Cafe Juanita

Taking out my balikbayan relatives for lunch, I brought them to my favorite eclectically designed Filipino restaurant, Cafe Juanita.


A stone's throw away from the original branch, the new Cafe Juanita branch has a  better parking space.

Cat Fish Mango Salad, P199

A really good start to what promises to be an excellent meal.

2 Way Pork Adobo Ribs, P396

Tender pork ribs stewed in soy sauce, vinegar and garlic and topped with adobo flakes.

Burong Filipino, P199

Chopped tilapia, blanched ampalaya, okra, string beans and fried eggplants. Eaten wrapped mustard leaves and sprinkled with a sauce made of sauteed fermented rice and spices.  Unpretentiously good.

Laing Bicolano, P198

Ground pork and sun-dried anchovies wrapped in taro leaves and simmered in a spicy thick coconut sauce.  Love it.

Stuffed Crab

Crabs weren't as fresh as I wanted it to be and it was too oily.

Lunch would have been somewhat of a success with a 90% hit with the food.  WOULD HAVE BEEN.  What ruined the whole experience was the lousy service.  You couldn't find a waiter whenever you need one and the food took too long to come out.  Even the drinks had to be followed up, I mean, how long does opening a can of soda takes?  Dessert was cancelled when I've finally lost my patience. And what came out a  less than a minute after I cancelled, my mango jubilee which I promptly told the waiter to return to the kitchen.
To think that we deliberately took a late lunch to avoid the lunch crowd.  At that time, there were only 3 tables occupied and one was about to leave so a slow service and absentee wait staff was really not acceptable for me, especially when I have raved about this particular restaurant to my balikbayan relatives, parang napahiya ako in short.  So will I go back to Cafe Juanita?  Probably.  The food is too good to miss out on but maybe not for a long time and most definitely not this particular branch.

Cafe Juanita
19 West Capitol Drive
Bgy Kapitolyo, Pasig
6320357