One of the many pleasures that come with traveling is the vacation food. The food you eat when you are on vacation seems tastier and yummier than the food you eat everyday. Our Coron trip was no different. Although the food we ate is considered as everyday dishes, they were made special because of the people we ate it with.
Our First Taste of Coron
We had our first meal in Coron at the quaint hotel that we were staying in, the Acacia Hotel. We arrived right around lunch time so you can guess how famished we were. We wanted to get a quick bite that will fuel us for our busy day ahead.
The hotel menu consisted of dishes that we were already familiar with. This was a good thing because when you’re hungry like we were the last thing you need is a complicated dish you had to Google first to understand.
We each chose our own dish and ended up with grilled pork belly, sisig, and tuna cooked in butter. The portions were huge, but our appetite was bigger. The hotel staff had to prepare the food so while we wait, we played a game of Cranium. We weren’t any good and half the time we didn’t know if we were doing it right. But it was a great way to pass the time.
When our food arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the portions. Each one was good for sharing so we were able to sample each other’s dishes. We finished our food without any problem. Each dish was reasonably priced for its serving. Price ranges from P250 to P300.
Night-time Eats in Coron
Coron is undoubtedly full of incredible places to eat. That night we had dinner at one of its most famous restaurants, Island Boy Grill. Our tour guide recommended this place as one of best places to eat in Coron.
Island Boy Grill is your typical grill place where there’s plenty of sizzling dishes, grilled food (of course!), hot “sabaw” dishes, and mounds of rice. The ambiance was a relaxed bar and grill vibe with 90s OPM blasting on the speakers.
We sampled what the restaurant has to offer by ordering pork barbeque on a stick, spaghetti, some sizzling squid, and cheesy shrimp. The serving was just right but if you have a big appetite you may want to order more.
The cheesy shrimp was a pleasant surprise. It was saucy, sweet, and a delight for the palate. The sizzling squid was a tad bit spicy and came with a reddish sauce that we never expected. Actually, everything came with a sweet red sauce except for the pork skewers and rice.
Our Island Boy experience satiated our hungry tummies. Be ready to shell out anywhere between P275 – P325 per person if you plan on dining in this bar and grill.
If you’re feeling adventurous and craving a taste of Palawan’s exotic cuisine, consider giving tamilok a try. Also known as woodworm, it’s a unique delicacy that might surprise your taste buds. I had the chance to sample it during my Underground River Tour in Puerto Princesa, and it was quite the experience! The texture is distinct, and the flavor is surprisingly delicious. So, if you’re up for a culinary adventure, don’t miss the opportunity to indulge in this Palawan specialty. Who knows, it might become your new favorite dish!
Buffet Eats at Beach 91
What’s better than vacation food?
BUFFET VACATION FOOD, OF COURSE! That’s what we got when we went on our island tour the next day. Buffets are some of the best places to eat in Coron and they have plenty.
Our tour, like most whole day island tours, came with a buffet lunch at Beach 91. Our haul was a smorgasbord of grilled meats and seafood, pastas, fruits, and fresh seaweeds. We ate by the beach with other tourists under a “kubo” style shade.
We devoured our meal in a flash. What can we say, we were hungry after our very eventful morning tour.
Food on Float
When you’re stuck in traffic in Manila, its common to see street entrepreneurs offering fish crackers, cold water, or chicharon. Here in Coron, there are similar food sellers too. What makes them different is they sell their goods from a boat. Our tour guide even joked that you can get Starbucks from them. That would have been something. We would not say no to a venti iced caramel macchiato while we’re hanging out by the boat under the hot sun.
During our island tour, we stopped at a small island called CYC Beach where you have the option to go down or stay on the boat. We opted to stay on the boat as we were a bit tired and the island was still a few meters away.
As we were chillaxing, boatmen approached our group to offer “chichirya” and ice-cold beer. They also have iced candy and iced buko if you’re looking for an alcohol-free alternative to cool you down. It was a novel experience buying beer in the middle of the sea. The snacks were not overpriced but you do pay extra for the convenience.
More Grilling in Coron
Grilled food seems to be the theme of our trip because that’s what we had on our last night. We ate at Jelly’s Grill. We kid you not, this is the name of the grill and one of the best places to eat in Coron.
Jelly’s Grill is another bar and grill seafood restaurant that sits right in the main road. You can’t miss its bright interiors and the smell of grilled food.
Jelly’s Grill offers a variety of grilled food and pinoy dishes. We ordered some pinoy favorites such as pork sisig, fried chicken, sizzling shrimp, and pork sinigang. 6 servings of rice completed our feast. We obviously left our diets in Manila at this point. Here’s Set C.
Jelly’s Grill is another reasonably priced restaurant that we’d surely come back to if we’re ever in Coron again. For that sumptuous feast we paid about P300++ pesos per head.
Snacking in Coron
Coron is famous for its yummy and nutritious kasoy (cashew). It’s one of the many “pika-pika” we snacked on throughout our short town tour in Coron.
These tasty kasoy nuts are perfect pasalubong for your family and friends. They sell kasoy nuts by the gram so if you can choose how much to buy. Don’t be too surprised though because the price per gram of kasoy nuts is almost the same as in Manila.
You’ll find so many of Coron’s snacks are kasoy-based. There are kasoy tarts, kasoy polvoron, turones de kasoy, and so much more. Their price ranges from P100 to P200. We recommend the kasoy polvoron.
Eating Before Going Back to Reality
Our flight out of Coron was around 2 pm so we decided to eat at the Acacia Hotel before leaving. We stuffed ourselves with some sun-dried tomato pasta, clubhouse sandwich, pancit, and ham and cheese sandwich. They were just as delicious as our first meal in Coron and totally worth the price.
Our dining experience in Coron can be summed up as “dining with familiar pinoy favorites”. We worked up a lot of appetite so we chose food that we know will satisfy our hunger.
This is not to say that these are the only things that Coron has to offer. The variety of food in Coron as diverse as their marine life. They have Chinese restaurants, Italian Cafes, and Korean food that’s just waiting to be explored. We’ll be sure to check them out next time we come this way. Until next time.
