BOUNCE

Review: Lemon Café, Boracay

By Kevin Tsai

For college students and especially fresh college graduates, we anticipated post-graduation summer vacation especially since a lot of us would be traveling, let alone flying, parent-less for the first time. But just because you’re on your much-awaited trip doesn’t mean you have to miss out on good, home-cooked meals. And that’s exactly what the Lemon Café offers.

Lemon Café provides everything a home offers – great tasting food, a cozy ambiance and hospitable service at its best. The whole restaurant revolves around its “lemon” theme – from its yellow and lime wallpapers to its service water with slices of lemon. Its coziness and inviting atmosphere made my friends and I instinctively drawn to this place when we were searching for place to grab a bite.

I was very lucky to have chosen to order the Lemons Club Sandwich. It had the works – two huge slices of ciabatta bread with grilled chicken, bacon, shrimps, tomato, lettuce and pesto mayo. If you’re more of the seafood flair, try out their Fresh Shrimp Sandwich – piece after piece of fresh shrimp also on ciabatta bread with a perfectly blended island cocktail sauce. All sandwiches are Php200 and up and come with a side of freshly fried potato chips and dip.

The desserts they offer are equally tempting. Check out their Chocolate Peanut Butter Mousse – smooth chocolate mousse combined perfectly with a twist of peanut butter (Php85). Also try out their Belgian Chocolate Flourless Cake – which is weird because it’s not really cake at all. It doesn’t contain the usual chiffon bottom and icing top as you would imagine a cake to be; rather, it’s a huge block of pure Belgian chocolate goodness served with caramel sauce. Definitely worth the Php180. The only letdown so far I found is the Pan-Fried Mahi-Mahi my friend ordered. It tasted good enough, but a slice of fish and seven baby potatoes was not worth the Php390.

Going to Boracay is the perfect opportunity to try out new things for the first time – island hopping, snorkeling, scuba diving and dining at restaurants not locally found at your hometown. It’s the perfect time to be a little more adventurous and uncommon, because Lemon Café’s meals’ home-cooked goodness will leave you anything but homesick.

Review: Mongolian Grill, Boracay

By Kevin Tsai

If you’ve been to Boracay recently, you’ll probably realize that the cash you brought wasn’t enough. For those of you who don’t know, there are no commercial fast food establishments there. No McDonald’s, No Jollibees, No KFCs, no nothing. Most of the restaurants found at d*mall, which is like a small town composed of various restaurants, clothing shops, and tiangges, are casual dining, but even the fast food joints charge an average of Php150 at the least for a decent meal. Possibly the most popular chain that could be found at the island would be the newly-opened Starbucks, and that’s completely the opposite of traveling on a budget.

Luckily, I was able to come across this establishment which I believe gives you the best value for your money. At Php285, Mongolian Grill provides the most reasonable all-you-can-eat buffet on the island. (Mongolian Grill also has a number of branches in Manila, with the same price for their buffet.) For comparison, other all-you-can-eat buffets, mostly by the hotels along the shore, are at least Php500 and above, plus additional taxes and charges. Eating at a casual dining restaurant would cost you at least Php250 for one meal. So Php285 without any services charges or applicable taxes seems to be more than a great bargain, especially if you’re already starving your ass off.

Other than being a relatively inexpensive buffet, the best thing about eating at Mongolian Grill is that you get to concoct your very own dish which best suits your taste. If you’re not familiar at all with Mongolian dining, you basically choose from a selection of vegetables, meats, spices, and sauces and either rice or noodles (or both if you’d like to load up on carbs) into your bowl, which is cooked to perfection by the chef and delivered to your table hot from the kitchen.

If you think having dinner at the Mongolian Grill is great value for your money, it gets even better with their location and ambiance. While they have the traditional chairs and tables setting, at the far end of the resto near the shore are 2×2 meter spaces with pillows on them. Perfect if you and your friends just want to hang out and chillax to the max. They also serve alcoholic drinks. Must try: Mango Fizz – Rum blended perfectly with fresh, creamy mango shake for Php150.

If you’re unsure on how exactly to begin going about your meal, better err on the safe side rather than coming up with an inedible monstrosity which would make you end up burying your meal beneath the sand on your feet. If you have a sweet tooth in everything like I do, I recommend you select your choice of veggies and red meat, and go for an East Asian-flavored dish with oyster sauce, teriyaki sauce, brown sugar, peanuts, honey and sesame seeds. If you want a spicy Thai dish, there are also corresponding sauces to choose from. Going Vietnamese? There are also a number of leafy herbs like basil and mint up for choosing along with bihon noodles. A word of caution though, even just a pinch of cinnamon goes a long way. Trust me on that.

Review: Sur Hotel, Boracay

by Kevin Tsai

If you’re looking for a quality place to stay to make the most out of your Boracay experience, but you’re not exactly going all-out when it comes to paying for accommodations, try Sur on for size.

Sur Hotel provides all the amenities of a hotel with all the coziness of a resort. It has three stories with a variety of rooms to suit the number of persons in your party. Located at Station 1, it is sandwiched between other equally posh and popular hotels such as White Sands and Discovery. On some days where occupancy is high, a buffet breakfast is offered in place of the a la carte breakfast dishes which you can enjoy at the dining area or at the cabana you reserved the night before. Like all hotels at Station 1, Sur has a beach-front view into the open sea.

Sur is praiseworthy for its friendly staff and the services they offer. The housekeeping staff makes up your room swiftly and neatly; arranges all your toiletries and even tidies up your mobile phone and digicam chargers left plugged to the sockets, even if you forgot to place the “Please Make Up Room” sign outside the doorknob. Like most other hotels, you can arrange for a transfer service which brings you to the dock before you get to the airport, and you can also borrow a frisbee or volleyball from the counter you can use with your friends. Just be careful not to hit the sunbathing foreigners lying still.

For their rates and rooms, check out their website at www.surbeach.com