Maa's Grill — Restaurant in El Nido

I recently dined at Maa’s Grill after seeing many positive reviews, but unfortunately, my experience was extremely disappointing.

Firstly, the grilled pork we ordered arrived undercooked, still showing blood, which raised immediate concerns about food safety. After returning it to be properly cooked, we noticed the meat still had visible black pig hairs—clearly showing poor preparation standards.

We also ordered grilled squid, which had an extremely strong and unpleasant odor. Given its questionable freshness, we decided not to eat it. Later, after checking reviews mentioning food poisoning, it seemed we made the right decision. Even a local dog refused to eat it, which further confirmed our concerns.

Additionally, we tried their sisig, only to find multiple small bones throughout, making it difficult and unpleasant to eat.

Compounding these issues was the fact that our meals took over an hour to arrive, despite the restaurant not appearing particularly busy.

Lastly, upon rechecking reviews, I noticed suspiciously similar positive reviews from accounts with limited review history, all clustered around certain dates—leading me to question the authenticity of those ratings.

Overall, our experience at Maa’s Grill was not only disappointing but potentially unsafe. I hope management takes these issues seriously, improves their food quality and hygiene standards, and provides a genuinely better experience for...

We went to the restaurant for dinner as a group of three and had to wait about 20 minutes to get seated. It was understandable, considering the second floor was unusable at the time.

Now, onto the food:

Pork Belly with Rice: The pork belly was nicely cooked but lacked flavor. My partner suggested that a small sauce or dip could really help bring out more taste. Tuna Steak with Rice: A standout. The tuna was perfectly cooked ,still tender and not dry with seasoning that paired very well. Overall, a very good dish. Carbonara: While it wasn’t a traditional carbonara (made with ham instead of bacon and including mushrooms), it was still tasty. It was also noticeably less salty than most dishes we had in the Philippines, which was a very welcome change. Spring Rolls: Flavorful, although a bit too oily Vegetables: Nicely cooked and a good addition to the meal.

Everything was also very affordable (for example, the tuna steak was just 300 PHP), making it excellent value for a stylish place. On top of that, there were no service charges, which we...

Probably my favourite place that we’ve eaten at for our entire stay.

There was a bit of a wait since they were pretty busy with the dinner rush but they were quick and efficient with service once we were seated.

We ordered the spring rolls, pork sinigang, pork sisig, the chicken adobo w/ coconut curry, and rice. My partner also ordered red horse beer.

Spring rolls came out very fast and were served with sweet chili dipping sauce. Piping hot & really good value — we got 6 fat rolls for Php 150 (I think).

Then the sinigang came out, followed by the sisig, the rice, and the adobo. The sinigang had heaps of veggies which was what I wanted. The sisig came with an egg and some green chillies which gave it a bit of a kick, and the adobo came with some bitter vegetable which was the only thing I wasn’t a fan of.

Overall, I wanted to get more rice and absolutely clean off everything because it was that good. Definitely don’t miss out on their authentic homecooked food that’s 10/10 on value for...