Cucina Reposo

My cousins opened their restaurant a few months ago and I finally got the chance to visit a few weeks ago together with my parents, Tita, hubby and son. We weren't able to hang-out though so we took out a couple of barbecues and hotdogs. They were really yummy!

Price Range: PhP100 will go a long way

Must try: barbecue!

Great for: all-nighter hang-out

Lakwatsera's Rating: biased, my cousins own the place!

Cucina Reposo 
Nicanor Garcia (Reposo St.)
Makati City


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Golden Cowrie Restaurant (Cebu)

Golden Cowrie is one of my favorite Cebu restaurants. I've been going back since the first time I ate there back in 2004. Unfortunately though in the past few trips I have been unable to dine at Golden Cowrie. Luckily though I was able to dine at Golden Cowrie during my last trip to Cebu. Here are some of the dishes we ordered:

Tuna Fingers 

Crispy Pata (Juned would be envious)

Sinigang

Gulaman and Halo-Halo

Price Range: PhP100-250 (per dish)

Must try: tuna fingers, sinigang, crispy pata (everything!!!)

Can do without: I dunno, I so far like everything they offer

Lakwatsera's Rating: go back, again and again 

Golden Cowrie

Salinas Drive,

Cebu City

(map)

*they also have a branch at SM Cebu

Citra Mina, Fresh Tuna in Paranaque

The best place to get fresh tuna is in the tuna capital of the Philippines, General Santos City! You can get it the same too right here in Paranaque. Just head to Citra Mina behind the airport (Multinational) or BF Homes. They have a wide selection of fresh frozen products including the following:

tuna panga
tuna belly
tuna buntot
tuna ground meat

And other tuna specials: tuna chorizo, tuna longganisa, tuna hotdog, tuna embutido, tuna cheezy lumpia and tuna ham.

Aside from tuna they also have other types of fish:

blue marlin
mahi-mahi
cream dory
gindara
tangigue
salmon
bangus
swordfish

As an added treat they also give away recipes and give tips on how best to cook your purchase.

Citra Mina Multinational
Brgy. Sto. Nino, Multinational Access Road
Paranaque City
Tel. No. +632-820-6080

Citra Mina Sucat
#8 President Ave.
Tahanan Village
Sucat, Paranaque City
Tel. No. +632-8076459


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Cordova Food Park (Cebu)

One of the things I look forward to doing in Cebu is... EAT! And I can say that I have better appreciation for food now since I've been forced to learn how to cook. Ha-ha-ha!

I was ravenous when I arrived in Cebu and I was really happy to see my best friend, Darwin, when he picked me up at the airport. We oftentimes ate at Sunburst but since I'm now allergic to chicken we've been exploring other options. This time he declared that he was going to bring me to Cordova Food Park. He just said that it was quite far, but was worth the trip.

Cordova Food Park is an open air restaurant. From the car, it looked like it was going to be hot in the resto, but I was really surprised that it was windy inside. The menu had a long list of seafood dishes and the resto offered a number of oyster dishes (a rare find!).

Here's what we had:

Sinigang

Fried Lumpia

Liempo

Sisig

Baked Oysters

Price Range: PhP50-100 (per dish)

Must try: Oysters and Sinigang!

Can do without: Lumpia

Lakwatsera's Rating: I wish I can go visit again soon

Cordova Food Park
Pilipog, Cordova
Cebu
+6332-4123783
(general area map)

Alba Uno Residentia (Cebu Hotel)

I'm always on the lookout for smaller hotels since it's more homey and I strangely feel more secure than staying in larger, expensive hotels. It was Jerome who recommended Alba Uno to me. He said that they had free wifi and was located at the back of Asiatown IT Park. He didn't need to say anything more since I was already hooked at, "Free wifi".

I got the executive suite and it was really spacious. I also liked how it was decorated. The bed was thick and the pillows were fluffy. It reminded me about the bed at Hotel Avante (in California). The bathroom was very clean and I liked the way they scattered pebbles between the bath and toilet area. The sink drain though got stuck so I was forced to use the sink by the refrigerator area.

One drawback though about the place is it's location. It's located at Apas, Lahug, just a few blocks away from The Walk. It's in a residential area and expect your sleep to be disturbed by roosters during the wee hours of the morning. Also it takes sometime to get a cab.

Food? They don't have a restaurant but you can order food and drinks. It took an hour though before they managed to serve our breakfast. It would be better to dine at The Walk.

Alba Uno Residencia
1007 Villa Amores,
Lahug Apas, Cebu City
+6332-5052111 or 233-8617 or 236-6880
(map)

Pension House Rates (per day)
Standard Room - PhP1,200
Queen Suite - PhP1,400 (with refrigerator)
Family Room - PhP1,600 (with refrigerator)
Executive Suite - PhP1,600 (with refrigerator); PhP1,800 (with bathtub)

Makansutra, Asian Food Marketplace

It's been almost two years since I've been to the Manila Ocean Park and when Sweetie suggested we have lunch there I readily agreed. Walking from the parking lot we noticed that the construction of the show area seemed to be almost done. I hope though they put a covered walk from the parking area to the entrance of the park since it could get very hot.

We were pleasantly surprised to see that the mall area had a lot of stores and there were a number of new restos (Starbucks seemed to be missing). An exciting addition to the mall is Makansutra Asian Food Marketplace. It got me really excited because I've been craving for mee goreng for sometime now and they had it in their menu.

The restaurant reminded me a lot about Makansutra Gluttons Bay and Marche in Singapore. It had a very similar set-up (except that it was indoors) and the beverage area was also separate. The menu had a long list of food that we ate when we were in Singapore (mix of Chinese, Thai, Indonesian etc.).

I got a plate of mee goreng. It tasted slightly similar to what I usually get in Singapore but it lacked oomph.

Sweetie got fish fillet with ginger sauce. It was good.

We also wanted to get some oyster omelet but it wasn't available.

Makansutra is now one of my favorite restos because they have authentic teh tarik!

Price Range: meals at PhP150, drinks PhP40 and above

Must try: teh tarik, I will have to go back and sample other dishes first before I make a food reco

For improvement: mee-goreng

Lakwatsera's Rating: I'll definitely go back

Makansutra, Asian Food Marketplace
is located at the Manila Ocean Park
behind the Quirino Grandstand.

Antonio's (Tagaytay)

I've been to Antonio's twice and was quite surprised that the branch at the highway closed down, so we had a hard time looking for it (3G wasn't working so well so it was hard to get map info). It was a pleasant place to go to and I thought Drew would like it. Good thing Sweetie saw the signage and we finally found the place.

Jay, Miguel and I went downstairs ahead of Winston, Mica and Drew since they were still taking photos at the first level. Little did we know that they were having a mini-heart attack after seeing the PhP13,000 price tag for the steak (which we clarified later on). Drew and Miguel had the tapa and they said it was delicious. Jay got an omelet while the rest of us got pasta.

We were quite disappointed with the food since we found it quite bland (no value for money there). I don't remember what I ordered in my previous trips but I remember the food was okay. Anyway, the ambiance of the place made up for the disappointment.

Antonio's/Breakfast at Antonio's
(has 2 locations in Tagaytay, we went to the farther one)
Price Range: approx. PhP500/person

Sonya's Garden (Cavite)

I've always been curious about Sonya's Garden since most of my friends have been there. I even have a friend who wants to have her wedding reception there so I told myself that I should go there soon. I didn't have to wait any longer since we had the opportunity to go to Tagaytay a few weekends ago and Sonya's Garden was on our list of places to visit.

The place is quite far from the usual Tagaytay places and we thought we were already lost. Just as we were about to give up we finally saw signages leading the way to the famous place. When we arrived we were surprised with the many cars parked. The way to Sonya's Garden was pretty much empty so we thought that we were just the ones on our way to the place. Apparently everyone was already there!

We didn't really  know what to do so we just walked around and saw the different facilities available at Sonya's Garden. There was a store, a panaderia, a couple of reception areas, spa, the restaurant and of course there were rows and rows of plants!

We wanted to try out the buffet but wasn't prepared for the PhP650 per head tab so we just decided to buy some bread and look for another place to dine at. The spanish bread was delicious and we finished Drew's supply in just a few minutes! I also bought a small bottle of oil which was called "Rescue Me". Wipe some on your nape and it's supposed to make you relax instantly. I bought it because I was pretty stressed out during that time and the oil works! Also got a mint and basil plant for my tiny-mini garden.

I hope next time I'd get the chance to spend a night at Sonya's Garden and try out the spa and take their class, "How to do nothing."

Sonya's Garden
Barangay Buck Estate
Alfonso, Cavite

Map to Sonya's Garden


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Picnic Grove (Tagaytay)

I have fond memories of Picnic Grove since the I used to go there with my childhood friends. It's where I learned how to skate (well I did manage a straight line) and had loads of fun following the trail (something I can't do anymore). It's been sometime since I visited Picnic Grove and I was quite excited to check out the new stuff they had at the park.

First stop was the view deck. And that's what we did. Checked out the view. Couldn't resist though taking a picture of my friends since they looked like an emo version of the F4.

As expected the zipline was... short. It cost PhP200 per head, per way, but I guess it's not so bad since the longer ziplines are located in Mindanao! We wanted to try out the cage zip but decided against it when we found out the price.

Picnic Grove was pretty much the same. Most of the small cottages were torn down and the facilities haven't been maintained too well. Sayang.

Entrance Fee: PhP50/head
Vehicle Fee: PhP35/car

Map to Picnic Grove


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Tagaytay

I've been hankering to go to Tagaytay for sometime now and found the perfect excuse when Drew said he was coming to town. We immediately put things in motion and in just a few days we were roaring down to Tagaytay.

One drawback though about going to Tagaytay is the heavy traffic you might encounter on the South Super Highway. I remember once it took us three hours from Cabuyao to Bicutan when it just usually takes about 30 to 45 minutes from Bicutan to Sta. Rosa. We were lucky that day because we didn't experience any heavy traffic  to and from Tagaytay.

First stop was Picnic Grove since we wanted to check out the famous Tagaytay zipline. It was a very short line but we still wanted to try it out. The cost though was a whopping PhP200 per head, per way! Since there wasn't any thrill to it compared to the zipline at Davao's Outland Adventure we decided to forego riding the zipline.

We were quite hungry and thought it would be great to check out Sonya's Garden since none of us have gone there. It was quite a long way from Picnic Grove and we were surprised to see a lot of cars already parked! There was an ongoing wedding reception and another one was scheduled in the afternoon. We went around a bit and got hungry. We didn't have a reservation and the waiting time was quite long so we decided to move on.

I didn't know that Antonio's branch at the main road already closed so we had a hard time looking for it. We had already given up but luckily found our way to the main branch. The prices weren't as steep as Sonya's Garden buffet lunch. We were quite disappointed though with the food, but found the place quite nice.

We were about to leave when a parade trapped us inside Antonio's. It was cute though, but we had to take another longer route back to the main road. Also passed by the famous Mushroom Burger. Too bad we didn't get to check out the plantation at the back of the store.

Last stop was at Starbucks so we could check out the Taal Volcano at sunset. We hung out for awhile longer and then headed home.