Anvaya Cove Beach and Nature Club Bataan Honest Review

My family regularly goes to Anvaya Cove during summers – it’s a family tradition of sorts that spans a decade plus now. Of course, with COVID, this tradition was disrupted. Now that travel seems more palatable and restrictions have slowly been lifting, we decided to take the plunge and go to Anvaya Cove again. This required us to take a RT-PCR test but thankfully we all got negative results and so, last Sunday, off we went to Anvaya!

Let me just say this – you truly do not have what you have until it’s taken away from you. In the past, I never thought about Anvaya. Literal day trip – when we felt like going, we went, and that was it. But this Anvaya trip took us 2 weeks to plan. Multiple back and forths with the reservation team because some said folks from NCR+ weren’t allowed, while some said they were allowed if members, and so on and so forth. Plus of course, waiting for the RT-PCR test results was nerve-wracking! I was fairly sure it would turn up negative, but what if it didn’t?

Thankfully – the night before – everything was ready. Our test results had come out negative. Anvaya had confirmed our reservation. And it was time to pack. Note this was for an overnight trip, but the amount of agonizing that went into it would’ve made it seem like I was packing for a week!

I used to travel a lot for work – and so I had a trusty bag filled with travel essentials always packed and ready to go. Whenever I had a work trip, it would take me 10 minutes or even less to pack. When COVID happened and it felt like the world had come to a standstill, I ended up cleaning out my closet and one of things I unpacked and put away was my travel bag. So when I was packing for our Anvaya trip, I had to go hunting. Where was my travel toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, sunblock etc?! I also couldn’t remember where I had tucked away my swimsuits after my nth time “cleaning” my closet during COVID lol. Even choosing which outfits to bring took time, as NONE of them had been worn for over a year. What a struggle! And yes, I know – such a first world problem, but so jarring because I’ve never had this problem before.

Finally, on the day itself, my family was en route to Anvaya. The travel was pretty fast as we primarily used NLEX. All in all, we passed through two checkpoints – each time as we entered a part of Bataan. At the checkpoint, they asked for our negative RT-PCR test, proof of our reservation with Anvaya Cove, and our government IDs. Interestingly, they never asked to look at our Get Pass app which we were repeatedly told to download because it was Bataan’s equivalent QR code.

Then at last, we had arrived at Anvaya. While I complained a lot about all the safety and security measures we had to go through to get our booking approved by Anvaya, I must admit it gave me a sense of security knowing everyone at the resort had gone through the same and had been vetted thoroughly by the resort. Even as we entered the resort, everyone was wearing masks and face shields, except when by the beach, pool, or in the restaurants. Sadly, a lot of the activities were also closed (incl. my favorite library!!), but I understand why.

Even sadder, NO MORE BUFFETS. Seriously, I was pretty heartbroken when I heard this. I really really look forward to Anvaya buffets – especially the breakfast buffet! But for this trip, we were told that we could only order ala carte. And because there were so few guests (max 100 people capacity across the entire resort), there was a very limited menu to choose from. Believe me, it was limited. After five meals there, we had already tried 80% of their menu, which is why I’ll actually write up my favorite dishes (and not so favorite dishes) later in this blog.

To be fair, there were also other perks to going to Anvaya during this time. As mentioned, Anvaya was operating at half capacity but because of the stringent safety and security measures, I doubt they were reaching half capacity. But let me tell you, as a guest, this was heaven. In the past, I could never do laps decently because there were always rowdy kids in your way. But this time, I had the pool all to myself. Even the beach was practically empty. Both times we went to the beach, it was just us and another group there. It felt like we had booked a private resort just for us. So nice.

Anyway, all these thoughts aside, let me share a bit more about my experience with Anvaya food and the hotel.

Anvaya Food Honest Review

Okay, so literally two restaurants were open while we were there: The Bamboo Cafe and Pawikan Beach Bar & Grill. Pawikan was only open on weekends (we were staying through to Monday) and had a slightly different menu from The Bamboo Cafe, so we opted to have our Sunday dinner meal there.

Ambiance-wise, Pawikan is so much nicer. It’s really by the beach, and because we were the only ones around (or I dunno, maybe the others opted to get room service or we were just eating late), we had the whole open-air restaurant to ourselves and could listen to the crashing of the waves and the pitter patter of the rain while eating a really good hearty meal together as a family.

But anyway, let’s discuss the food by “type” of food.

Soup

Of the soups, we had tried three out of four (I really didn’t want to try the Anvaya Monggo soup). Anyway, my ranking of the soup just based off personal preference:

• Tinolang Manok: Good chunks of chicken meat. I liked the consistency and flavor of the soup

• Sinigang Pork Belly: I’m not a huge sinigang fan so this was meh for me, but my family seemed to like it

• Bulalo: Boo – this was panned universally. Barely any bulalo meat!! Much better done elsewhere, e.g. Tagaytay (although this is to be expected of course)

Appetizer

• Shrimp and Kani Salad. This was okay – nothing amazing. I personally really like the way they cook their shrimp!! But everything else was just normal.

• Lumpia

Mmm this was ayt. Nothing wrong with it per se, except it’s so skinny. Like what is that? You should see the lumpia from legit Chinese restaurants – practically bursting from the seams. Anvaya, please learn from them

Noodles

Tried two of these and I don’t know if it was because I was REALLY hungry coming out off a major swimming session, but they tasted really good! I liked the Mushroom and Spinach Ravioli and the Pancit Guisado, but must admit, both servings were quite small. I counted the ravioli… there were 8 measly pieces.

Main Dish

Okay, obviously, we had a lot of the main dishes, so I’ll order this by my preference from best to blah.

• Fried Pampano

This was NOT on their menu, but the waiter mentioned they had this available at Pawikan that day so I jumped at the chance. This is SO good. Honestly, you can’t go wrong with pampano. The meat is so tender and sweet. Love it!

• Beef Kare-Kare and Lechon Kawali with Kare-Kare sauce

Okay, I’m cheating. These are actually two dishes, but let me just say, their kare kare sauce is so good. Forget the beef or the lechon kawali, just the kare kare sauce with bagoong is enough on its own! Yummy.

• Pork Sisig

Okay, my dad wasn’t super fond of this dish because he said there was too much fat, but I dunno, I liked it. Unhealthy though.

(Update: When I reordered this, I didn’t like it anymore. I felt like the hot plate wasn’t hot enough so the egg didn’t cook properly. Boo)

• Tortang Talong

This is a super basic dish that anyone can make -but I am putting it here because I liked the sweet ham topping hahaha!

• Grilled Boneless Milkfish and Sizzling Boneless Bangus

Between the two, I preferred the Grilled Boneless Milkfish, but this is only available at Pawikan, so I guess Sizzling Boneless Bangus is a good alternative

• Grilled Boneless Milkfish

Weirdly, another new dish appeared at Pawikan the next day. This grilled boneless milkfish is packed with a mix of milkfish meat, tomato, and whatnot. It was ok. I found it rather bland.

• Grilled Liempo Inasal

Honestly can’t remember what this tasted like so it must not be very memorable. Haha!

• Crispy Pata with Sinamak

Super BOOOO!! Almost no meat. Although to be fair, the skin was crackling. But meh, not a great buy.

Dessert

Halo-halo is the only way to go. We ate halo-halo after every single meal… We didn’t even bother trying the other desserts. It’s not because their halo-halo was out of this world good, more because it was so hot, we needed the halo-halo to cool down haha!

Breakfast

Okay, so breakfast is also ala carte. But regardless of choice, they all come with freshly baked breads (these were nice and warm), fresh fruits (so-so, not very sweet), and choice of beverage (I chose hot chocolate – that was good!)

There were four choices for breakfast, but we only tried three. Here’s in order of preference

• Pesto Chicken and Mushroom Omelet

Three Egg Omelet with Chicken Strips and Shiitake mushrooms (although there was no shiitake, just black fungus), O’Brien Potatoes (meh).

Overall – I really liked the omelet. The eggs were cooked through but still slightly runny and I liked the texture of the chicken strips and black fungus

• Philly Cheesesteak

Three Egg Omelet with Beef Scallopini, Bell Peppers, and Mushrooms, O’Brien Potatoes (meh).

Again, hard to go wrong with their omelets. I don’t like bell peppers in them though, so this has been bumped down to 2nd place

• Grilled Salmon

Served with Two Sunny-Side Up Eggs, Garlic Rice and Atchara.

The salmon serving was SO small – see the photo? The rice was bigger. And the salmon itself was rather dry

 

Anvaya Casitas Room Review

I’m pretty sure Anvaya Cove has renovated their rooms. It’s so much nicer now compared to before. First off all, the bathroom configuration was much nicer. I remember I was irritated by how cramped the bathroom was previously, but now it was the right size. Having said that, their sink still sucks – quite shallow and the faucet doesn’t extend far enough. Ugh

On the room itself, I like how they’ve adapted to COVID times by adding mask hooks and a shelf for your face shield. Super nice.

On the room itself – the bed is SO nice. I swear, I need to upgrade my bed at home. The sheets here have a much higher thread count and I really liked the mattress and the comforter. Unfortunately, my mom won’t let me get a comforter because, in her exact words, “who do you expect to launder that?” Fair. I’ll live with my measly kumot…

Last but definitely not the least, because there were so few guests, calling the golf cart was a breeze. In the past, the queueing always took awhile

And of course, the best part is the ability to go to the beach beach – and just see these cerulean blue waters (I personally prefer the pool though LOL)