₱100 meals in Puerto Princesa, mapped
A full turo-turo plate at a carinderia costs about ₱100 (~$1.70) — rice, a meat or fish dish, vegetables — and they are everywhere in the centre and around the jeepney stops. Above that sit a bowl of chaolong noodle soup and Haim Chicken Inato at ₱150–300, which is the best cheap sit-down meal in the city: grilled chicken with garlic rice and pickled papaya, at 294 Manalo Street Extension since 1999. Below that there is ₱15 pork barbecue at the Baywalk. You can eat well here all day for ₱400–600.
What cheap actually means here
Puerto Princesa is not an expensive city and the low end of it is where the food gets most interesting. These are 2026 prices at ₱58 ≈ $1.
Turo-turo is the honest local answer
Turo-turo means point-point: you walk up to a counter of pots, point at two or three things, and they go on rice. That is lunch for most of this city, most days.
A carinderia plate is about ₱100 (~$1.70) and they cluster in the centre and around the jeepney stops. What is in the pots depends on the morning — adobo, menudo, tinola, a fried fish, some vegetables in coconut milk, occasionally something you will need to ask about. Point at what looks busiest. Nothing here has been sitting since yesterday because nothing here lasts until yesterday.
There is no address to give you, which is the point: this is a category, not a restaurant. If you want a specific cheap meal with a specific door to walk through, that is a chaolong house or Haim at ₱150–300. If you want the cheapest possible calorie, that is a ₱15 pork barbecue stick on the seafront. And if you do not eat meat, the vegetarian restaurants in Puerto Princesa come down to Ima's on Fernandez Street, which HappyCow reviewers call very affordable.
The gap between this and the famous restaurants is smaller than you would expect. KaLui's ₱795 set feeds two, so the city's best-known dinner is about ₱400 a head. Eating cheaply in Puerto Princesa saves you money; it does not save you a great deal of money, and it should be done because the food is good rather than because you have to.
Rather book it?Ka Inato on Tripadvisor ↗
Every cheap option, priced
Ordered by price. Everything on this list is cash, and everything below ₱300 is somewhere locals eat more often than visitors do. Check each place's live Google Maps listing for current hours.
| Where | What you get | Price | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baywalk barbecue stalls on the seafront, 10 min by tricycle · evenings | Pork BBQ sticks ₱15, chicken inasal from ₱50, lumpia ₱30, leche flan and puto ₱20, grilled squid ₱100–200 | ₱15–200 | WORTH IT |
| Carinderias / turo-turo all over the centre and by the jeepney stops | Point at two or three pots, get rice. The real local baseline. Go early, before the pots empty | ~₱100 | WORTH IT |
| Chaolong houses Bona's on Manalo Street, Rene's Saigon on Rizal Ave Extension | Chaolong noodle soup, the city's own dish. Bowls at Bona's are big enough to share | Cheap; check the menu board | WORTH IT |
| Haim Chicken Inato 294 Manalo Street Extension · since 1999 | Grilled chicken inato, garlic rice, pickled papaya; also pancit bihon, chopsuey, grilled tuna | ₱150–300 | WORTH IT |
| Ka Inato, main branch Km 4, North National Highway · the rival chain | The same idea, bigger rooms, better for groups. Listing updated July 2026 | ₱150–300 | DEPENDS |
| Robinsons Place Palawan food court National Highway · the handier mall for visitors | Jollibee, Mang Inasal, Chowking, Greenwich. Air-conditioning, wifi and an ATM — that is the whole appeal | ₱150–300 | DEPENDS |
| SM City Puerto Princesa food court Malvar Street area | The same chains in a different building. Useful on a wet afternoon, unremarkable otherwise | ₱150–300 | DEPENDS |
Cash everywhere except the malls. The two malls are also the reliable answer for an ATM and air-conditioning on a wet afternoon, which is most of what they are for.
What chicken inato is, and why there are two chains
Chicken inato is grilled chicken in the inasal family, served with garlic rice and pickled green papaya. It came from the Visayas, not from Palawan.
Haim Chicken, the family-run restaurant that brought it to the city, opened on 17 January 1999 and says its inato recipe came from Dumaguete. It is one of the few things on a menu in this city that is not seafood, and at ₱150–300 with rice it is the best-value sit-down meal in Puerto Princesa.
There are two chains and locals will tell you which one is correct with some conviction. Haim, at 294 Manalo Street Extension, is the pick here: it is the original, its Yelp listing was updated in March 2026, and it seats about 200, many of them in small huts decorated with local crafts. Ka Inato's main branch at Km 4 on the North National Highway is the alternative, with a listing updated in July 2026.
Order the quarter chicken with garlic rice and take the pickled papaya seriously — it is what makes the plate work. Beyond the chicken, both do pancit bihon, chopsuey and grilled tuna at similar prices.
Haim or Ka Inato?
Haim Chicken Inato
294 Manalo Street Extension, ₱150–300 a head, Yelp listing updated March 2026. Family-run since 1999, with huts for small groups and room for about 200. Full verdict →
See reviews ↗Ka Inato
Main branch at Km 4, North National Highway, ₱150–300, listing updated July 2026. Further out for anyone staying on Rizal Avenue. Full verdict →
Check it is open ↗Haim Chicken Inato, in practice
The three cheap sit-downs worth confirming
None of these takes online bookings. What is worth checking is that they are open and what the menu costs this month — the latest reviews tell you both.
Affiliate links: if you book through one we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. Partners do not pay to be listed. How this site makes money
Cheap eats questions, answered
How much is a cheap meal in Puerto Princesa?
About ₱100 (~$1.70) for a full turo-turo plate at a carinderia — rice with two or three dishes pointed at from a counter of pots. A bowl of chaolong noodle soup is a cheap lunch and a sit-down chicken inato meal is ₱150–300. Three meals a day comes to ₱400–600 per person.
What is chicken inato?
Grilled chicken in the inasal family, served with garlic rice and pickled green papaya, at ₱150–300 a head. It is a Visayan dish: Haim, which opened in Puerto Princesa in 1999, says its recipe came from Dumaguete. Haim on Manalo Street Extension is the pick.
Haim or Ka Inato — which is better?
Haim, on balance. It is the original, open since 1999 at 294 Manalo Street Extension, with a listing updated in March 2026. Ka Inato's main branch at Km 4 on the North National Highway is the alternative if you are staying out that way. Both charge ₱150–300.
Where do locals eat in Puerto Princesa?
Carinderias at about ₱100 a plate, the chaolong houses, and the inato chains at ₱150–300. In the evening, the Baywalk stalls, where pork barbecue is ₱15 a stick and chicken inasal starts at ₱50. Almost nobody local is eating a ₱1,150 seafood platter.
Are there Jollibee and other chains in Puerto Princesa?
Yes — Jollibee, Mang Inasal, Chowking and Greenwich all appear in the food courts at Robinsons Place Palawan on the National Highway and SM City. Meals run ₱150–300. Robinsons is the handier of the two for visitors, and both are the reliable air-conditioning, wifi and ATM fallback.
Is street food safe in Puerto Princesa?
Generally, with the standard rule: pick the stall with turnover where the food is cooked to order in front of you. The Baywalk stalls work in the evening, and a January 2025 review notes the area could be cleaner, which is fair rather than alarming.
Can you eat well in Puerto Princesa on a budget?
Easily. ₱400–600 a day covers a chaolong breakfast, a ₱100 carinderia lunch, an inato dinner and a ₱15 barbecue stick on the seafront. The city's most famous dinner, KaLui's ₱795 set, feeds two — so even the blowout is about ₱400 a head.
Half the budget recommendations online are stale
Puerto Princesa's restaurant scene turns over fast and most guides do not keep up. KaLui's old official domain now resolves to a gambling site, so do not follow links to it from older guides. Where a place could not be confirmed open from a recent source, this site leaves it out rather than guessing.
In this category specifically: Balinsasayaw now trades as HAPAG by Balinsasayaw on Manalo Extension, and is more of a group sit-down than a cheap eat. Names on older budget lists that we could not confirm from a 2025–2026 source are left off this page rather than guessed at.
Haim, Ka Inato and Bona's are here because 2026 listings or reviews show them trading. Every row on the master status table carries the date of its source.
- Haim Chicken Inato listing (updated March 2026) — Yelp
- Haim Chicken: history and franchise — Pinoy Entrepreneur
- Haim Chicken — official Facebook page
- Ka Inato Main Branch listing (updated July 2026) — Wheree
- Hapag by Balinsasayaw (May 2026) — Homes.ph
- Bona's Chao Long Haus ratings and reviews (Aug 2026) — Restaurant Guru
- Ima's Vegetarian Restaurant reviews — HappyCow