Sugbo Mercado: Revisiting Cebu City’s Leading Night Market

This article is part of my Cebu Food Trip 2023 series. Check out the installments: Abaca Baking Company (Bakery and Brunch) | Cafe Laguna (Tagalog Food) | Cyria’s Kandingan (Cebu-Style Goat Dishes) | Ginabot sa Pardo (Deep-Fried Street Food) | House of Lechon | Johnna’s Liempo Haus (Balamban Liempo or Pork Belly) Plus Balamban Food Park | La Parisienne (and La Parisienne Sky) (French Food) | Matias BBQ (Pinoy Barbecue) | Mott 32 (High-End Cantonese Food/Dimsum) | Parr’t Ebelle Tinola (Seafood) | Red Lizard (Mexican Food)

Literally “Cebu Market”, Sugbo Mercado is a night market located in Cebu I.T. Park, a mixed-use development that has become the city’s primary commercial and lifestyle hub. The night market is home to a lot of food and retail stalls and has become a venue for entertainment and events.

Sugbo Mercado was established in 2015. It survived the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and Typhoon Odette in 2021, which ravaged the night market (Odette is the second costliest typhoon in Philippine history).

I visited Sugbo Mercado back in 2019 (read about my experience here) and had a great time trying its food offerings. So when I returned to Cebu last year, I made sure my wife and I visited it (my wife hasn’t been to Sugbo Mercado so I brought her there).

In this article, I’ll show you what’s in Sugbo Mercado (as of December 2023) and some of the food we tried.

Baked Cheese & Garlic Oysters at Charcoal Boy

These oysters are oddly sweet. It’s like they sprinkled sugar on it. Avoid this!

Corndog at Ponzz American Corndog

It’s uncommon to find corndog sellers in the Philippines so we bought. It has a nice batter and a tasty hotdog.

Ripe Mango Shake at Ville Fruit

You can’t go wrong with a ripe mango shake! It’s a refreshing drink in an al fresco set-up.

Ripe Mango Shake (PHP70/90/100) at Ville Fruit

Seafood Linarang at JG’s Larang & Balbacuahan

Linarang is a seafood soup dish common in Cebu. I tried the version from JG’s Larang & Balbacuahan.

It has a gingery broth, a huge chunk of fish (which tastes clean), and two pieces of shellfish. I’m happy with this dish.

There’s also a Don Macchiatos stall in Sugbo Mercado. The chain of coffee stalls boasts of offering Cebu’s first thirty-nine pesos coffee. That’s so cheap!

However, I wasn’t able to try because we visited at night. I’ll try it next time! Anyway…

Honestly, I was underwhelmed with my last Sugbo Mercado visit. The night market is not as vibrant as when I first visited it in 2019. Also, the food selection isn’t as diverse as before (I’m missing Seabu’s Cheesy Scallops and Banana Pancake Trail’s Pad Thai, which is one of the best pad thais I’ve tried here in the Philippines).

So do I still recommend Sugbo Mercado? For experience, yes. But I sincerely hope they add more merchants that offer quality food.

Have you visited Sugbo Mercado recently? How was your experience? Comment below!

Address: Garden Bloc, Inez Villa St., Cebu I.T. Park, Cebu City | Operating Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 4PM-12AM | Contact No.: 0917-3115777 | Facebook | Website