Last month, my daughter and I saw a new foodie place, still closed, on Espana Blvd. in Manila as we commuted going to church on Taft Ave. Both of us were baffled by its name: "Amor, sBread your Love". I thought something was wrong with it and tried to figure it out. Do they mean 'Breads you Love'? I wondered. Then, one day last week, my daughter came home from work telling me Amor had opened and looked really beautiful outside. I decided that we go there before going to church last Saturday. And I'm glad we did! I was instantly enamored by this lovely place. On the ground floor is where their assortment of breads and the ordering counter are. On the second floor is the dining area. After ordering our food and drinks, we went up and my jaw dropped upon reaching the top of the stairs, amazed by the beauty all around me. The walls are unpainted cement but the lamps and chandeliers all around, the wooden tables and chairs, lamps on every table, dried tree branches from where more lamps are hung, all made the room look both classic and modern. The beautiful lamps hanging from the ceilings, particularly those that seemed antiquated, elicited the most superlatives from me. There was not one bright lighting fixture, giving an ambiance of coziness and relaxation.
Then, our orders arrived and it was time for a snack:
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| Strawberry Donut, P45 |
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| Blueberry Cupcake, P59 |
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| Sausage Bun, P49. |
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| Lychee Fruit Tea, P85. |
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| Wintermelon Milk Tea, P95. |
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| Afternoon tea and munchies |
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| Chocolate Milk Tea, P95. |
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Caffè Americano , P135
Interiors |
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| Students hang around here to chat with their friends and study |
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| There's a mural of women working on a farm on this wall. |
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| Gentlemen's restroom on the left, ladies' on the right |
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| Chandelier inside the ladies' room. Beautiful! |
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| Pick a book here |
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| Please excuse my bottle of water. Haha! |
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| Stairway |
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Counter
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Order numbers are printed on the teddy bears' shirts. If you order for take-out,
they give you a teddy to play with while waiting. Hehe
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Bread display
Cakes |
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| Amor on Espana Blvd. corner Tolentino St. in Manila |
Truth to tell, there was nothing outstanding about the food at Amor. My bread, the so-called sausage bun, has a big room for improvement with regard its quality, particularly its texture. It would have been better if it were softer and fluffier. Also, the filling looked and tasted like hotdog and not sausage. They should have called it a hotdog bun instead. Hehe..My daughter liked her strawberry donut, yes, even though she was not really heaping praises on it. The filling was good, she said, but the donut itself again, should have been softer. The blueberry cupcake, however, gave me a little bit of surprise because it had the consistency of mamon (sponge cake), not a cupcake. Not that it was bad. It was good! I liked, too, that it was just a little bit sweet. As for our drinks, we both loved our own - Lychee Fruit Tea for me, Wintermelon Milk Tea for my daughter.
Again, I loved that mine was just a little bit sweet.
Anyway, the following day, I returned to Amor with my youngest child. This time, we didn't order something to eat because we came straight from two parties - our office anniversary and my sister's despedida - and had no more room in our tummies except for drinks. So, it was Chocolate Milk Tea for my son and Americano coffee for me. My son so loved his drink that he had me buy him a second cup. I liked my Americano too, which, by the way, is expensive here at P135 a cup! Latte here costs P155! Pricier than in most coffee shops, right? Also, after paying that much for coffee, I expected it to come on a nice china cup. However, it came to me on a paper cup. How disappointing..Nevertheless, I now have "amor" for this chic and lovely place aptly called "Amor". Well, they're still on soft opening so there's still plenty of time for improvement with regard their products.
Surely, I will always be dropping by Amor on church days for my caffeine fix.
