Cafe Juanita

Excellent Filipino food, I”ve eaten here many times, always a good experience. We had Molo soup, sinigang na corned beef, fried bangus, sisig, fragrant white rice, tibok tibok and ice cream! Almost forgot the pancit canton.

This place is really the bomb. I highly recommend going here. All their staffs are very attentive and friendly. PLUS they really care and remember their customers ❤️ for me, that's true customer service.. My friend hasn't been there for a while.... but the staff still recognized her! I'm in awe when I heard then converse. It's really amazing 👌🏻❤️ I'll also add that one of their female staff noticed that it's my birthday today when I gave my PWD ID 🫣 she suddenly surprised me with a cake 🥺❤️ it was super yummy. I even thought it was my friend's shenanigans... but the staff did it out of her own will. and greeted me happy birthday upon giving the cake with the candle lit..... it really made my day 🥺❤️ THANK YOU! sometimes, a simple gesture means a lot already..... bottomline, I loved their service. THE FOOD! their food tastes like home 🥺👌🏻❤️ it feels like your parent cooked for you but with a little twist... that's how it feel and tastes like... with warm blanket wrapped around your mouth 😁🫶🏼 me and my friend tried their bicol express and Vietnamese spring rolls. and We both loved both dishes ❤️❤️❤️

I had dinner with friends and we decided to try Café Juanita for the first time. I’ve heard good things about it, and I must say, it did not disappoint. The place has a very unique and charming interior—eclectic in the best way, with details that make the whole dining experience feel special. The service was excellent, with the staff being very attentive and accommodating throughout the night. For our meal, we ordered the beef rendang, baby pusit adobo, and salted egg prawns. The beef rendang was the standout—rich in flavor, with meat so tender it practically melted in your mouth. It paired perfectly with rice and was definitely my favorite savory dish. The baby pusit adobo had a deep, savory taste and was cooked just right, while the salted egg prawns were flavorful and satisfying. To end the meal, we ordered two desserts: the baked alaska and canonigo. The baked alaska, in particular, was the highlight for me. It was beautifully presented and tasted as good as it looked—perfectly torched meringue on the outside, topped with honeycomb with cold, sweet ice cream inside. Overall, Café Juanita offers a memorable dining experience that I would gladly return to.

My first time here and I totally love the food, the service and the ambiance! Perfect for catch up sessions with friends! Will definitely be back! 😉😍👌

Mixed experience. The Breakfast Sampler, while promising, was dominated by fish dishes and was overly salty. The tapa was sweet and tasty. The Laing was delicious and a highlight of my meal. My companion also enjoyed their crispy corned beef meal. The exterior of the restaurant was promising, though when you go inside, expect an eclectic albeit wacky mix of decor and interiors. As an old house, it's overall quaint and charming. Overall, it's worth a visit for some of their standout dishes, but there's room for improvement.

THE ONE AND ONLY !!! Great ambiance 👍 Good Filipino Food👍 Wonderful Service 👍 This restaurant has been around for a while and dining here never gets old. Two floors are available for small and large groups and the tables are sectioned well just so your group can still have privacy. We liked everything we ordered and the ambiance is amplified by the owner’s exquisite collections of various native crafts. (You need to dine in and see for yourself) The food prices are a little bit on the upside but still reasonable for they offer. In case you feel having a different menu, check out their sister restaurant right next door, that serves Japanese food. Lastly, they have ready to purchase food in their freezer section with right portions for a shared meal.

Exuding Character but Lacking in Flavor Visited the restaurant for a late lunch on Sunday. Decided against the buffer and went for a ala carte orders since it was our family’s first visit to Café Juanita. The initial impression of the place was positive especially with the chaotically beautiful visuals. There was no common theme but the place was decorated with a plethora of Asian furniture, symbols and art. It was impressive to say the least. However, we cannot extend this positive view when it came to the food. Nothing really stood out from any of our orders from appetizers, entrees, and even the drinks especially considering that most of our orders were starred as recommended dishes. The serving was minimal for one personal and not optimal for sharing. Considering the price range of the dishes, it was steep. Our visit at Café Juanita wasn’t bad but wasn’t pleasant either. Wouldn’t recommend it to my friends but won’t go far enough to warn people to give this place a shot.

Craving for Filipino traditional dishes??? This is the place to be! The food are all tasty, delicious and prepared fresh. The decor is so intricate, with wow factor. They have parking for at least 4-6 cars if I counted it right. Our waiter, Gilbert was friendly and always on point. Try it, you'll not be disappointed. Thank you Cafe Juanita 😊

Service was good. Food okay. Grilled pampano took forever. The bummer is the portion is a ripoff. Will never be back and I can't recommend.

Like others, I was attracted to the pictures of the decor of this place and wanted to check it out. It did not disappoint, the place is super quirky, with gold painted Thai idols, European figurines, native music instruments, Asian vintage furniture etc. it's a feast for the eyes. The fun is inventive with a hint of traditional. We had the okoy, spring rolls, adobo 3 ways, binagongan fried rice, kapampangan sisig and because of the Thai folds around the place some pad thai which was surprisingly spicy! Good flavors, tender when it needs to be and crispy when it should be. The only complaint was it was a bit too salty and the portion was small which is okay if you re a small party but any party 5 or more would need to order a couple of the same plates for everyone to get a taste. Service was okay and friendly but super slow. I would recommend a try. Parking is nuts!

Traditional Filipino food served in the most interesting of decor. It's like my in-laws with their random chandeliers and lights x10. Service was a bit off, server gave us menus and started to ask about drinks then left us without taking a drink order. We thought he was coming back but he never did. We also had to ask for a few things multiple times (like extra rice). I think it wasn't until half way through that we realized this hanging object wasn't decor but a bell to ask for service. Food was really good though, especially the baby squid in ink. Usually pushy is tough and really murky, not my fave. But the baby squid were soft and had a lighter taste. We also had corn beef sinigang, kare kare, and fried lapu lapu.

Great experience to try this must visit restaurant in Manila! Parking service provided and guided. Food is good and ambiance is comfy. Will consider to come again if having friends visiting! I can tell why it's on the list for 10 must do in Manila!!!!!!

Probably one of the most aesthetically pleasing places I've ever been to outside the US, Cafe Juanita is certainly worth the 40 minute cab ride we had to take. With friendly service and a visually pleasing interior decor, this place had us from the start. We ordered the fried Lupa Lupa, stuffed crab, and gulay vegetable dish in coconut milk. The gulay was amazing and blended well with the coconut milk and eggplant siding. The stuffed crab was delicious, having noodles and veggies stuffed in it as well. The fried Lupa Lupa was good, but it was batter fried so it was a little heavy. Overall I would recommend this place 100% if you are in Manila and want to try delicious traditional pinoy cuisine.

Cafe Juanita is one of the best Filipino restaurants you can go to in Manila. I've grown to crave the Bacolod Sole, the Lipa fish (Tilapia), the double cooked pork adobo, the sinigang na mamam. And to drown everything down, the Crepes Samurai is the best in the west!! I always ask for a double serving and have them heat each dish for at least 15 seconds in the microwave.

Excellent rating for me. We were here during their buffet Sunday. Everything I tried were good! My highlights are: -Lechon Kawali -Kare Kare -Ginatan Bilo Bilo -Sapin Sapin -Okoy -Baked Salmon Sorry, no pics for this post...

A client of mine once had me drop off items at Café Juanita where they were having merienda cena. As soon as I entered, I was taken aback by the barrage of interesting and very colorful decor. I highly suspect the owner to be an artist or a delightfully eclectic individual. Seeing the number of tables occupied at an odd hour, I knew I had to come back. The following day, I did just that. We got the Juanita Caesar to share, aptly priced at PhP268 to start off our meal. We then had the Deep Fried Lapu-lapu with Tamarind Sauce and paired it with their crab meat rice. It was a perfect combination! I got a glass their Tamarind shake, too. Odd, I know, considering the sauce for our main dish is already tamarind-based, but I loved every sip of it! Will definitely be back to try the other interesting items like their Balaw-balaw Salad and their Kare-kare - both of which our accommodating server highly recommended.

Ate here three times in two months, and the interiors and the food never fail to amaze me. Stepping into Cafe Juanita is like going inside a big yet cozy house of a well-traveled person who has brought home colorful knickknacks from different parts of the Philippines and the world, with bright lamps draped in colorful cloth (especially beautiful at night!), large decorations that will catch your attention like a golden Buddha with parasols, and different and unique details on each table. Each table feels like a different trip, and the traveler in me couldn't resist looking at all tables, even from a distance. Which is why I was happy that on the three times I ate at Cafe Juanita, I was able to sit behind different tables. The food is consistently good. While I tried something new on every visit, I ate the ratatouille every time, and I love their Asian version - I never thought wansoy and our country's very own tuyo would go so well with this French dish. After tasting their kare-kare, my friends and I understand why it is a bestseller - for me, it is the richness of the peanut sauce balanced well with other flavors. For the sinigang, I like how a tasting sample was sent over to our table so that they can make the level of sourness according to our taste. It looks like this is a common practice, as they did this the two occasions we tried different sinigang dishes. Cafe Juanita is perfect for dates, get-togethers with family and friends, and just about every occasion. My first time I went with a friend, my second time we surprised a friend on his birthday here (and he loved the place!), and my third time we - a group of over 15 - had dinner with a balikbayan friend. You can talk with your meal companions with the relaxing grand piano music on the background; you can even request a particular song, as my friend and I did. Considering the ambiance and the quality of the food, the prices are very reasonable. The ratatouille good for sharing (I would say good for three, because my friend and I could not finish it!) is at P200+, for example. Other meals good for sharing that we tried are P300+. It is the bestselling kare-kare which is a bit steep at just a little over P600, but it is also good for sharing, also for three people.

Our service and food that we received from Cafe Juanita were beyond exceptional! Kapampangans are truly the best cooks

Cafe Juanita is my favorite Filipino food in the whole metro. I love that some of the dishes here have been updated and the flavors are a lot fresher that what you might normally find. Plus there are lots of good dishes for vegetarians! Yay! Another great thing about this place is that it's so charming. There's no place like Cafe Juanita because it's decorated so eclectically. Lots of antiques from around the region, chandeliers, and the like. My go-to dishes here are the Filipino Ratatouille, Fried Tilapia, and ukoy! It may be deep fried by it's not too oily and doesn't taste of old, stale oil like in other restaurants.

I'd have to say out of all the restaurants I visited in Manila, I really liked this one. The food was really good for my tasting & the atmosphere of the restaurant was really nice. I really loved the furniture & decor they had, it reminds me of a MOM & POP spot as you would call it in the US. I would deft come back on my next trip to Manila. Don't forget to try the sinigang & halo halo!

If I had to describe Cafe Juanita in just one word, it would be "quirky." It feels like the home of your grandmother's hilarious, wealthy, woman-of-leisure, younger sister. Its walls are lined with eccentric antiques (collected by its character of an owner), and if you've never seen it, it may sound like a bit of an eyesore, when in fact, the place carries it very well. Now, the food is equally interesting. Normally, Filipino food is made to be friendly or approachable. Cafe Juanita elevates the Filipino fare experience by innovating ace, and sometimes unconventional ingredients, and perfecting styles of cooking. Their Catfish Mango Salad, Bagnet Salad, and Iloilo Seabass, for example. Normally, this is where we would bring friends and family from out of the country. It is equally impressive to both foreigners and balikbayans, alike. But that aside, the test is whether or not locals approve of it as well, and it seems to have passed that test with flying colors.

This is Filipino food at its finest! Everything tasted amazing. This is a must go to place in Manila. Will have to come back again & again!

We always love dining here. Lovely atmosphere and attentive servers. The selfie opportunity alone in the eclectic resto is worth the stop.

Good food and good place. Keep coming back every time I go home. Best Kare-Kare ever.

There's a fine line between tacky and tasteful, and Cafe Juanita's interior hops over that line, looks back, laughs, and then showers glitters in its path. However, to say that their interiors are tacky isn't really an insult, because that's exactly what they were going for. As one of the kitschiest restaurants in the country, it's a place that must be seen to be believed. The assortment of knick knacks and kaleidoscopic home decor gives the converted home a certain personality--that of a rich, eccentric old lady. It really brings the name to life, as much as I always complain about my eyes when I'm there. It's really a fantastic execution of an otherwise awful theme, and it's the interior designing version of "so bad it's amazing". You might forget you're there to eat while admiring all the curiosities, but the food--Filipino, of course--is pretty good too.

Cafe Juanita is on my list as one of the best Filipino restaurants in Manila. First, the ambiance! The place offers a weirdly cool dining experience since it's filled with antique artifacts and thrift shop finds that the quirky owner has collected over the years. In one corner of the walls you'd see suitcases, or hanging bicycles, or a cabinet of old cameras, and it's just interesting to just look around and find something that you feel nostalgic about. Secondly, the food! Everything that we order here, from the Sizzling Sisig, Bistek Tagalog, to the Sinigang, all have a very home-cooked feel. "Lutong-bahay" as we call it. One cannot say they've explored Kapitolyo until they try Cafe Juanita!

Upon entering Café Juanita I wondered if I was entering a museum or a restaurant. This place literally made my jaw drop with interiors so rich and vibrant. It was like entering an antique store, an art gallery, and a fiesta all at once. Each table setting in different, the chairs don't match, the walls are covered with art, sculptures, and other random finds but despite all of that everything seems to blend together perfectly to create a feast for the eyes. But of course, your design may be great but you have to have the food to match, right? And well Café Juanita does not disappoint serving classic Filipino food just like your grandma used to make and a few extra Asian dishes. They are famous for their uniquely Pinoy dishes like Kare-kare and Cassava Cake with Turon. However, my personal favorite and something you should get during your visit is their version the Thai Tom Yum Soup, this hot and sour soup similar to our native sinigang hits all the right spots and will leave you warm and cozy inside.

Cafe Juanita has always been there for years. I even remember when it was at its first location across from where it is located now. I only got to try it when I was in college and after that, I would go back from time to time for dinners. There's something about the decor of Cafe Juanita that draws people in. It's really cluttered with antiques - from tableware to dolls to umbrellas and chandeliers. Even if that's so, people find it really nice. I guess it's because these decorations look interesting and carry a lot of history and stories. I think it's a good touch and it's what makes it Cafe Juanita. They're known for that and they're amazing Filipino food. I just really love their Sisig on Tofu. It's one thing I always order. Among all the yummy things in the menu, my favorite would be the Garlic Chicken. I just really love how it tastes! It's stir fried marinated chicken topped with garlic chips. It's so delicious! They really have a good menu that people should definitely try.