A friend who’s been to Boracay at least 10 times swears by Gasthof mouthwatering baby-back ribs. Last year he took us for dinner there, but the restaurant had run out of its famous ribs.

So I made it a point to visit Gasthof again on my Boracay trip this year. This time, my dinner companions and I got there early enough to order the house specialty. We chose the medium portion, which goes for P350 (The large portion is priced at P500 and the small for P250). We also ordered calamari's for starters, a chef’s salad, clam soup in a pot, and chili crabs, another specialty of the house.

Like most beachfront restaurants in Boracay, Gasthof sets up tables right on the sand under the coconut trees at dinnertime. This sort of setting may sound romantic, but the mood here is casual, just like an outdoor grill. Tablecloths printed with tropical fish cover the mono-block tables. It’s so unpretentious that the sink for washing your hands is a knee-high faucet where you can also wash your feet.

The place attracts a United Nations kind of crowd. It’s full of Koreans, Caucasians, and Filipinos. Most come in big groups. Gasthof serving portions are ideal for sharing family-style.

The calamari's is the first to arrive. The coating is crunchy and the rings of squid are thick and chewy. The clam soup comes next in a big clay pot, just the way Filipino soups are traditionally served. The ginger-based soup is soothing and the clams are plumper and juicier compared to what I’m used to in Manila. We wash it down with buko juice (young coconut) served straight from the coconut. The bits of coconut are so sweet and tender, adding a refreshing touch to the meal.

The chef’s salad looks colorful and enticing in a clear glass bowl. Like any chef’s salad, it has strips of ham, bell pepper, carrots, cucumber, corn, hardboiled eggs, as well as whole olives and mangoes — all on a bed of crunchy lettuce. When the famous baby-back ribs arrive, it doesn’t disappoint. It tastes as good as it looks. The meat is tender and falls off the bone. Just don’t expect the hickory flavor in the barbecue sauce. It’s sweet and salty like typical Filipino barbecue marinades.

The chili crab is a pleasant surprise. It’s not Chinese style as I expected but Bicolano style (Bicol province in the Philippines is known for its spicy food) — floating in coconut milk, chopped chili peppers, garlic and spring onions. The coconut milk is especially creamy — a perfect sauce for the sumptuous crabmeat, the shell of which is loaded with aligue or crab fat.

The nourishing dinner leaves us no room for dessert. Gasthof is indeed the place to go for a hearty meal of comfort food in a laidback atmosphere. Its hefty portions priced at around P150-P250 per dish make dining here not too hard on the pocket, either.

Specialty: Baby Back Ribs.

Prices: Medium

Location: D' Mall, La Rotonda