Churrasco at Ibiza Beach Club, Mövenpick Hotel Mactan

I’ve eaten churrasco twice in my life. The first time was decades ago at Fogo de Chao in Dallas. I wasn’t much of a meat eater then so I was overwhelmed and didn’t quite enjoy it. The second time was a few years back at a restaurant in Rockwell where all the meats were marinated in the same sauce. I definitely didn’t like that at all. So you can imagine my reticence when I was told we were having a churrasco dinner at Movenpick Hotel.

For those who are not familiar with churrasco the Spanish word means grilled meat. A churrascaria is a restaurant where you have waiters walking around with skewers of grilled meat which they slice at your table and transfer directly to your plate.

The Brazilian churrasco includes the salad bar, all-you-can-eat meats and costs P2,000. Add P500 for bottomless Manny O house wine. This is a steal when you see the choices they served.

All the meat and seafood were grilled in this imported grill from Brazil.

churrasco menu (click to enlarge)

I tried their special mojito with secret ingredients. It was good but it didn’t have enough mint and didn’t really taste like a typical mojito which I like. It reminded me more of long island iced tea.

Ibiza Beach Club mojito P420

The waiter suggested I try the Ibiza Sour instead. I was hesitant to order anything with the word sour but he guaranteed I will like it. He was right. I LOVED it!!! The drink was made with amaretto liqueur, citrus juices and bitters. I loved the sweetness and flavor of almonds mixed with the sourness from the lemon juice. This is now my new favorite cocktail. I hope I find it in Manila or I need to buy a bottle of amaretto liqueur and mix my own drink.

Ibiza Sour

Instead of the salad bar we asked for a Caesar salad. The grated cheese was real Parmesan cheese. I asked for extra to nibble on.

Caesar salad

It was hard not to eat all these cheesy bread.

pao de quiejo

Choose your knife. The green round chip is supposed to be placed on your table. If you put the green side up it tells the waiter to keep coming with the food. If you flip it over and show the red side it means stop serving.

Four kinds of sauces and butters were available but I didn’t use any of them because it wasn’t needed.

Each one of us was given a plate with garlic rice, sautéed veggies, buttered corn and a bowl of black beans. You can ask for as much refills as you want. My friend had several pieces of corn.

The food was brought out in the order below. Let me say almost everything was cooked with perfect timing. From the beef to the seafood, it was cooked to it’s prime goodness.

Since the filet mignon was the first meat I was still able to eat the entire serving of tender beef wrapped with bacon.

filet mignon

One of my favorites was the juicy rib eye steak marinated Korean style. The sweet, salty flavor was a surprise and it really suited the beef.

rib eye

I wanted to eat more than one lobster but I knew there were 9 more meats and seafood to come.

lobster

I really enjoyed the lamb skewers the night before so I had an inkling they were good with lamb dishes but what I didn’t expect was to eat the best lamb chops I’ve ever eaten in the Philippines. It’s even in my top three lamb dishes ever.

Well seasoned, succulent, juicy, tender and whatever superlatives you can imagine. I really wanted to just flip my chip to red and consume all four lamb chops in the skewer.

lamb chops

I’m don’t eat dark meat but I tried the chicken thigh and the marinade was amazing!

chicken thigh

jumbo prawns

The only thing I didn’t like was the ostrich. The taste was too strong and gamey for me.

ostrich

The squid had a dry rub of spicy and savory flavors.

squid

The squid was even more tender than the prawns. The taste was fantastic and so different from the usual Filipino style of grilled squid.

squid

At this point I was already suffering from food coma. The barbecue sauce was typically sweet but surprisingly there wasn’t a touch of sugar in it. The secret sauce contained papaya, banana and pineapple. Natural fruit enzymes tenderized the meat and gave the sauce a natural sweetness. Even though I was so full already I couldn’t resist eating some garlic rice with the yummy ribs.

baby back ribs

The short ribs had the same sauce as the baby back ribs.

short ribs

Thank goodness dory wasn’t used. Instead the more expensive parrot fish was served.

parrot fish

The pork belly wasn’t as tender or as flavorful as the rest of the meats. Or maybe I just couldn’t taste anything anymore.

pork belly

A most welcome desert was the grilled Ormoc pineapple marinated with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves.

grilled Ormoc pineapple

The pineapple was served with yogurt, honey and pistachios. A perfect end to a perfect meal.

Thank you Manny O and F&B director Daniel for one of the most memorable meals I’ve ever had.

Manny O and Daniel Trumptheller

It’s hard to believe but we went back for dinner the next night because my friends’ parents wanted to try the churrasco we raved about. This time we just concentrated on multiple servings of rib eye, lobster, lamb chops and squid. I enjoyed my dinner even more with just the dishes I loved most.

Cebuanos, tourists and visitors to Cebu do yourself a favor and try this world class churassco meal in Mövenpick Hotel. I guarantee you will not regret it. It was worth every peso!!!

Ibiza Beach Club
Mövenpick Resort & Spa Cebu
Punta Engano Mactan Island
6015 Cebu Philippines
telephone:+63 32 492 7777
E-mail:Resort.Cebu@moevenpick.com
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