Baha Ba’r — Restaurant in San Juan

Worst food service.

After reading all of the comments here starting from 5 years ago up to the recent, they actually never change their management up until this date FYI to readers.

Followed up 3x before they serve the food when they saw my frustration. When we came in, it is just our group. After we ordered, that’s the time where other people came in.

Food service Waited almost 2 hours just to serve a soup based dish that is cold. I even asked them to reheat it. Pork Sisig, the only hot is the plate itself.

Atmosphere Nice atmosphere

Others I also saw that the one who managed on commenting on reviews here are condescending. That their ego can’t take what other experienced.

As a person who knows a lot about how to manage effective kitchen management and processes, they lack on communication and preparations. There are a lot of thing to improve.

Soup based dishes (sabaw) should be always hot, open the stove. Wait until it boiled then leave it on a low heat by default. For the meat that is in the soup, cook it 1 hour before the opening hours. 10min on high heat, chicken can be cooked (it is also possible to make it semi-cooked) Only add it after the first boil. Then remove, prepare it. Once there’s an upcoming order, put it together then microwave it so the chicken meat will be reheated as well.

Side comment: I thought hinuhuli pa yung native chicken kaya matagal.

Pork Sisig - I am assuming that you have a lot of stoves since you have a huge place that can accommodate a lot of customers, prepare and cook the sisig meat 1 hour before the opening hours. Also, don’t hesitate to open another stove for the metal plate, then another one is for the sisig meat. Use a non stick pan to the heat the meat, not the standard kawali so it doesn’t stick. Once the meat is hot, only then add it to the pan with oil/margarine/butter. Serve.

These processes only take less than 15min all in. You have to polish your food management and preparations to the extent.

Hope you applied this comment. Otherwise, another bad reviews will be given again not only by me, but as well other customers.

Always remember, the reasons why customer dines with us is because they are hungry. Those jamming session won’t...

I’m rating this place 4 stars just for the ambiance and awesome interior, which is like dream of an island treehouse. The design is so cool! As soon as I walked in, I could tell why people love this place.

However, besides that aspect, this place was not great. The service is very bad, the food is average, the prices are very high, and you cannot even safely order a beer here.

We first came at a very slow time in the early evening. There were only 2 other customers at the time, and about 6 employees, so it being a busy period definitely wasn’t the case.

We waited a very long time for service. We asked 5 times for a small thing like silverware. We kept repeating (after trying very hard to wave down staff) and the staff would say ok, leave, then be seen again wandering around or giggling with colleagues on their phones - still without the silverware. Finally we just went and got it ourselves from another table.

We ordered a beer and saw the girl pour the beer straight into the glass without tilting it whatsoever, so of course it ended up being 80% foam. She then set another glass down on the table and did the same, and kept pouring cups back and forth, spilling beer on the counter, until there was less foam. She never tilted the glass at all. Ok maybe she was new... but shouldn’t you know how to pour a beer working at a bar? And her colleagues were around too. None of them said anything. She brought us the glass all wet down the sides with spilled beer. The beer was not very cold either.

The cocktails on the menu sounded amazing, but after seeing this, and considering how expensive they are, I decided I could not trust that they’d be any good.

We came back 2 more times, and each time service was the same. It was always a chore getting staff to do anything, even something so simple as bring a menu, or the bill. Great interior but very disappointing...

It takes a lot to totally impress not one but two chefs!! We don't rate restaurants, but we had to make an exception!! We are staying nearby and popped in as we were exploring the area this afternoon. The first treat is for your eyes as the decor is fantastic. It felt like we were in an island treehouse! So many things to catch your eye. A very diverse menu was presented as soon as we chose our seats. It took us a while to decide but we finally made our choices. The sizzlin pork sisig was the best we have ever had and my girlfriend is a local!

The shrimp spring roll was super fresh and had a great crunch. We loved it.

The sizzling gambas were a real treat, absolutely great flavors!

The sizzling chili garlic crab (special of the day) was magnificent. The chili and garlic didn't overpower the great crab flavor.

Since the Baha Bar has a micro brewery we tried a tasting flight of their beers. All were very good, the IPA was my personal favorite.

A couple of " locals" even stopped by to offer their greetings when we asked if they were around.

We chatted with the owner and his wife ( the boss) and found them to be warm, friendly people. ( How can it be otherwise when you have a Filipino and a Canadian?) All in all a fantastic experience. All our senses were very satisfied. It is not very often that we find such a rare gem as Baha Bar!

I will leave you with some extras to help you decide to get to the Baha Bar in San Jose on Siquijor as fast as you can....We are headed...