Cubao Expo Food Under ₱300 a Plate

The cheapest sit-down food in Cubao Expo is at Best of Luck: siomai at ₱168, a bacon bao at ₱188 and beef tendon noodles at ₱288, all 2024 prices. Around it, Ichiban Takoyaki and Silingan Coffee sell snacks and rice meals for under ₱500 a head.

Plates under ₱300

Four items in the compound come in under ₱300. All four are 2024 prices, so expect a little more now.

Item	Where	Price in 2024
Pork & Shrimp Siomai	Best of Luck	₱168
Coffee	EXT.Cafe	₱180
Special Bacon Bao	Best of Luck	₱188
Braised Beef Tendon Dry Noodles	Best of Luck	₱288

Best of Luck serves Hong Kong-style Chinese plates over two floors of two-seat tables. The noodles are the closest thing on this list to a meal on one plate. The siomai and the bao are smaller orders: together they come to ₱356, or ₱178 each when two people split them.

It is closed on Mondays. From 4 PM, Tuesday to Sunday, is the safe time to go; for lunch, check its page first.

Snacks and rice meals under ₱500

Expect under ₱500 a head at each of these. If the budget is exactly ₱300, ask at the counter before ordering.

• Ichiban Takoyaki is a takoyaki stall for a quick bite between stops. It opens at 3 PM from Monday to Saturday and at 2 PM on Sunday. It closes at midnight from Monday to Thursday, 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays and 11 PM on Sundays. Allow 20 minutes for it.
• Silingan Coffee serves coffee and simple rice meals from 9 AM to 11 PM daily. It is staffed by families of drug-war victims, and it has no alcohol, which makes it the easy lunch for a student budget or a sober table.
• Fred's Revolucion is a dive bar, not a restaurant, but it serves Ho Chi Wings and costs under ₱500 a head. It is closed on Mondays.

Eating before drinks

The cheap pre-drinks routine in the compound runs through the taproom. Cubao X Brewery has no kitchen, so food comes in from the neighbours. It opens at 3 PM, the same hour as the takoyaki stall, so the order of business is simple: buy the takoyaki, carry it over, find a table on one of the two open-air floors.

Eating a proper plate first and drinking second also works, and the noodles at ₱288 in 2024 are the plate for that.

What falls outside ₱300

To set expectations, the two dishes with prices at Habanero Kitchen Bar are over the line: the Oyster Sisig was ₱395 and the 3-Cheese Pizza ₱498 in 2024. Split between two people, the pizza works out to ₱249 each, so it only fits this budget as a shared order. The restaurant costs ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head, as does Bellini's, the Italian kitchen.

Coffee is the other cost to watch. One coffee at ₱180 is most of a ₱300 budget, so on a tight day choose between the café and the meal.

A ₱300 afternoon, in order

1. From 1 PM, Tuesday to Sunday, browse for free. Good Vibrations Records is a vinyl shop with a listening room, and John's Antique Shop has old komiks, typewriters and radios until 7 PM. Both are free to enter.
2. After 4 PM, sit down to the noodles at Best of Luck for ₱288 at the 2024 price.
3. Stop at the convex mirror by the entrance for the group selfie. It costs nothing.

For dessert, llao llao has frozen yogurt in Ali Mall, about a 5-minute walk away, for under ₱500 a head.

Plan the rest

With more to spend, Cubao Expo restaurants, sorted by occasion covers the sit-down kitchens, and what to order for two at the Hong Kong-style kitchen costs a full dinner. If the snacks are a warm-up, follow the four-stop Cubao Expo bar crawl. The Cubao Expo guide walks the whole compound, and the night-out planner can build a night to a budget from the Cubao date night guide.