Lapu-Lapu’s ‘sutukil’ fame waning?

CEBU, Philippines - Lapu-Lapu City has been reputed as one of the places in the metro with the freshest sea catch; hence, for years, it has widely become the hive of “sutukil” restaurants.

Such reputation, however, may be torpedoed by a recent string of customer comments that includes unreasonable prices and inability to offer something new, among others.

Writer and retired engineer Joseph Dabon took to the CebuReviews.org blog his dismay on sutukil restaurants in the city, once famous for fresh seafood dishes served to local and foreign tourists.

“Local governments must do a lot of work if it wants to make it a money-making attraction again,” Dabon warns in his blog.

Dabon resides in Mandaue City and went to eat in one of the sutukil restaurants in Barangay Mactan last September 3.

“Found the place practically empty. Several years back, they were almost like that of a Hong Kong fish market,” Dabon says, recalling that the competition among sutukil dining places near the Liberty Shrine of Mactan used to be robust.

Dabon describes the present area as “quiet, and its silence can put a vendor to sleep. The long queue of vehicles in search for a parking space is now gone, and was converted into a basketball court.”

Sutukil is a three-way style of preparing seafood. It is a combination of Cebuano words “sugba,” “tuwa,” and “kilaw” which mean to grill, to stew and to eat seafood raw, respectively.

Dabon claims that several sutukil restaurants have “self-destructed” with most of them highly focused on maximizing their earnings, rather than innovating.

“People started saying they are too expensive now. Believing that they’ve got a loyal following, they jacked their prices up to almost beyond an employee’s reach,” he says.

Apart from price issues, the sutukil industry in Lapu-Lapu City is also reportedly being challenged by the proliferation of similar restaurants in Cebu City, which makes the trip to Mactan “unreasonable.”

With the rise of various restaurants offering sutukil, Dabon says Lapu-Lapu sutukil owners did not have anything new to offer. “Everybody was doing the same thing; there was no variety, no innovation.”

Dabon’s article was posted in Cebu Review’s Facebook page and made rounds in the social media.

Netizens themselves expressed their sentiments on the “slowly dying” sutukil restaurants in the city.

“I started noticing this yet several years back. The last time I went there, I thought there wasn’t any more any compelling reason to be back. What they offered was nothing different from what I first saw in 1985,” commented one user.

“As the article says, there was hardly any innovation, and yet prices became outrageously high. I thought every stall offered pretty much the same fare. With prices that high, it felt like one would be better off eating in the new, more sanitary looking places in the city, with fares that went beyond sugba, kilaw and tinuwa,” he continued.

Another FB user said: “Unreasonable prices... grabe mopatong sa presyo, mahal kaayo!”

Mayor Paz Radaza herself echoed the same sentiments to The FREEMAN.

She said Dabon’s blog was based on an honest observation and was thankful for the writer’s “concern.”

Radaza added that her office received complaints, both in writing and through the phone, from individuals who were upset reportedly because of the poor quality of service they were getting from this “dying seafood haven.”

To map out steps to address the issue, Radaza said she has already tasked City Tourism Officer Hembler Mendoza to meet with the stakeholders.

“As a tourism hub, this situation should be resolved because it is important to provide our guests and tourists with happy and memorable experience,” she said.

But what specific measures need to be done to save the industry?

For Dabon, the area where the sutukil restaurants are located should be revived into a more presentable, organized and sanitary place.

Also important, he says, is teaching stall owners on preparing some other menus for variety. (FREEMAN)