After hours of shopping at the Big Outlet Sale at the Megatent, we were famished. We wanted to eat somewhere special for our friend, Mary’s birthday so we deferred to our foodie friend/budding food critic, Graey. She suggested Enderun’s Restaurant 101, but it was closed. That’s how we ended up in Cafe Juanita.
Reservations is a must. When we got there all tables were taken or reserved, but we told them we were willing to wait. We went to the “karinderya” beside it, and sweated it out in the heat a bit while waiting – but totally worth it!
The exterior of the restaurant is very deceiving. I would never have guessed that there was wonderful bohemian resto/heaven for foodies in this corner lot in Kapitolyo. When you cross its threshold, it’s like you are transported to a different world.
*Note: For some weird reason, none of us girls had a camera that day (GASP!) so I ended up taking pictures with my Blackberry, but the images would not have done justice to such an unforgettable experience of sight, sound and taste! So I had to borrow some.
My lovely friends were nice enough to order mains that I would be able to share with them. I was actually just planning to eat soup because my braces had just been adjusted. I was elated to have real food because I’ve been subsisting on instant noodles and vienna sausage for 2 days!
Image: flickrIs it bad that we love garlic so much that we had this meal with Garlic Fried Rice (Php 69)? It was great! Not too oily and very garlicky. =P We paired our meal with white wine. I can’t remember the exact brand of Semillon Chardonnay (Php 1050), but was perfect with the almost all-seafood meal. We let our friend, Kay pick. She used to be a bartender, so she knows her spirits!
Image: flickr
CAFE JUANITA
- #2 United St. cor. West Capitol Drive, Barrio Kapitolyo, Pasig City, Philippines
- +632 – 632 – 0357
- Open:
- Su, M, T, W, Th, F, Sa: 11:00 am – 2:00 pm
- Su, M, T, W, Th, Sa: 5:30 pm – 10:00 pm
- F: 5:30 pm – 12:00 mn
P.S.
For those of you who find it hard to get to Kapitolyo, there’s a new Cafe Juanita branch at the Fort:
- Unit WS-2 Burgos Circle, Forbestown Center, Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City
- +632 403-1952
- 11 a.m. – 10 p.m.
The two way pork adobo looks good.
You should go to sentro, take some pics, and eat (in that order). No wonder I get so fat in Manila.
Just thinking of pancake house and sentro’s boneless crispy pata and the pinoy osso buco is making look for food.