Philippines - Day 1 (Greenbelt - Poblacion)

It's another impromptu trip and this time to Manila, Philippines. We managed to get a round trip ticket from Kota Kinabalu Airport to Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila for the price of RM 180++ per person. We booked the air ticket on Tuesday and our travel day was on Sunday! Basically I only have 5 days to do my travel itinerary.

We departed from Kota Kinabalu International Airport at 11.40am and reached Ninoy Aquino International Airport Manila around 2pm. I had beef & cheese quesadilla while my partner had burrito airline snacks as our brunch. The flight took approximately 2 hours and 20 minutes. We took Grab car from Ninoy Aquino International Airport to New World Makati Hotel (Cost: PHP 233 including toll rate of PHP 35) and the journey was smooth which took us less than 15 minutes to reach our hotel.

Beef burrito

Beef & cheese quesadilla - PHP 100 & purified water - PHP 50

Ninoy Aquino International Airport

We had our late lunch at Mesa Filipino Moderne. This restaurant is located in Greenbelt 5 just opposite New World Makati Hotel. I was famished when the food arrived as I only had light brunch. We ordered duck basil fried rice, crispy pulled catfish with mango salad and crispchon. Duck basil fried rice comes with duck flakes, chili and basil. Even though I'm not a big fan of basil, I quite enjoy this dish. Rice is fragrant and soft. Our appetizer, crispy pulled catfish with mango salad was good too. Perfect combination and most importantly the mango is sweet and not sour. However, the catfish was too flaky and we couldn't really taste the fish at all.

Our favourite dish of the day was this crispchon served in two ways. We ordered 1/6 of crispchon since there's only 2 of us. You can order either whole, 1/2, 1/4 or 1/6 crispchon. The staff will prepare it in front of you as they slice the pork skin and wrapped it in Malunggay crepe together with the leeks, cucumber and silantro. It was good. The pork skin was so crispy and the meat was juicy. Overall we were satisfied with our first meal in Manila. :)

Crispchon served in two ways:

a) wrapped in Malunggay crepe with leeks, cucumber and silantro

b) tossed in chili garlic

(Total bill: PHP 1,710 including 12% VAT)

Mesa Filipino Moderne

Restaurant ambience

Restaurant ambience and cold water

Duck basil fried rice - PHP 245

1/6 Crispchon served 2 ways (House specialty) - PHP 1,225

Crispchon wrapped in Malunggay crepe with leeks, cucumber and silantro

Crispchon wrapped in Malunggay crepe with leeks, cucumber and silantro

Crispchon tossed in chili garlic

Hito flakes on spoon - PHP 240

Mesa Filipino Moderne

Greenbelt 5, Ayala Center,

Makati City, 1209 Metro Manila,

Philippines

We hang around Greenbelt shopping complexes and had our tea break at Cafe Mary Grace. This cafe is located in Greenbelt 2 and it is famous for its Ensaymada & cheese (made with 100% real butter and eggs, topped with grated Edam cheese) I was craving for Tiramisu that day and instead of their famous Ensaymada I ordered Tiramisu. It's a sponge cake flavored with coffee-brandy and layered with a creamy filing. Not one of the best Tiramisu I had but it's nice. Apart from that, I ordered a cup of hot chocolate, their signature premier beverage made with Belgian chocolate. Chocolate was really creamy and thick. If you like creamy and thick hot chocolate, this is the right place for you! The cafe has a very nice ambience and it's a great place to sit and chill.

(Total bill: PHP 389.96 including 12% VAT and service charge of PHP 31.96)

Greenbelt 5 shopping mall

Cafe Mary Grace

Restaurant ambience and Mary Grace hot chocolate - PHP 184

Tiramisu - PHP 174

Note from a customer to Cafe Mary Grace

Address:

Cafe Mary Grace

U-8, Greenbelt 2, Ayala Center,

San Lorenzo, Makati City, Philippines

We had our late dinner at El Chupacabra, a Mexican restaurant located in Makati. We took Grab car from our hotel (New World Makati Hotel) to this restaurant (Cost: PHP 138) You can choose either to sit outside or inside. We decided to sit inside since outside was a bit warm. The restaurant was quite packed at 11pm and it was quite dark. Hence all my photos turned out to be murky. We ordered street tacos Carne Asada (grilled steak), Quesadilla Mexican ground beef, super pork BBQ stick and Tex-Mex tacos. Food was okay nothing too fancy though.

After our late night dinner we wanted to hang around Poblacion but the place turned out to be quite dead at night. Many bars and pubs were empty due to the 2 days / 48 hours liquor ban in order to have a peaceful election. We walked around and saw some ladyboy and children begging on the street. We don't really feel safe and decided to call it a day and took Grab car back to our hotel. (Cost: PHP 125)

(Total bill: PHP 510.88 including 12% VAT and 10% service charge)

Note: PHP 1 = RM 0.0807

El Chupacabra

Restaurant ambience

Cold water (refillable)

Street tacos Carne Asada (grilled steak) - PHP 120

Quesadilla Mexican ground beef - PHP 194 

Super pork BBQ stick - PHP 39 

Tex-Mex tacos Mexican ground beef - PHP 116

Address:

El Chupacabra

5782 Felipe,

Makati, Metro Manila, Philippines