Our couple of nights in Puerto Princesa, Palawan helped us explore some really good options for Vegetarian food. The restaurants were kind enough to serve dishes customized to the preferences of each one in our group. We were staying at the Best Western Ivyhall Hotel in Puerto Princesa, which turned out to be a great location for exploring some great Vegetarian, Vegan and Jain food nearby.
Believe me you, when we booked our stay for Palawan, we thought it would be very difficult to arrange Jain food for our parents and for that matter even Vegetarian or vegan food. However once we stepped out of the hotel there was no difficulty to find the same.
Our first evening we just thought of walking around and looking at the options, right next to our hotel there was a small park called Stellar Grounds at Rizal Avenue which was all lit up and we decided to check the place out. Once we walked in we were really happy listening to the live music and the whole place started to have a great vibe. The couple that was playing was really awesome and made the evening special for us and I wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
The Bersian Restaurant
There were few eating joints at this park what interested us was the Bersian Restaurant which was a Mediterranean restaurant and had opened just a few days back. The owner was a local Filipino who had lived in UAE for quiet some time and left his engineering career for his dream to start a restaurant in his own town. The owner and the servers made us feel like home.
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| Hummus with Pita Bread and Pickled Vegetables |
The Bersian Restaurant had a laid back ambience and offered Lebanese food. They had a good selection of mocktails; the cucumber lemonade and Moroccan mint tea were really nice. We were extremely happy with all the hummus, pita and pickled vegetables we could get from them. What surprised us was one of my favourites from the UAE the ‘Karak Chai’ was available right in Palawan and it was the perfect drink to finish the evening with. The owner suggested they are going to have some more vegetarian options in due course, so do try them out and let me know about your experience.
Artisans
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| Group seating at Artisans |
Next evening we decided to try the Artisans Restaurant which was bang opposite the Best Western Ivyhall hotel. Again a place full of great staff managed by a Scottish owner, they were more than happy to serve us food as per our preferences. In fact they had a section in their menu for vegan and vegetarian food and did customize some other non-vegetarian dishes to vegetarian for us. What we loved the most here were the in-house yummy sauces, all sauces I tried were sassy enough for us to love them.
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| Vegetarian Burrito at Artisans |
I still feel bloated remembering the number of dishes we ordered and how much we had to hog! The portions they serve are simply humongous, for example when we ordered a bowl of soup we thought it would be enough for 2 people but surprisingly it could feed 5 people at least!
The initial excitement of getting so many vegetarian options in a place like Puerto Princesa was short-lived once the huge portions of food started coming in, we never thought we would get so full in the starters itself. I don’t blame Artisans even one bit for their generosity in portion sizes as everything they served was made with love and great taste, but make sure you order one dish less when at this wonderful place.
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| Indian Meal |
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| Veg Chimichanga |
The taco, bruschetta’s, Indian meal that was customised to Jain, garlic bread and Quattro formagi pasta was nice as well. I would skip their soup, Potato Brava’s and red sauce pasta for the next time.
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| Mexican wrap-bruschetta's-Tacos-Potato Brava's at Artisans |
Best Western Ivyhall hotel
The breakfast at Best Western Ivyhall hotel is served at the Anibong restaurant and it starts early around 6 am considering many guests have to go for tours. The vegetarian options available are satisfactory, there is variety of cereals, fresh fruits, breads and few hot dishes like potato wedges, baked beans and noodles or fried rice. We really did not have much time during both days of our stay to request for any customization in Breakfast. Their beverage selection was decent as well and coffee served was really nice.
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| Fresh fruit beverages at Balayong Grill and Bar |
During Check-in at Best Western we were offered vouchers of 200 PHP per person, which could be used at the Balayong Grill and Bar. There were hardly any Vegetarian options to redeem the coupons, so instead we enjoyed redeeming them for some drinks. The mango juice was the best of all.
So if you are a Vegetarian or not, I am sure you will enjoy the food in Palawan especially since the people are so nice and they love to cook and serve with a lot of love.
If you have any queries or suggestions please leave a comment below, you can also email me on vegyatri@gmail.com
Please follow me on Instagram @vegyatri for more updates.
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