SUBIC Food-venture : Version 2.0 (DAY 1)

We spent our long Holiday and celebrated the coming of 2015 in Subic. I could say that it was a food-filled vacation!

Early word of advice, if you plan on going on an out of town trip or want to stay in a hotel within the Metro, it’s always best to book your rooms early. We booked ours as early as April, to avoid any possible inconvenience.

For our accommodation, I wanted to try the villa that I saw during our stay last April, Moonbay Marina Villas. Moonbay is located just across Lighthouse. I'll be writing about it in a separate article. :)

We left the Metro around 6 AM and drove for roughly 2 hours. Since it was still too early for check-in when we reached Subic, I suggested that we have breakfast in Xtremely Xpresso.

Xtremely Xpresso is one of the known cafes in Subic, part of their menu is their signature Big Ben, which is a twenty inch pizza with a generous amount of toppings. Since it was still too early, we just opted for their breakfast menu.

My personal choice was the Tocino (Php 120), while Kyle and his sisters got the Tapa (Php 150). His folks opted for the Filipino Breakfast (Php 180) and Longganisa (Php 120). All breakfast meals came with complimentary brewed coffee. We also ordered an additional Hot Choco, since Kyle is not a fan of coffee.

Our hot drinks were served first, and it was a lovely way to warm our tummies. They serve Lavazza brewed coffee, and we all loved it! The Hot Chocolate was nice, but nothing really special.

Their mugs have catchy quotes on it, the only turn-off is that, it looks so worn out already. Maybe it's time to change them? :)

     

The food was served, and we were all excited to get our fill. Apologies since I was able to get pictures of mine and Kyle's dishes only.

     

The Tocino was tender and had a good bite to it. It also had the right amount of fat, and its sweetness was not overpowering. It was also cooked to the point where the meat is already caramelizing, just the way I like! The garlic rice really had a good amount of garlic in it, and it was the perfect pair.

The Tapa was also good. It was actually like eating steak strips.

All the breakfast rice meals come with an egg, done your way. We always go for a runny, sunny-side up.

Everybody enjoyed their breakfast selection. The only thing that made our experience there a bit disappointing was the fact that they did not inform us that their coffee was refillable...it was REFILLABLE! :(

On a side note, I love the homey feel of the cafe. They also have al fresco dining since it does get packed during the weekends and holidays.

After breakfast, we went for a stroll in Harbor Point.

     

Nothing really special here, just your typical mall.

After our stroll, we went to our hotel / villa to see if we could already check in. Luckily, we just waited for a few minutes and was checked in  around 12-noon. We settled in our Villa, and rested until around 2PM.

We then went out in search of another known foodie place in Subic, The Coffee Shop. This establishment is famous for their "Jumbo Taco", and we were eager to find out for ourselves.

The Coffee Shop is located outside the SBMA area, along the streets of Barrio Barretto. It was actually a bit of a challenge to find, but our trusty GPS guided us to our destination.

We arrived, and I honestly got a little worried when I saw the inside of the restaurant. It looked like your typical street "karinderya", and I just couldn't help but doubt on what those various reviews said. Then again, the taste of the food should not be judged based on the appearance of the restaurant.;)

Since we were a party of 8, we occupied 2 table areas. We browsed over their menu, and they had a lot of promising choices! Of course, we had to order the taco, among others. So me, along with 4 others, had the Soft Taco (Php 95), while Kyle and Keith ordered the Hard Taco (PHp 95), in addition to the Steak and Eggs and The Beefsteak.

We anxiously waited for our food to be served. Finally, the soft taco was placed in front of me, and I was speechless. They weren't kidding when they said that it would be a jumbo sized taco. After a short while, the Hard Tacos, Steak and Eggs and Beefsteak were served.

      

       

The Tacos were very meaty and flavorful! It just lacked a hint of spice, which could be cured by adding some hot sauce. The Hard Tacos were a bit of a challenge to eat. The best way to battle this beast was to make it into a taco salad. :)

Nothing special about the Steak and Eggs, but for it's price, you can't really complain. The Beefsteak, on the otherhand, was packed with flavor! Wasn't able to get the exact price of these two items, but both were less than Php 200.

The Coffee Shop is a stop-over worthy restaurant! Definite a bang-for-the-buck!

So this concludes our Day 1 Subic Foodtrip. Watch out for Day 2 and my review of Moonbay Marina. :)