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Real Cheap Eats: 8 Must-visit Affordable Restaurants in Subic Bay for PhP549 and Below
See the best restaurants in Subic Bay Free Port Zone for your next cheap food hunt!
By: Viktor Austria | March 24, 2023
Read on to find the most affordable restaurants in Subic Bay!
Images: Magic Lagoon (L); Texas Joe's House Of Ribs Subic Bay Freeport Zone (R) Facebook pages
People come for its beautiful sun-soaked beaches and natural sanctuaries, but Subic Bay is as much a delight to the sight as it is to the stomach. With the various food places to choose from, it’s no wonder the options for good affordable restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone are plenty.
That this destination in Central Luzon has a lot of gastronomical getaways shouldn’t be a surprise anyway—not only is it a meeting place of regional flavors, but also of cultural culinary tastes with local and international influences. Explore these flavors at the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone: Kapampangan, Bataan, Western, and Asian, as you read through the good restaurants in Subic to eat!
1. Xtremely Xpresso Café
Where: 1 Dewey Avenue corner Sta. Rita Street, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Breakfast starts at PhP120
Xtremely Xpresso Café serves breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Images: Xtremely Xpresso Café Facebook page
If you want to lounge on those lazy afternoons and think of an ideal and affordable restaurant in Subic Bay, head to Xtremely Xpresso Café on the corner of Dewey Avenue and Sta. Rita Street.
This affordable restaurant in Subic serves your favorite café fares that fuse the exquisite European taste with our local Filipino flavor. Examples include their waffle, omelet, and Filipino dishes like the beef tapa (cured beef) and boneless bangus (milkfish). If you’re feeling hungrier, they also have entrées: seared tuna belly, Korean beef ribs, tarragon cream chicken, Salisbury steak, and more for your delight. They also have the perfect breakfast plates (starting at PhP120) to pair their coffee drinks.
Finally, they wouldn’t be one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone if they didn’t have finger foods like quesadillas, chicken tenders, fried calamari, smoked salmon carpaccio (thinly sliced meat), and a wide array of salads, sandwiches, soups, pizzas (starts at PhP599), and pasta (starts at PhP190).
Xtremely Xpresso Café operates daily from 10:00 AM to 9:00 PM.
2. Buddha’s Bowl
Where: Lot 5 Time Square Area Sta. Rita rd. Subic Bay Freeport Zone
Best Price For: Meal starts at PhP128
Taste the kick from Buddha’s Bowl spiced dishes that mix all your favorite Southeast Asian flavors.
Images: Buddha’s Bowl Facebook page
Just off the outskirts of the Subic Bay Freeport Zone, inside Harbor Point Mall, is a uniquely casual, affordable restaurant in Subic that captures the best of Southeast Asian cuisines. Buddha’s Bowl is where Thai, Malaysian, Singaporean, Vietnamese, and other Asian influences intersect.
Their pad thai (Thai rice noodles), Hawker special (spicy stir-fried noodles), and Good Luck noodles (wok-fried noodles with chicken, pineapple, and wonton) or some of their must-try noodle dishes. As one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone, they also have the signature Hangover, deep-fried spiced pork on chili rice and a runny egg, other rice bowl meals crispy satay (skewered meat), and Buddha’s Best (Thai-style fried rice with chicken, pineapple, and chili jam). Don’t forget to pair these with their Thai milk tea!
Buddha’s Bowl operates daily from 11:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
3. Urban Deli
Where: Parcel 76 Bicentennial Park Rizal Highway, Subic Bay Freeport Zone
Best Price For: Breakfast meal starts at PhP169
Urban Deli’s charcuterie offers a range of grade-A imported meats unlike anywhere else.
Images: Urban Deli Facebook page
Another European-inspired gourmet and affordable restaurant in Subic Bay Freeport Zone is Urban Deli. French-Belgian chef Didier Ladriere opened the delicatessen in 2014 to serve and remind fellow ex-pats in Subic Bay of the delicious deli they had back home. It also doles out some of the most delightful wines and artisanal beers in the district, as well as handmade sausages and frozen meat products imported from Europe and Australia; high-grade cheese selections like Gouda, Raclette, Crottin, and Brie; and baked goods and pastries with that palpable French influence.
Urban Deli is one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone because of their beef cuts from prime Black Angus Texas or poached or pan-fried seafood dishes made from fresh sea bass, blue marlin, halibut, and other first-class fish choices. Breakfast starts at PhP169, Beef Specialties at PhP889, and Seafood Specialties at PhP535.
Urban Deli operates daily from 8:00 AM to 12:00 MN.
4. Coco Lime Restaurant
Where: Rizal Highway (across Times Square Cinema), Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Meal starts at PhP170
Bring the family in for a feast of Filipino cuisines, complete and freshly prepared at Coco Lime.
Images: Coco Lime Specialty Asian Cuisine Facebook page
Coco Lime Restaurant is one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone that epitomizes comfort food—a fusion of Filipino and Asian flavors perfect for the whole family.
This affordable restaurant in Subic Bay serves big or small families! They have set meals for up to ten people, including all their bestsellers. You can choose from their grilled meats: Thai barbecue chicken, oriental liempo (pork belly), chicken inasal (char-grilled), tuna belly, squid, and bangus, then pair these with their pineapple rice, bagoong (salted fish paste) rice, or nasi goreng (Indonesian fried rice). This restaurant in Subic also has noodle dishes, Filipino staples, fresh fruit shakes, and oriental desserts.
Coco Lime Restaurant operates daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
5. Magic Lagoon
Where: Building 716, Bicentennial Park, Rizal Highway, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Meal starts at PhP240
The lagoon is stunning, but the real magic is in the restaurant’s outstanding food offerings.
Images: Magic Lagoon Facebook page
In our fifth spot of affordable restaurants in Subic, you can enjoy your classic Filipino feast in Magic Lagoon, a resto-bar and grill that serves every Pinoy’s comfort food from all over the archipelago.
This restaurant in Subic means it when they say their menu is extensive, as shown by the different viands for fish, vegetables, chicken, pork, beef, and goat they serve. Some favorites include their deep-fried hito (catfish), toasted adobong kambing (stewed goat), tender kare-kare (beef stewed in peanut sauce) with imported oxtail, and finished off with their fermented rice.
The signature of this one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone is Balot sa Puti (covered in white); beer is also a must-try in Magic Lagoon. Crack a cold one open with friends and family to enjoy a night out!
Magic Lagoon operates daily from 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM.
6. Aristocrat Restaurant
Where: Lot 2 Block 2, Maharlika Grounds, Rizal Highway, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Meal starts at PhP231
Aristocrat’s char-grilled chicken barbecues remain a classic cult favorite.
Images: Aristocrat Restaurant
You might have heard of this affordable restaurant in Subic: Aristocrat Restaurant isn’t just in Subic, but in major cities where the avid patrons of their trademark chicken and pork barbecues are found.
Paired with their equally famous java rice and peanut sauce, their barbecue dishes are to die for. Other frequently favored dishes are their kalderetang baka (beef in tomato stew), Lola Asiang’s chicken and pork adobo, clubhouse sandwich, and the quintessential lumpiang shanghai (spring rolls). This restaurant in Subic also sells sweet tidbits, baked goods, and cakes, such as their signature Torta Delos Reyes, a crisp, layered wafer cake with ganache and white chocolate.
Aristocrat Restaurant operates daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
7. Meatplus Café
Where: Building 65, Sampson Road, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Combo meal starts at PhP245
Meatplus Café’s selection of steaks shows the best of Subic’s well-known Western influences.
Images: Meatplus Café Facebook page
Another best restaurant in Subic Bay Freeport Zone is Meatplus Café, a well-known steakhouse in Subic, along Sampson Road. It has been welcoming hungry tourists since 1993. The humility of this affordable restaurant in Subic’s facade hides the fact that it serves one of the best, freshly prepared, premium steaks in all of Subic, like rib-eye steaks, tenderloin steaks, and US Angus tapa (cured beef), salpicao (garlicky beef), and baby back ribs.
Aside from the steaks of this affordable restaurant in Subic, diners should try their grilled or pan-fried Norwegian salmon, hamburger steak, or grilled chicken or pork chops. This restaurant in Subic also has an assortment of sides, salads, and sandwiches that feature their choice of meats.
Meatplus Café operates daily from 10:00 AM to 8:00 PM.
8. Texas Joe’s House of Ribs
Where: Waterfront Road corner McKinley Street, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
Best Price For: Spare Ribs Platter start at PhP549
The tasty steaks at Texas Joe’s are as premium and authentic as they can get.
Images: Texas Joe’s
First on our list of affordable restaurants in Subic is the Texas Joe’s is symbolic of that famous Southern comfort with its tasty Texan grub. The famed smokehouse in this restaurant in Subic is made a name in Subic by serving its signature US-certified meat and rib selections, like its pork baby back, spare ribs and shoulder, Angus Beef briskets, and USDA Choice rib-eye steaks.
This one of the best restaurants in Subic Bay Freeport Zone has Hickory-smoked ribs; other must-tries include salmon and shrimp dishes, the onion loaf, and their Ultimate Bubba burger, a juicy burger with half-pound ground beef served with Texas Joe’s fried onion rings. They also have bite-sized treats, light and healthy salad selections, and Southern-style desserts.
Texas Joe operates daily from 10:30 AM to 10:00 PM.
9. Crab and Belly
Where: Unit 1, Building 93, Lincoln Street, Central Business District Area, Subic Bay Freeport Zone, Olongapo City
As represented by Crab and Belly’s seafood menu, Olongapo’s oceanside location never disappoints.
Image: Crab and Belly official website
Staying in Subic Bay, you might as well take your oceanside vacation to another level by feasting at the best restaurant in Subic Bay Freeport Zone; Crab and Belly’s sumptuous seafood offerings. This affordable restaurant in Subic just opened in 2017 but has already charmed visitors with its homely ambiance, serenading diners with acoustic performances by live bands or letting them sing themselves on open mic nights.
But seafood remains the show’s star at this affordable restaurant in Subic. Sink straight into the seafood platter to sample all delectable catches or their no-time limit, unlimited crab, shrimp, or jumbo prawns, freshly caught and cooked as ordered. Don’t worry; this affordable restaurant in Subic also has other meat selections like pork and chicken, Filipino favorites, and Japanese cuisines.
February 2023 Update: Crab and Belly is permanently closed. But don’t worry! You may check SLABS Diner and Steakhouse on Sampson Rd. Corner Schley Rd., Subic Bay Freeport Zone.
Subic Bay surely knows how to satisfy a starving traveler. So pick your place, cop your comfort food, and dive right in!
Looking for a delectable place to eat in Subic and Central Luzon? Check out Yoorekka Magazine!
Stay safe as you travel and dine in! Make sure to follow social distancing protocols and observe health precautions. For now, keep safe!
This article was initially published in Yoorekka on July 12, 2019.
Prices may change without prior notice.
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About Viktor Austria
Viktor would love to receive an extra hour a day as a Christmas gift. That way, he won’t have to struggle over splitting his 24 hours among making brand copies and campaigns, writing children’s stories, going to the gym, commuting around Taguig, and feeding his two overweight cats. He hates the hustle culture, that’s why he’s thankful for friends who have time to spare on weekends, preferably over spicy ramen and cold bottles of beer.
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