I just love Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf in Manila. We went there for breakfast on our first morning in Manila.
This particular location has a full service restaurant as well as counter service. What I love about this CBTL is how cozy and inviting the place is. It’s decorated in warm tones and the furnishings is reminiscent of a Filipino home. It’s floor to ceiling glass walls also adds to its charm since it makes the room bright and gives it a modern feel at the same time.
They serve breakfast the whole day but offers pasta, salads and other dishes as well for lunch and dinner.
For our first day, I had the Filipino breakfast of Angus Beef Tapa – it’s beef tapa with garlic rice, sunny side up egg, baked pesto tomato, atchara jelly and chili balsamic reduction. The beef and tapa was done right and and just love their modern take on this Filipino classic.
One of my girls had Chicken Longganisa – it’s homemade chicken longganisa with garlic rice, sunny side up egg, baked pesto tomato and atchara jelly. This was also a superb dish.
On our next visit, I got the breakfast platter of smoked ham, chicken sausage and onion omelet. This is served with baked pesto tomato and sourdough toast.
I also came here for dinner one night with one of my girls and had the Filipino smoked milkfish (tinapa), it was served with garlic rice, atchara jelly and salted egg salsa.
This became our breakfast go to place since we were still jet lagged and would wake up really early.
But I also love CBTL for after dinner desserts or coffee. They offer great cakes, breads and pastries. We tried the guiltless chocolate cake, mango tres leches cake and one other kind of chocolate cake.
We don’t have this franchise in NJ so I made the most of our stay by coming here as often as I can. This became our go to coffee spot during our stay in Manila.