If you love Spanish food you absolutely must come to Azucarera. This awesome restaurant serves delicious Spanish Food, Tapas and their house specialty is one of the best Paellas in Bacolod that we’ve tried!
Azucarera is located at 89 C.L. Montelibano Ave, Bacolod city right beside the Total gas station. The restaurant is beautiful, spanning two stories and is very modern and artistic.
Art fills the walls of Azucarera and the big glass windows let people outside catch a glimpse of the diners inside – it’s as if the diners themselves are works of art inside picture frames. Here, you dine to be seen.
Azucarera has excellent wait service. The staff that kept hopping to change our plates, explain new menu items and even take pictures. We came in with no idea whatsoever on what to order and our helpful waitress suggested menu items that they feel are the best that Azucarera had to offer.
For starters, each table gets a complimentary bread basket and some dips. The food in Azucarera takes some time to prepare so nibble on these in the meantime!
We began with a light salad – Azucarera’s Ensalada Verde Con Gambas. It’s a lettuce salad with a light dressing tossed with some chunks of white cheese and shrimp.
We love Azucarera’s Croquettas De Jamon! This tapas is served as an appetizer and when I bit into one, immediately the rich, creamy bechamel filling spurted out into my mouth.
The Callos was also very good – it had been prepared in such a manner that the ox tripe lost all of its inherent bitterness and chewy texture. This tripe in this dish was silky soft and quite delicious!
One of our mains is the fantastic Pollo al Ajillo. Roasted chicken infused with garlic served over a bed of potatoes and topped with an entire roasted garlic bulb. This is so good. Every bit of the chicken had the garlic flavor. As an extra treat we squeezed out the garlic cloves from the bulb and had the roasted garlic with the chicken as we ate.
Paella is one of the main dishes of Azucarera and we HIGHLY recommend getting a paellera of platter when you visit. There are several sizes and types of Paella ranging from small (500 php), medium (1050 php), and large (1610 php).
We highly recommend the Paella de Mariscos – the pan is filled with a delightful assortment of seafood, vegetables and rice. The Paella is excellent, with minimal rice crusting at the bottom of the pan. Each grain of rice is packed with flavor, you can really taste the seafood in just one grain of rice. One small pan can feed three people already but our advice is – get the LARGE pan if budget allows because with just one bite, you’ll already be wanting more!
We ordered a second Paella, the Paella Negra which is made with squid ink. Paella Negra is one of our favorite Paellas to eat! It is however an acquired taste – some people not like the taste of the squid ink but for others like me, Squid ink Paella tastes absolutely heavenly.
Heavenly is a good word to describe Azucarera and their Paella Negra. Eating it takes minimal assembly on the part of the diner. Take a serving of Paella negra then get a dab of the creamy sauce and place it on your serving. The sauce enhances the taste of the paella which you can further tailor to your taste by adding a squirt of lemon juice. Ah, delicious!
We had a great time at Azucarera – service was great and the food was excellent! We spotted Director Peque Gallaga sitting at his favourite corner enjoying a bowl of his favourite dish – Callos!
Come to Azucarera, you won’t regret it. There’s alcoholic drinks, good food and delicious Spanish cuisine to try!
The Bacolod Food Hunters did not receive any sponsorship or freebies for this review.
The Bacolod Food Hunters 
Definitely getting my butt over there…and MIGHT try the paella, but as I make my own often enough…well, we’ll see!
Just give it a go you might like it!