Brilliant Birthday at Trattoria Altrove in El Nido, Palawan
El Nido is a great place to meet other travelers and has a few really cool places to eat and drink. In fact, I spent my 48th birthday at the best pizza place in El Nido, Altrove, with some incredibly cool people I met on an Island Hopping Tour. Brilliant! Another reason to go beyond Puerto Princesa and find your way up to El Nido.
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Happy Birthday to Me
For my birthday trip this year, I went to El Nido in Palawan, Philippines. You can check future posts for more info about this and other places in Palawan. For now, I just want to say THANKS!! 😀 to some great people who shared my 48th birthday with me: The awesome world-traveling Danish girls, Maria and Amalie, the super experienced traveler and photographer and all-around-great-guy for treating ALL of us to dinner!, Alan and his most amazing partner in crime, Gina (Also Canadian. Yeah!)
It was an amazing dinner and an amazing post-dinner beers-around-El-Nido session. CHEERS!
Dinner at Altrove, the best pizza place in El Nido
How it happened
Simple really. We were out on Island Hopping “Tour B.” Not long after we stopped for a bite to eat here, we headed home…
We had all been laughing and joking all day as we hopped from beautiful beach to beach, exploring cave after cave, so I felt quite comfortable telling them as we approached El Nido, “Actually, it’s my birthday today.” I told them of a pizza place I’d heard about and that I planned to find for my birthday dinner. “Everybody has to eat, so why don’t you join me for some good pizza and help me celebrate my birthday?” And so we decided to meet up for a few beers by the beach before moving to the restaurant. I was geeked!
Unexpected cake is the tastiest
I was the first to make it to the beach bar, watching some home-made speed boats do their thing in the bay in front of El Nido. I spotted Marie and Amalie who had the most amazing birthday gifts in hand…a single piece of chocolate cake and two San Mig beers, complete with self-styled ribbons. I was speechless. Check out the most awesome and “lækker” piece of cake I ever remember eating.
CHEERS!
And just so you can see what the bay looks like behind us, here’s a darkened version of the photo. Not a bad place to be having a birthday beer with friends!
Trattoria Altrove. The best pizza in El Nido
When you eventually get to El Nido, there aren’t too many restaurants to choose from. So choose Altrove. When facing El Nido with the water at your back, it’s located on the left side of the town on the road that runs behind the beach bars and hotels. Walking up the road, it will be on your right. Sorry for the imprecise directions, but I was half-cut by the time I left so things are a bit fuzzy. What can I say, it was my birthday.
Altrove is somewhere in the red circle. Go to angkulet.com for original map
In any case, it’s easy to find. You’ll see the wood-fired oven on the first floor and steps leading up to the restaurant. Leave your shoes on the steps on the way up. It’s not the cheapest place in town, but the food was great. And Alan, you dawg!! Thanks again for sneakin’ up when I wasn’t looking and paying for our dinner! I truly appreciated it!
From my great birthday cake on the beach to an amazing dinner at Altrove — the four of you made my birthday unforgettable. Thanks!
Here are some photos of Altrove I found on angkulet.com.
Happy birthday Mike! Hope to see you when we come visit Tokyo in December!
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Thanks! And when in December? I’ll likely zip over to Boracay over the X-mas break.
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Maligayang Kaarawan! (Happy Birthday) wow I wanna go to Palawan too~
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Thanks for the birthday wishes. And yes, Palawan is definitely worth checking out. My next post will probably be an overview of the 3 main destinations, followed by a few detailed posts. Hope all is going well with you and your studies!
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Thank you mike! definitely looking forward to your future posts in your blog (=^.^=)
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Salamat!!!
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I keep stalling on writing that “Places to Eat in El Nido” because I know all the owners hahaha and I’m scared of writing a review. I should though, even just a list? Oh my god, I’m scared just thinking about writing it.
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Well, as long as you’re not too brutal, it will be OK 🙂 I liked the food at the Art Cafe — seems like a fun place at night. I loved the live music at that Reggae live music house kind of in the street behind Art. And I hear the food at La Solangane is great, although I didn’t eat there (that’s where I was staying). Anyway, ping me when you write that list up so I can check it out. Where do you actually live, anyway? El Nido?
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HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, MIKE!!!
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Oh crap, wasn’t finished with my comment lol. It looks like you had such a great time, I’m so happy for you that you had some awesome people to celebrate with! 🙂
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Merci bien and kamsa ham ye da! Much appreciated. And yes, it was a most amazing birthday. Those four people in the pics were these super amazing people I had met on the boat…I was really super geeked when they said they’d join me for birthday pizza. I’ll never forget it. I think this really validates my rule of going somewhere new on my birthday — it was tres cool. When is your special day, BTW? And how is the new song coming? I’m still waiting for the Cafe Unplugged album release 🙂
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Hehe, you’re welcome =P
I’ve never heard of being “geeked” lol. What does that mean?
My birthday is June 23rd 🙂
Hahaha…I’ve been working on a few songs at once. The ideas keep pouring out. And I can say I’ve written three full songs. But I’m trying to figure out how I can make better sounding recordings. That is my obstacle right now =P Thanks for being such a fan! hehe
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Really? I thought “geeked” was from all over Canada. Must have been a west coast thing…3 decades ago. lol Anyway, it means happy or excited about something.
Good luck with the sound recording stuff. It really does make a difference. I was looking at some old vlogs of people I follow…the old ones are done with regular microphones etc, and it just sounds unprofessional. The new ones have zero extraneous noise and are all balanced etc…and it sounds awesome. Hey blogosphere! Is there a sound engineer out there who can help a gurl out! lol I mean, it’s your birthday soon right! lol
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Happy Birthday Mike ! (Late but honest birthday wishes)
El Nido sounds like a great place, especially after a few weeks off the beaten track, so one can stock up on the taste of pizza and companion of other travellers.
Keep it going Mike!
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Thanks, Cez. I appreciate it! And yes, El Nido is a great place to check out. It’s a bit of a trek to get there, and the town itself is not that great. But it’s worth seeing while it’s still mostly a backpacker,non-mainstream place.
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Hello Mike, thank you for celebrating your birthday in Altrove and we highly appreciated your postEd… Hope to see you!
Sandy and Martin
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Hi Sandy! Yeah, I’m always happy to share info about great places! I’ll definitely be back! Love the vibe of Altrove — it’s a perfect complement to El Nido! And the food! Yum 🙂
Cheers,
Mike
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