Nalka Seafood and Oyster Bar — Restaurant in Malay

I don’t usually give bad reviews, but this one really needs to be shared — not to bash, but to raise awareness and hopefully help the owner improve the service, staff attitude, and coordination.

Please don’t believe everything you see on TikTok. The food was actually not bad, but the service was truly disappointing. We ordered ginataang gulay and waited 45 minutes, only to be told that it was not fresh anymore and couldn’t be served. Then we ordered rice, but after 30 minutes, we were informed that we had to wait another 30 minutes because they had just started cooking it.

When we ordered Rockefeller, the staff immediately said, “Ma’am, 50 minutes po ha.” We said okay, but he repeated, “Ma’am, five-zero ha?!” — as if he was discouraging us from ordering. It honestly felt like the staff had no love, care, or pride for the restaurant or their job.

To make things worse, they kept giving the wrong food to our table, and we even saw them serve our food to the table beside us. The table in front of us was also complaining, and the family beside us just smiled at us — probably because they were experiencing the same chaos. It was so frustrating to witness how disorganized everything was.

The food might be good, but when the service is this poor, it ruins the entire dining experience. I truly hope the owner takes this seriously and makes changes, because right now, it’s definitely not worth the hype. Customers deserve to be treated with care, respect, and at least proper...

It was our first night in Boracay when we tried to have dinner here, but it was full house already. We were 9th on the waiting list but we had a toddler with us, so we couldn’t wait that long, we just reserved for the next day instead.

The next day, we arrived 5:49 PM and placed our order by 6 PM. The server said 15–20 minutes cooking time, which was fine with us. We were actually so excited to finally eat here because ever since we booked our flight to Boracay, we kept seeing Nalka in so many “must-try” lists.

We waited sooo long, and about 30 minutes later, our food started coming out one by one. Then at exactly 6:47 PM, one of the servers came to say that our Pompano was cooked wrong, grilled instead of steamed.

That dish was supposed to be for my daughter, it’s the only thing on the menu she could eat. So imagine our frustration. After almost an hour of waiting, we were all hungry and tired, my toddler crying nonstop, and the one food meant for her got messed up. We couldn’t wait another 20 minutes for them to fix it, so we ended up canceling the order.

To be fair, they insisted on giving the dishes that were already served for free, but still… it was really frustrating. We came so excited and left so disappointed. Definitely not the kind of dinner we were hoping for on our first...

I’m coming from a context where Nalka is the best, number 1 in google search, more than 100 five-star reviews. Which means I am expecting a lot.

Food: We ordered Seafood Bilao (4-5 pax) Seafood Kare-kare and some appetizers.

Seafood was not fresh. I can say it is definitely not fresh because I came from a place where I eat fresh seafoods on a daily manner. Flavors from food are so-so for someone number 1. At most it was slightly above average and at worst was slightly disappointing. Even the liempo served (part of the bilao) was not fresh and i am not nitpicking. You’ll know it was not fresh with one bite.

Rice served with Bilao wasn’t cooked properly. ‘Malata’ masyado. It wasn’t cooked properly.

Nalka doesn’t have service water. Which means you will buy bottled water if you want water from them. And at this time and age, that’s a criminal offense..joke!

Seafood kare kare is on the sweet side. Thick sauce. Actually too thick for me. Seafood while cooked properly is again not fresh.

While their staff was attentive, they serve food longer than a typical restaurant. So this might not be for someone in a hurry.

Overall, is the food good? It was okay. Without being number 1 it is a decent place to have dinner. But was it worth the price and hype? I can say No. Do I want to go...