{"id":11078,"date":"2026-02-24T10:18:29","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T02:18:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/?p=11078"},"modified":"2026-02-24T10:18:30","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T02:18:30","slug":"checking-the-charm-of-baguio-citys-cafe-by-the-ruins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/checking-the-charm-of-baguio-citys-cafe-by-the-ruins\/","title":{"rendered":"Checking the charm of Baguio City&#8217;s Caf\u00e9 by the Ruins"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Here\u2019s an interesting thing with Baguio City: the city approved the cutting of actual trees to allow the building of a car park (we remember, SM), but too many of its local restaurants now build forests within its venues. <em>Oh My Gulay!<\/em> comes to mind, though also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cafebytheruinsph\/\">Caf\u00e9 by the Ruins<\/a>, this famed restaurant that occupies the lot containing the ruins of the Garden Theater outdoor cinema that was built in 1912 by Hubert Phelps Whitmarsh.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We dropped by for a quick meal\u2026 and here are some observations from us.<\/p>\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"tiktok-embed\" cite=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@outragemag\/video\/7610248645774019860\" data-video-id=\"7610248645774019860\" style=\"max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;\" >\n<section> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"@outragemag\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@outragemag?refer=embed\">@outragemag<\/a> Why is <a title=\"cafebytheruins\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/cafebytheruins?refer=embed\">#CafebytheRuins<\/a> in <a title=\"baguio\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/baguio?refer=embed\">#Baguio<\/a> still popular (even if it can be pricey)? We <a title=\"lgbt\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/tag\/lgbt?refer=embed\">#LGBT<\/a> <a target=\"_blank\" title=\"\u266c original sound  - Outrage Magazine\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/music\/original-sound-Outrage-Magazine-7610248722584996616?refer=embed\">\u266c original sound  &#8211; Outrage Magazine<\/a> <\/section>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Una<\/em>, this place is easy to find. Yeah, you can take a taxi and tell the driver the place\u2019s name; everyone knows where it is, so your driver could not possibly get lost. But you can also just choose to walk there. It is not too far from Burnham Park, and right beside the city hall of Baguio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ikalawa<\/em>, not much has changed design-wise for the restaurant; meaning, if you\u2019ve been there before, it looks \u2013 basically \u2013 the same now. You enter a wooden gate, traverse those hanging plants, and then enter a largely wooden two-floor venue. Welcoming you would be the famed breadshop, and then there are tables and seats for those who\u2019d want to dine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ikatlo<\/em>, slight slow <em>ang<\/em> service. Though that may just be because this place is always busy. But at least our servers did know their products. And they\u2019re honest, too (e.g. \u201cThe Thai Beef Salad you want can be offered without some of the key ingredients, so I won\u2019t recommend it.\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Ika-apat<\/em>, how was their food?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We wanted to \u201cwash away\u201d the taste of the steaks we had at Sizzling Plate, so we ordered the Filet Mignon (thick slice of beef tenderloin wrapped in bacon, and then served with salad and marble potatoes, \u20b1520). Properly cooked so it remained juicy, this one didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The Creole Pasta (pasta with shrimp and mushroom cream sauce with paprika, \u20b1380) was okay <em>naman<\/em>, though they didn\u2019t have chili flakes (only Tabasco sauce), thus limiting our desire to make this spicier. It was filling\u2026 even if the portion was on the smaller side.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>This restaurant is one of those with too many items in the menu, so \u2013 yeah \u2013 you\u2019re bound to find something you\u2019d like. Note that some of the goods here are costly \u2013 e.g. Breads sell from \u20b160-\u20b1180, Banana Turon for \u20b1120, Suman at Tsokolate for \u20b1210, and Dinuguan with Puto for \u20b1240. But these are among those that helped make this restaurant known.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Googling eating venues in Baguio City will give you a lot of must-check places. And among those that, consistently, enter lists of recommended restaurants is Caf\u00e9 by the Ruins. This is not surprising, really, because this place can be described as largely consistent. So, yeah, while the breads there remain too expensive, everything else is\u2026 generally\u2026 okay, considering they taste better-than-okay anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Go check\u2026 or just join us, as we look for more <em>lafangan<\/em> venues\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\"><em>Caf\u00e9 by the Ruins is located at 25 Shuntug Rd., Baguio City. For more information, contact 0966 528 9072 or email <\/em><a href=\"mailto:cafebytheruins@gmail.com\"><em>cafebytheruins@gmail.com<\/em><\/a><em>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Googling eating venues in Baguio City will give you a lot of must-check places. And among those that, consistently, enter lists of recommended restaurants is Caf\u00e9 by the Ruins. We #LGBT checked to see why.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[2551,2553,687,110],"class_list":["post-11078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-destinations","category-travel","tag-baguio-city","tag-cafe-by-the-ruins","tag-dining-in-baguio","tag-travel-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11080,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11078\/revisions\/11080"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11079"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/zestmag.com\/online\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}