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Saturday, April 27, 2013

The Daily Favor Café: Where to Eat in Manila

I have always been on a lookout for a café that will help me escape the city.




Need some quiet time? This man does it right.



Surely, cafes with big names in Manila are cool. They have really nice baristas who smile a lot and are genuinely interested in people. They have nice-looking interiors dominated with earth-tone colours that will remind you of the countryside. And they also have very comfortable couches that if you’re a sleepyhead, you must stay vigilant or you’ll fall asleep!



In fact, I love the big cafes in the city. I have no qualms. Nothing. Except for one.



They are usually crowded.



I go to cafes for two reasons. It’s either I want to catch up with my reading or I want to do some work that I can’t do at home. Doing these things, for me, require incredible amounts of concentration. I just can’t do them in crowded places. That’s why I have always been on a lookout for locations within the city that will help me, well, escape the city.






If you see this signage, it means you're there!

When my friend, Jam, told me about this hard-to-find café somewhere in Pasig, I am more than excited. Finally, an answered prayer. I know businesses will usually build their establishments where the crowds are but this one is a salmon, the fish that swims against the current. I can’t wait to see the Daily Favor Café.



So we decided to go with Jenavee, our songwriter friend who was finishing up a song that time. I knew that it was the perfect moment for us to meet each other. She will find inspiration there and me and Jam will have the chance to hear her new song before it gets aired in some Christian radio station (prophetic on this one).



The Daily Favor Café is so much different from all the cafes that I went into. I have been into really good ones, here and in Shanghai. But the Daily Favor is not only hard-to-find, I believe that it also is a piece of heaven.






Daily Favor's Hainanese Chicken Rice



Wherever you look inside the café, you will see inspiration. There are biblical quotes on the left and some inspirational books on the right. The whole café is embellished with grace!



My friend, Jam, told me that the café is owned by a Filipino businessman and a Singaporean-Chinese. She had the chance to take a photo with them inside the café during her last visit. It was a real treat for her to meet the owners. Though I wasn’t able to meet them during that day, I was able to chat with them online to know more about the café that they brought to life.



Bert and Joshua, the owners, met in a local church in Singapore. They became friends and soon enough found themselves venturing together in a business in the Philippines. They imagined a café where they will be able to nourish both the body and the soul. The body, through their sumptuous Filipino and Singaporean dishes and desserts served daily. And the soul, by sharing the Word in their own way.



This grace-filled imagining birthed the Daily Favor Café.






Puddings galore!

That day, I got myself the bestseller, the Hainanese Chicken Rice with Taro Pudding as dessert and Wintermelon Milk Tea for my drink. I think Jam and Jenavee went for the Nasi Lemak, the other bestseller.

Aside from the food, the other things that I enjoyed during my stay inside the Daily Favor are the books (being a bookworm, myself), the couches, the free WiFi, the warm servers and the quietness of the whole place. It’s the café that I want! I figured that it’s not only good for my quiet time. I can also see myself bringing my friends from Victory Ortigas there. I think it’s just a ride away from our church and it’s perfect for One2One sessions and small group meetings.



I have never stayed long in a single establishment in my life, except for this one. We arrived at around 2:00PM and left at around 7:00PM. In the evening, one of our friends, Monty, joined us and then we decided to have dinner in another place.






(L-R) Me, Jenavee, Jam and Monty

Sleek Tip: Visit the café in the morning or in the afternoon to sip some coffee or milk tea. Bring your book or laptop with you and just unwind, unwind, unwind. If you love books, check out some of their books and get out of the café as a changed person. It’s perfect for quiet times. If you have a group friends, bring them there too and have some tasty puddings. A hundred bucks is more than enough budget per person.



Daily Favor Cafe is also open to private functions and to catering and delivery requirements.



Address: 20-A M.H. Del Pilar St., San Nicolas, Pasig City, Philippines

Tel: (02) 934-3683

Email: beblessed@dailyfavor.co

Facebook: www.facebook.com/dailyFAVORcafe

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing, Mark! I'm two rides away and would definitely take the time to visit it myself.

    Are the books free to be read or is it there to be bought? :)

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    1. Hello Dems! Thank you so much for dropping by. The books are there for free reading. There are nice magazines too! Hope you can visit the cafe soon. You will love it. :)

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