What to eat in the Philippines? - 15 classic dishes you must try

Writer: Helena Bergström

Updated: May 2026 | What do you eat in the Philippines? We have spent three months, on 30 different islands, in the Philippines. Here we have collected our experiences about Filipino food, as well as specialties, desserts and drinks.

What to eat in the Philippines? - a quick overview

We have previously written about both Malaysian food and Sri Lankan cuisine - Now we turn our attention to the Philippines! Here are some typical examples of what to eat in the Philippines:

• Rice: The base of almost every meal, often accompanied by chicken, fish or vegetables
• Breakfast: Silog (meat or fish, rice and eggs)
• Accessories: Calamansi (served with almost everything)
• Dessert: Halo-halo (crushed ice with fruit, beans and milk)

If we are to answer very quickly the question of what you eat in Philippines the answer is rice and noodles, and preferably chicken and pork. And of course fruit! But we'll elaborate a bit more. Here's a list of 15 Filipino dishes and specialities.

Typical Filipino food - 15 classic dishes

Here we list Filipino dishes that are interesting to try, including small dishes, side dishes and sweets.

1. rice

You can't talk about Filipino food without mentioning rice. Rice is the staple of Filipino cuisine and many families start the day by cooking a huge pot of rice to last all day. Rice is often eaten for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and maybe even as a snack.

In restaurants you often pay for 'a cup' of rice, which is roughly equivalent to a portion. Some restaurants also offer "unlimited rice" for an additional fee, meaning you can eat as much rice as you want.

To flavour the rice, soy, chilli and the citrus fruit calamansi are often offered. By the way, rice can be eaten with just about anything, including noodles and French fries.

2nd Pancit

Noodles are also very common in the Philippines, especially the noodle dish pancit. This dish comes in lots of different local variations, but basically you can say that it is noodles together with small pieces of vegetables, often carrot and cabbage, and sometimes also small pieces of chicken.

3. Chicken Adobo

Chicken is very popular in the Philippines and can be eaten, for example, in the form of the traditional stew Chicken Adobo. The dish is cooked with soy and garlic, among other ingredients, and is served with rice.

Adobo, by the way, is the name of a stew that can also be prepared with other main ingredients than chicken. For example, you can serve adobo made with pork or squid.

4. Chicken Inasal

Another popular chicken dish is 'Chicken Inasal', which basically means marinated and grilled chicken served (of course) with rice. The dish is available in many restaurants, including many fast food outlets.

5. lechon Baboy

Baboy means pig or pork and lechon means that the dish is grilled. The animal is grilled whole and then cut up for everyone to eat. Among local families, this is a festive food, prepared when there is a reason to celebrate. However, whole pigs are also grilled in restaurants, where you can buy a portion of the dish.

If it says "Lechon Manok" instead, then it is a whole grilled chicken instead of pork, which is also a very popular Filipino food.

6. sisig

Sisig is a Filipino dish that is relatively common in Filipino restaurants, resembling a kind of 'pot pie'. The dish includes pork, pork belly and chicken liver. We didn't think the ingredients sounded very good and never ordered this dish, but you might be braver!

7. lumpia

Spring rolls are also a popular Filipino food. Spring rolls can either be vegetarian or contain meat and are often served with rice and a sweet and sour sauce.

8. Fish and seafood

The Philippines is an island nation and is surrounded by water and fishing boats everywhere. So it's only natural that seafood is plentiful. Many restaurants display the fresh produce on a bed of ice, and you can then choose what you want to have grilled.

There are usually many different types of fish, such as red snapper and tuna. There are also often squid, prawns, small crabs and different types of mussels. At private events we have also been offered marinated sea cucumber.

9. Spaghetti with banana ketchup sauce

One of the foreign dishes that has gained a strong foothold in the Philippines is Italian pasta. However, Filipinos put their own spin on the dish, preferring a sweeter tomato sauce flavoured with banana ketchup.

We're not sure if this dish is available in restaurants, but if you're shopping in stores, you can choose Filipino pasta sauce instead of Italian pasta sauce to get the "right" flavour. This dish should also be extra popular at parties and birthdays.

10. Silog

A group of Filipino breakfast dishes, containing rice, eggs and some form of meat or fish. It is the type of meat or fish that gives the dish its full name. For example, ”hotsilog” contains hot dog, while ”longsilog” contains the sausage longganisa and ”cornsilog” contains corned beef.

11. longganisa

A Spanish-style sausage, which comes in lots of different flavours. The sausage can be bought in various simple eateries and is sometimes included in the Filipino breakfast.

12. balot

One of the most famous specialities in the Philippines is the egg called balot or balut. This dish consists of an egg with a duck foetus inside, which can be 16 or 18 days old.

You can sometimes see locals selling these eggs in small boxes, and one of our Filipino friends bought one to eat and to show us. We like to try exotic things, but this was our limit. Both the look and the smell made us gag. However, we understand that the dish is very popular among many Filipinos.

13. calamansi

Calamansi is a delicious and fresh small citrus fruit that is very common in the Philippines, instead of lemon or lime. The fruit can be served as calamansi juice or as a flavouring for tea. It is also common to have the fruit with chilli and soy, as a flavouring for food.

14. Fresh fruit

One of the things you can enjoy in the Philippines is fantastic fresh fruit. Some common fruits are coconut, mango, small bananas and melon of different varieties. The fruit can be served for breakfast, as a dessert or in the form of juice.

15. Halo-Halo

If you want to try a typical Filipino dessert, try halo halo. This all in one dessert can be bought in special halo halo stands, but also in restaurants and fast food restaurants.

The ingredients of this colourful dessert can vary, but usually include ice cream, ice, jelly, fresh fruit and beans. The dish tastes sweet and not bad!

Filipino food in restaurants - food from around the world

Here we have presented a number of Filipino specialities, but what do you eat in the Philippines - in a restaurant? You can have Filipino food, of course, but there is also often a relatively wide range of other Asian food as well as Western food. During our three months in the country, we often saw the following international dishes on menus.

Asian food

• Chicken Curry
• Chicken/pork in sweet and sour sauce
• Lemon chicken
• Fried chicken/pork
• Fried rice
• Sushi and sashimi
• Yakiniku and other Japanese dishes
• Sizzling chicken/pork

Western food

• American Breakfast (eggs, bacon, toast, butter and jam)
• Pizza
• Spaghetti Carbonara and other pasta dishes
• Hamburgers
• French fries
• Chicken Cordon Bleu

Filipino drinks

So, what do you drink in the Philippines? Firstly, you'll need to drink a lot of things like water, soft drinks and iced tea because it's so hot. Here are some other common drinks that might be worth mentioning.

Oil in the Philippines

Beer is a popular drink in the Philippines and there are three main varieties, all brewed by the San Miguel Brewery:

• San Miguel Pilsen
• San Miguel Light
• Red Horse (extra high alcohol content)

Rum and gin

Both rum and gin are produced locally in the Philippines, making these spirits very affordable compared to other spirits.

Coconut wine

If you want to try a local festive drink, try coconut wine. This is drunk by locals when celebrating, and is sometimes mixed with coca cola.

Fruit juice

When in the Philippines, you'll also want to take the opportunity to drink freshly squeezed fruit juice, which can be delicious here. Perhaps the best known are buko juice, which is coconut juice, and mango juice. Our favourite was watermelon juice - absolutely delicious!

More about food in other countries

Here you can find more stories about food in different countries:

• Sri Lankan food - 15 dishes in Sri Lanka
• Indian food - 25 Indian dishes
• Malaysian food - 15 Malaysian dishes
• Chinese food - 20 Chinese dishes
• Vietnamese food - 20 dishes in Vietnam