Hayahay Café

Setting

THIS SMALL CAFÉ is located in the trendy Vanilla Beach Complex in El Nido, right before you get to Maremegmeg beach. Tall glass doors open to a buzzing café, filled with tourists and locals. The interior is decorated in a beach-y, island vibe with rattan furniture, traditional abaca mats, basket weave lamps from Cebu, sinamay woven fabrics, tigbaw bamboo shades, and tropical plants. Artwork from local artists based in El Nido adorn the place. Overhead fans keep the place breezy. “We want our feel to be airy and lush with plants, wood, and warm colors contrasting with a bit of both industrial and Filipino design elements,” said Anthony Sabandal, one of the owners of the café.

Hayahay is a Visayan word meaning relaxed, comfortable. And the place manages to create exactly that kind of vibe.

Food and drinks. Hayahay started a few years ago because the owners found very few places on the island serving healthy, fresh food and good coffee. Today, it has become a local favorite for its wide variety of delicious fresh dishes. The cafe offers a wide variety of dishes to satisfy any appetite, with options for vegetarian and meat-eaters alike. Their create-your-own menu for wraps and bowls allow for endless variety in your dishes. Bestsellers are the soba noodles with pan-seared tuna or the adlai salad, a medley of smoked tofu, crisp pickled cabbage, pillowy adlai (a gluten-free Filipino heritage grain), fresh edamame, all tossed in a citrus soy dressing and drizzled with tamarind glaze. For a healthy breakfast, try Hayahay’s smoothies or Greek yogurt bowls. Hayahay makes its Greek yogurt in-house, and uses local, seasonal fruits for the bowls. The café gets its greens and veggies from local Palawan suppliers, and sources their coffee from a Cebuano roaster that works with Filipino coffee bean farmers. Their specialty pour-overs highlight a seasonal microbatch of beans produced by farmers from the BACOFA Cooperative in Mindanao.

For drinks, don’t miss the pour over coffee, with a rotation of highlighted Filipino coffee roasts from the Davao-based BACOFA Coffee Cooperative to choose from. The pour over is served with a salvaro, a coconut crisp made from sun dried cassava. On a hot day, try the salabat ginger honey lemonade or pea flower iced tea . If you’re ordering the mezze platter, pair it with a bottle of prosecco or pinot grigio.

How much? Dishes start from Php200, drinks from Php100++ and a bottle of wine starts from Php900++.

Service. Hayahay offers true Filipino hospitality. They welcome you like a guest in their home.

Hayahay Café, Unit 64, Vanilla Beach Complex, Brgy. Corong Corong, Sitio Marimegmeg, El Nido, Palawan. On Instagram, follow @hayahaycafe.elnido

Clockwise from top left: Adlai salad with smoked tofu and edamame; a look inside the café, pour over coffee, and papaya salad rolls. Below: Hayahay’s IGworthy interiors

A bird’s-eye-view of Coron’s famous Twin Lagoon demarcated by limestone cliffs: it is the rendezvous of the warm seawaters from the open sea and the cooler waters from the subterranean river