Burrow Cafe PH — Restaurant in Taytay

5 stars for the service alone. Here are reasons why:

I made a reservation thru text Saturday morning and within minutes they replied confirming my reservation. I also asked if I could order in advance so my mom and I wouldn’t have to wait long once we arrive, and they were kind enough to send the menu over text. Instructions on how to get to the place (even the number of steps to get down to the cafe) were also sent which I really appreciated since it was our first time visiting.

All the staff were proactive and accommodating. They made sure to fill our glasses with water, they made it known that we could always ask for additional dressing on our salad should we want more, we didn’t have to ask for the food we ordered—everything just came to our table course-after-course saving us the hassle of calling the server’s attention.

Aside from the topnotch service, I am also still in awe of the food. For its price, you get dishes that are heavenly and you just know that they were all plated with care and keeping quality in mind.

Seafood Risotto - a must-try. I never really liked risotto because there’s only a few restaurants that could actually cook it well. I loved it and would definitely come back just to try it again.

Seafood Linguine - My mom liked it so much but couldn’t finish it because of its hefty serving size.

House rolls with special spreads - I especially enjoyed this one. All the spreads (the dish came with 4 rolls and 4 spreads) were breathtakingly put together and go well with the freshly baked rolls. My favorites were the sundried tomato and basil.

Chopped salad — this was very refreshing with their homemade dressing which was little bit on the sweet side (think fresh lumpia sauce sans the peanut). It said on the menu that it was good for sharing but we didn’t realize that it can be shared up to 4 people so we had a lot left and decided to have it for takeaway. I just wish there was a little bit more balance on the ingredients as there were more lettuce (3 different types) than the rest of the ingredients. The lettuce were also cut too big which made it a bit difficult to eat.

Drinks:

I ordered the cucumber agua fresca for my mom and she loved it so much. For myself, i ordered the spiced apple whiskey (cocktail) because i was hoping to get a little bit tipsy lol. It didn’t do anything but it was...

We went on a lunch reservation and had salad, appetizers, mains, drinks, and desserts.

First was the Watermelon and Kesong Puti Salad. This was so good! I wished it was the only dish we ordered looking back now. For me this was the highlight of our food experience here.

Then, the appetizers and mains were served at the same time, thus the mains getting cold.

For appetizers, we had the tacos and the buns with assortment of spreads: Enjoyed the spreads, had to order extra buns to be able to bring the leftover spread home.

For mains, we had the wine braised beef brisket and the salmon with pesto cream. Beef brisket had cheesy risotto underneath, it did not pair well with the bland beef brisket. Salmon was overcooked and dry, the pesto cream with it tasted okay.

For drinks we had iced chocolate basil and iced matcha latte. Chocolate basil was too sweet, half of the glass was made of milk foam. On the other hand, the matcha latte was so bland, no matcha and no sweetness. Tasted just of oat milk, as its the milk used made by default which I usually like, however there was not enough matcha in there and my impression was it was just added for coloring. I did not bother to ask for stevia as I was looking forward to dessert to pair with it.

Lastly for dessert, we ordered chocolate ganache cake and calamansi pie. We asked to have the calamansi pie served first and hold off serving the chocolate cake while we try to process the experience so far. Then came the calamansi pie which I was wishing to be the saving grace, but it was so sad when I sliced into it. It was mainly a graham base which was an inch thick, the "pie filling" was this calamansi flavored cream that is slathered thinly on top of that thick base, and topped with blowtorched icing. It looked beautiful with the torched icing, but the reality was its just graham. Overall, Food we had at this day was not worth the price.

The saving grace: The great service of the front desk and the dining staff. To the kitchen crew: Great effort, cooking techniques as well as flavors can be improved.

The cafe had an indoor and alfreco dining areas. We chose to be seated indoors as first timers and did not know what to expect of the place. But if ever I convinced myself to come back here, I'll choose al fresco seats as there is a stream nearby, then just have pizza and maybe try...

Going to the cafe, you have to choose between a steep stairs or steep slope. I chose the stairs because the slope was quite scary. The ambiance of the cafe, despite the many bad reviews I've read, was good actually. It's a quiet place, where you can enjoy a nice green view, hear chirping birds and splashing sound of the stream. If you step outside, there are stairs leading down to the stream.

As for the food- which I can't remember the names, we order what seemed like beef jowls, watermelon salad, salmon, calamansi pie, yogurt with berries, the red juice and beef tapa. Beef Jowls 5/5- this was unexpectedly good, this has cheese on it. 4 out of 4 guest liked it.

Watermelon salad-2/5 too sweet for a salad ( I think it would've been better off without the syrup that made it too sweet. 0/4 guests liked it

Salmon 3/5- salmon was quite overcooked for our preference, the sauce was ok. Presentation ok 1 out of 4 guests liked it

Calamansi pie-3/5 lacks calamansi flavor and too sweet,this is despite removing the s'mores on top 1out of 4 liked it

Yogurt with berries- 4/5 perfect after all the sweets I ate. Tangy. Could improve the presentation 3out of 4 liked it

Beef tapa with egg- 2/5 presentation ok. Eggs ok, rice ok, beef tapa nothing extraordinary (I've had better tapa from karinderya). Overpriced. 0 out of 4 liked it and very regretful

Red juice- 5/5 I think this is house special. All of us liked this one. I don't see wine on the listed ingredient, but it tasted like there was . 4 out of 4 liked this

Toilet- 3/5 could be cleaner

As for the value of my money, I can't complain, the view and the ambiance made up for the quality of food.

Tip: They close at 4, if you want to take a look around, don't book later than 1pm

Don't walk from the stream straight up to the parking lot if you just ate. I did this because we were on a hurry. I felt dizzy by the time we were on the parking lot...