Apurado Chicken Haus: “inato, barato, lami!”

Cebuanos are known to be voracious diners and appreciative of good food and high-quality cooking. Restaurant operators these days are coming up with different concepts to lure the discriminating market and among them are the owners of the new resto in town called Apurado Chicken Haus.

Located within the grounds of Robinson’s Mall in Fuente, Apurado Chicken Haus is a sight to see as it has a different atmosphere with its “turo-turo inato” concept. It serves Filipino delicacies, especially Visayan dishes with an al fresco setting right along the busy intersection of Osmeña Boulevard and near the Fuente Rotunda.

Its owner and operator, Cora Apurado shared in an interview that the business was brought out from the hard work she and her family have gone through. She said that from their humble and lowly beginnings, they were not thinking that the business will hit it big and will even be located in a mall.

Cora recalled that once in her childhood days she was just a “lab-asera” who sold fish around their town in Negros before she got into the food business. She shared that her family was poor as her father’s source of income was fishing. Because of her strong desire to succeed in life, and because she did not want her children to experience the same hardship she had been through in her childhood; she decided to fulfill her dream and started a small business from scratch. 

She started her entrepreneurial career by selling chicken neck in Dulho market in Mambaling. But without her own place, business was difficult for Cora because she had to squat for the whole time as her products were displayed on the ground. But after years of hard work and perseverance, the small enterprise grew. It enabled her to start a catering service that eventually afforded her to start a wholesale and retail grocery and a meat shop. 

“Tungod sa kakugi ug pag-ampo, nakab-ot kini namo. Ambsiyosa mangud ko tungod sa akong pangandoy nga mapanindot among panginabuhi. (Through prayer and hard work all this has become possible for us. I’m very ambitious because I wanted to better our way of living),” quipped Cora Apurado.

From that humble beginning, who would have thought that the family business could reach this far? With Cora’s entrepreneurial skills plus a dose of hard work and support from her family members, their business thrived.

The Chicken Haus was an original concept of the Apurados they brought to Robinson’s which the management has refined to suit the image of the mall. It was formerly located in front of Chong Hua Hospital and had already garnered a huge client base before its relocation. Because of its following, Robinson’s management offered the family a prime location beside their parking area which used to be a storage room.   The Apurados considered the offer a huge step in the success of their business and so they took it but opted to carry the concept of serving affordable sumptuous Filipino meals to all walks of life, “inato” style.

The Chicken Haus opened last August. This early, it has already attracted customers from nearby different business establishments. Cora said that even executives and foreigners are flocking at the resto even if it is not as classy as the food stalls and restos inside the mall.

Apurado’s Chicken Haus serves sumptuous grilled dishes like litson inasal, litson manok, chicken barbeque, native delicacies, fried chicken, chicharon bulaklak, and many more. The place packed every lunch and dinnertime. This just proves that customers do enjoy their food.

“Lami, barato, og limpyo gyud among pagkaon diri ug sigurado nga magbalik-balik gyud sila tungod kay sulit ilang ibayad ug inato usab ang timpla (We serve delicious, affordable and clean food and we are sure that customers will keep coming back because of the reasonable price and our dishes are cooked in our own style),” said Apurado.