Salinas: Not Your Usual Filipino Restaurant

What used to be Golden Cowrie's Salinas branch's al fresco area is now another restaurant called Salinas. Owned by the people behind the popular Filipino restaurant, Golden Cowrie/Hukad sa Golden Cowrie, this is another restaurant worth a visit (or repeat visits!) for the following reasons:

Salinas bravely put a twist on Filipino food! Their kwek kwek is coated in beer batter. They have Miki Negra, which is miki noodles in squid ink. They have kanding (goat) tapa instead of the usual beef tapa. Their breaded fish (barracuda) is coated in chicharon. Their Pocherong Katag is indeed katag or spread out on a plate: a bowl of pochero soup with beef sliced off the bone, and the baked marrow proudly exposed on the bone that's chopped along its length.

Although only six dishes, this is a welcome and much needed addition to local restaurants (many vegetarians find it hard to eat out in Cebu). Salinas collaborated with The Lazy Chef for their vegetarian menu. As I was reading the short list, these caught my attention: Bloodless Dinuguan (and how? I have no idea), and vegetarian sisig (because I love sisig) made of mushrooms, garbanzo beans, and other veg.

Servings are good for three persons and most dishes cost between Php 85 to Php 215. There are six dishes that go beyond this price range, and these are in the meat (goat, beef, lamb) and seafood mains section (from Php 295 to Php 495).