CALLE ARCO RESTAURANT

These days, food businesses has captured what people will like. May it be Restaurants, café, food stall, etc. If I am not mistaken, what we prioritize nowadays aside from food are the Instagram-friendly side of the location. Am I right?

What about when you want to go in a place where in you do not know that much in it? Of course you will want a good place and a good food to eat. Let me share with you our dining experience in Calle Arco of Pagsanjan Laguna. My review will include the positive and fail side of the place.

Calle Arco Restaurant is one of the fine dining restaurants in Pagsanjan Laguna. My tito booked this restaurant for his birthday celebration for 22 persons last April 15, 2018 (Sunday) at 12nn.

We arrived there late – maybe past 12nn. The place has been designed like an old house; vintage look that has a chandelier in the dining area. We liked the ambiance as we feel as if we are way back the old old times. (see photo below)

PS: I did not capture the whole place because back then, my mind is all in the food and our surprise.

As we prepare some balloons for my tito (a surprise), one of the staff told as a couple of times that they needed to serve our food because we booked 12nn and it’s already past 12. They are very polite and talk to their customer with respect. It is our fault being late to the Restaurant but they still humbly told us that they can re-heat the food if it is no hot at all.

Below are some photo of the food we ate:

•           Lechon Kawali
•           Crispy Pata
•           Chicken Cordon Blue
•           Pansit Bihon
•           Kare-Kare
•           Chopseuy
•           Bulalo

 Blowing of the cake is supposed to be a surprise. We ordered a special cupcakes from the restaurant and also gave them the cake we bought from Red Ribbon. We ask them if they have this “birthday song/presentation” if one of their customer’s birthday and they said yes. To our surprise as we ask them to serve the cake – the background music is a love song, as they approached us, they seem to be shy to sing the “happy birthday” and what they brought us is the cupcake we ordered with a candle but the cake we bought is nowhere to be found haha. Me and my cousin laughed and wondering “where is the cake?”. We just let it go and told them to serve the cake. They lit the candle and approached us again

without singing at all haha. We just laugh and started singing the Happy Birthday on our own.

Here are some photos I took in the resto: 

Rating on CALLE ARCO RESTAURANT (1-10, as 10 is the highest):

1. Location – 9 (There are no parking space; Easy to be found – there are jeepneys passing by.)
2. Ambiance – 8 (Thumbs up for the vintage look; The air condition is not that cold, especially when you’re there at noon time; a little crowded)
3. Food – 10 (If you love “lutong bahay”dishes, go here. Very satisfied with the food, hands down)
4. Staff – 10 (Even though they failed us for the blowing of the cake, they deserve a rate of 10 for their attitude towards their customer and their work)
5. Price – (I did not look on our bill. It was our tito who paid it hehe. But regardless of the price, the food is worth it)

Suggestions:

1. You might want to download/save a happy birthday song for a birthday celebrant in your resto.
2. Clear out things with your customer when they ask you something (like the serving of the cake – it was supposed to be served with the cupcake as well)
3. Parking space I think? So it will not bother the passer by.

Even though we had a fail moment, the important part is we left the restaurant with such a memorable birthday celebration of our tito -- having our smile beyond our ears.

Tags: Blog, Review, Restaurant,

How to Make Homemade Sweet and Delightful Chocolate Iced Frappe and Cold Coffee Drink instantly

Chocolate Ice Frappe and Cold Coffee

Sweet and Delightful Iced Drinks Served at Home in an Instant!



When it comes to choosing what flavor do you want to mix with frappes, Chocolate is always present from the menu! its the most best selling, addicting and most of all, it is always available in every local grocery stores. Based from your own preference, you can pick whether you want it to be cold or you like it to be hot. But focusing on the most important part, personal preference of taste or our own taste preferences vary depending on the degree of flavor what we like. These personal preferences, made us to become "choosy" or detectives, investigating whether that coffee shop or cafe's provide the flavor what we like. Then if that so, good news! Nowadays you can do just anything with just a few clicks on the internet and simply walking at a nearby grocery or convenient stores, for sure they offer variety of ready made food products and it is easy to make one. Just like we did with this sweet chocolate iced frappe and coffee.

Who could someone not resist the aroma and taste of coffee, and the sweet taste of chocolate drinks --- may it be hot, frappe, or iced. In Metro manila (Philippines), Coffee shops are now the trend to have a chitchat, barkada reunions, a place to review or study, or to have a work meeting, etc for young and adults.

With these “drink trends” I thought that I can share with you one of my trip on how to enjoy coffee shop drinks at home that can be shared to everyone.

Before we start, what I did was an iced chocolate and coffee drink since some of us do not want the texture of shaved ice.

What you need:

•        For iced coffee drink – you can use 3-in-1 coffee mix or manually blend the flavor you want in your coffee. For me, I think brewed coffee will be the best choice! But since it’s not available I chose to use what is available in the fridge because it tend to taste creamier and have stronger flavor than the instant 3-in-1 – Nestle Coffee Mate, Maxwell House Black Coffee (they taste better than with a mix of nestle black coffee and nestle coffee mate hehe).
•          For Iced Chocolate drink – I used Goya Everyday chocolate mix drink and the Swiss Miss dark chocolate flavor.
•          Sugar to taste
•          Hot and cold water
•          Ice
•          Whip Cream (I like the taste and the creaminess of this Hopla whip cream although it’s consistency as a whip cream tends to melt in seconds.
•          Chocolate syrup and chocolate/coffee sprinkles (Optional) 

What to do:

1. Put the coffee or chocolate mixture in a cup.
2. Pour ¼ cup of hot water in the mixture just to dissolve it. Stir well.
3.  Pour a cold water. Stir. (Remember not to fill up the whole cup because we’ll be putting ice and whip cream.)
4. What I did next is: I put the coffee mix in a water bottle together with some ice then shake it (like what I am seeing when I buy Milk teas). You may also skip this step and just put the ice on the cup.
5.  Last is, put a whip cream on the top of your favorite drink for a creamier and for a coffee shop 
6. Putting some chocolate or coffee sprinkles and chocolate syrup is optional. 

Aaaand, you’re done! J

Tip: you can also add up chocolate syrup below and on the side of the cup for an artsy look and chocolatier taste (Of course, better with a transparent cup or glass).

With this recipe, you can now enjoy your favorite drink not going on a café. Especially when raining, too hot outside or just too crowded and noisy going in a café. You can have your own version of Frappe too, anytime of the day.

That’s it! You can now sit and relax and enjoy your iced drink while watching movie, while reviewing in your room, or while having some snack time with the whole family.

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Tags: HMN6