Scallops, anyone?

After our tour of Iloilo, we decided to have dinner at Breakthrough Restaurant, which is one of the most famous seafood restaurants in Iloilo. My friend remembered it from her previous visit, sharing that the food was really good.

Ambiance
The place was spacious, but was thankfully not full when we arrived.

It’s known for their seafood and patrons have the option to have live seafood like crabs and fishes cooked according to what they want. This was a treat from my friend so she was the one who ordered for us.

While waiting for our food, I decided to check out the place. The restaurant is by the beach.  I felt lucky that we were able to dine here right when the sun was about to set so we had prime spot for sunset-viewing.

Note the island over the horizon, which is Guimaras Island, our destination the following day.

Food
First to be served were the scallops, the main photo of this post. I loved it. It was fresh, buttery and garlicky, just the way I liked it.

We had grilled oysters too. In our dialect, we call it Talaba. Sadly, it wasn’t as fleshy and tasty as the ones we would prepare at home.

Pardon the photo quality.  We were already so hungry so I just snapped all these photos in a hurry.

We had fish sinigang too. I loved it. It wasn’t too sour, the fish was fresh and the vegetables weren’t overcooked.

While their lechon was good, it wasn’t as tasty as the ones here in Cebu or in Aklan. It was mostly fat too.  But the skin was really good, very crunchy and cooked just right.

And here’s my ultimate favorite: crab, which was so huuuge it filled the whole plate, fleshy, and really yummy.  Just look at that aligue!

Breakthrough Restaurant’s Aligue (Crab Fat) Rice is also a must. It was very delicious. Unlike in many restaurants, the sprinkling of crab fat on their Rice Aligue was very generous.

I don’t know what this is called, but it’s quite a treat. It tasted like salted dried fish, but it wasn’t as salty.

It was one very good meal. I even told my friend it was my best meal in months!

Service
While the food is good, service is slow considering that there were very few diners. The staff were also not very attentive. We had to keep waving our hands to ask for water, condiments, and whatnot.

Breakthrough Restaurant is located in Santo Niño Sur, Villa Arevalo District, Iloilo City, Iloilo. Contact them via +63 33 337-3027.