Ej's Garden By The Bay - Surigao

Love the set-up of the place. Food drinks are good esp. their grilled cheese sandwich and mint iced tea. You can also get meals here with servings good for 2 to 3 persons. One thing though, if you need a receipt they can't issue one if their nearby EJ resto is still closed. Shouldn't they have receipt of their own?

The coffee was good, and the interior of the restaurant was really impressive, but the food was just okay. Unfortunately, we felt unwelcome as the only white people there; all the Filipinos who arrived after us were served promptly, while the staff seemed to avoid making eye contact with us. Even when they did come to serve us, they made a point not to look our way. We were surprised by this treatment, especially since we tried to be friendly and spoke Tagalog as much as possible. I ordered a burger without tomatoes, but they served it with a small slice hidden in the middle. The burger sauce was quite sweet, which somewhat overpowered the other flavors, although the rest of the ingredients and the fries were decent. I don’t think I’ll return. **Edit:** I just walked around outside for the first time and got the sense that they really don't want white people here, which is disappointing and feels like a form of racism.

Old fashioned place that looks/looked good. Good ambiance for couples and old people. Acceptable band with old fashioned music. Needs an upgrade. Burger quite tough/bad. Staff indifferent.

I had a pleasant lunch there. It's a nice spot, especially when compared to the surrounding area in Surigao City. It's an ideal place to stop for a meal before catching the boat to Cebu. The kinilaw was excellent, and the coffee was great too. However, the experience could have been better if the waitress hadn't made two mistakes with our order. She brought us three cookies instead of the two we ordered, and we were charged for all three. Additionally, my friend's coffee was served iced instead of warm. There's definitely room for improvement.

Delicious food! Blue-Marlin kinilaw was my super bet! definitely recommend! (berry, we have forgotten to make photos of how we were really hungry, we were torn in and pulled out!