Caffeined by Artesania: A Cafe inside a Furniture Store

Most restaurants I've been to or tried are either places I see in my work / everyday route or  restaurants that were covered in an article or food blog. Rarely did I ever encounter seeing it on an Instagram post... that would later convince me to go there to check out the place. I was going through furniture photos, and I decided to look up the entire Instagram account of Artesania to see what else they got there. I was surprised to see food photos... and they actually looked pretty good.

Artesania is along Arnaiz Avenue, right across Kenneth Cobonpue's store. It's on the second floor of the building, above BPI. The interiors are full of curated furniture... and while there are a few tables around, you'd feel a bit strange asking whether they do have a cafe in the area.

Of course, once you do go inside and see the coffee machine, part of your worries are dispelled. 

Out of curiosity, I ordered the Yakult lemonade mint juice under the assumption that anything infused with Yakult will likely taste good. Well, I guess the lemonade was quite overpowering... but it was refreshing nonetheless. 

Later on, Sarah got jealous and decided to order coffee for herself. Yes, their coffee was good. But I think I'm still a bigger fan of the coffee by Toby's Estate, Curator, or Arabica. I totally love the mug though.

We ordered their guyabano bruschetta with goat cheese - delicious. And decided to split two dishes~ their mushroom truffle pasta and chicken inasal. Yes, it was quite an unusual combination but both apparently were their bestsellers. Hence the order!

True enough, the truffle wasn't overpowering and the pasta was al dente. I actually enjoyed it a lot. For the chicken inasal, I was really surprised with how soft it was (for a moment, it made me doubt I was really eating chicken). The sinigang that came with it was sour, just the way I liked it.

We had gone to Artesania really late for lunch, around 3PM, so we were still hungry. The portions are just right... but because we felt we needed one more dish to fill our stomachs, we ordered their lengua meat pie. Wow, I was so happy we did.

With the guyabano bruschetta as a close second, this meat pie was my favorite. You know that feeling when you eat something and it wakes up your brain coz it's so good. Something like how they describe umami. Yeah, it was something like that. The pumpkin or sweet potato puree on top was enjoyable too. I'd totally come back here again for this. Like, for merienda or something with coffee.

Overall, the food was good... actually, it's really good in the sense that they make each aspect of the dish really well and pay good attention to small details (i.e. the bread is really crunchy or that flavours complement each other, or that they give you the right amount of anything) and the furniture is nice if you're into modern Filipino with some twist. I originally went to Artesania for the furniture but eventually enjoyed eating more thanks to that meat pie!