Dining in Palau 2- Rock Island Cafe

After three days of diving in the amazing waters of Palau, our group had a free day to rest and see the sights on dry land before we went diving again the next day. We realized that we lucked out on the choice of day off, since the weather was very rainy that day. It was perfect for sleeping in. That was a treat because we’d been waking up at 7am during diving days. Not an easy thing to do, particularly because we were on holiday.

Tuna Steak

It was also good to take a break from diving that day because it would have felt just a wee bit miserable to be off on a day of diving with the rain pounding the boat, and the clouds preventing the sun from giving us the best possible visibility underwater.

The people in our group mostly went their own way for the day. After a late breakfast, my friends and I opted to visit some dive shops to get some diving knickknacks and souvenirs. We then met up with the rest of the group for lunch at Rock Island Café.

The place reminded me of an American diner, both in ambience and serving size. The menu was a jumble of Asian, American, and Italian food (It was an “international restaurant” after all). I usually dislike menus that have a lot of choices, but only because of my own inability to make up my mind as to what to order. After scanning the menu over and over, I finally decided on the Tuna Steak Dinner.

According to the menu, it was a “9 oz. grilled yellow-fin tuna steak, served with a delicious tomato salsa. Comes with rice, vegetable, and a dinner roll. $7.95” I asked if I could have mashed potatoes instead of rice (like I needed the extra calories), and they complied.

When my food arrived, I belatedly realized that nine ounces meant more than half a pound. The slice of tuna was huge, and way too big for me. This of course did not stop me from finishing it.

The tuna was fresh, though a little too well done for my taste. I forgot to ask them to cook it rare. What they called a “delicious tomato salsa” tasted like an unusual concoction of carrots, onions, and A-1 sauce. It wasn’t bad, but I preferred to eat the fish by itself.

I finished the mashed potatoes, but barely touched the roll in a rather lame attempt to limit my calorie consumption. I wanted to have dessert, but there simply was no more space in my stomach for it afterward. It's a good thing we did a little more shopping and walking after lunch, as I was able to burn off that half pound of fish somewhat.


Rock Island Café
The International Restaurant and Pub
Republic of Belau (Palau)
488-1010
488-1406

Dining in Palau- Taj Indian Restaurant

Goa Fish Curry

I had been looking forward to scuba diving in Palau with my friends for quite some time, since I’d heard a lot about the abundance of marine life in the area. So when the trip finally materialized through my friend and dive instructor Jan, I was totally psyched for it.

When I got to the tiny country, I realized that while I knew quite a bit about what to expect in terms of diving, I knew nothing about how dining was like in the 14-year-old country. (I did hear that one of their specialties was fruit bat soup, but I wasn’t particularly interested in trying that.)

Well, I found out soon enough that dining out in this diver’s paradise was quite expensive, especially for Filipino pockets. I figured that this was due to the fact that the place lured a lot of tourists (mostly Japanese divers, I'd heard), so a lot of the restaurants featured tourist-y prices. There was, as expected, a lot of seafood available. What I didn’t expect though, were the US-sized portions.

Tandoori Paratha

One of the restaurants I went to was an Indian restaurant called Taj, which was recommended by Bernard, the dive master of our group. Most members of our group (we were 17 divers in all) met up with him there after our second day of diving.

Another thing I quickly learned about dining in Palau, is that the food can take quite some time to be ready. I think we waited around an hour for our orders to arrive.

They served us a lot of spicy Papadum while we waited, which came with three different kinds of dip (hot, hotter, hottest). I ate so much of it because I was already so hungry, then I drank a lot of water to wash away the heat from my mouth. So, by the time my food arrived, I was halfway full already.

I had their Garlic Naan (Indian flatbread), and Goa Fish Curry, which were both good. I tried some cheese-filled Paneer Naan which my friend had, and I thought it was excellent. The restaurant also gave us free Tandoori Paratha (also a kind of flatbread) as a way of appeasing us after waiting so long for the food.

I didn't get to finish my food because, as I said, I didn't have much empty space left in my stomach after munching on the Papadum.

Though I liked the food, I thought the prices were pretty steep, probably in comparison to having a similar meal in the Philippines. I ended up paying around $30 for the meal in Taj. That was probably the most expensive meal I had during the trip though. Most of my other meals in Koror, Palau, probably ranged from $10-$15. Not that bad, but it could be pretty rough on the wallet if you had to shell it out for each and every meal.

Taj Indian Restaurant
Koror, Palau