Yummy Mornings at Cafe 1771 in El Pueblo

I love to sleep. If only I have the luxury of time to stay in bed all day long. I'd love to do that again soon. Anyway, a week before our trip, Paul and I met up with a couple of friends for breakfast. Our January and early February schedules were so busy that the only way to squeeze in more chances to meet up with friends was to set breakfast meet-ups...and that's what we did.

We met up with good friends Roch, Rowena and Peter at 8:30 in the morning at Cafe 1771. Sure it was so hard for Paul and I to pull ourselves out of bed but the thought of being able to enjoy a yummy meal with a great set of friends was enough to keep us up at least for a few hours that morning.

It's pretty much obvious that the breakfast scene in Manila is not as busy yet compared to probably Hong Kong or Singapore. This is  why there aren't a lot of choices aside from the usual fast food chains, 24 hour eateries, hotels and my Kong Kong's favorite congee places in Manila.  I'm glad that Cafe 1771 opens its doors for early risers in the metro. The best new is that they have a very impressive menu of yummy dishes that patrons can choose from.

Luckily, someone took care of ordering the dishes for us or Paul and I would definitely have a hard time deciding which ones to get. We agreed to share all of the dishes that will be served to be able to have space in our tummies for them all. We began our meal with Croque Madame sandwich (Php. 350). I love anything with eggs! In fact, egg-based dishes were one of the first few things that I've mastered cooking in all variations too. I enjoyed the cheezy covered sandwich that's topped with sunny-side-up egg. It was quite rich and creamy that it was a good thing we each had a bite-size portion of this only.

Another egg-based dish was the Cafe 1771 Eggs Benedict with Smoked Salmon (Php. 420). Quite a steal as others would also serve two Eggs Benedict for double the price! It was pretty good and I liked that they were very generous with the smoked salmon too.

My ultimate favorite though was the Melted Kesong Puti (Php. 200). I swear, I have one entire serving all to myself. I'm such a fan of dishes with contrasting flavors -- sweet and sour, sour and spicy and like this one, salty and sweet. I enjoyed how the salty kesong puti would perfectly blend well with the sweet guava jelly spread. Very delicious!

Moving on to the rice meals, we had the Adobo Flakes Fried Rice (Php. 250) which can be shared by 3-4 pax. Paul liked this very much as he enjoyed the slightly crunchy adobo flakes mixed into this very flavorful rice.

I, on the other hand, loved the Beef Tapa (Php. 350). Note that when it comes to Filipino-style Breakfast, I tend to stick to the sausages, the bacon or even Spam. In fact, I can count the times wherein I had beef tapa for breakfast and I liked it. The first was during an outing with The Foodie Club and we had Mrs. Tales from the Tummy's homemade beef tapa and here at Cafe 1771 was the second tim. I love sweet tasting beef tapa versus the spicy or salty ones. I love how tender the beef was and it went perfectly well with the scrambled egg and garlic rice.

We also had the Hole-in-One Corned Beef (Php. 350) which I think was a-ok. I guess I had too much eggs already for this meal that when this was served, I wasn't as excited about it anymore. Will give this another chance on my return.

To cleanse our palate, we had the Fruit Parfait (Php. 280) which was very refreshing and light. They made use of real fruits and some grains.

I always enjoy dining at Cafe 1771 because of their very cozy ambiance. I love the soft couches as well as the library-like setting making it a perfect place to unwind and catch up with good friends.

Breakfast at Cafe 1771 is available from 7AM to 10AM only.

Beautiful photography by Paul Ang

Cafe 1771 is located at El Pueblo Real de Manila, Julia Vargas cor. ADB avenue, Ortigas Center, Pasig City. For reservations: call them at 631-7340 / 470-6559.