I have been to Baguio twice before this most recent visit – however, I’ve never really gone on a food trip around the city. Because we had North with us, we were able to go around anywhere we wanted to go. And thanks to Foursquare, we were able to check out some of the city’s best food places. 🙂

After checking in at around 5PM in the afternoon on our first day (we stayed at Session Road), we headed to nearby Burnham Park, just to see what’s going on in there. We passed by a couple of street food stalls where a gorgeous display of sinful but mouth-watering fried food – squid balls, fish balls, kikiam, kwek-kwek, isaw, chicken head, chicken feet, squid, one-day old chick – name it, they almost have it all! We tried almost everything in this display – to our hearts’ and stomachs’ content!

Baguio’s street food at Burham Park

After the “snack”, we headed back to Session Road to look for a highly recommended vegetarian restaurant. We didn’t really go there for the food – we went there because people said that the place was a must-visit when in Baguio. True enough, we were amazed the moment we stepped into that place.

Oh My Gulay! is a vegetarian restaurant that sits on the top floor of La Azotea Bldg. just along Session Road. The place is nothing short of majestic and mystical! It feels like a creepy but magical forest/garden! My phone’s mobile camera cannot do justice to the place so I suggest you search for photos online – or better yet, visit the place when you’re in Baguio!

This is the best photo we have, courtesy of Repry’s S3!

We ordered some of their vegetarian dishes (pancit, lumpia, crepes) and coffee/hot choco to warm ourselves from the cool Baguio weather. 🙂

After eating, we headed back to the hotel to pick Yeni up. She was catching up on sleep after we got there. After around 30 minutes of rest, we all headed out again for FOOD! I swear, we were pigs that night.

The next stop was recommended by a friend – 50’s Diner! The place looked like a scene out of the fifties – literally!

Fifties Diner!

We only ordered milkshake and some fries while Yeni had breakfast food for dinner.

The place was so cool, they even have a jukebox (unfortunately, it doesn’t look like it works).

It would have been cooler if the music playing was from this machine!

After eating, we looked for a place where we could hangout for the night – with some booze and a live band, and through Foursquare, we found Urban Sessions. The place looked posh from the outside so we were worried if they had a dress code as we were all in shorts and slippers. Good thing there was no such thing and we spent the rest of the night listening to reggae music from a live band (sorry forgot their name), with a couple of bottles of beer.

Gil was the number 1 fan of the band’s trumpeteer! Haha.

After the band’s last set – we called it a night as our stomachs could not take in anymore food or drinks. 🙂

The next day, we woke up quite late. After picking up Justin from the bus terminal, we went for brunch at a highly recommended restaurant – Forest House, just along the outskirts of Camp John Hay.

The place was shouting one thing – CHRISTMAS!

And then…the food! 😀

I shall let the photos speak for themselves. I was literally STUFFED after this “Brunch”. The place was all warm and fuzzy that it made me want to go home to my family back in Cebu. Or bring my family to Baguio to experience the cool Christmas-y weather.

After brunch, we headed to the Strawberry farms of La Trinidad for what else but strawberries!

Not in the photo but we had Strawberry Taho, Strawberry Ice Cream, bought some fresh strawberries for pasalubong, and my favorite – Strawberry & Bugnay berries Wine!!!

After the Strawberry Farm, we headed back to Baguio City to rest. For dinner, we were deciding between two places with Baby Back Ribs. A hole in the hole restaurant, the name of which I forgot, and the more well known Hill Station. We went to the first one but it was closed (boo), so we went for the second option.

Hill Station was all glammed up for Halloween! I read later on that this place is actually one of the known scary places in Baguio (some hauntings here and there…LOL). Good thing I did not know that before hand! Haha.

Food was as expensive as Forest House (we were all getting broke eating) – but it was worth the price. Look at this sumptuous spread:

We had Paella, Thai Halibut Curry, Lechon Kawali, Moroccan Baby Back Ribs (of course), and Salmon!

On the way back home, we got lost and passed by Burnham Park where the other lane was closed down for a Night Ukay-Ukay Market. We knew we had to stop by to shop! I will post about that in another entry so I’ll put that on hold for now. 🙂

After the ukay-ukay, we were so exhausted, tired and hungry so we went to the nearby ZOLA Cafe. The place was also decorated for Halloween that we had take a scary “family” photo.

Best in scary pic goes to….GIL!

Midnight snacks – pizza, crepe, milkshakes and beer!

It was a great end to the Baguio food trip! We had to leave back for Manila early the next day (6 AM).

The Baguio Escape unexpectedly turned into a Baguio Food Trip. I’m glad it did because I got to know the place a little more – beyond the usual tourist spots. And a city that has good food, is a city that cares! Haha. Baguio somehow reminded me of Cebu in the sense that we also have a lot of good restaurants, that really prioritize on the quality of food, and not on overpricing their customers. Because of this trip, I can say that I’ll be visiting Baguio a little more often in the future. To try out more restaurants – both well known ones and small hole-in-the-wall ones. 🙂

If you want to know more about the restaurants we’ve visited, please do take time to search for them online. There are a lot of good blogs (with good photos) on Baguio restaurants online. Do some research if you plan to visit specifically for food so that you don’t end up like us, searching for restaurants along the way (3G internet is a bit of a struggle up there on the mountains).

There you go…please wait for the next Baguio post (Ukay2x!). Haha. Bye for now!

P.S. I really hope to get my DSLR fixed before the next trip! My photos are so crappy! Haha. Thanks to some of my friends for their photos (Rep, Justin).