Being by the sea you would hope that you’d get great seafood in Palawan, well the good news is that at Bundatan Restaurant you can get the best seafood in El Nido, with an awesome view – just avoid the cocktails….
Eating in El Nido
El Nido is now a bit too commercial for me personal liking, with Port Barton being more my jam these days. Being commercialized though does mean there is a plethora of restaurants to choose from though.
Some are really good, while other such as the Pizza Joint are pretty bad.
One real disappointment though is the lack of street food in El Nido, or in the kind of traditional restaurants that you used to get back in the day. In this respects Bundatan is probably the closest you get to an old school Filipino restaurant that also has a bit of street flair to it.
Bundatan Restaurant El Nido
Where is Bundatan Restaurant?
Budatan Restaurant Addess
Zone-3, C. Hama, Barangay Buena Suerte, El Nido, 5313 Palawan, Philippines
Or to sum up the restaurant is right on the seafront with great views of both El Nido beach, as well as the boats that have just come back from island hopping that day!
Bundatan Restaurant El Nido Menu
This is abolsute seafood heaven, as well as having local classics such as sisig, or adobo, usually with a seafood flair to it. As per the Filipino style it comes with huge bowls of rice, or you can opt for fried, or with garlic.
What blew me away though was that this was the only place in El Nido that seemed to have squid and boy did they have squid in every variety from cooked in butter, to chili and of course fresh and as god intended.
They also had some of the best Kinilaw that I had while I was in El Nido. If you do not know kinilaw it is a Filipino version of a ceviche and is frankly out of this world. Yes it will get its own article.
And the whole meal was really cheap, at least in comparison to the western centric restaurants that liter the rest of the main street of El Nido, as well as the waterfront.
Bundatan Restaurant El Nido Drinks
Big ass bottle of San Miguel, as well as Red Horse, not to mention Tanduay Rum – which shall also get its own article at some point! BUT – you should really stop there and avoid the cocktails.
I ordered what was in fact the worst Bloody Mary I have ever had in my life. To give context it was saltier than the sea and was transparent as in you could see through it. This is not what a Bloody Mary should look like, ever…..
Other people also had cocktails, which were also bad, but at least with the fruit based ones they were not great, but drinkable – in that they were sooooo strong. I guess from this point of view they would actually be the vest value cocktails due to the strength.
And the overall service and ambience? The service here really was not all that great, but you can forgive it as it was just local people embracing the beach lifestyle and if you want to visit a beach you can’t expect New York timed service.
Ambiance wise though this place is simply unbeatable, I mean what is not to like about sitting in front of a perfect beach and eating freshly caught seafood.
A definite must when you do a tour of Palawan .