Vibe Gourmet

If you're looking to experiment but aren't willing to blow your budget in a fancy restaurant, then Vibe Gourmet is definitely the place to go. They serve gourmet food, minus the gourmet hole in your pocket. However, don't expect the ambiance to match the whole gourmet experience but sit tight for a culinary adventure that you will surely enjoy.

Vibe Gourmet was made by a friend's recommendation, maybe some 3 years ago or so but only recently did we get around to eating there again and the food there was something we surely missed! It is located across the old Cebu Doctor's University gym. Situated in a little nook which is concealed by the Cebu Doctor's hospital, it's not somewhere that you'd go to to look for something to eat lest you already have knowledge of this restaurant's existence. Honestly, the exterior doesn't look extraordinary either so I wouldn't expect a passerby to be drawn to eat there on a whim.

Most of the diners I suppose, are employees of the nearby hospital and/or boarders living in the area. The restaurant has more of a feel of a cafeteria than an actual restaurant. It's not something that bothers me, really. As long as the dining area is clean and the service is good. But again if ambiance is what you're looking for, then this is not it. For sure it's not first date material. It's the "years-in-the-running-we-need-to-stop-impressing-each-other-and-get-practical" kind of place to eat with your partner, if you know what I mean :D

Everything in the menu is under P100!

Very spacious dining area

Remember in my previous post when my boyfriend and I ordered a meal good for four people? Well, we did it again. We have a knack for ordering an extra dish whenever we dine at a restaurant with plated meals. I particularly like having variety in my food hence plated meals almost always never work with me and I'm left with having to consume the extra rice that comes along with it :(

So without further ado let me present to you the three dishes that we ordered.

Lemon pepper chicken - P85
Garlic rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

Vibe Gourmet is best known for their chicken. Most of the time I tend to stay away from dishes with strong flavors (e.g. lemon as a main ingredient) because I find them too overpowering and more often than not, I find the other flavors lost with the pungency of the main ingredient. But I was pleasantly surprised when I tried their lemon pepper chicken that there was a pretty good balance in the ratio of the spices put into the dish. There was enough sour, salt, and a little spicy kick in the chicken to give it a discreet tangy taste.

Herbs & spicy chicken - P85
Garlic rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

This dish sure looks like boring old fried chicken to anybody but once you take a bite into it, you will surely say that it isn't like any fried chicken you've tasted before. It has a distinct flavor to it brought about by the herbs and spices (duh, I can't come up with a better description aside from the name of the dish) mixed in the batter. It reminds me a lot of the Malaysian rendition of chicken rice. I'm sorry if I cant put into detail exactly what it tastes like because I am not familiar with what the main ingredients of Malaysian cuisine are but on a side note, I will use this moment to show off the very spicy and delicious meal we had in a local cafeteria at Malaysia last month.

(NOT AVAILABLE AT VIBE GOURMET)
Rice topped with some insanelyspicy sauce whose ingredients are unbeknownst to me and vegetables and with an equally spicy chicken to match. Plus crab. Didn't I tell you plated meals are just aren't our thing?! Please excuse my hand in the frame as I'm ecstatically delivering food to my mouth

If those pictures weren't enough to make you drool, then I don't know what would. What I know wouldn't however, is this unexciting and plain pork belly from Vibe Gourmet. Considering how they manage to put unconventional twists into how they prepare their chicken, you will be very disappointed at how awfully dry and awry this dish tastes.

Pork belly - P60
Biryani rice add on - Sorry I didn't get to take note of this

In honesty, the pork belly isn't half bad at all. It just failed, relative to the other dishes that we ordered. If we had only this dish maybe we would've said that it was alright. I wasn't too crazy about the biryani either as it tasted more like instant curry from a packet than actual biryani.

We ended up paying P300+ for everything for our beyond average gluttonous appetites. On average, if you have an average appetite like the average person, P100 should be enough to cover a meal. I think that's a very good deal considering their servings are pretty generous already and the taste of the food in general, really goes beyond expectation.

The cons of Vibe Gourmet for me I think, would be its location and parking. It's not that accessible because its not right by a main road nor is it situated in a commercial area. You have to go in an alley to get there. That being said, it also follows that parking is not always that easy. With eager towing trucks going around the city, we sometimes find ourselves craning our necks through our meal to see if the car hasn't been dragged away by the city government yet. It's either that or we pay for expensive parking at the nearby Coco Mall.

Overall, dining at Vibe Gourmet has been very satisfactory for us. Their service is fast, and the food is also affordable. I have yet to try their fish as I always opt for something chicken whenever I eat there. Maybe I'll do that for another review sometime!


Eternally famished,
Pearl