Fresh off our delayed noontime flight with only a Cinnabon roll in our stomachs, we were dying to get to our very first destination in Cebu - Rico's Lechon.
And guess what? Our very smart driver Ricky brought us to Rico's roasting factory on Highway 77.
Ano ba, Ricky?!?!?!? Lelechonin ka namin eh!!!
The smell and sight and sound of roasting pigs got us very excited for our lunch.
It took us 1.5 hours to get to the restaurant. Don't you just love Cebu traffic?
To keep ourselves alive during the hunger journey, we snacked on crackers topped with cream cheese and guava jelly.
Thank you, Cindy, for the goodies, and Achi Donna for the 5 star assembly service!
AND FINALLY!!!
Our biggest nightmare came to life. Rico's was empty and THERE WAS NO LECHON IN SIGHT!!!
HOMAYGULAY!!!
We were famished and decided to order whatever lechon dishes they have, eat slowly (NOT), and wait patiently (NOT) for the 5pm fresh lechon delivery.
We ate more cream cheese and guava jelly while waiting for the food
And ordered silvanas because they were the fastest to be served
Lechon Sisig - quite tasty but a tad too salty. I ate a lot of rice with this.
Lechon Paksiw - the meat was tough and the sauce spicy
Lechon Carbonara - margarine overload. Ugh.
Lechon with Taosi Sauce - ok lah
Lechon Lumpia - nothing fantastic
Tanguige Steak - this was so tiny and paper thin!
Pancit Canton
Garlic Rice
There was a lot of time to kill so we walked around the area and bought Orange Twin Popsies -
a childhood favorite - to cleanse our palate
And finally, a little before 5pm, the pigs arrived
They weren't pretty to look at. This was Mr. Original.
This was Mr. Spicy
But all of the people in the restaurant were gawking like they've never seen anything more
mesmerizing in their lives before
Please hurry up na, Ate!
We ordered half kilo of Rico's Original Lechon
And another half kilo of Rico's Spicy Lechon
Well, let's just say. I wasn't impressed.
The meat was moist and tender, but it lacked that distinct flavor of Cebu lechon.
The pieces of skin were mostly soggy, but the few still-crunchy pieces tasted really good, like chicharon on steroids. Unfortunately, there were only about 2 pieces of those (and I believe I ate both), so the others were not able to experience the glory. :P
The spicy lechon was really just okay, not deserving of all that hype, methinks.
I don't think we'll be back.
But I'm sure Rico won't mind. We heard Erap is his number 1 fan.
Just a bunch of no-bodies. As in mga walang katawan! Ha ha ha :P
Rico's Lechon: Unit 4-5, The Ridges Commercial Building, F. Cabahug, Mabolo, Cebu City. Tel: +63 32 344 0119, +63 32 239 2830, +63933-6322248
