15 MINUTES

Thank God for small cities! I love that Iloilo City is very urban but it still doesn’t lose that small-town charm. I love that you don’t need to waste hours travelling getting to another part of the city. You can get to the mall, the church, the hospital in 5 to 15 minutes. You can get to the beach in 30-45 minutes. You can get a lot of things done in a day. A day can stretched out long and stress-free.

4. AMAZING FOOD (& CHEAP STRONG BEER)

I have tried different wonderful foods in other countries but there are some foods that can only be found in Iloilo. Nothing can beat the classic Lapaz Batchoy, Pancit Molo or Puto Manapla. I may have tried Indonesian Chicken Barbeque or Peri Peri Chicken but Inasal na Manok is still the best. Freshly cooked seafoods at Breakthrough, Tatoys or Joy-Joy like the grilled Managat, Kinilaw na Tangingue or Adobado na Pantat. I should not forget the roasted pork, the Lechon at Tatoys. It is just perfection. I added cheap strong beer even if I am not really a beer-drinker. But besides having budget-friendly prices, no beer can kick like Red Horse or San Miguel unlike the regular beers in other countries.

Credit: @janro_19

5. FAMILY AND A GET-TOGETHER LIKE NO OTHER

Of course, the best thing about Iloilo is being with my family. Get-togethers with family in Iloilo means lots of foods, never-ending conversations and lots of laughter. Ilonggos are innately sweet (malambing) and a room filled with Ilonggos is a room filled with so much love. It is not called City of Love for nothing.

I miss you Iloilo City! See you next year!

FOOD DISCOVERIES: SEAFOOD ISLAND

5 THINGS THAT I APPRECIATE IN ILOILO CITY AFTER LIVING ABROAD