Vigan eats: Cafe Leona, Hidden Garden and Kucina Felicitas

On the last week of May, our family spent six days traveling to the North for a mini-vacation. What a blessing from the Lord to be able to see wonderful sights in Vigan on the first leg of our trip, and in Ilocos Norte and Baguio City afterward. We stayed for two nights in Vigan - which is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site - making the rounds of interesting places and grabbing the chance to eat Ilocano dishes. We enjoyed bagnet, pinakbet, warek-warek and the funny-sounding (for us Manilans) eggplant dish poqui-poqui. We so relished the culinary experience! The kids were eating bagnet for three days! Breakfasts were at Villa Angela Heritage House where we stayed for three days, as brekkie was included in our accommodation. Meanwhile, lunch and dinner were at Cafe Leona, Hidden Garden Lilong and Lilang Restaurant and at Kusina Felicitas.

Cafe Leona is on Calle Crisologo, where most of the Spanish colonial houses are found. 
Here, we had:

Bagnet, P250

Sisig, P160.

Pinakbet, P160.

Tower of iced tea, P225.

We liked everything we ordered at Cafe Leona. I particularly loved the bagnet and pinakbet. I hope to come back here for coffee on a quiet afternoon (just myself. Haha!) as the place seemed to me the perfect venue for a good cup of joe.

In and around Cafe Leona:

American (or Caucasian) and Japanese tourists are here, too, as we dine

Outside:

Here we learn who Cafe Leona is named after

Lunch on our second day was at Hidden Garden Lilong and Lilang Restaurant. As the name implies, plants and trees are everywhere, which they also sell. I bought ashitaba plant here, which many say, is almost a cure-all plant.

These were what we had for lunch:

Dinengdeng, P140.

Sinigang na Bangus, P180.

Warek-Warek, P160.

Poqui-Poqui, P100.

Bagnet Sisig, P220.

Binagoongan Rice, P130

From left: Melon Shake, P80; Mango Shake, P80. and Buko-Banana Shake, P100.

Picture-perfect places inside Hidden Garden:

Pictures of menu are seen as you wander in the large garden. They make you grow hungrier as you walk around.

Hidden Garden is a visual delight for nature lovers like me, who find bliss around plants and trees. The food is quite good too. Service, thankfully, is very friendly. Hidden Garden is in Barangay Bulala, Vigan City.

Meanwhile, on our last night, dinner was at Kusina Felicitas, which is inside Grandpa's Inn, housed in  a 100-year-old building.

Molo soup, P125.

Fried Chicken, P410.

Adobong Kangkong with Tokwa, P115

Cookies and Cream Cake, P140./slice

Mini Kisses Cake, P140./slice

We also ordered Tinolang Manok but I wasn't able to take a good picture of it. Sigh..Anyway, I liked everything here, too. My family and I raved about the Adobong Kangkong 
with Tokwa. Yummy! 

 Entrance to Grandpa's Inn and Kusina Felicitas

Inside the restaurant

Grandpa's Inn reception area

  Anyway, Kusina Felicitas belongs to a trio of restaurants being ran by the owners of Grandpa's Inn (I suppose. Haha!). The other two are Cafe Uno, which is right beside Kusina Felicitas, and Uno Grille, which is across the street from Grandpa's Inn. When you're dining at either of these three restaurants, you can order dishes from the two others at the same time. Our cake desserts, in fact, came from Cafe Uno.

Kusina Felicitas inside Grandpa's Inn is at 1 Bonifacio St. Corner Quirino Blvd., Vigan City.

Hope you could try these restaurants when visiting Vigan City. Happy eating!

Food and nature at Choco-late de Batirol in Baguio City

Last week, our family was blessed with the opportunity to travel to Vigan in Ilocos Sur, Pagudpod in Ilocos Norte and the country's summer capital, Baguio City. We had the time of our lives! The six-day vacation enabled me to bond with my two sisters, our mom and nephews and niece. The kids had tons of fun! We so enjoyed visiting places, shopping for souvenirs, swimming and of course, eating! 

In Ilocos, we grabbed the chance to eat local specialty dishes like the "warek-warek", the funny-named eggplant dish "poqui-poqui", the kids' favorite bagnet (they were eating it for 3 days!), and even the unique pinakbet pizza! In Baguio, we were happy to discover Choco-late de Batirol, which specialty is thick hot chocolate made from local cacao beans. Batirol, I read, is the wooden instrument used for mixing and frothing the hot chocolate. Anyway, I heard that Choco-late de Batirol is a must-try in the City of Pines. It's a very charming garden restaurant where you get to enjoy nature and eat good food and drink their famous hot chocolate. The only thing we didn't like was there were many items on their menu that they have ceased to offer but were still listed. So we were disappointed a number of times ordering something and being told they didn't have it. They might as well purge the menu of those items, right, to avoid confusion and disappointment on the part of diners. Overall though, we had a good time at Choco-late de Batirol with the great natural ambiance (lots of plants and trees all around) and delicious food. 

 These were our orders:      

Tocino Kalabaw, P160.
I was in the mood for the unfamiliar so I ordered this one. Carabao meat was not rave-worthy for me, though I Iiked that it was very tender. 

Pork Binagoongan, P280 per order, good for 2-3 persons.

Lechon Paksiw, P310. 

Beefsteak, P300.

Bibingka (P105) and hot chocolate traditional blend (P90). A match made in heaven!

How their hot chocolate is prepared.

A simmering cup of chocolate de batirol. Too bad our orders came in paper cups instead of china (ceramic).

 In and around the garden restaurant

When visiting Baguio, you'd be happy to include Choco-late de Batirol inside Camp John Hay in your itinerary. They have two locations in the summer capital and another one in the City of San Fernando in Pampanga. Enjoy your hot cup of goodness!