Carp Restaurant and its Fruit Bat Soup!

The Carp Restaurant is located right on the water in Malakal, part of Koror. Carp is not too far from Kramer’s Café, another of the popular restaurants in Koror. It is named Carp Restaurant because the folks that run the Carp Island Resort, in Palau’s Rock Islands, also own this restaurant. Yuri, the owner and the main cook of this restaurant is a Japanese woman who is very friendly and she can speak Palauan fluently. She is married to Itaro, who is half Palauan and half Japanese.

Carp restaurant serves a tasty, varied menu but more likely Japanese food with reasonable prices. Prices normally start from US$ 5.00 per dish. Favorite foods are Tofu Beef, Tofu vegetable, Fish, either fried or baked as well as fish soup, Sashimi, Sweet and Sour Shrimp or Fish, Chicken vegetable, Beef vegetable, several curry dishes, and as one of their specialties, Tempura vegetables, shrimp and fish. Like so many restaurants in Palau, Carp serves fresh sashimi of several different types of fish that is fantastic, and will surprise you how inexpensive it is!

Carp is open from 10:00 a.m to 2.00 p.m for lunch and then open again from 4:00 p.m to 10:00 p.m. daily for dinner.

What makes this restaurant unique is because it serves the best local delicacy in town. The famous FRUIT BAT SOUP! Palau has a species of small, insect eating bats, which are not eaten, but most conspicuous are the large fruit bats that can often be seen flapping their wings and gliding through the last afternoon skies. The fruit bat is cooked in coconut milk, ginger and some others local spices then it is boiled for few hours. I’m sorry, but I must admit I never tried it myself because I couldn’t stand seeing the eyes of the fruit bat in the soup! In addition, fruit bats often have a very distinct scent, which is not for everyone. But, believe it or not, just about anyone who has tasted this soup found it delicious!

Do you want to try???