Chelly's Restaurant — Restaurant in Libona

Lovely location. Disappointing food.

Hi there! CDO's top foodie here.

THE SPACE: Chelly's is located 20 minutes out of town, past Indahag along the Libona road. It is surrounded by lovely countryside. The dining area is a combination of indoor air conditioned and outdoor seating. The decor is the primary (only) reason to visit this restaurant, as it is an Instragrammer's wet dream with silly chairs for portraits, pithy posters for selfies, ponies and horses for the kids. It really doesn't take advantage of the beautiful mountains or the open fields that surround it, but it is wonderful to see some better dining options spreading in this direction out of town. A lot of effort went into making this place look nice. THE SPACE: Four stars.

THE FOOD: The food is generally below average. Everything looked like the same tired recipes that are served in 90% of restaurants in The Philippines. The ingredients didn't seem particularly above average. The miniature pieces of fried chicken were mostly breading. The "house specialties" are apparently not served with rice. Overall the food is completely forgettable. THE FOOD: Two stars.

THE PRICE: The prices are overpriced with their best dishes, and a rip-off with the worst. The worst offenders are the shrimp in garlic butter (where 7 tiny shrimp will set you back ₱30 per bite at ₱210). The crispy friend chicken was four tiny "chunks" (see the photo) of fried chicken, and with that you're robbed of ₱190. We wanted to try the lasagna but that was not available. The hamburgers looked like a safe bet through we didn't try them. The Caesar Salad at ₱160 was a handful of lettuce, two croutons, a sprinkling of parmesan cheese, and a few tablespoons of of dressing served on the side. THE PRICE: One star.

THE SERVICE: I'm not going to be too harsh on the service, because when we went there, the place was not just packed, it was overflowing with well over 100 people. With all of the madness, our orders were taken, drinks were delivered (with a little prodding), and the food (eventually) arrived hot and without error. We had to ask for silverware. Overall though, they seemed to handle the crowd well without any issues. I'd give the service two stars if we had received the same service when the restaurant was empty, but due to the overflow capacity... THE SERVICE: Three stars

SUMMARY: Chelly's is one of those Filipino tourist traps that has figured out the trick that if you create a lovely space where Filipino ladies can sit in a hammock or stand in front of a heart made from twigs, and smile coyly while their boyfriend takes their picture for Facebook, then everybody will go there by the thousands and not even notice how bad the restaurant is. My wife fell for it, that's for sure. So: My recommendation is to visit Chelly's once, let your wife get her 20 or 30 photos for Instragram, have yourself an overpriced, below-average meal, and then you can put Chelly's on your "once is enough" list and be done with it. TOTAL...

I love the place, I love the food, I love the experience. Good thing we came there before 12Noon because there isn't much crowd to compete with for table usage. We were able to have two tables for our group to enjoy the sumptuous meals. First time that I was able to have a taste of Suha Cake and I definitely had the experience here at Chelly's. As the crowd is getting thicker and thicker by 12Noon, they really have to wait for others leaving their seats, settling their bills and emptying their tables for them to have their turn of Chelly's experience. Parking space becomes also problem if you arrive late since they don't have much space. It probably could accomodate 10 or so vehicles, but could also utilize the side of the road for parallel parking adjacent to the restaurant. Overall, it's an unforgetable experience and would definitely come back to try other dishes on...

It’s a cozy place for family and food has always been so yummilicious. However, for today for some reason the food taste different. Our all time fave is the baked mac which tastes incredible but today it seems like as if a new chef is on-board. We also ordered Grilled Chicken Alfredo and we were surprised with the serving of the grilled chicken which is suppose to be on top but rather since it’s small it was placed on the side. The butter surely is always present in every dish served. Beef quesadilla surprised us the most having vinegar on the side which is supposedly salsa & guacamole. We assumed that the chef is trying to be creative and different in his own way but having guacamole since it is still the season of Avocado would be more impressive rather than vinegar. Thanks to the cucumber lemonade which fuelled us all up! A must...