Located on the west side of Coco Grove Resort in San Juan, Siquijor is one of its two restaurants. Aptly named after the setting sun, it is a silent witness to the fiery afternoons of Siquijor.

A stay in Coco Grove comes with free breakfast for two and on our first morning we groggily trooped to the restaurant to claim our free grub; we’re gonna make the most of our hefty Php2,400.00 room fee. The breakfast though is a set meal, no buffet unfortunately.

Sunset Restaurant, like most of the structures in Coco Grove is finished in wood and stone. The base is of white river stones topped with wide wooden planks. Sawali walls divide the interiors of the restaurant with its outer walls made of wooden glass panels, bringing the beautiful vista of the sea inside.

Our breakfast started with a cup of steaming coffee, quickly followed by fruits; sweet mango and slices of watermelons. I ordered their Filipino breakfast meal, longsilog; two pieces of skinless longanisas, two scrambled eggs and fried rice. L had American breakfast; French toast, beans, eggs and ham (real ham mind you hehe). For drinks, we had apple cider and calamansi juice.

The eggs were supposed to be double but don’t seem to look so. We asked them to be scrambled so we really have no way of knowing if they really just have small eggs. The longanisa was okay but they were run-of-the-mill types that one can buy on the grocer. The whole shebang does fill one’s stomach quite well though and the service was prompt and courteous, so we didn’t have much complain about.

For lunch, we decided to eat at the carinderias outside, seeing how the prices at Coco Grove’s Restaurant are six times than of those. For our order of two rice and three viands, we were billed a grand total of Php100.00. Not bad eh?

Dinner time and we have no choice but to eat at Coco Grove. We initially seated ourselves inside but it was too hot and the crew we talked with grumpily said we can’t open the accordion doors to let the sea breeze in. So we transferred outside where the wind was almost whipping to a frenzy.

We ordered their Spicy Sisig, Lumpiang Shanghai and Chicken Curry. Since we want to save up a bit, we asked for service water. The waitress with a smug look said they don’t give out service water and that they only have mineral water which we can purchase. Duh, what about the water they served us during breakfast? It wasn’t bottled water; I saw it taken from the water dispenser. Not wanting to ruin our evening, we just went ahead and ordered their overpriced soda and fruit juice.

The food arrived, thank goodness, served by a more courteous employee. Only after everything was laid down that we noticed we were missing one more rice from our order. Thinking they must have misheard us, we let it go since the rice serving was quite large and was enough for the both of us. Turns out it was totally forgotten, we were billed Php40.00 for that missing rice.

The Lumpiang Shanghai, which was really four pieces sliced in half was very average. Well at least it didn’t taste as bad as the Chicken Curry which was bland and was too salty; on hindsight it should’ve been called vegetable curry instead due to the lack of chicken in it. It was good though that their Spicy Sisig was excellent, the meat which were sliced in strips were surprising crispy and very tasty. Although the serving size was small, it saved our dinner from being a total disaster.

Our dinner totaled Php675.00 and didn’t feel like it. Service was bad, we didn’t feel welcome at all. The staff we’re so concerned and friendly with the foreign guests that they seemed to forget that they have a couple of kababayans also staying at the resort; we were the only Filipino guests in Coco Grove and the courtesy does not extend to Filipinos it seemed. The food was blah, its high price didn’t match its taste. And they don’t have service water! As far as I know, every restaurant in the country is required to have service water.

The service at Coco Groves Sunset Restaurant is actually the only thing we didn’t like about the resort. We love everything about Coco Grove, but the condescending and smug staff at their restaurant actually almost ruined our stay in it. The cheap carinderia staff outside the resort have more smiles to give than their staff and we’d gladly eat there anytime than at Coco Grove.

COCO GROVE RESORT
SIQUIOR CIRCUMFERENTIAL ROAD
BRGY. TUBOD, SAN JUAN, SIQUIJOR

TELEPHONE: (0927) 362-8731 | (0939) 915-5123
EMAIL: COCOGROVERESORT@YAHOO.COM
WEBSITE: HTTP://WWW.COCOGROVEBEACHRESORT.COM

GPS COORDINATES: 9.142435,123.510897
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        SIQUIJOR THREE-DAY SERIES
        TRIP ITINERARY | MANILA - DUMAGUETE CITY - SIQUIJOR | ST. FRANCIS DE ASSISI CHURCH | CAPILAY’S SPRING PARK AT SAN JUAN
        OVER AND BELOW LAZI’S CENTURY-OLD BALETE TREE | LAZI CHURCH - SAN ISIDRO LABRADOR PARISH | LAZI CONVENT
        THE CAMBUGAHAY FALLS AT LAZI | SANTA MARIA CHURCH & ITS BLACK MARIA | SUNSET ON THE ROAD 
        SAN JUAN’S COCO GROVE RESORT | COCO GROVE ACCOMMODATIONS AT SAN JUAN | COCO GROVE’S SUNSET RESTAURANT
        SUNSET AND SUNRISE AT SAN JUAN’S TUBOD BEACH