The Seafood Capital & Beyond: A First-Timer’s Guide to Roxas City
Roxas City is named in honor of Manuel Acuña Roxas, the first president of the independent Philippine Republic in 1946 after 50 years of being a commonwealth of the United States.
Why are we here? It’s definitely not a tourist destination. There’s a local beach but no beach resorts. A few expats such as Canadian Mike with a YouTube channel, “That Philippines Life”, but not an expat epicenter. Otherwise, Filipinos living their Filipino lives. Roxas City is the “Seafood Capital of the Philippines”, but that’s also not the reason…although we’ve enjoyed our share of seafood.
We flew to Roxas City on Panay Island as the closest stopover point to get to our friend’s place in Pilar, about an hour away. Panay Island is the 6th largest island in the Philippines, famous for Boracay to the far west; Capiz Province to the northwest as the Seafood Capital of Philippines; and Iloilo to the southeast just named the UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2023. A lot happening on this one island (out of over 7500 islands!)
Phillippines is also a new country for us, so we got to acclimate to the Philippines Way for a week in Roxas City! If you ever find yourself in Roxas City, here’s a few of our experiences.
Roxas President’s Inn
Roxas President’s Inn is right in the center of town. Probably the best hotel in the area for only US$50/night. While it sits right in the middle of a busy area with lots of trikes and motorbikes, street food, the central market, people going about their lives, we wanted to stay here for ease and access to everything. It wasn’t by the beach but easy to get to for 100 pesos (US$1.80) on a trike or 150 pesos (US$2.50) via a Grab car. We also didn’t want to stay in the newer area called Pueblo de Panay. Personally, we would not recommend staying in that area because there’s not much else going on. Nothing is in walking distance, and transportation seemed difficult to find, as we learned trying to get back to town from a restaurant. Click here for our full review of the President’s Inn.
Right outside of the hotel, several charcoal grills are fired up at night as skewers of inihaw chicken sizzle and the delicious sweet smoky aroma permeate the premise. All of Roxas City seems to stop by for this treat.
Philippine Trike
The Philippine tricycle, often called a "trike," originated as low-cost agile transport prototype after WWII when the Japanese left the motorcycle with a sidecar in the Philippines. This transport mode is unique as most other counties have “tuk-tuks” or a modified motorbike-rickshaw type models. Apparently, colonial-era attempts in the Philippines to introduce human-pulled rickshaws were rejected as undignified and the motorbike-sidecar combo was embraced instead.
While the trikes are cheap and ubiquitous, the side-car is small and low to the ground, making it very challenging for any tall person to get in and out of. For that reason, we mostly took an air conditioned Grab ride everywhere for maybe US$1-2 a ride.
BayBay Beach
Baybay Beach is a lovely quiet beach with gentle waves that seem easy to swim in. The People’s Park comes alive at night with lots of street food vendors, and a mile stretch of seafood restaurants all along the beach.
Specifically, we ate fresh caught fish at Coco Veranda and Bitoy’s. We picked out our own fish to be steamed, fried, or grilled whole - often fish that can only be caught in these waters. The purple yam based ubecolada (instead of a piñacolada) was also delicious at Bitoy’s!
We landed at the expat bar, Canadian Beaver Bar and Grill, for happy hour a couple of times. The aforementioned Canadian Mike has part stake in this bar, and we met a few expats such as Keith from Dallas, Texas. He’s featured in a recent YouTube episode here! Marion from New Jersey is considered the expat “mayor” of Roxas City, having been here for 10 years.
We were skeptical about the Filipino Tanduay rum claim to be “World’s No. 1 Rum”, but it was very smooth and at 45 pesos (less than US$1) per shot, could be dangerous!
We were also reminded that in the Philippines, banana ketchup is a popular condiment. It’s made from mashed bananas, sugar, vinegar, and spices, often dyed red to mimic tomato ketchup. Created during WWII due to tomato shortages, it's a staple in Filipino cuisine, used on everything from burgers and fries to spaghetti and eggs, offering a sweet and tangy flavor.
Our favorite beach side oasis was The Black Sands. Owned by Maldivian expat, also a Black Riders MC Philippines member, who has experience managing high-end hotels and restaurants in the Maldives. His wife is Filipino and current director at the Hilton in Maldives. They both lived in San Antonio, Texas, so they understand how to put together a restaurant / bar / lounge that appeals to the comforts of westerners. It’s definitely a hangout spot for most expats and a nice date spot for couples. Not too many things beat the beach, the constant breeze, a beautiful sunset, sounds of the waves, a reggae acoustical set, great food, and bottles of wine….for less than US$50.
The menu ranges from traditional Filipino to all-American. Chicken Kalderata is a hearty Filipino stew, traditionally made with goat meat but commonly prepared with beef, pork, or chicken, slow-cooked in a rich, tomato-based sauce with vegetables like potatoes, carrots, and bell peppers. Its distinctive flavor comes from Spanish influences like olives and red wine.
Also, it’s hard to find really good salad. The Cobb salad with grilled chicken, if craving one, was excellent. The chicken breast had the charcoal grilled flavor. The vinaigrette dressing was not traditional but the way we preferred - light and citrusy.
SM City Mall
In the States, we can’t recall the last time we’ve been to a mall, but here, it’s a destination here. SM City Mall is the nicest one in Roxas. The perks are: it’s clean, modern, air conditioned, and has just about everything a person needs to take care of business (although more expensive). We were able to take care of a few errands since it has a grocery store, drug store, a department store and a barbershop. Bama had one of the most thorough haircuts and shave here!
Apparently, Kenny Rogers Roasters is still a thing, and it was delicious! It’s now owned by Berjaya Corp from Malaysia and remains a popular chain in Asia.
We also broke down and had our first Jollibee experience. Jollibee is the largest, fastest-growing Filipino fast-food chain, known for its "Chickenjoy" fried chicken, sweet Jolly Spaghetti, and Peach Mango Pie. It has over 1,700 locations globally and is expanding rapidly in North America as a cult-favorite, viral brand. To be honest, we don’t get it, but it’s not for us to get. The spaghetti is super sweet and tasted like Chef Boyardee Spaghetti-Os. The chicken had good flavor but the edible meaty parts were sparse. Maybe this is normal chicken sized, unlike the hormone-buff chicken like in the States. Anyway, we had our one obligatory moment at Jollibee.
Roxas City Center
Our errand day continued by locating a laundromat. Wonderwash N' Dry Laundry Hub was a short walk along the Panay River. We used this place twice while in Roxas. A full load of laundry with a next day pick up cost 120 pesos or about US$2.
The Central Market was bustling with all the usual fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, grains, and all the clothes and wares. This is the place to shop at for local daily life…not SM City!
We then stopped at Yudi Brewing for a cold one. It claimed to be a craft brewery. Our skepticism waned when they indeed had fermentation tanks and a variety of craft brews. "Drakaris" - a misspelling of Dracarys in Game of Thrones - a fruit beer made from dragon fruit was a beautiful pink color with a slight tartness that was refreshing! We hope the brewery makes it. It’s in a quiet neighborhood without a lot of traffic near the Villarreal Stadium and Capiz Provincial Park.
Pueblo de Panay
Outside of the city center and towards the hilltop is a whole area with new infrastructure of wide roads and massive traffic circles, but not much else for the time being, except for a few restaurants, a “convention center”, and a hotel. We went to dinner at Cafe Terraza on the hilltop by Circulo Convention Center. The view was okay, the food was decent. We had a heck of a time trying to find a Grab ride back to city center, but we eventually had a driver accept. We tipped extra for the effort.
Santa Monica Parish Church
We took one short excursion out of Roxas to Santa Monica Parish Church in Panay. This historic Roman Catholic Church is famous for housing the largest Christian church bell in Asia. Cast in 1884 by Juan Reina, this 10-tonne bell was forged using approximately 70 sacks of coins donated by the local community. It is the largest in the Philippines and 5th biggest in the world!
Now, off to Pilar to hangout with our friends at their beachfront compound!
