La Salangane Hotel Bar and Restaurant — Restaurant in El Nido

This review is not only about the hotel. I never stayed there, actually. It’s mainly about a person, who helped me and my friends to stay happy and grateful at our vacation time in Philippines. This person is a manager in La Salangane Hotel, Restaurant and I guess Dive Shop? ||My job requires a lot of travel. For the last 6 years I’ve visited 300+ cities in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand. ||This time few friends, including me, decided to take a vacation in Philippines. Planned to do the island hopping. Start was in Manila, then El Nido, after comes Coron and Busuanga and Cebu for the dessert.|Booking flights to El Nido was easy and we spent some good time in there. Tried the Greek restaurant on the beach and it was okay but I liked La Salangane way better for its atmosphere and people. Food was great and fresh. Served in time and big portions. Also I recommend to try their rum. It’s based on the famous Philippines’s Tanduay and kept it barrels with different fruits or spices for a long time so it has it’s own flavour. Try Ginger rum on the rocks if you like ginger, of course. |Anyway. Had a great time. The bill was about 6k for 7 of us so it’s more that affordable. ||The next day was our last day in El Nido before travel to Coron and something unexpected happened. We stayed at the Country Inn hotel. And it’s partner, who was in charge of our tickets for a fast ferry to Coron ditches our whole group and we are getting stuck on the island, loosing the next hotel reservation and money. |After many debates with the hotel we couldn’t win and find any other ways to leave the island on time. So we basically went to every place in downtown of El Nido in search of someone who could help us.|After couple hours we got to know that some places could arrange one of the motorised boats for us and get us to Coron in 6-8 hours, which was okay but the price wasn’t. 5 to 6k per person. Food is not included and possibilities of another group of people on the same boat. |So last place we went to was the restaurant where we one had dinner - La Salangane. |And our luck found us! We met Mitch! Wonderful and kind woman, who listened to our story and decided to help. |After couple hours in that restaurant we got a deal that changed our viewpoint on People in Philippines.|Next day in the morning we met at the restaurant and she provided us with freshly made sandwiches (she asked about our choices the night before), personal bottle of water for each member of our group. Two bottles of house rum(we had to pay, but the price was more than reasonable) and a private van driver who took us to the other side of the island.|There we met the crew members of the boat. 3 positively smiling men took our backpacks and got them on the boat and helped us to get comfortable on the deck.|It was mid size expedition boat, prepared for a long time in open waters. |I got to say that I was probably the best travel day I ever had in my life. It was great in so many aspects. On top of that we were able to talk to the captain and request few stops on different paradise island, where no one usually can get with any tours offered. |Our journey started about 7 am and we got to Coron city around 5 pm, happy and satisfied. The whole trip with van, food and boat cost us about 4k pesos per person.||The rest of our trip went good, btw. :) ||This is my personal “thank you” to Mitch. For helping and organising the trip that made us fall in love with...

This review is not only about the hotel. I never stayed there, actually. It’s mainly about a person, who helped me and my friends to stay happy and grateful at our vacation time in Philippines. This person is a manager in La Salangane Hotel, Restaurant and I guess Dive Shop? ||My job requires a lot of travel. For the last 6 years I’ve visited 300+ cities in Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, South America, Australia and New Zealand. ||This time few friends, including me, decided to take a vacation in Philippines. Planned to do the island hopping. Start was in Manila, then El Nido, after comes Coron and Busuanga and Cebu for the dessert.|Booking flights to El Nido was easy and we spent some good time in there. Tried the Greek restaurant on the beach and it was okay but I liked La Salangane way better for its atmosphere and people. Food was great and fresh. Served in time and big portions. Also I recommend to try their rum. It’s based on the famous Philippines’s Tanduay and kept it barrels with different fruits or spices for a long time so it has it’s own flavour. Try Ginger rum on the rocks if you like ginger, of course. |Anyway. Had a great time. The bill was about 6k for 7 of us so it’s more that affordable. ||The next day was our last day in El Nido before travel to Coron and something unexpected happened. We stayed at the Country Inn hotel. And it’s partner, who was in charge of our tickets for a fast ferry to Coron ditches our whole group and we are getting stuck on the island, loosing the next hotel reservation and money. |After many debates with the hotel we couldn’t win and find any other ways to leave the island on time. So we basically went to every place in downtown of El Nido in search of someone who could help us.|After couple hours we got to know that some places could arrange one of the motorised boats for us and get us to Coron in 6-8 hours, which was okay but the price wasn’t. 5 to 6k per person. Food is not included and possibilities of another group of people on the same boat. |So last place we went to was the restaurant where we one had dinner - La Salangane. |And our luck found us! We met Mitch! Wonderful and kind woman, who listened to our story and decided to help. |After couple hours in that restaurant we got a deal that changed our viewpoint on People in Philippines.|Next day in the morning we met at the restaurant and she provided us with freshly made sandwiches (she asked about our choices the night before), personal bottle of water for each member of our group. Two bottles of house rum(we had to pay, but the price was more than reasonable) and a private van driver who took us to the other side of the island.|There we met the crew members of the boat. 3 positively smiling men took our backpacks and got them on the boat and helped us to get comfortable on the deck.|It was mid size expedition boat, prepared for a long time in open waters. |I got to say that I was probably the best travel day I ever had in my life. It was great in so many aspects. On top of that we were able to talk to the captain and request few stops on different paradise island, where no one usually can get with any tours offered. |Our journey started about 7 am and we got to Coron city around 5 pm, happy and satisfied. The whole trip with van, food and boat cost us about 4k pesos per person.||The rest of our trip went good, btw. :) ||This is my personal “thank you” to Mitch. For helping and organising the trip that made us fall in love with...

I just want to be straight forward in my own opinion here. |At first, I was worried I booked this place considering I have read some reviews before leaving. I also had problems with paying deposits as the lady who’s in charge has had many connection problems and every time we called the place my partner has had a chef, waitress and all sorts who could not deal with queries and bookings...so eventually we finally have sorted something out when we got there, it was stressful but no big deal as that’s quite common in some parts of the Philippines as-well. I had mentioned it was our 7 years anniversary on the note. We booked double room with sea views. When we arrived in El Nido, our room was beautiful (covered in pink petals)! the views just stunning! I thank the staff for doing this nice gesture, it was lovely! We watched daily in this balcony every morning when we wake up and watch everyone take off in the boats to go island hopping.. it’s fascinating watching and chilling in your own balcony when you want. We did tour A one day and that was absolutely great! Everything is nearby just steps away... we went down one night only at the bar chilling and staff are very fun and friendly once you get to know them. Our room was cleaned and made every morning. Clean towels daily. Aircon is decent and always cold. |I highly recommend ‘Jarace Grill’ restaurant just a minute walk away from this hotel if you love seafood! Its fresh out from the sea at a cheap price! It’s definitely a must! We ate in many places every night and day which means we never got the chance to try the restaurant here. ||Negative reasons - I have given this place 3 stars because of the bathroom situation. In my opinion, the shower was rusty, the bathroom leeks every time you flushed the toilet, the shower door won’t close and it’s seriously stiff and it’s that old it won’t close or you will break it if you try. The shower water is smelly! We actually ran the shower for good minutes before use because the smell calms down eventually. We didn’t make a big deal because stupid thing like this don’t bother us too much because we’re only there for short period of time and we’re not the fussiest person in the world so it’s no big deal. I’ve seen worst and We’ve been many luxury hotels. ||Price- second thing is the price for this hotel I think it’s kinda rude to ask that much for this hotel because it’s not up to its standards with hygiene and bathroom situation. I would absolutely give this 5 stars any-day if the bathroom was at least descent or at least in working condition. It’s sad how a hotel room this nice and almost perfect and bathroom is not in good working condition. I expect to pay this much altogether knowing I have a good working bathroom to get to so this part is the only part that disappoints me a little bit considering the price we paid for this hotel so when people mentioned the bathroom on their reviews, that part was...