2016 presidential election weekend, we opted to go on a trip to Baguio, being that it was a long weekend and we needed to unwind from life in the metro.
I hunted for affordable lodging places near Session Road (preferably Php 5,000 for two nights stay) and saw the newly opened Bloomfield Hotel. The pictures emitted such an elegant and relaxing aura (plus they have good ratings), but unfortunately, they were fully-booked over the weekend.
My search ended with Venus Park Hotel, mainly because of the good things said about them.
DAY 1
So we left for our trip on the morning of May 7, around 7AM, and arrived in Baguio roughly by 12noon. With all the roadblocks that we encountered, it was still a pretty decent travel time.
For our first stop, we had our lunch at the infamous 50's Diner, along Military cut-off. This restaurant is well-known for its affordable, delicious and generous food servings.
We ordered the 50's Beef Stew, The Famous 50's Burger, Grandma's Fried Chicken and Strawberry Milkshake. All of it for less than Php 500!
After our filling lunch, we went to the hotel to check-in.
We were welcomed by the friendly and accommodating staff and were escorted to our room.
I have to admit, I was shocked when we entered the room. It was such a disappointing room! I'll be writing about it in a separate review.
Moving on, after settling ourselves in the room, we decided to go around Session Road.
Being the Volante lovers that we are, we just had to dine in there for dinner. :)
We just ordered a 10 inch Pepperoni and Mushroom Pizza.
As we had expected, everything was on point and just the way we like it! The dough was baked just right, with a crispy crust, mushrooms were fresh and taken as a whole, it was very flavorful. This had a price tag of Php 263, plus 5% service charge.
We ended our first day, walking back to the hotel and sleeping uncomfortably in our hard beds.
DAY 2
Since the room rate did not come with any breakfast, we decided to go early to Volante, Wright Park Branch. We arrived there around 8:30 AM.
We just ordered one Breakfast Starter to share. This platter comes with 2 Eggs (Scrambled or Fried), your choice of either Bacon, Ham, Hanna Sausage or Embutido, choice of Waffles, Corsican Rice, Plain Rice or Garlic Bread, and either Brewed Coffee, Hot Chocolate, Iced Tea or Lemonade. All that for just Php 134!
So here's what we chose: Waffles, Fried Egg, Bacon and Hot Chocolate
This is really filling even if the two of us shared the dish.
So we took our time eating our breakfast and waited it out until 11:15 AM, because we intended to have lunch in Canto, which is located in the Ketchup Food Community. (Yes, food again :D )
Be
warned, parking gets very difficult, so come early or just hail a cab. Also, be
prepared to fall in line. :)
We went inside the Ketchup compound around 11:25 AM, and there was already a line formed outside Canto. Good thing I was third in the waiting line.
Here's what the inside of the Ketchup Food Community looked like:
This is Canto's waiting area (Lucky they have an umbrella!)
We waited for around 30 minutes to be
seated since the place was really packed. It's actually impressive how the
servers are able to maintain the order of the long queue. Good thing also is
that they're strict in implementing proper queuing.
I ordered the half slab of Lomo Ribs (Php 209) while
hubby ordered the Chili Burger (PHp 199). For drinks, I had their Strawberry Slush (Php 50) and the
Almond Lychee Gulaman (Php 25).
Drinks were served first and both were
amazingly yummy and very refreshing! When our orders arrived, we were
overwhelmed by the size of the serving.
I loved the Lomo Ribs! It was sooooooooo
tender and flavorful. I think I was just able to manage to finish 1/4 of the
ribs but I ate all of the sides. Hubby finished his huge chili burger and loved
every bite of it! With a very affordable price tag on their menu, we left happy
and very satisfied.
Needless to say, we will be coming back here on our
next trip to Baguio.
After such a heavy meal, we just decided to go around SM Baguio and bask in the cold breeze.
So late afternoon came, and since we were still full from our heavy lunch, we just decided to have some cake at Vizcos.
We ordered a slice of Strawberry Shortcake, and a slice of Oreo Cheesecake.
Both cakes were delicious! You can tasted the cream cheese in the Oreo Cheesecake and the Strawberry Shortcake was light and refreshing.
We went back to the hotel feeling lethargic from the entire day's ordeal.
DAY 3
Finally! We can check out!! But before that, we made sure to go the the market to buy fresh strawberries and other delicacies. We left the hotel around 8AM to make sure that we make it in time for the strawberries.
We went around the market and saw around 4 stalls selling strawberries. Prices were off the roof and reached Php300/kilo. I gave up on the strawberries and just bought some Peanut Brittle and Choco Flakes. Just when I thought I wouldn't be able to buy any strawberries, the stall where we were buying our "pasalubong" brought out a sack of freshly delivered strawberries and was just selling it for Php 220 / kilo. I immediately told the vendor that I would be getting 3 kilos. Mission accomplished!
Went back to the hotel, fixed our pasalubong and finally checked out of the hotel around 10:30 AM. Was I so glad that I'm finally out of that place.
Well, since we didn't have any breakfast, we started looking for a nice restaurant to conclude our trip. One of our friends suggested we try La Cucina Amare.
La Cucina Amare is located inside EGI Albergo Hotel, which is near Ketchup Food Community.
We got there around 10:50 AM, it was still closed. I searched and saw that the restaurant opens by 11 AM. Unfortunately, being that it was election day, they deferred their opening time to 12noon.
They allowed us to wait in their outside seating and we ordered our food in advance.
The Menu
The Interior
This restaurant was known for having authentic brick oven pizza, which as you can see above, is the huge brick oven.
We got their Pepperoni Pizza (Php 395) with Mushroom add ons (Php 55) and the Ala Carbonara (Php 265). Their pizzas come only in a standard 12-inch size.
Both dishes looked amazing! You can see that the pizza goes beyond the serving plate it's on, which makes its actual size to be around 13-14 inches. And they certainly did not scrimp on the toppings!
We both loved the pizza! It was juicy and very savory, but not to the point that you'll get too overwhelmed with the flavor. It was really just right. The crust had the prefect crisp, and it was also not too thin nor too thick.
For the Carbonara, I can say that there was nothing special about it. I actually found it to be a bit bland, and had to use a lot of Parmesan Cheese. The bacon though, was perfectly caramelized.
Will come back here mainly for their pizzas, but the pastas are just mediocre.
After our lunch, we headed back to Manila.
And that concludes our 2016 Baguio Trip! This has been a lengthy post, and I do hope that you enjoyed reading it.
P.S. Don't forget to read about our hotel stay. :p
