Puerto Princesa Food Worth Seeking Out

Eating in Puerto Princesa Beyond the Seafood and Crocodile Sisig

The ice bed at the grill stalls along the waterfront holds parrotfish, squid, and prawns still wet from the morning catch. A vendor points at the pile. You pick your pieces before she weighs them on a hand scale and quotes a price per 100 grams. This is the core eating experience in Puerto Princesa, but it is only one of several distinct culinary threads here. The city also offers crocodile sisig from a conservation farm and Vietnamese noodle soup from refugees who arrived after 1975. Most travellers miss the Vietnamese side entirely because they rush past the city to the Underground River. Do not make that mistake.

The Seafood Waterfront: Pick, Weigh, Grill

Grilled seafood at the waterfront stalls runs PHP 80 to PHP 150 per 100 grams. You select raw items from an ice bed, the vendor weighs them, quotes the total, and takes your payment before grilling the fish over charcoal. The price covers the cooking. Do not tip separately for the grill work.

Here is the failure case: the waterfront is a tourist zone. Identical seafood costs less per kilo at the Old Public Market on Malvar Street, where the rate is PHP 60 to PHP 100 per 100 grams. If you have access to a kitchen or a friendly hostel cook, buy at the market and cook yourself. If you want the atmosphere of eating steps from the water, pay the waterfront markup and call it a convenience fee.

What to Order at the Grills

Request squid stuffed with tomato and onion. Ask for the fish grilled with salt only, not sweet sauce. The sour dipping sauce (vinegar with crushed garlic and bird's eye chili) is on every table. Use it. Skip the premarinated pork skewers that sit too long on the ice.

Crocodile Sisig: What it Tastes Like and Where to Eat it Ethically

Crocodile sisig tastes like pork sisig with a firmer, leaner texture. The meat comes from farmed Crocodylus porosus at the Palawan Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Center, formerly the Crocodile Farm. That farm exists to breed crocodiles for conservation and meat production. Eating there does not threaten wild populations.

Kinabuch's Grill & Bar on Rizal Avenue serves crocodile sisig for PHP 295. The dish arrives on a sizzling plate, chopped fine with chili, onions, and a squeeze of calamansi. The same restaurant also offers crocodile steak for PHP 380. The sisig is the better choice: the steak can be dry if overcooked, and the sisig format protects the lean meat with fat and acid.

Tamilok: The Woodworm Appetizer

If you want to try something stranger, order tamilok from the same menu. It is woodworm, served raw, marinated in vinegar, chili, and calamansi at Kinabuch's for PHP 180 per serving. The texture is similar to an oyster but slightly chewy. The taste is briny and acidic from the marinade. Do not order it as a main dish. Order it as a curiosity for the table alongside the sisig.

The Vietnamese Influence You Should Not Miss

Chaolong is a Vietnamese noodle soup that refugees introduced to Palawan after 1975. It is not a tourist dish. It is a breakfast food that locals eat at 7am from plastic tables on Rizal Avenue. The soup consists of rice noodles in a pork or beef broth tinted orange with annatto oil, topped with herbs, bean sprouts, and lime. A bowl at Bona's Chaolong House costs PHP 80 to PHP 120 depending on size.

Bona's is a single location on Rizal Avenue, about a 15 minute walk from the waterfront. It opens early and sells out by late morning. Arrive before 9am for the best selection. The failure case: if Bona's is closed or sold out, look for any stall with a red plastic sign reading "CHAO LONG" in white letters along Rizal Avenue. The quality varies but the price stays consistent below PHP 100.

How to Plan Your Eating Route

You can eat all three of these threads in one afternoon without a tour. Start at Bona's Chaolong House on Rizal Avenue by 8am for a PHP 80 bowl of chaolong. Walk 15 minutes north to the Old Public Market on Malvar Street to see the raw seafood prices. Skip buying there unless you have a kitchen. Then head to the waterfront by noon for lunch. Pay the PHP 80 to PHP 150 per 100 grams markup for grilled parrotfish or squid. Walk five minutes back to Rizal Avenue for dinner at Kinabuch's. Order the crocodile sisig (PHP 295) and split a tamilok (PHP 180) as an appetizer.