One of the many pleasures of traveling is indulging in vacation food. The meals you enjoy while on vacation often seem tastier and more satisfying than your everyday fare. Our Coron trip was no exception. Although the dishes we had were considered everyday meals, they felt special because of the people we shared them with.
Our First Taste of Coron
We had our first meal in Coron at the quaint Acacia Hotel, where we were staying. Since we arrived just in time for lunch, you can imagine how famished we were. We wanted a quick yet filling meal to fuel us for the busy day ahead.
The hotel menu featured familiar dishes, which was a good thing because when you’re as hungry as we were, the last thing you need is a complicated dish that requires Googling just to understand.
We each chose our own dish and ended up with grilled pork belly, sisig, and tuna cooked in butter. The portions were generous, but our appetites were even bigger. Since the hotel staff had to prepare the food, we passed the time by playing a game of Cranium. We weren’t particularly good at it, and half the time we weren’t sure if we were playing it right. Still, it was a fun way to keep ourselves entertained.
When our food arrived, we were pleasantly surprised by the portion sizes. Each dish was big enough for sharing, allowing us to sample one another’s orders. We finished our meal without any trouble. Each dish was reasonably priced, ranging from P250 to P300.
Night-time Eats in Coron
Coron is undoubtedly full of incredible dining spots. That night, we had dinner at one of its most famous restaurants, Island Boy Grill. Our tour guide recommended it as one of the best places to eat in Coron.
Island Boy Grill is your typical grill joint, offering plenty of sizzling dishes, grilled food (of course!), hearty sabaw dishes, and generous servings of rice. The ambiance had a relaxed bar-and-grill vibe, with 90s OPM hits blasting from the speakers.
We sampled what the restaurant had to offer by ordering pork barbecue on a stick, spaghetti, sizzling squid, and cheesy shrimp. The servings were just right, but if you have a big appetite, you may want to order more.
The cheesy shrimp was a pleasant surprise — saucy, sweet, and a delight for the palate. The sizzling squid was a bit spicy and came with a reddish sauce that we didn’t expect. Actually, everything came with a sweet red sauce except for the pork skewers and rice.
Our Island Boy experience satisfied our hungry tummies. Be ready to spend anywhere between P275 – P325 per person if you plan on dining at 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, this unique delicacy 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 exactly what we enjoyed during our Coron island tour the next day. Buffets are some of the best dining options in Coron, and there’s no shortage of them.
Our tour, like most full-day island tours, included a buffet lunch at Beach 91. Our spread was a smorgasbord of grilled meats and seafood, pasta, fruits, and fresh seaweed. We dined by the beach with other tourists under a kubo-style shade, making the experience even more memorable.
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, it’s common to see street entrepreneurs offering fish crackers, cold water, or chicharon. In Coron, there are similar food sellers too — but the twist is they sell their goods from a boat. Our tour guide even joked that you could get Starbucks from them. That would have been something! We wouldn’t have said no to a venti iced caramel macchiato while hanging out by the boat under the hot sun.
During our island tour, we stopped at a small island called CYC Beach, where we had 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 relaxing, boatmen approached our group to offer “chichirya” and ice-cold beer. They also had iced candy and iced buko for those looking for an alcohol-free way to cool down. It was a novel experience buying beer in the middle of the sea. The snacks weren’t overpriced, but you do pay a little extra for the convenience.
More Grilling in Coron
Grilled food seemed to be the theme of our trip because that’s what we had on our last night. We ate at Jelly’s Grill — yes, that’s the actual name, and it’s one of the best places to eat in Coron.
Jelly’s Grill is another bar and grill seafood restaurant located right along the main road. You can’t miss its bright interiors and the inviting aroma of grilled food.
Jelly’s Grill offers a variety of grilled dishes and classic Pinoy favorites. We ordered some crowd-pleasers like pork sisig, fried chicken, sizzling shrimp, and pork sinigang. Six servings of rice completed our feast — we clearly left our diets back 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 delicious and nutritious kasoy (cashew nuts). It was one of the many “pika-pika” snacks we enjoyed throughout our short town tour in Coron.
These tasty kasoy nuts make for perfect pasalubong for family and friends. They’re sold by the gram, so you can choose how much to buy. Don’t be too surprised, though, as the price per gram of kasoy nuts is almost the same as in Manila.
You’ll find plenty of kasoy-based snacks in Coron — kasoy tarts, kasoy polvoron, turones de kasoy, and more. Prices range from P100 to P200. We highly recommend trying the kasoy polvoron!
Eating Before Going Back to Reality
Our flight out of Coron was scheduled for around 2 PM, so we decided to grab a meal at the Acacia Hotel before heading to the airport. We indulged in sun-dried tomato pasta, clubhouse sandwich, pancit, and a ham and cheese sandwich. Each dish was just as delicious as our first meal in Coron and definitely worth the price.
Our dining experience in Coron can be summed up as “dining with familiar Pinoy favorites.” We worked up quite an appetite, so we chose dishes we knew would satisfy our hunger.
This is not to say that these are the only things Coron has to offer. The variety of food in Coron is as diverse as its marine life. There are Chinese restaurants, Italian cafes, and Korean eateries just waiting to be explored. We’ll be sure to check them out next time we visit.
Until next time!
