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Royal Calapani Calapan · Oriental Mindoro
Artist's impression of the resort: three two-story pavilions on dark stone piers, joined by covered walkways, around an open-air entry reached from a circular drive.

The Resort at Royal Calapani

Royal Calapani · Barangay Malad, Calapan City

A five-star resort at the end of the street, with dining, a library and an infinity pool.

The scheme

Three pavilions, raised on stone

Three two-story pavilions stand in a row, joined at both levels by covered walkways, and the whole resort is lifted a full story on piers of dark lava stone, with parking in the pier level beneath.

You arrive on a circular drive around a planted island. The stair rises to an open-air entry hall cut straight through the middle pavilion. From the steps there is a view through the building to the garden, the pool and the mountains.

The middle pavilion holds the restaurant, the lobby and the library. The two flanking pavilions hold the guest suites, each with its own deep verandah behind teak louvered screens. Behind the row, an infinity pool runs its far edge out toward open rice land and the Halcon range.

The architecture matches the coastal contemporary homes of the estate, with low wide-eaved roofs in dark standing-seam metal, white stucco and lava stone, ipe soffits, and glass that slides away behind timber screens.

Buildings
Three, connected at both levels
Middle pavilion
Restaurant, lobby, library
Flanking pavilions
Guest suites
Arrival
Circular drive, open-air entry
Parking
Within the pier level, beneath
Pool
Infinity edge, to the rice fields
Architecture
Coastal contemporary
Artist's impression of the garden side: an infinity pool in front of the three pavilions, with rice fields and mountains showing through the open pier level.
The garden side and the infinity pool. Artist's impression.
Chez Paul: an engraved gold medallion of a rooster before Mount Halcon at sunrise, with the name arced beneath it.

The restaurant

Chez Paul

Calapan's finest restaurant, in the middle pavilion: the kitchens of France and the Philippines at one table.

Chez Paul cooks with French technique and Filipino flavor. The stocks, the sauces and the pastry are made the classical way, and the ingredients come from Mindoro: calamansi, coconut, river prawns, fish landed on the Calapan coast and rice from the fields beyond the pool.

The beurre blanc is sharpened with calamansi, the adobo is braised slowly in the manner of a daube, and the dessert trolley carries leche flan beside the tarte au citron.

The dining room opens onto the verandah and the garden. It serves the guests of the resort, the households of Royal Calapani Estates and, on the days the resort is open to the public, diners from Calapan.

Cuisine
French and Filipino
Where
The middle pavilion
Setting
Dining room and garden verandah
Open to
Guests, owners, and the public on open days
Artist's impression of a Filipina chef in a white jacket and black cap leaning over the pass at Chez Paul, placing a herb leaf with tweezers on a plate of grilled river prawns, calamansi and beurre blanc, copper pans behind her.
In the kitchen at Chez Paul: river prawns with a calamansi beurre blanc. Artist's impression.
Artist's impression of the Chez Paul dining room at golden hour: a few round tables in ivory linen with crystal, gold-rimmed china and white orchids, cream bouclé chairs, a green velvet banquette against a lava-stone wall, and teak louvers folded open to the palms, rice fields and mountains.
The dining room at Chez Paul, open to the verandah and the rice fields. Artist's impression.

Inside

The lobby and library

Artist's impression of the lobby: a double-height room open on two sides to the garden, timber ceiling, stone wall, a library wall of dark shelving.
The lobby and library, open on two sides to the garden. Artist's impression.
Artist's impression of the resort at dusk, all three pavilions lit from within.
The resort at dusk. Artist's impression.
For owners

Open to owners

The restaurant, the pool and the library are open to the ten households of Royal Calapani Estates.