Maxine's by the Sea (Hundred Islands - Alaminos, Pangasinan)

When we made the decision to travel to Hundred Islands, we listed Maxine's by the Sea as one of the choices for us to stay at because my sister wanted to stay near the beach (or the water) so we could also enjoy the view. However, off-peak season meant low prices on some accommodations, and in the end we decided to choose a transient home instead. Still, we told ourselves we would eat our lunch at Maxine's by the Sea before we travel back to Manila, and that was what we did.


Maxine's by the Sea has two dining area - this, on the ground floor and another bigger one upstairs. When we got there, it was still early (around 11:30am), so we were escorted to the ground floor dining area. Though smaller than the other area, we just loved the refreshing wind that helped eased the high noon heat.

They offer a lot of choices, but because we have been eating a lot of fish the past few days, we decided to go for these dishes instead:


Calamares
A little expensive for 260+ pesos, but it was cooked good - the squid rings were tender and the breading flavorful. If there was a downside to this, it would be the absence of dipping sauce (either the tartar sauce or the vinegar with chopped onions). Sure, every table were given a small dipping bowl of soy sauce with kalamansi and chili pepper, but this being one of the restaurant's bestsellers, we were hoping in time they will serve this with its own dipping sauce.


Crispy Pata
At 400+ pesos, this one's right on the budget! Big piece of pata, and the meat already chopped, making it easy for diners to pick on. The skin was crunchy and salted just right, and the meat was tender as well.


Bulalo
Another "priced-just-right" dish, given the size of the bowl and the amount of beef in it. However, our dish didn't have the marrow we were expecting, so this basically was like regular Nilagang Baka. Still, the dish was delicious, the beef meat were very tender and the vegetables were crunchy, so we didn't mind the marrow anymore. The taste made up for it big time.

The overall dining experience was awesome. Service was efficient, staff were courteous, and food was wonderful.


One interesting thing to share - towards the end of our dinner, this fisherman stopped and offered this net of crabs to the diners. All these crabs for only 500 pesos, very affordable compared to the crabs sold here in Metro Manila. Actually, this net contained more crabs than the ones we bought while we were in Caramoan, so if you dine here at Maxine's by the Sea and some fisherman pulls over and offer some seafood, I suggest you check it out, too. If only we still have one full day in Hundred Islands, we would buy it, but we were traveling back home after this lunch, so we didn't buy it. The family eating next to us bought it, though.

If you travel to Hundred Islands, I highly recommend Maxine's by the Sea. At the moment they are still constructing rooms for accommodations and that the land next to their building is currently having some road constructions, so it might be a long difficult walk going there, but the food was definitely worth it.