Alavar is the most famous restaurant in town and the place most Zamboangueños will send you for a serious seafood lunch. The legendary item is the curacha — a deep-water spanner crab native to the Sulu Sea, served whole with the house Alavar sauce (a coconut-cream-and-spice mixture that has been bottled and is on sale at the entrance). The crab is not cheap but it is one of the great Filipino seafood experiences.
The dining room on Don Alfaro Street is unpretentious — fluorescent lights, fast service — and the rest of the menu is reliably good: grilled lapu-lapu, fried calamari, lato (sea grape) salad, kinilaw. A meal for two with crab runs about ₱1,500-2,000.