I’ve always associated eatery menu with ordinary food so I stayed away from Orange Karenderia even after hearing people rave about it.

When a close friend invited us there, I resigned myself to a night of unsatisfying dinner.

I changed my mind soon enough, however, after tasting dish after dish at Orange Karenderia and finding them all satisfying.

Orange Karenderia crispy tuna buntot
CRISPY TUNA BUNTOT. This dish is among the specialties of Orange Karenederia and one that you should definitely try.

Fresh ingredients

Orange Karenderia serves mostly local Cebuano food, from vegetable to seafood to meat dishes, made from fresh ingredients.

There’s chop suey, ginata-ang gulay, or pinakbet that’s good for three people but costs only P135.

Among our orders from the main menu: crispy tuna buntot, crispy tuna belly, grilled panga (tuna jaw), and sizzling sisig (squid and pork).

All the dishes were good and they came to our table freshly cooked but my favorite was the fried tuna buntot.

Orange Karenderia kinilaw
SINUGLAW. An evil combination of sinugba and kinilaw or roast pork and ceviche. As I said, evil.

Specialties

Orange Karenderia considers its larang, tinola, inon-unan recipes as its specialty dishes. The restaurant serves larang endong, bakasi, or barracuda; tinolang mamsa or ulo sa dugso; and inon-unan na tangigue.

The restaurant said on its FB page that it has two highly experienced chefs taking care of the Orange Karenderia menu. Chef Samuel handles the seafood specialties such as the linarang and tinola.

On the other hand, it added, Chef Lando is the brains behind the crispy tuna buntot and other bestsellers.

Also available at Orange Karenderia: crispy bihod, crispy kusog (tuna tendons/cartillage), gambas, calamares, pork barbecue, chorizo.

Orange Karenderia Bagaybay
BAGAYBAY. This was surprisingly delicious.

Open space

Since the restaurant set-up involves an open space with only the counter separating the diners from the serving station, you can actually see the chefs and other restaurant staff prepare your food. That was nice.

Orange Karenderia has branches in Maguikay in Mandaue City and Lahug. We ate at the branch along La Guardia St., Salinas Drive, Lahug, Cebu City. It was a crowded night and the restaurant was packed. The tables are placed close together so it was a little difficult going into and getting out of the chairs. The food made up for the inconvenience, though.

Its operating hours: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. The restaurant takes reservations but welcomes walk-ins as well.

For reservations or inquiries, here are Orange Karenderia’s contact details: 0917-721-0923 (tap to call on your phone) and [email protected] (email).

Orange Karenderia
BRANCHES. Orange Karenderia has branches in Maguikay in Mandaue City and Lahug.

More photos

Marlen is the editor of MyCebu.ph and co-founder of Cebu-based journalism startup InnoPub Media.

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