Lamoy Restaurant — Restaurant in Panglao

GOOD. BUT NOT QUITE.

first, a bit of background. LAMOY is an olden visayan verb meaning to literally devour. as a native of the visayas, this brings flash backs of savory home cooked meals that entice the eyes and fill the stomach. so i i dashed through the front doors without hesitation.

on my arrival i was greeted with furniture that takes cues from modern bistros that dot the island. it exudes class. or at least i think thats what the owners wanted it to be like. when i went in, at 12:10 in the afternoon i saw the service staff and kitchen staff occupying what looked like 2-3 tables EATING and preparing food. this struck me as weird. no self respecting restaurant owner makes the staff eat at lunch service. that is literally when the customers come. granted it was pretty barren when i was there (the staff told me diners usually come at the evening hours.)

the food was okay. it is what you'd expect a filipino restaurant to be. nothing out of the ordinary. it was, for lack of a better word, quintessential.

the place is nice the food is okay i just wish the staff didn't have to eat at lunch service with the customers tho, i mean as a filipino, you'd hesitate to make any request since the staff was still eating. it brings me to my conclusion and title that was, GOOD,...

Beef was nice. You may wait over an hour for the food which I didn't mind because they warned ahead. It's terribly noisy from the disco music next door. I only came here thinking the food would be amazing based off the popularity but I wouldn't go back because 1. I found out they didn't have running water and use bottles for washing hands in a shared basin so I am very concerned about their hygiene, but maybe this is in other places too. 2. The fish had a bad flavour, tasted old and I didn't eat it all because I was afraid of getting sick. Maybe because I ordered a sweet and sour fish off the menu rather than choosing a more expensive one to be cooked full with bones from outside. They apologised and didn't charge for the fish so I'm giving a 4 for this reason but I left in fear of being sick later. In fairness the food at other tables...

The black pepper sauce was incredibly delicious—we absolutely loved it! We preferred the shrimp since they allowed us to enjoy more of the sauces. On our first visit, we tried both the pepper and butter sauces, but the pepper sauce stood out with its bold flavor. The butter sauce was sweeter and buttery, which we think kids would enjoy more.

We enjoyed the sauce so much that we ended up visiting twice during our trip!

That said, the ordering process could have been smoother. While the staff guided us to a table, they didn’t seem to pay close attention to whether our order had been taken, which caused some confusion. It would be helpful if they explained how to place an order or how to choose between crabs and shrimp...