Spread Some Awesome

 

Visiting Puerto Princesa is not complete if you have not dined barefoot at KaLui. Yes, you got that right, dining in KaLui requires you to remove anything on your feet – shoes or sandals – in order to enter its premises. According to our guide in our Honda Bay Tour, this restaurant is named after the owner who used to be a cook there named “Lui”. He was thought by soldiers to concoct the best meals and he was able to catch the taste liked by many travelers. Thus, he became successful in having his own restaurant and up to now people from all over visiting the city continue to rave about it.

 

 

A word of advice if you plan to dine at KaLui, make sure to book a reservation. The place is really pretty popular such that it becomes hard to score a table if you try to dine as walk-in especially if there are lots of tourists during your visit in Puerto Princesa. You can request from the front desk of your hotel to make the reservation for you. If you are going on tour around the city during the day, request for the reservation before you leave. Don’t worry, they’d know what to do.

 

 

When you dine at KaLui, make sure that you bring your camera with you. Night or day, the place is  real beauty. So I guess, it isn’t only the food that visitors are raving about this restaurant. The place is decorated with lots of native stuff that are photo-worthy. The food is also awesome, which is why during my four-day stay in Puerto Princesa, I ate at KaLui twice.

 

Dinner at KaLui

 

The highlight of our second day in Puerto Princesa City is marked by our dinner at KaLui. Before leaving for our Honda Bay Tour, we made sure to book a reservation for this restaurant. 30 minutes before our time, we were already in KaLui. They checked our reservations and a few minutes after that we headed to our table.

 

 

Right after getting seated, they gave us the menu. KaLui’s menu is simple and straightforward. Check it out below for yourself.

 

 

We started dinner with a popular appetizer in this green city, the lato (or ar-arosep). These are fresh seaweeds and they are served with only kalamansi to remove the stench of the sea. Pretty good as the flavor pops out of these bubble-like seaweeds as you bite into them. These are also popular in the northern part of the country like in Pangasinan.

 

 

Then, our beverages got delivered. We tried the Green Mango-Ginger Combo, Mango-Papaya Shake, and Dragonfruit Shake. It was healthy living in funky fruit shake tall glasses.

 

 

 

 

The best dish for me at KaLui were these two thick pieces of Fish Rolls in Coco Cream. I am not sure what fish they used but they were cooked perfectly and the sauce spilled on top of it was just heavenly. The coconut milk made the dish very tasty.

 

 

Sinigang ni Kaka is a refreshing version of the popular sinigang (tamarind-based soup) that we know. Instead of simply using water to dilute the sour tamarind, they used coconut juice. Therefore, the dish has a sweet taste to it.

 

 

 

Of course, dining at a top restaurant in an island province should have Prawns. These are some of the best prawns I had that came for cheap compared to the ones you can get in the Metro Manila. And the anchovy-like sauce is really great.

 

 

Fish Steak and Veggie Tempura go together.  The fish is succulent while the tempura had a crunchy bite to it. Such a presentable way to make me eat veggies especially eggplant.

 

 

 

Two more plateful of food are to arrive that night. They are under the category of Choice Catch. The Fish Cordon Bleu (PhP 215) was coming right up. It’s juicy cut of fish fried in batter and topped with a squirt of mayo.

 

 

The next plate had Shrimps (PhP 215). These are one of the biggest shrimps I have devoured. Cooked simply but prepared perfectly well.

 

 

After the huge dinner of scrumptious seafood, rice, and fruit shakes, we were served with two coconut bowls of desserts. The treats were pretty simple, just slices of fruits topped with Muscovado sugar. But they were awesome!

 

 

Lunch at Kalui

 

Before flying out of Puerto Princesa back to Manila, we made another reservation to have lunch at KaLui. After having a great dinner a couple of nights before, we wanted our departure to be more memorable. And the best way to do that is to have KaLui’s food on our taste buds one last time.

 

Again, for starters, we had a serving of Lato (Ar-Arosep). Then we tried something new, the Tubbataha Salad (PhP 180). This salad contains fresh tuna strips, slices of fruits that are in season, and Palawan dressing. The dressing is guacamole, which is an avocado-based sauce that has a spicy kick.

 

 

We were also given soup to warm our tummies.

 

 

We also had veggies, the Stir-Fried Kangkong (Water Spinach) was cooked and seasoned right. The leaves still have that crunch and flavor that I can finish the entire serving on my own.

 

 

Of course, we would not miss the prawns. And we also had a serving of fresh Fish with Oyster Sauce. Yum!

 

 

 

KaLui is a really great resto to visit. Dining in this restaurant was one of the highlights of our trip. Would I come back? Definitely.

 

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Spread some awesome..ness..

Tags: fish, Palawan, prawn, Puerto Princesa, seafood, shakes, shrimp