I know. There were other options but we didn’t want to miss out on this spot’s ceviche and Kilawin offerings. What’s the difference, you ask? Both are raw seafood dishes cured or cooked in acid. They only differ in the souring agents used. The Filipino or Pinoy version uses coconut or sugarcane vinegar mixed in either onions, ginger and chilis. Some versions use coconut milk but that’s optional. Ceviche is a Latin American dish that uses citrus as souring agent – – like lime or lemon. In CEV, they do both equally good! Stars of the show are the Santa Fe Kilawin, Pacifico Ceviche and Santa Monica Ceviche. Please don’t ask why they were named as such. We had 2 appetizers — the classic Kinilaw (with cucumber, coconut milk, lime, ginger, onions and salted black beans — and the fish spring rolls.
Although every item we ordered was cooked in some souring agent — except only for our drinks and fried spring rolls — we are glad we ordered what we did. Enjoyed every single dish. Without bias, I’d still go for the Filipino version though as Santa Fe Kilawin (with shrimps, pomelo and raw mango) is the bomb. So xxxx@@!! good! You can almost touch the freshness (the catch of the day they used in the ceviche and classic kilawin was tuna). And we likewise enjoyed our mango smoothie and ginger calamansi ale.
If you are headed towards Siargao, don’t miss this place. And be sure to make reservations at least a week before. We did. Yet the only available date was the day after our arrival, so moved back our island tours. Totally worth it! We would have gone a 2nd time but the next available slot was already past our departure day. There were not too many locals dining while we were there. Must be because it isn’t really cheap, but I’d still say the dishes are quite reasonably priced. So with the cocktails. So yes, I’d bet on this 👍
Not to forget ….. there’s only one dessert: Twix Bar. Don’t skip this. It allows a good finish after all those vinegary, sour dishes.
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