Calea Pastries and Coffee "Sweet life in Bacolod City" - Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

  

On our second day in Bacolod City “the city of smile”, I noticed that when in this city it’s more on food trip. They have many restaurants and café, almost every corner you can find them. That’s why for me it should be the “city of sweet life”. It shouldn’t be the “city of smile” because most of the people that deal with the supposed to be “customer service” don’t usually smile. My hubby is more convinced that it’s the city of sweet life.    

After our dinner in Bob’s Restaurant we went to Calea pastries and coffee. It’s a pastry shop obviously. I heard about this pastry shop several times because my sisters studied in Iloilo and sometimes they went to Bacolod City. They tried Calea cakes several times. They said their cakes are superb, yummy, and creamy and so on and so forth. Actually on our first night we wanted to try it but it was already closed when we went there. On our second night we didn’t want to miss it.

It’s a cozy café with wide selections of cakes, pastries and cookies. There are pasalubong items in there too. I asked what the best seller for ice cream cake is, the stoned face waitress replied “mud pie”. Lol it’s really the city of frown este city of smile. I just told my hubby it was almost 10pm that’s why the waitress was super tired.

We ordered cappuccino, choco mud pie and mouse cake with chocolate and white chocolate.

Choco Mud pie, is an ice cream cake. The ice cream is extra soft and creamy, top with chocolate fudge, chocolate cookies powder and cashew flakes. It was a pop for me, because the chocolate and the cashew made the taste so good.  

Mouse cake with chocolate and white chocolate has a smooth and creamy texture. My sister’s favorite, she indulge herself even chocolate is not good for her.

It’s a must to visit Calea pastries and coffee because it’s the café that has no branch outside Bacolod City. A rare shop that can only be found only here in Bacolod City. 

Doors 1-4, Balay Quince Commercial Building.

Corner 15th Lacson Street, Bacolod City

(034)4358413

Bob’s Restaurant in Bacolod

Our day was tiring came from Silay City’s walking heritage tour. Our plan was to have our dinner in the “The Ruins” but we were still full from our snack in El Ideal bakery. We decided to go back to our hotel and rest. Around 9:00pm my sister called me that we can have our dinner in Bob’s, I was like no other restaurant because in the morning we had our breakfast in Bob’s Café. She said no it’s another location, a restaurant.

   I asked what something different is in this restaurant that we had to try the restaurant? Her friend said its one of the oldest restaurant in the city. They serve American food. My husband said okay we could try it.

The first thing we noticed when we entered was the waiters were mostly guys and sort of young once. Bacolod is known as “City of Smile” but in this restaurant the staff doesn’t know how to smile, contrary to what the city promotes. My husband is coming from west; in their country the customer service is different for sure.

Bob’s Restaurant’s placemat is a paper placemat with print of the menu and its price from year 1965, the year it was founded.

We ordered pepperoni pizza, chicken sate, sate babe, pork teriyaki and orange juice. And our foods were served with an animated waiter. He was like forcing himself to do what he should do. Although according to my sister’s friend the owner takes care of his employees, his employees grow old in this restaurant.

Pepperoni pizza and fresh orange juice were for my husband, he was so dismayed because he said what kind of pizza was this? Tasted like coming from the grocery store then just reheated. His juice was not freshly squeezed because we asked first before we ordered and the waiter said it was. Definitely a huge disappointment.

Before I ordered mine, I asked the waiter what is their bestseller. He said sate. I was thinking sate of Zamboanga City. But my sister’s friend said no it’s a grilled meat with peanut sauce. My mind was tickled with peanut sauce on grilled meat sounds interesting. I ordered chicken sate and for my sister, sate babe. It was not a pop for me, because the rice shouldn’t be java, it should be served with plain rice. The sate sauce doesn’t blend with java rice made it too salty.

My sister’s friend used to dine in Bob’s restaurant, she living in the city. Basically she knows what she was ordering. She said pork teriyaki tasted good because of the sauce blended well with that sprouted mongo.

Hubby whispered to me before we left the restaurant NOT to give tip because he said tip is a way of saying thank you for the good service.

Bob’s Restaurant

B.S. Aquino Drive, Bacolod City

(034)4342409 & 709-1307

Café Bob’s Bacolod City

Go hotel where we were staying has no room food service and there was just one café in the lobby. Our itinerary for the day was to explore Silay City. My husband loves coffee in the morning so my sister brought us to Café Bob’s.

We took jeepney, the fare was 7.00 pesos.  It’s good the shop opens at 7:00 am, we can have an early caffeine load.  It is located in Lacson St., corner 21^st St., Bacolod City.

  

 

The ambiance inside of the café is cozy and there are tables outside with a waterfall and koi pond that made the area refreshing. The menu is wide array. The choices are from coffee concoctions, burgers, pastad, pastries, pizza, bread, cakes and more. There is a gelato corner inside the café and on the other side a deli store, which offers from local pasalubong to imported goodies. There is imported variety of cheese and goodies that couldn’t be found in an ordinary grocery store.

We ordered café Mocha Frappe, Cappuccino, Espresso Americano, cappuccino, club house sandwich, cheese muffin and Spaghetti alla Puttanesca. They have a huge serving. I love the dining experience because the place was so quiet, maybe because it was early. For me when I am on tour, I try the local delicacies and food as much as I could but when I want a comfort food, I look for Italian food. Good for me because when I ordered spaghetti alla puttanesca, it was a pop. I love the taste because the tomato sauce blended well with the olives and cheese. The pasta was al dente. Simply I love it.

Spaghetti ala Puttanesca

The club house sandwich was the one that my sister munched on. She loved it too because of the filling and the fresh bread. I agree with her it tasted well. Love the combination of the fillings they used. And the potato chips were crunchy.

The Club House Sandwich

My hubby wanted a sweet treat that early in the morning, so he tried the cheese muffin. The muffin presented as inviting to indulge with it. He ordered two pieces but he got dismayed because it was too sweet that couldn’t taste the cheese anymore.

Cheese Muffin

Although the coffees we ordered were freshly brewed and blended well even the frappe was. It was an early caffeine load and got us be energized for the day’s load.

Bacolod City Branch
Lacson St. corner 21st St., Bacolod City
Negros Occidental, Philippines 

Phone Number
(+63 34) 434-2409

The Pitstop Restaurant- The Home of Mango Pizza, Jordan, Guimaras Island

Guimaras Island is home for one of the sweetest mango in the world, if not the sweetest. Bringing mango to the island is prohibited. Mango is the number one product of the island. What comes into your mind when u heard Guimaras? For me its mango.

As of now, mango pizza is a must try when in Guimaras Island. The only restaurant that offers it is the Pitstop Restaurant, located in San Miguel, Jordan, Guimaras. We had a late lunch in the island because we decided to have it in the Pitstop Restaurant.

The first thing we ordered was Mango Pizza even we didn’t see the menu yet. Mmmmm why not? These are the food we ordered Mango Spaghetti(P 65.00), Mango Shake (P 39.00), garden fresh pizza (P 259.00), mango pizza (P189.00), chicken with rice and spaghetti (65.00).

Garden Fresh Pizza

Mango pizzas is made of not so thin or not so thick crust, mango fruit slices, cheese, topped with cashew nuts and green bell pepper. Crust is not the usual that can be found in sbarro, pizza hut, italiani’s, shakey’s, uncle cheffy or other pizza house. I think the crust should be improved and there should be choices thin and thick crust. Personally I love thinner and crunchy crust. I can imagine how the mango fruit slices plus mozzarella would be in a hot, thinner and crunchy crust. It would be perfect. The cheese they used in it is not as good as mozzarella cheese. When I eat pizza it’s the cheese that adds more to the gusto. But nevertheless it was refreshing. Sour and sweet taste blends well plus the chili sauce and the crunchiness of the cashew nuts and bell pepper. We tried it too with mango ketchup instead of tomato ketchup. Wow a great experience.

Mango Pizza

  Mango spaghetti caught our attention, sounds new to us. Well I am sure to most of you the same it’s new too. The sauce used was mixed with mango fruits that made it of course different from the rest of the pasta that we tried before. It’s a typical Filipino Pasta dish, sweet and sour taste, which made it, tastes more of a salad.

Mango Spaghetti

 The mango shake was of course superb. Sweet fresh ripe mango fruit blended shake well.

It’s good to know that the locals are finding ways to promote their local products by incorporating it with other products. Salute to the locals for promoting their place to be known to the country and eventually to the world.

Chavez Bldg., San Miguel

Jordan, Guimaras

033-5812310

Aida’s Chicken in Manokan Country-Bacolod City, Negros Occidental

What comes into your mind when u hears Inasal? For me it’s Bacolod City. I’ve never been there but my friends always say that Bacolod is the place for delicious Inasal. Inasal is an Ilonggo term means grill.

We arrived in Silay International Airport around 8:25pm, our hotel was in Bacolod City. My tummy was already crumbling. My sister and her friend, who is a true blooded local, Negrense, told us that we can try the Inasal in Manokan Country. Wow so it means chicken is the specialty. Manokan Country, an entire building of carinderia-style restaurants selling a variety of grilled foods, but mainly the famous chicken inasal.

  

 

My sister’s friend brought us to Aida’s Chicken. It is an ordinary looking carinderia, decorated with Masks, used from the local festival called Maskara Festival. Aida’s chicken Bacolod was awarded as best restaurant in 2012 by Esquire. Sounds interesting right? Ordinary looking restaurant but awarded as best restaurant.

The waitress told us that their best seller is the pechopak, it is the breast and wing part of the chicken. We ordered 5 pechopak and 4 cups of steamed rice. The friend of my sister said that the best way to eat the steamed rice is to pour the chicken oil, the oil coming from the chicken while it is being grilled and salt. LOL sounds super unhealthy? You can choose not to try it, but I tried it. I set aside a small portion of rice then poured a little of chicken oil and put a dash of salt. It tasted good why not. It can’t be found in Manila and we were on tour so try new things.

The pechopack was cooked well done. Juicy and delicious till the bones. Dip in the sauce, vinegar, calamondin  and soy sauce. Perfect chicken grilled for me. The prices are cheap for a tasty food. 

Aida’s Chicken

Manokan Country

Fr. M. Ferrero St. cor Rizal St.

Bacolod City

Negros Occidental

El Ideal Bakery the oldest bakery in Silay City

Silay City is in Negros Occidental it is known as the Paris of the Philippines. It is famous for the Spanish old houses, which is the main attractions for the walking tour around the city. After the walking tour we were tired and hungry.

My sister told us that we should try the oldest bakery in the city was founded in 1920s; it is called El Ideal Bakery, pronounced as “el idjal”. It is a must try when in the city of Silay, home of the famous Guapple pie. El Ideal specializes on traditional Bacolod biscuits and delicacies such as quinamuncil, sinambag, biscocho, banadas, broas, galletas, pacienca, piyaya and more.

It was around 3:00pm when we were there. We noticed that during snack time, merienda, locals dine in there. It’s not just a bakery but a refreshment store too.

  We ordered guapple pie, buko pie, egg pie and batchoy.

Guapple pie is made of thin sliced guava fruit, flour blended with cinnamon powder, sugar and milk.  It is topped with powdered sugar. The sour taste of the guava and the sweet taste blended well plus that taste and aroma of cinnamon made it different from other pies. Since it can only be found in Silay City take time to enjoy and savor this sweet treat. At first we ordered two slices then we ordered two more. We wanted to bring some to Manila but we were scheduled to go to Iloilo first and the hotel that we were in had to fridge.

Buko pie is made of sliced thin of young coconut, flour with sugar and milk. The taste of young coconut and sugar made it refreshing. Although the buko pie of Laguna tastes better.

The egg pie was just okay.

I really love noodle soup. Any time of the day I can eat noodle soup. So I tried Batchoy, a famous noodle soup of Ilonggos. It is made of noodles, with strips of pork meat and green leafy veggies topped with crunchy chicaron, popped pork meat. I loved the taste of the soup itself, it was yummy.

El Ideal is located in 118 Rizal St., Silay City, and lower ground of the Cesar Lacson Locsin Ancestral house.  Negrenses treat this bakery as part of their lives.

118 Rizal St., 6116 Silay City, Negros Occidental.

Tel. No. 034-4954430