13 February 2014
After spending a week at the Tip of Borneo (Simpang Mengayau), here is Travelinds’ take on the few restaurants in the area:
Ranked at number 1:
Merrimas Villas Restaurant – try the fish dishes (all of them) and enjoy the reasonably priced “set menu” especially the “fish ginger.” Read Travelinds’ piece on Chef Jainnes Apin – the very talented chef at Merrimas whose quality food was most certainly the best in the area.
Contending for overall second place:
Tip Top (Howard’s) against Tommy’s Place restaurant. Both serve a very similar menu, both are priced about the same. Nothing unique about the dishes, presentation or prices but it did the trick.
Last place:
Borneo tip lodge restaurant: A menu similar to Tip top and Tommy’s, but so many mosquitoes, bland food and very, very slow service. Pricing the same as Tommy’s and Tip Top.
Breakfast spot:
Tommy’s Place offered a great breakfast menu (highly negotiable and can be suited to your preferences). We had oats with hot soya milk, fresh fruit, toast with jam, coffee. There were also eggs available (omelettes etc). A much better variety (price and nutrition) than most other places we stayed at in Sabah.
Cheapest beer:
Although we didn’t eat here, we did find that the restaurant that is the closest to the Tip itself (I think it is called Tip of Borneo resort/villas resto) had the cheapest beer out of all the restaurants (RM 5). We went here for the gorgeous sunsets and we enjoyed a beer as the sun went down on Simpang Mengayau. It is on the other side of Merrimas Villas, closest to the Tip itself. Although, if you pick up a bag of trash and do your part in cleaning up the Tip’s long white beach, you can get a free beer from Tip Top Restaurant – so it’s up to you!