Arabela — Restaurant in Liliw

First time diner at Arabela. We had an early dinner here upon a friend's recommendation, when we stayed in Nagcarlan, Laguna. We drove by Liliw and parked at the Liliw Church (no more space in front of the restaurant). Cant believe we almost passed up the chance of eating here because of parking haha!

We loved the food at Arabela! I feel like their pasta sauces are a bit more flavorful and a notch up from other restaurants. Penne Arrabbiata was spicy, but also sweet/sour - definitely refreshing. Great with the pizza dough. The Ravioli tartufata was great - didnt taste like other resto's ive eaten the same truffle sauce - it feels fresher or they dont use common cream. The pizza (spinach bianca) was also pretty good - would compete well with other pizzas in NCR - was also served with a spiced honey. We shared a slice of Biscoff cheesecake, and unanimously agreed that it was the item we would crave after leaving the restaurant! It was so good, it felt incredibly well-balanced: not too sweet, creamy, not too dense, could taste biscoff, etc. I could just keep eating it! It had a caramel / cream sauce that you could dip the bite in. We were quite full already, but hoped we could have room for more of the other desserts - they had other cheesecakes, cookies,.and brownies.

We asked if we could buy a whole cake to go, but it would need a lead time of 3 days to make the cake and pick it up. They dont make a lot of these cakes and it feels extra special!

Arabela was also tastefully decorated. We ate here at Dec. 20 - there were poinsettia's outside the restaurant and on the tables. There were also Christmas lights on the windows, snowflake decor, and little santa decor in the interior. There was a low ceiling - which was not really a concern for us - and small tables but we loved it and it felt more cozy. We took great photos here (esp for Christmas), which the waiter also helped us with. Staff were so responsive and helpful!

They take credit card FYI.

Imho, Arabela is like a x10 better and more intimate Mary Grace where titas and families can share a good catchup and a great meal. I will most definitely be back and will try to recommend this place to people going to Laguna.

More power to...

It is our first time trying this place. When we asked around with the locals near the church, most of them said arabela restaurant.

Their service was amazing. Although, they gave us a heads up that some of their dishes may take 20 minutes, we got most of our orders very quick. The staff is very attentive and accomodating.

We ordered pecan crusted chicken salad, italian pasta, chicken parmigiana, grilled porkchop, beef lasagna, fish and chicken kebab, tiramisu, pecorino cake, blueberry cheesecake and cappuccino.

We started with their salad which tasted as good as it looked. Their dressing was perfect and had a lot of different textures and flavors. Next, their pasta is on point. I like my Italian pasta very sour and this one didn't disappoint. It had generous amount of cheese but it didn't have a lot of flavor from the herbs. Still very good. My mom ordered the grilled porkchop. I only tasted a couple of bites of this but this is definitely the best dish out of all we ordered that day. It had the perfect charred flavor, thick cuts, savory fat, and all this was enhanced with its wonderful sauce. The price of this was only 300+ but in BGC this could have been more than double the price.

We ended with the dessert and coffee. The most peculiar was the pecorino cake which salty rather than sweet but this was my fave cake. But the perfect pair for the coffee was tiramisu. The slice given was quite big and the whole fam was able to get a bite.

My only complaints is the place was extremely small. The ceiling only allowed people under 5'7. There many instances were i had to scooch down just to get through. Their CR was even smaller. I couldn't even stand straight inside. If you are 5'10" and above i would suggest you eat in their alfresco tables.

Despite the size, the atmosphere was very homey and instragramable. I would definitely come back here to try their steak...

My 3 friends raved about it so I came here excited and with great expectations. It's nice and quaint and had - - quite literally--a menu picture BOOK with lots of food options for pasta, salad, steak and desserts.

Was a liitle disappointed with the serving sizes. Also, my friends said the food wasn't the same as before. The sirloin steak (barely 2oz i think) was SMALL though done the way i wanted it--medium rare. It was also the skinniest steak i've had to date. The porkchops my friend ordered didn't have enough meat on it as well. I was glad we ordered the pasta marinara and a pizza to share coz the steak meal didnt fill me up.

But the pasta marinara had 'fake' seafood--it was the first time i had fishballs and squidballs and kani on a seafood pasta. The pasta wasnt overcooked though and the sauce was ok.. but the only real seafood it had was the lone scallop on shell that sat on top--more a garnish than actual sahog really. Where's the real squid and clam and/or tahong and shrimp?? What I thought was VFM really wasnt.

Don't even get me started on the pizza--can anyone say Lotsa Pizza?? Yup its comparable to that--commercial and remindedme of frozen pizza you reheat in your toaster oven.

Props to allowing pets (outdoor seating though) and i like that the house water had citrus slices--refreshing on a 34deg oh-so-humid day.

Our server was very accommodating and smiley so I'm willing to give it another try. That salad from that other table looked yummy... also want to try...