The courtyard

I love Kalayaan Avenue. It has all these cool little places that I make memories with. Like 9 Mile Bar. Like Pork Barrel, this kubo-kubo grill Ryan and I found ourselves one night we were trying to find a place to have coffee and beer and a quiet place where we could talk. Like this wine resto that is also a depot for native furniture. (Ha! Even BarKo in which we have unfortunately found ourselves one night). I lived in Kalayaan Avenue for one semester. My father rented out a big room for me, with its private bathroom at the back of this brick building that housed his then-office in the penthouse, where I was joined by my brother when he took up his masters in Ateneo de Manila. I almost know it upside-down, downside-up.

We had mass with Ryan’s parents because it was his mom’s birthday last Friday, at the Parish of the Holy Sacrifice in U.P. It was actually Lia’s first mass. I was not too happy about bringing her to mass because I know it was just gonna be hard on her but oh well.. We first thought of having dinner at Cocina Juan, since that is actually one of our favorite places these days, but we thought a party of six and a baby would not really fit in. We made it to Kamay Kainan thinking we were all gonna avail of buffet but the service there is awful, awful, awful, awful (I can’t seem to say it enough) that we left. We thought of eating at Trellis right across the street but Trellis was closed. I would say that this is another of those occurrences when a bad thing turns out to be a good thing because we ended up in Adarna: Food and Culture.

The trees in the courtyard decked with Christmas lights and lanterns

Doors at the dining area opening into the courtyard

Little sari-sari store at the lobby. More dining in the courtyard.

Dining is made more private with the use of dividers

The view of the courtyard from our dining table

We were supposed to head back to Teacher’s Village, a convoy of three cars. We stopped to wait right in front of Adarna and I thought, why not check this place out? A waiter came out to meet me and I asked if I could see the menu. I only really wanted to check if the food was affordable. Having seen that they were, we then decided to stay.

menu

Nice plate! (coz I don't remember what this was)

Again, don't remember what this was.

It may seem obvious to other people what this is, but to me, it's not. Haha!

I will have to improve my dish naming skills..

Don't remember what this was called but it's a must-try!

This, I definitely know. It's halo-halo! Hahaha! Really, it is.

Taking a moment to have photo taken at courtyard.

It's Christmas season after all.

I would dare say, this place is great! Affordable food, wonderful ambiance, great service and all that. Love this place! We would definitely come back soon!

The family, in front of the restaurant.