Cafe Antigua — Restaurant in Lucena

This is one of the oldest restaurants in the city and is still popular among the locals.

I have seen a couple of bad reviews and I think they just did not order the gems that this restaurant has to offer.

Don’t get me wrong, the usual chami, siopao, mami are okay but the best offerings are those that take time to cook ❤️

Here are a few must-haves:

Morisquetta fried rice - kanin pa lang ulam na! This is a good tummy-filler that goes well with their viands.

Pigyolk - seasoned ground pork, wrapped in thin pork skin, fried to a perfect crisp, then topped with ground peanuts and sweet and sour sauce. You won’t usually find this in Chinese restaurants 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Pata tim - to enjoy this at the most delicate form, call in advance and tell them to cook this for at least 45 minutes. I promise you, this is worth the long wait as the meat, fat, and skin all melt in your mouth. Sobrang swabe nito lalo na sa cuapao o tasty bread!!!

Litid - pugo, litid, konting greens para hindi gaano nakakakonsensya 🤣🤣🤣

Marami pang mga sikat na ulam dito gaya ng torta con grejo, ma-ki, sisig, antigua chicken, atbp. Pero unahin niyo muna mga nirekomenda ko sa taas para di kayo malito.

Ay english nga pala dapat, in english, just trust my...

(Note: late review as this was on vacation during the holidays/Dec 2024) Stopped in for a late lunch. Area is quite busy and parking can be difficult, luckily we were dropped off!

While the place is quite spacious, it can be difficult to get a seat no matter what time of day. Didn't have to wait too long for the staff to clear up a table for us.

We ordered the following items for dine-in:

Fried Calamares: 8/10 - Nothing mind-blowing but a good classic appetizer choice with good flavour and a crispy batter.

Yangchow Fried Rice: 7/10 - Tasty and hit the spot. Not much else to say.

Crabmeat Egg Foo Yung: 9/10 - While it may not look appetizing to some, this was delicious! Full of crabmeat and flavourful, even though I'm not usually a fan of egg in "omelet" style.

We also ordered Siopao to-go, on our way out. They were also good. Dough was soft, filling was plenty and tasty.

Price is reasonable, portions are filling and food quality is good.

Will definitely come back on my next trip back to the...

We went around 9pm and there aren't much customers. Most were family groups. Food is good and serving is decent.

We tried crab omelette, yang chow, chami (tamis anghang), beef broccoli and bola-bola siopao to go. It's my first time trying crab omelette and imo it was good. Serving size is for 3-4 I think bc we had a hard time finishing it and it's just the 2 of us.

Yang chow was kind meh and nothing spectacular. Just tasted like regular fried rice. But serving was decent I think. For 150 for Medium it could feed 2.

Chami was good and very flavorful. It's tasty so you could eat it with rice.

I liked the beef broccoli the most. It's not your regular sweet beef stirfry from other Chinese restos. It's on the saltier side and tasted kinda like corned beef bc it was soft, which i liked. Pairs well with the rice. Although the serving was pretty small (but I guess maybe bc it's beef and beef is expensive)

Imk food is so so but since I love Chinese food, will probably go back to try the other food...