Café Ethereal — Restaurant in Surigao del Norte

Vegan review

We ordered the vegan sourdough with mushrooms and salad - super delicious! Would put the mushrooms on the bread with humus tough if possible (info for the chef hehe), the pumpkin soup was super delicious and also the humus dip plate! We ordered fries with ketchup too, which is not on the menu (only Parmesan fried platter) but they handeled it friendly.

The banana shake with non dairy milk came with granola on top, where we don’t know if it was really vegan.

Seems like a meat/ fish restaurant trying, but we did not 100% trust them, as the waiter seemed not to really understand the concept of vegan food and the menu has ‚vegan‘ and ‚vegan friendly‘ where we didn’t know what the difference was. We just hope the granola was vegan and the chef knows what they are doing.

Also the lemonade we got had ingredients inside that we couldn’t really guess. Very fancy, so be aware and ask for vegan drinks too when you order and hope the waiter understands.

We would come back, it’s just 5 minutes from the port and we stayed for our layover :) and it was super delicious. They just need to make it more clear on their menu and...

BLUF: Surprisingly clean, quiet, cool, well lit cafe. 3min walk from the port. Attentive service. Decent coffee. Western food selections. 5-Star for Siargao City. 5-Star for the Philippines. 4.5-Star for a Cafe on the planet.

PRO: Attentive, friendly and fairly knowledgeable staff. Comprehensive menu.

CON: Nothing significant. Coffee could be bolder and darker, but significantly better than any of the standard Filipino “brewed paper towel coffee” options.

HINTS: As always in a Filipino restaurant, #1 ask for a list of condiments on your entree. #2 Then ask if ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, special sauce, or ANY other ingredients (that were not already divulged in your first question) are also included. The answer will always be “yes” ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, special sauce, artificial margarine, and fish sauce are on your pancakes.

Seriously, don’t be surprised what oddities wind up slathered on your food. Mustard and mayonnaise on an egg sandwich, special mayonnaise sauce (when you asked for no mayonnaise or anything) on your Burger … but sir, there is no mayonnaise, just...

Perfect place for those who need a place to stay after or before traveling through ferry. It's very close to Surigao port. It's cool, offers charging stations, wifi, and good coffee. The restroom is really large, nice, and clean. I had coffee here after a roro trip from Cebu to Surigao while waiting for the 11am roro trip to Siargao. I had to wait for opening hours, which is at 7am, to go in. In the beginning, there weren't so many people. Almost, if not all, tables were filled the closer it got to 10am. The waitress recommended the caramel macchiato. It was good. I also tried their single shot espresso, which I preferred more than the macchiato, but that's more of a...