Most menus in Panglao mix three things: national Filipino dishes such as adobo and sinigang, Visayan cooking shared with neighboring Cebu, and international food for visitors. Dishes that belong to Bohol alone are rarer, and most of them are sweets and snacks. The province's own culture and heritage profile lists calamay, peanut kisses, broas and budbud among its food traditions, and names ube kinampay as Bohol's provincial plant.

This is a guide to dishes, not restaurants. It explains what to order, what the words mean and where a dish is genuinely Boholano, with a few places that serve them. For restaurants, see our where to eat guide and the dining section of our Alona Beach guide.

01

How a Filipino meal works

Rice is the center of the meal: main dishes are made to be eaten with it, and even noodles usually come as a side to rice (Will Fly For Food). At Sisa Bistro, a Filipino restaurant in Panglao, mains come with rice and some are meant for sharing (Sisa Bistro), so order several dishes and pass them round. The rest of the table works like this:

Sawsawan
Dipping sauces you mix yourself: vinegar with chilli, garlic or onion, which cuts the salt and oil of fried and grilled food (Panlasang Pinoy), plus soy sauce and calamansi, a small sour citrus
Patis
Fish sauce, usually served with soups such as sinigang and tinola (Will Fly For Food)
Chicken oil
Put out at good chicken inasal places to pour over your rice
Unli rice
Unlimited rice. Mang Inasal, for example, serves each rice meal with a cup of rice and offers unlimited refills to dine-in customers (Mang Inasal)
Heat
Mild by default; chilli usually comes on the side, in the vinegar

02

Seafood and the grill

On an island, fish, squid and shellfish lead most Filipino menus, and grilling over charcoal is the everyday method. You will see it written two ways: sinugba, from the Cebuano sugba, “to grill” (Binisaya), and inihaw, the Tagalog word used across the country. Some places also offer paluto: you choose the raw seafood and tell the kitchen how to cook it.

What to order

  • KinilawCubes of raw fish, often tuna or wahoo, cured in vinegar or calamansi with ginger, onion and chilli. It depends on very fresh fish (Panlasang Pinoy), so order it somewhere busy.
  • SinuglawSinugba plus kinilaw: grilled pork belly tossed with tuna kinilaw. It comes from Mindanao and is widely eaten in the Visayas.
  • Sinugba or inihaw na isdaGrilled whole fish. Milkfish (bangus) is often stuffed with tomato, onion, ginger and calamansi before it goes over the coals.
  • Inihaw na pusitGrilled squid, marinated and stuffed with tomatoes and onions.
  • Inihaw na liempoPork belly marinated in citrus, garlic and chilli, grilled until the edges char. Dip it in the spiced vinegar.
  • Chicken inasalChicken marinated in vinegar, calamansi, lemongrass and annatto, then grilled on skewers. It comes from Bacolod in Western Visayas, not Bohol, but you will find it all over the country.
  • ShellfishClams, scallops, oysters and crabs, grilled, steamed or in soup. Check for red tide warnings first (below).

Red tide is the seafood risk to know. In February 2026 the Central Visayas office of the fisheries bureau, BFAR, warned people not to gather, sell or eat shellfish or alamang (tiny shrimp) from the waters of Dauis, which shares Panglao Island, and Tagbilaran; fish, squid, crab and shrimp stayed safe if gutted and washed (Inquirer). The warning was lifted at the end of April (Inquirer), and BFAR's Shellfish Bulletin No. 22 of 16 September 2026 listed the coastal waters of Dauis and Tagbilaran as free from toxic red tide. Bulletins change, so check the latest on BFAR's website before ordering clams or oysters.

03

Home-style mains

These dishes are cooked in homes across the Philippines and fill the Filipino pages of Panglao menus. Humba is the most Visayan of them.

Stews, soups and roasts

  • AdoboChicken or pork braised in vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, bay leaves and peppercorns, and often called the national dish. Adobo is also a method, so adobong pusit is squid cooked in its own ink.
  • HumbaThe Visayan cousin of adobo: pork belly braised until soft with soy, vinegar, salted black beans (tausi) and dried banana blossoms, and sweeter than adobo. Kawaling Pinoy traces it to Hokkien red-braised pork.
  • SinigangA sour soup, usually soured with tamarind, with pork, prawns or fish and vegetables.
  • TinolaA clear ginger broth with chicken, green papaya and leafy greens; fish and pork versions exist too.
  • LechonWhole spit-roasted pig, the centerpiece of fiestas. Cebu lechon is stuffed with lemongrass, garlic, bay and peppercorns, so it needs no sauce; Luzon lechon comes with a sweet liver sauce.
  • Pancit and bam-iStir-fried noodles, served at birthdays for long life: bihon is rice vermicelli, canton is egg noodles. Bam-i, on Sisa Bistro's menu, is noodles stir-fried with vegetables, chicken and liver.

04

What Bohol is known for

Bohol's own food identity is strongest in sweets and snacks, the pasalubong that Filipinos take home as gifts. The province's heritage profile notes that calamay is sold at nearly all of Bohol's seaports and airports, so the departure hall is a fallback if you forget.

Sweets, snacks and a salt

  • CalamayFinely ground glutinous rice, coconut milk and sugar, stirred for hours until thick and sticky, then packed into a polished coconut shell with a red band. It comes from Jagna, which calls itself Bohol's “Calamay County” and credits a parish priest, Mariano Gutierrez, who served there from 1825 to 1855.
  • Peanut kissesBite-sized cones of ground peanut, sugar and egg white, modeled first on Hershey's Kisses and then on the Chocolate Hills. The provincial profile credits Carolina Alvarez Butalid, whose family grew peanuts in Buenavista; mass production began in 1960.
  • Ube kinampayBohol's prized purple yam, with white or light to dark purple flesh and a strong aroma. Look for it as ube halaya (sweet jam), ice cream, pastillas or polvoron. IFEX Philippines, the government's food trade fair, lists Panglao Island among the places it grows.
  • BroasLight, crisp ladyfinger biscuits, a little less sweet than versions elsewhere, according to the province, and good with coffee or hot chocolate. The food writer Marketman praised those from Osang's in Baclayon in 2008; check it is still trading before you make the trip.
  • Budbud and sikwateSticky rice steamed in banana leaves and eaten in many parts of the Philippines, often with sikwate, a thick hot chocolate made from tablea (pure cacao tablets). In Bohol, the province calls the pair a beloved traditional breakfast.
  • Asin tibuokEgg-shaped sea salt from Alburquerque, made by filtering seawater through the ash of burnt coconut husks and boiling it in clay pots; smoky, with a hint of coconut. It became a protected geographical indication in October 2025, and UNESCO listed its making as heritage in need of urgent safeguarding that December (Province of Bohol).

Ube kinampay carries the most official weight. By June 2026 the provincial government had applied for geographical indication protection, which would make it Bohol's second protected product after asin tibuok (SunStar). The province grows more than 8 million kilograms of yam a year, and local tradition says a yam dropped on the ground should be picked up and kissed (Inquirer). The yearly Ubi Festival moved to the first week of December under a 2023 ordinance (OPA); the 2025 festival ran from 3 to 5 December at Plaza Rizal in Tagbilaran (OPA).

05

Desserts and drinks

Many sweets are eaten as merienda, the afternoon snack, as well as after meals.

Cold, sweet and fermented

  • Halo-halo“Mix-mix”: shaved ice layered with sweetened beans, fruit and jellies, topped with milk, leche flan, ube jam and ice cream. Stir it before you eat.
  • Buko juiceWater from a young coconut, drunk from the shell with a straw; ask for a spoon to scoop out the soft flesh.
  • TubaCoconut or palm sap left to ferment overnight into a lightly alcoholic drink, about 2 to 4 per cent according to Will Fly For Food. Aged for months it becomes bahal; aged for years, bahalina.

07

Where to try them

Most of these dishes are on Filipino menus around the island; see our where to eat guide for restaurants across Panglao, and our Alona guide for those on and around the beach. For Filipino cooking in particular, Sisa Bistro describes itself as a Filipino specialty restaurant that began as a small kiosk, and Will Fly For Food calls it “the best Filipino restaurant in Bohol” (Will Fly For Food). JOSÉ Panglao specializes in grilled seafood with a paluto service, according to Khae Santiago. Opening hours change, so check before you go.

Panglao Public Market
The town market, 5.0 km from Rona's Corner at Alona; the official tricycle fare is ₱40 per person (Municipality of Panglao, checked 29 September 2026). A local dive center describes it as the place for seafood, fruit and vegetables (Tropical Divers)
Calamay and peanut kisses
Calamay is sold at nearly all of Bohol's seaports and airports (Province of Bohol); one travel writer points to the supermarket at Island City Mall in Tagbilaran for both (wetravelphilippines)
Ubi Festival
First week of December in Tagbilaran; 3–5 December in 2025 (OPA)
Virgin Island sandbar
Vendors once cooked seafood to order here (GMA, 2022), but vendor stalls have been banned since the sandbar reopened on 3 February 2026 (Province of Bohol)

We could not confirm the market's current opening hours or whether cooked-food stalls operate there, so ask your hotel before you make the trip.

08

Allergies, pork and vegetarian eating

Seafood, peanuts and pork run through Filipino cooking, often where you would not expect them. Kare-kare, an oxtail stew, has a sauce made with ground peanuts and is eaten with shrimp paste (bagoong alamang), and soups such as sinigang and tinola come with fish sauce (Will Fly For Food). Mang Inasal's pork barbecue comes with peanut sauce (Mang Inasal). If you have an allergy, say so plainly and ask about the dips as well as the dish.

Vegetable dishes often contain pork: Kawaling Pinoy's recipes for adobong kangkong (water spinach) and ginataang puso ng saging both include it. For a meat-free Filipino dish, try tortang talong, a grilled-eggplant omelette (Kawaling Pinoy), and check that no minced pork has been added. Sisa Bistro's menu offers its banana-blossom dish with tofu for vegans.

For fully plant-based meals, Vedge Bohol describes itself as 100% plant-based, on the Circumferential Road at Panglao Chocolate Hills Resort; its online hours were last updated in 2024. Shaka, a smoothie-bowl café chain, has a Panglao branch with vegan options (Khae Santiago); a 2025 travel blog called it fully vegan (Girl on a Zebra), but recent reviews say the menu now includes meat, so ask. In a medical emergency, call 911; our medical care guide explains where to go.

09

Common questions

What food is Bohol famous for?

Mostly sweets and snacks: calamay from Jagna, peanut kisses, broas biscuits and anything made with ube kinampay, the province's purple yam. Alburquerque's asin tibuok salt became Bohol's first protected geographical indication in 2025.

What is calamay?

A sticky sweet of ground glutinous rice, coconut milk and sugar, cooked for hours and packed in a coconut shell sealed with a red band. It is Jagna's speciality and one of Bohol's most popular gifts (Municipality of Jagna).

Is Filipino food spicy?

Usually not. Heat plays a smaller part than elsewhere in South-East Asia, and the spiciest regional cooking comes from Bicol and Muslim Mindanao (Will Fly For Food). Chilli usually comes on the side, in the vinegar dip. Halang means spicy.

What can vegetarians eat in Panglao?

Tortang talong (eggplant omelette), tofu versions of dishes where menus offer them, and dedicated plant-based places such as Vedge Bohol. Ask about pork, shrimp paste and fish sauce, which turn up in many vegetable dishes.

What does unli rice mean?

Unlimited rice. Some grills and chains, such as Mang Inasal, refill your rice at no extra charge with a dine-in meal.

Is it safe to eat shellfish in Panglao?

Check BFAR's shellfish bulletin first. Red tide warnings covered nearby Dauis and Tagbilaran waters from February to April 2026; during that warning, fish, squid, crab and shrimp stayed safe to eat once gutted and washed.

Order something grilled, something braised and plenty of rice for the table, mix your own dip, and take a coconut shell of calamay home.