Jul 2

Jul 2 Puerto Galera: Basilico Beach Lodge & Kafe Bar

ORIENTAL MINDORO, PHILIPPINES - Having our lunch at Luca heightened our craving for a meal that would possibly topple over our experience there. We left Amihan Villa right after the sun had set to go to where the actions is: White Beach! Since tricycles are hard to come by from where we were, we asked the ever-helpful people of Amihan Villa to arrange one for us. We paid Php 100 for one tricycle to White Beach, which is approximately 1.5 kilometer away from our villa. A short, 20-minute walk perhaps but safer to traverse when the sun is still up! We arrived at the tourist destination in a blink! It may not look anything like Boracay during the summer but the place is still alive and abuzzing given that the rainy season had already started when we went there. We walked along the stretch, feeling the breeze, listening to the waves crashing, watching the fire dancers and dodging restaurant barkers all at once!

After a rather long time walking and restaurant hopping, looking for something that would tickle our appetite, the whiff coming from Basilico unknowingly stopped us on our tracks! They were cooking Kebabs and we were craving for something grilled and meaty then, so we thought why not? It was definitely a perfect match! We ordered one big stick each of the Pork Kebab (Php 129) and the Chicken Kebab (Php 129), the good ol' Liempo (Php 119) and Pork Sinigang (Php 200).

Aaacck! I was so excited to taste the Kebabs as the griller and the server claimed that those are their bestsellers. I busied myself just to keep myself from fidgeting as I wait for the drool-worthy dishes and when they had arrived, I immediately helped myself to a small serving of the Pork and the Chicken Kebab, just to have a try. Oh boy, my eyes popped out as the meat danced in my mouth. Woow! Did they come from this planet or what? Yes, I am already exaggerating here but in a more serious note, the Kebabs were just like what we had "smelled" them to be! They were verrry soft, juicy and smokey! I personally like the Chicken Kebab that I wished we ordered two more servings of this particular variant! If you plan to try this out after reading this post, please do yourself a favor and order two sticks of the Chicken Kebab will you? That's how it was able to exceed my expectations and that's how awesome it was!

After the meal, we still had room for some dessert that we hopped on a nearby restaurant, named Chicken Inasal, to have 2 glasses of Halo-Halo (Php 100) for sharing. It may be too sweet for my taste but it was already enough to fill in the small gaps in my stomach that the Kebab failed to take up!

VERDICT

Food: Definitely go for the Kebabs as I strongly recommend it! Their serving sizes were also magnanimous!

Ambiance: If you love the beach, then you would appreciate the al-fresco ambiance of this place. I just wish that they put up more lamp posts or install more light bulbs as the place was too dark I did had a hard time seeing clearly what I was eating.

Service: The servers and the griller are marvelous! They know well their dishes and they know what to recommend to their customers which we greatly appreciated. I almost forgot to tell that we also ordered a pitcher of Mindoro Sling (Php 300) from Basilico! Relatively cheaper from the other restaurants and bars that offer it, I must say. Anyway, we asked the waiter if we can take some Mindoro Sling out as we wanted to watch some movies back in the villa and he said yes! He came back carrying a 4/5 full plastic bottle of Mindoro Sling, some plastic cups and a bag of ice. We sweetly requested if he could fill it up since it is almost full already which he amazingly did! He went back to our table doning the same bottle but now filled to the brim! What an excellent service they have there.

Tabs: Php 280 each for a group of 4 to 5 pax.