After a year or so we went back to Captain Ribbers in Dumaguete. We, that is my little monster, my boss and I,… as the sponsor. The place is conveniently located in Silliman Avenue, close to the boulevard. Captain Ribbers had a bit a construction going on and has now an aircon area. I took some pictures, but some people didn’t want their picture online and I respect that. … wonder if they  belong to the few who have no facebook-account or were maybe there with someone, they should not be with…

Captain Ribber Logo-Easy to Spot

Layout of Captain Ribbers

The setup of the new aircon area is very nice, aircon is working fine and seats are comfortable, not like the old seats where a big but like mine hurts after a few minutes. They are still in use at the outside area. One thing I would recommend is to change the light. They use different colors, one of it being green. That is a total NoNo. Green light makes peoples skin always look sick, but maybe I am biased from many years in the live-show-business.

Outside – smoking- area of Captain Ribbers- the old wooden seats on the very right

Other than the outside area and the new aircon section Captain Ribbers has the older original section in the back, still using the wooden benches. Of course the new comfi-seats are filled up first and I saw walk-ins leaving again, even there was enough space on the wooden benches. The management probably would do good to change those seats too.

Comfi-seating in the new aircon area

Service at Captain Ribbers

Our waiter was fast, and always available when we needed something additional. The service was friendly and he spoke decent English. He seemed to be surprised about the amount of tip I gave. Not that it was too much, but I assume due to the normal local customers there, who are not big tipper (many are students and don’t have much in the wallet anyway), he was surprised about roughly 10% I gave.

Menu at Captain Ribbers

The menu at captain Ribbers has a kind of standard choice with the focus on – of course – ribs, and several meat variations. OF course some starts and finger-food is also available. The prices are pinoy-friendly and may appear for foreigners as cheap.  Standard drink prices from beer to soft drinks and juices.

I forgot to make pictures of the menu, so I only can come up with a fantasy name of the dishes we had. I ordered three starter: a kind of wrapped chili with cheese, Calamari and Chili-cheese Fries.

Chili-Cheese Wrapper

Chili Cheese Wrapper

Those thingies had a decent spice and were obviously fried in good new oil. Or maybe we were just the first order of it and later guests having older used oil with many flavours of the earlier fried dishes. However, ours were good. The quick-melt cheese was OK with the dish for that price. I actually don’t know if they the menu said mozzarella… but the local mozzarella has nothing to do with real mozzarella cheese, so it really does not make much of a difference. My monster tried one and liked them too, just a bit too spicy for her young palate. Not too spicy for adults, though.

Chili Cheese Fries

Chili Cheese Fries – Really messy – like they have to be

They were how I like then: A good sized pile of mess! Exactly how it is supposed to be.  They tasted good, but need to be eaten pretty fast. If not, all gets soggy and really unattractive, but that pretty normal with dishes like that, so all is good.

Calamari

Calamari at Captain Ribbers

The Calamari at Captain Ribbers were nothing special or nothing bad…. just the middle of the road.

All came with a dip and that is usually where the western taste buds get a kind of insulted. That sweet mayonnaise just sucks, even they had some Calamansi in it, and the sweet taste just fucks it up.

For our main course we ordered a full rack of ribs in honey-mustard sauce and Korean BBQ sticks.

Ribs

As the restaurant name suggests, that is supposed to be the star on the menu.

Full Rack of Ribs with Honey Mustard Sauce. That is the size of a cat, do yourself the favour and google “Full Rack of Ribs”

I am not really convinced about that. It is certainly a decent dish, however, don’t have too many expectations. While the portion looks OK (well, quite small actually for a “full rack of ribs”), there is not much meat on it. There are also not much ribs on it, reading : bones. We had a lot of that softer, chewy, rubber-like thingies (not sure about the English word for that). The taste of the little bit of meat was good, and I liked the honey-mustard sauce, my boss didn’t like it. My dog was also  very disappointed. He usually gets all the bones and we actually order food many times, to have something for him leftover as a take out. Well, like mentioned above… no bones and not much meat on that rubber-thingies either.

The pig must have had rubber ribs …

I believe that Filipinos like that kind of ribs, as 75% of their diet is rice with something chewy on top, which makes the rice to the main dish and the ribs to a side order. However, I still enjoyed them. At a price of 350 peso I definitely prefer other locations in Dumaguete for ribs.

Korean BBQ

The Korean BBQ sticks had a distinct taste and I really enjoyed them, as did my boss and my monster. They were soft enough without falling from the stick, actually the way I like them. I really can’t describe the taste, so give it a try.

Korean BBQ Sticks at Captain Ribbers

All main orders at Captain Ribbers come with 2 side-dishes which we could choose from 5 or 6 different options. Be aware that those are VERY small and you might order some extra rice. One of our side-orders was Kimchi. That was certainly the disappointment of the evening, it tasted really old and bad, barely eatable. Coleslaw and mashed potatoes were fine.

 Prices at Captain Ribbers

Like mentioned earlier, I call it local average. The starter range between 40 and 100 Peso, have decent size and good quality. Main dishes start just above 100 Peso, like the Korean BBQ with two (small) sides is 118 Peso.

Would I go to Captain Ribbers again?

Absolutely…  5 dishes and 5 drinks summed up to roughly 800 peso. Given the comfortable seating and the aircon, it is more than a fair deal. Food across the board was fine… just don’t go there as a foreigner and expect for that price-range a western standard meal quality. I probably won’t order the ribs again but with the choices on the menu it is not hard to find several dishes which I like. Maybe I just should order all appetizers to share amongst my little family. Service was also fast and friendly. All that, paired with the location close to the boulevard, Captain Ribbers is one of the better options in Dumaguete in this price range.