Breakfast in Singapore, meals in Manila & Quezon City

November 26, 2012 4:11 PM

Sunday breakfast recommendation in Singapore, and recommendations for good food in Manila around Pasig City and Quezon City? Also time for a taxi from Quezon City to airport?

Staying in Manila on ADB Avenue for a few days and then in Loyola Heights, Quezon City for a day or so.

I am interested in good food of any kind, but it would be particularly good if it would dispel the myth that Filipino food is all balut or Jolibee. Suggestions for dishes to seek out are good. Places suited to a solo diner especially welcomed. Places for proper espresso coffee even more welcomed.

Bonus question - how long should I allow on a Friday afternoon to get from Quezon City to the airport? My flight is at about 7pm. I have airline status that allows priority check-in, so hoping I will not be in such long lines.

For Singapore, I have about a nine hour layover on a Sunday morning. I do love Changi Airport, but would like to get out (independently) from breakfast time until about lunchtime. The ideal place would get me a really decent coffee, some good breakfast (local food options welcomed), in a relaxing pleasant setting (perhaps outdoors, yes, I know it's hot), with somewhere for a bit of a wander nearby. The wander could include interesting shops, markets (food or otherwise), gardens, interesting neighborhoods. Preferably reachable on the MRT + foot.

posted by AnnaRat to travel & transportation around Manila, Philippines (10 answers total)

For food recommendations in Singapore, check out Keropok Man's blog--he takes lots (LOTS) of pictures of his meals out and you can search by location on his sidebar.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 4:32 PM on November 26, 2012

From Changi Airport, some of the nearer MRT stations where you can find hawker centers are Bedok and Dakota. Further away, you can get inside the city's Maxwell Road hawker center (Tanjong Pagar station), Lau Pa Sat (Raffles Place station), or Chinatown hawker center (Chinatown station). You can find out the traveling time at gothere.sg.
posted by applesurf at 4:54 PM on November 26, 2012

Changi Village is a slightly shabby aging neighbourhood with a quiet beach, boats and locals fishing and hanging out. Quite different from the usual tourist stuff in Singapore. Just grab a cab (it'll be as cheap to take a cab than a train/bus from the airport) and ask them to take you to the hawker center at Changi Village and wander around and enjoy the breeze.

Maxwell Road is good and it's easy to walk to Chinatown from there. Lau Pa Sat is not a good idea on a Sunday because it's in the middle of the business district, so a lot of places will be closed.
posted by viggorlijah at 6:22 PM on November 26, 2012 [2 favorites]

I recently spent a week in Singapore and my favorite breakfast was an amazing clay-pot frog porridge from an outdoorsy (had a roof, but open walls) corner restaurant near Chinatown. It was on New Bridge Rd. a block or two from the subway stop.
posted by losvedir at 6:49 PM on November 26, 2012 [1 favorite]

Note: The hawker center at Changi Village is currently closed and undergoing renovation. It is scheduled to re-open in Jan 2013.
But, Changi Village is indeed a nice place to wander around.
posted by applesurf at 7:25 PM on November 26, 2012

The Tiong Bahru estate brings the old and the new together. It's a lovely historical neighbourhood that's taken on a bit of a hipster vibe (ok, maybe more than just a bit). But it retains a lot of its charm, and most of the old shops still remain. Families still head to the very popular food market itself and the surrounding locale for good local food. At the same time, you can get your espresso fix at craft coffee places like Forty Hands and Orange Thimble, and visit my favourite bookstore Books Actually. Nearest MRT station is Tiong Bahru, on the East-West (Green) line.

If time permits, you can even walk all the way from Tiong Bahru through Outram to Chinatown...
posted by hellopanda at 8:49 PM on November 26, 2012

Hello Anna,

I live quite near ADB Avenue and you are actually very near shopping malls in the Ortigas area. Not that it's bad, it's actually a good thing because some of Manila's best restos are found inside the malls. For some food recommendation in the area, you can head to the SM Megamall, they have some good Filipino food options there that are way beyond balut or Jollibee. I dine alone most of the time so it won't really be an issue if you go inside a resto by yourself. You can check these particular restos at the SM Megamall:

Cabalen for buffet.
Try Philippine's halo halo at Razon's of Guagua.
Modern Filipino food at KKK Food Revolution.

Now if you want more traditional Filipino food, in a traditional setting, hail a cab and go to Cafe Juanita not very far from your location. They offer Sunday buffet, which I highly recommend.

Enjoy!
posted by LittleMissItneg at 9:55 PM on November 26, 2012

The claypot frog porridge place that losvedir refers to is probably Tiong Shian (random food blog link; it's a popular establishment with many reviews online).
posted by hellopanda at 12:02 AM on November 27, 2012

Will report back after trip! The frog porridge does look surprisingly good too..
posted by AnnaRat at 3:05 PM on November 30, 2012

So I ended up going to Tiong Bahru - I wandered around the wet market, the hawker centre, the flea market that happened to be on, had breakfast and coffee at 40 Hands, and did my Secret Quonsar shopping at Books Actually. And bought a pastry from the Tiong Bahru Bakery and poked about a little in some of the other shops. It was good as a non-mall non-chainstore experience - I do like just hanging about in regular neighbourhoods and watching what is happening. It was about 40 minutes on the MRT (direct - except for the mandatory change at Tanah Merah).

In the Phils, I didn't get to the Megamall, but some of the other malls in the area. I can't say I had great luck with food (although with the functions I went to, we certainly got a good quantity of food!), but I did find the service everywhere to be really good.
posted by AnnaRat at 3:43 AM on December 8, 2012 [2 favorites]