Shanti Shanty Café Siargao

Sourdough is the whole operation here. It’s under everything – the toasts, the grilled cheese, the sandwiches – and once you notice that you’ll understand why the queue for banana bread forms before 8am. This is a hang-and-jam kind of café, not a grab-and-go one, with a net hammock and communal instruments lying around for whoever feels like starting something. Order the hummus plate, the grilled cheese (real cheese, none of that processed stuff), and a pain au chocolat while you’re at it – people come in for coffee and leave with a bag of pastries every time. Drinks-wise everything is dairy-free by default, they make their own nut milk in-house, so don’t ask for regular milk, it’s not happening. Try the honey americano or the Filipino mocha, both hot and cold versions work. Portions are big enough to split, which matters since prices land a bit above your average island café. This is the spot for a slow morning or an afternoon of doing nothing productive, not a quick coffee-and-run. Go early for the good bread selection and grab the downstairs seats if you can – upstairs cushions are thin and your back will know it after an hour.