Cafe Juanita: I Died and went to Food Heaven

Yesteray Ilyn and I went to Manila and finding ourselves in the Barangay Capitol Hills area, we decided to eat at Cafe Juanita. It's a restaurant I've heard so much about. In fact, it's been voted many times as the best that serves traditional Filipino food.

Oh yeah? We went ahead to try it out.

The first thing you notice upon entering the place is the visual assault of the many things that decorate the interior. I can't even begin to describe it. Here's a photo, showing just a small segment of the dining area.

Ok, that didn't even begin to show how crazy the decor is so I'll just leave it at that. The food is the important thing anyway. So how was it?

Ilyn and I ordered two things: Corned Beef Sinigang and Laing.

Seemed simple enough. I tasted the Laing first (pictured above). The Laing was presented in quite an ordered way, unlike the usual mush of leaves stirred endlessly together. They rolled the leaves over a meat of some kind and sliced it. I took a bite of one of the slices and oh my God, it was so awesome. I've eaten laing so many times before from so many different places. I don't understand how they can make it taste even better, even spectacular. My eyes were literally rolling in their sockets. I tend to do that when I taste something awesome.

I was eager to try the Corned Beef Sinigang next.

Ok, so they didn't just open a can of corned beef and made sinigang out of that. Apparently, they made their own corned beef but it still looked like whole pieces of beef, cut into thin slices. And once again, oh my God, the beef was probably the softest that's ever passed my lips (softer than that Donovan's steak). It's so soft that the mere pressure from a fork crumbles the beef into shreds. The soup itself is perfectly tart for sinigang, but it has something else in there that makes the taste so soft to the taste. Perhaps bayabas? I'm guessing it is.  Whatever it is, it's brought this dish right to the edge. Once again, I can't believe I'm saying this... I've tasted corned beef before, I've tasted sinigang before, but I'm not kidding when I say this is the best damned corned beef and sinigang I've tasted. It's kind of insane.

The nice thing about their sinigang is, they actually give you a small cup with some of the soup for you to preview its tartness and saltiness. The would ask you if it was all right or if they need to turn it up a little bit or lessen it. I've never seen anyone do that before.

Cafe Juanita, I love you, dammit! I'm coming back and next time I'm bringing my mom and dad.

Cafe Juanita is at 2 United Street, Barangay Kapitolyo, Pasig. Be sure to call to reserve a table at peak hours because apparently, we were lucky to find a free table when we came in. All the tables had "Reserved" on them! (02) 632-0357