The Cove Live Seafood Restaurant of Bluewater Maribago Reopens

On August 8,2022, The Cove Live Seafood Restaurant located inside the iconic Bluewater Maribago Beach Resort reopened its doors to the public after a 2-year hiatus brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic. It is a sign that local and domestic tourism has now started to pick up and usher the tourism and restaurant industry to its long-awaited recovery. 

The restaurant takes its name from the little-known Maribago Cove, a geographical feature that covers the beachfront of all the resorts in Lapu-Lapu's tourism belt while its food philosophy takes inspiration from the simple and minimalist way of cooking practiced by the local fishermen in the coastal areas of Mactan.

SUGBA, TUWA and KILAW is how our ancestors prepare their meals after a long night or day out in the sea fishing, simple cooking that needs simple ingredients. Our expert chefs take these traditional methods and perfect them to create dishes that manifest what a local meal is all about. Meals that are wholesome because it lacks the preservatives or additives, authentic because it uses ingredients that are no longer in common use like the tabon-tabon fruit and kaffir lime for that authentic Bisaya kinilaw so loved by our grandparents but few in our generations have ever sampled or even know about. Authenticity at the Cove also means that it uses only local ingredients like fish sourced from a neighboring town's fish market and that these are cooked fresh to ensure that all the flavors of the fish or seafood are preserved for our Diners to savor. 

Here's the preview of the seafood dishes in The Cove!

Loyal patrons, families, and couples can now enjoy the Cove with its distinct ambiance and good local food that should be the hallmark of memorable celebrations.

As part of its procurement policy, The Cove restaurant will only serve locally sourced ingredients and seafood. Working closely with its suppliers to ensure that the catch ending up in our kitchens is harvested sustainably.

The restaurant will also not serve any fish or seafood species that are threatened or endangered as part of its adherence to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals of Sustainable Consumption and the protection of Life Below Water.

Cooking is done with the use of local methods, simple and easy-to-prepare dishes just as our ancestors intend when they prepare their meals taken from their fresh catch of the day. This way we can also reduce our carbon footprint by reducing our use of cooking fuel and still bring out the best of the local cuisine that is part of the food traditions of the coastal areas around the islands that the Cove wants to represent and elevate to the rest of the world. 

The restaurant's reopening is also part of Bluewater Maribago's Anniversary Celebration; the resort turns 33 this year and is an important milestone as it intends to navigate the new normal of tourism with renewed vision and optimism.