Dining at El Nido with Kids
When you are traveling with kids, meals are always something of a concern. City kids are used to fast food meals. When they feel hungry, there's always a place where meals are immediately available. But when you are visiting a province in the Philippines, meals are always cooked from scratch so it takes a long time, at least an hour, to prepare. You cannot wait till your kids complain of hunger before deciding to go to a restaurant to eat.At El Nido, these are the places we recommend you dine with your kids:
1. Squidos
We stayed at El Nido for 5 nights. And almost all our meals were taken at Squidos. We all loved the food at Squidos. The price is very reasonable and there's a great variety of food in the menu to cater to all kinds of taste. All the meals we ordered were delicious.
Squidos takes 30min to an hour to prepare your meals because they cook it from scratch so you are assured of the quality and freshness of the food you ordered. What we did so the kids will not be impatient waiting in the restaurant is to order food in advance, return to Marina Garden Resort, then return 30 min to an hour after we ordered. Since our resort is near Squidos, at one time, they just knocked at our door to inform us that our food is ready. They are also willing to deliver the food to you if you wish. But we prefered to dine inside the restaurant so we didn't avail of that last option.
See more information and photos at my post:
2. El Nido Skyline Grill and Restaurant
If you are hungry enough not to be able to wait for food to be cooked, there is a fast food option too. It is what is known as "turo-turo" food. "Turo turo" literally means "point point". You point to the waitress your choice of cooked food from a selection displayed in a in a glass shelf and they serve the food immediately with rice
There are lots of 'turo-turo" food in El Nido town but it's usually available in a small canteen or carinderia. We didn't try these since we are uncertain of the quality and safety of the food served.
However, we decided to try the turo-turo food available at Skyline Grill. Since Skyline Grill is a full service restaurant, we concluded that the turo turo food they offer is clean and safe to eat.
The turo turo food at Skyline Grill tastes like your typical Filipino homecooked meal. It's cheap if you just eat 1 order of rice and viand, which cost 65 pesos. The size of the rice and viand is not too big so when our family ate there, the cost for one meal for the whole family is the same as the cost of our meal at Squidos. But at Squidos, the food tastes much better and we usually end up with some leftover to be taken home.
To conclude: if you're so hungry that you cannot wait for your meals to be cooked, go to Skyline Grill turo turo food. If not, eat at Squidos. You get better quality of food at Squidos and in larger amount.
See more information and photos at my post:
"Turo Turo food at El Nido Skyline Grill and Restaurant"
3. Midtown Bakery
The egg pie is very good. Not too sweet and freshly baked. It's only available in the afternoon freshly baked and in limited quantities. The cost is 20 pesos per slice.
See more information and photos at my post:
If you're booked at Marina Garden Resort and do not wish to go out for meals, they serve all day breakfast from 6am-9pm. The meals are cooked quickly.
See more information and photos at my post:
