Dinner at Abuhan Tres

When we were at Ayala Center earlier I was surprised to see so many local and international restaurant chains from Manila. I voiced out my wish not to eat in any of them. I wanted to eat in a truly Cebuano restaurant. My wish was granted when we were brought to Abuhan Tres for dinner.

This restaurant is a favorite of Tes’ niece and her fiancé. They eat there at least once a week. They were already raving about the popular pochero even before we entered the restaurant.

puso sa saging P60

When they said pochero I had in mind a chicken and pork stew with saba (plantain bananas) in a tomato based sauce. But when the dish came out it was bulalo. It seemed in Cebu bulalo (beef shank with bone marrow) is called pochero.

I may be the only person in the Philippines who never eats bulalo with rice. For me I treat bulalo as soup and not as ulam (viand).  The soup was very flavorful but I found it a tad salty.

pochero P365

Look at that gorgeous bone marrow. While everyone was busy eating the beef and soup with rice I delicately picked the the huge bone and banged in on my plate for the bone marrow to spill out. I got a spoonful of white rice and mixed it in the bone marrow. Wow heaven!!! And that’s how I eat my bulalo folks.

Gasp, you can ask for extra bone marrow from the waiter. They skim it off the huge vats of pochero in the kitchen. If only they had Knorr or Maggi seasoning I would have eaten more bone marrow and rice with generous dashes of Knorr. Thank goodness they didn’t have it.

bone marrow

While the boiled pochero was just ok with me I fell in lust with the sizzling pochero. Now this was ULAM to me!! I just loved eating all the tender litid (beef tendon) with the super tasty gravy. I would never have imagined such a combination – boiled beef shank with American style gravy but it worked! We even ordered extra gravy.

sizzling pochero P410 extra gravy P35

I also enjoyed the cubed tangigue or tanigue (Spanish mackerel) sautéed in lots of garlic and olive oil. It’s a healthier and equally delicious alternative to the more common beef salpicao.

salpicao tangigue P185

But my most favorite dish that night was the fried lapu lapu in pepper sauce. The fish was perfectly fried to a tender crisp and the mildly spicy black pepper sauce was spot on. Outside a Chinese restaurant this was the best lapu lapu I have ever eaten. It was such a big hit with all of us we ordered a second fish. Too bad it didn’t taste as good as the first one.

lapu lapu in pepper sauce P325

sauteed vegetables with tofu P125

I was so shocked that the bill for 7 people was only P2,000 or less than $50 and we had two orders of lapu lapu. The Cebuanos in our table explained to me that they are known to demand good food at rock bottom prices. That’s just the way they are. I like the way they think. This was why I thought our merienda of fried food at Sunburst was expensive at P900 for four.

Abuhan Tres’ menu
house specialties,  appetizers salad soup & vegetables
beef noodles & seafood, chicken pork mixto & rice
desserts beverages & shakes 

Abuhan Tres
Unit 108 i2 Bldg. Asiatown I.T. Park, 6000 Cebu, Philippines
telephone: (+6332) 412-3025

Mon – Thu: 10:00 am – 2:00 am
Fri – Sat: 10:00 am – 5:00 am
Sun: 10:00 am – 12:00 am
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other Abuhan branches:
Abuhan Uno
F. Ramos St., Cebu City
telephone: (032) 253-1881


Abuhan Dos
176 F. Ramos Street, Cebu City (near Robinsons Mall)
telepphone : (032) 253-5774
Open 24 Hours