Taste of Siargao Island
Where to eat in General Luna, Siargao Island
There's a surprising amount of restaurants to choose from on tiny Siargao Island– we were there for two weeks and still didn't try everywhere on Tourism Road! We were also surprised by the amount of international cuisine available: Italian, Japanese, Hawaiian, Mexican, Indonesian, to name a few. Each restaurant typically had a couple Filipino dishes on the menu, but there weren't as many traditional Filipino restaurants in the area as I would've expected. All that to say, Siargao is full of delicious options! Read on to hear everywhere we ate during our two week stay.
Pleasure Point Cafe
We had our very first breakfast here! It's a cute little "local"-style breakfast restaurant. We came here on our first morning because it came up first on a quick Google search for nearby breakfast, but we quickly learned to just choose where to eat by driving around and spotting cute places-- most don't have websites at all!
Reefside
This is a cute, super tiny little breakfast café, right on the main Tourism Road. They served what was a pretty typical breakfast there: egg over medium, bacon, a slice of toast. A coffee is only 50pp / $0.95 USD. Super cheap, pretty small portions, but friendly staff.
Coco Surf
This little breakfast/lunch place is also located on the main Tourism Road. They have much, much bigger portions than other breakfast restaurants. We got the eggs benedicts and we were pleasantly surprised.
Shaka Siargao
Right next to Cloud 9, this is a trendy and quaint smoothie/acai bowl/café with outdoor seating overlooking the surfbreak. It typically had a long wait and was mostly populated by tourists, but it was easy to find out why: their smoothie bowls are super delicious and photogenic (see below). Equally good-looking and good-tasting, we came back a few mornings. Choose any smoothie 'power bowl' + any coffee drink for a total of 300pp / $5 USD.
Kermit
Kermit is one of the most popular resorts on island, even though it's not on the water. The vibe of the resort reminded me of Komune Bali (read here). Interestingly, Kermit serves Italian food: wood-fired pizzas, pastas, etc. Everything we had was really good (we came twice for dinner, once for breakfast)! Bonus points: They serve two-for-one cocktails from 4-7pm every single day. Cocktails are already only $2.50 USD to start with, so with the BOGO deal you're down to $1.25 per mojito. No complaints!
Harana
Harana is another super popular tourist resort. We came for dinner once, but half their menu was not available (no tuna, no pork, etc.) so we opted to go elsewhere. Also, they only have coffee-cocktails which sounded pretty icky to me. So, we only ate breakfast here, but it was really good! AND they have a resident pug on the premises, so obviously we returned multiple times. (We're pug-obsessed.)
Warung
Warung is an Indonesian restaurant adjacent to one of the fancy resorts on Tourism Road. It was good food, but also a bit more expensive than neighboring restaurants –– which I found somewhat ironic, since the same local food in Bali would've cost about a third of the price? They were sold out of the only couple items we were really interested in (mie goreng), so we settled for something else (nasi goreng). We only came once.
Ono Poke
Right across the street from Cloud 9. We had a DELICIOUS poke lunch were. Only 250pp / $4.00 USD for "small" and 350pp / $6.00 USD for "large". It is so fresh and so good. We came back and ate here multiple times! This was one of our favorite lunch spots– highly recommend!
Olas Banditos
Next door to Ono Poke (above photo: Ono Poke on the left; Olas Banditos on the right). This place is also super delicious– I got the fish tacos and they were super good. Surprisingly, it was pretty good quality Mexican food, since we're so far away! (We usually struggle finding decent burritos/tacos abroad.)
White Banana
I have mixed feelings about White Banana. It's super cute and trendy bar/restaurant literally right on the sand. I wanted to like it but was disappointed. The food took forever the first time we came, and I'm typically super understanding with wait staff (especially in a foreign country), but about 45 minutes after we initially ordered, they came back and told us the fish we ordered was out and asked if they could sub for a different kind... which was fine, but that means 45 minutes have gone by and our dishes hadn't even started yet? Ugh. They were busy so we gave them benefit of the doubt, and we decided to come back a second night... but had an equally disappointing time. Their menu sounds better than it is, and their cocktails are overpriced (okay, I'm probably spoiled due to the $1 drinks at Kermit). Overall, I don't recommend coming here unless it's for a sunset happy hour.
The Smoking Joint
This was a "pop-up" restaurant at our hotel/villas. It's all smoked or BBQ- everything from ribs to smoked salmon. It was really good, but neither of us feel 100% after eating such heavy BBQ (we got pulled pork). Later in the week they did another pop-up at Harana, which was the talk of the town. I overheard several people talking about the awesome BBQ pop-up coming that night–– so they must be pretty popular!
Sushi Nori
Our first lunch was here! And we came back for our last lunch, too! Delicious!! They have poke bowls, "nori tacos" and sushi rolls. They're all equally delicious. See below-- the nori tacos are basically poke in hard seaweed shells. Must go!
Café Honest
Café Honest is an all vegan restaurant. Neither of us are vegan, but we can appreciate some plant-based goodness. We came for dinner and sat upstairs, which gave a cool view above Tourism Road. The food was alright, but the papaya shake was the highlight. It's a good option if you are vegan, but otherwise I would skip it.
La Carinderia
Another Italian place, but more expensive than other nearby restaurants. It was good, I just wasn't really in the mood for pastas in the Philippines' tropical heat, I guess? Also, I didn't feel like spending extra cash on an ITALIAN meal, of anything. I'd rather indulge in local cuisine or fresh seafood instead. If you're craving pasta, go to Kermit instead.
Greenhouse
The best breakfast we had! Fresh made French bread baguettes with poached eggs, roasted tomatoes and hollandaise sauce. Super, super good and highly recommended. Also delicious coffee and smoothies! There's a cute 'surf shop' attached if you want some t-shirts or souvenirs.
Siargao Inn
This restaurant had a mix of everything from burgers, pasta, seafood, local food, etc. I got Filipino glass noodles, Shaun got a burger. AND they have two resident English bulldogs which were super cute. (We have a bulldog at home– well, our landlords do!)
Buddha
This is a Thai restaurant, adjacent to the Buddha villas. Pretty good food, but were out of the pad thai noodles we wanted, so settled for rice plates. So much rice at every meal, though!
Bravo
Awesome resort/restaurant right on the beach. Interestingly, it's a Spanish restaurant with a nice mix of dishes and tapas. We came here a couple times for dinner and lunch, each super delicious. It's a little more expensive than other options, but I found it to be worth it. Nice ambience, good-priced cocktails and fresh menu. Enjoy!