Mystery Critic
The Best Restaurants Out There - And Much More!
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Bohol Bee Farm Resort and Restaurant Panglao Island, Bohol, Philippines Last Visit: Oct 2009
This place is much more than a bee farm. It's like a showcase of the native art, craft and agriculture achievements, plus the multi-ethnic anything-goes Filipino cuisine. It may be too rustic to some readers, but if you do end up in Bohol, you will totally appreciate everything that this restaurant offers after an exhausting day of playing with white sand and fist-size monkeys. Yes, I just can't help but to promote this amazing yet under-rated hyper destination.... FOOD  If you are looking for rustic native Filipino or even Bohol cuisine to match the ambience of this farm house, I'm sorry to say that you're going to be DEEPLY disappointed. The restaurant offer a wide variety, some even seem strange, selection of local and western delicacies, mostly focused on using farm-grown local ingredients. The theme is consistent though - fresh, healthy and down-to-earth taste. YES, that includes everything from steak to taro to salad. At first glance, the menu looks definitively western, complete with omlete, sandwiches, pizza and salads; however, there are also some local seafood dishes, plus interesting creations such as the cheese-baked camote, very delicious and healthy-tasting. You do not want to miss the soups - the variety is quite spectacular and you'll find lots of surprising combinations and flavors that will please your tastebud! The lamb tenderloin and spare ribs taste funny - neither western nor native, but they are pretty decent. The highlight of the meal was - SURPRISE, we are in a farm after all! - the vegetables, either in the soup, in salad or as side dishes. They are excetionally fresh and the chef sure exercised his creativity in putting them together. If you are not a fan of exotic vegetables, then you better stay away from the likes of kalamunggay (it's actually very common part of Norther Chinese diet) or corianders, because they are really the "extreme vegetables" by my definition. I can't say I've had an outstanding culinary experience in this farm, but at least I know for sure that I was in a farm because of all the fresh and exotic ingredients. I decided to give them a FOUR not because it's that good, but it's just something you won't get anywhere else and you will refreshed after eating a ton of farm-fresh food.
SERVICE The island, town and the farm were sleepy, so you can expect the restaurant to be sleepy too. To be exact, the staff was chatting and joking around most of the time, adding to the already relaxing atmosphere. We were actually kind of ignored for a long time and the staff did apologize when I had to walk up to them to get their attention, but it also could be because they just finished serving a large tourist group buffet. Overall, you'll get the usual Filipino friendliness and hospitality, but you can forget about the Makati-style efficiency. You are in a farm, so you might as well just relax!
VALUE This is not a cheap joint by any stretch of imagination. Then again, they could have ripped us off a lot worse because let's face it, this island is downright terrible for foodies. You want to save money eating well, in Bohol, you'll have to try to fish for sea urchin and eat it with rice, which is far better than trying one of those terrifying Bohol restaurants. Given that you can have a good time walking around the farm then have a rather unique (again!) meal of ultra fresh food, you should expect to pay a bit of a premium for it! BOTTOMLINE I would say that this place is a MUST-SEE if you come to Bohol. Not only is the place fun for a pre-dinner excursion for mostly free (unless you end up buying a ton of honey spread in their shop) and a very nice place to breath some warm air by the sea, the food is pleasant to your stomach and tastebud unless you end up eating those really weird vegetables. I'll be back there if I go to Bohol again! BTW The shop at the farm has all sorts of spreads and snacks that you can taste and no one will give you pressure to buy. Some of them are really good and worth getting. There are several restaurants / cafes on the property and we went to the biggest one. I am not even sure what the smaller ones are, maybe for staff or those who are staying at the resort. I personally wouldn't stay there though because it's just looks too old and moldy. Who knows, maybe it will surprise me much as like how the maluggay soup surprised me!
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