Unexpected Foodtrip at Voyager Restaurant, El Cielito Inn

The initial plan (after running some errands where Ate Beth, my brother and I had to be present) was that …

Tahoooo! \m/

we’d go back to Bay Leaf, the first try for P2 since the restaurant’s debut at their old Kisad branch. Here I was thinking about that surprisingly huge bowl of salad by Chef Cris but when we got there, the restaurant was still closed. We were too early.

The voyagers. *hihi

Give us a few moments to recover from the wind being taken out of our sails, if you will, as you also come to the realization, my foodie friend, that eatsplorer Xine does make mistakes with resto times, too. But it’s not a biggie … since it’s not difficult to make adjustments (as loathsome as I find change to be =b ) in food trip city, Baguio City.

A section of the dining area.

My next cunning plan (saying that like Baldrick from the old Blackadder series *hihi) was to walk to Live Long for a salad alternative (UPDATE 04/01/2016: Whoa, just went to SN Oriental Building and the Live Long Detox Bar space is cleared out. Two weeks ago, our lovely Spartans attendant told us. I wonder where they moved to.) but then Karla came up with a more cunning plan of walking just a few steps to El Cielito Inn. I have been meaning to revisit Voyager Restaurant since they expanded their balcony; and what a thrill it was to get something, that’s long been on my to do list, finally ticked.

X+1’s 2010 dinner of sopa de ajo, roast beef, rib(s?) and peach cherry cheesecake at Voyager Resto. =D

Surprised to find there was a breakfast buffet going on when we arrived, (I’m guessing, this is based on hotel occupancy. It being the summer and the tourist influx that comes with it) P3+1 brother took only a couple seconds to deliberate whether this meal was going to be a la carte or buffet.

My overflowing bowl of minestrone soup. (“,)

We made the right choice of going with the buffet, me thinks, with us getting a little food tour of the best of El Cielito: Most notably, their bread which proved to be more than good for us; the minestrone soup, the viands, etc. =D

P2 in the midst of piling Voyager breakfast eats on their plates.

Did I mention, there’s taho?  Looks like that’s now becoming a regular fixture for buffet breakfasts. My brother tripped on that, scooping himself three servings. Actually, I got him the first one with some strawberry sauce. The last two, he went for regular arnibal. Great addition to resto offers, this taho, even if the sauces here at Voyager were a bit watered down and the tofu not as silken. Karla surmised, the people making the tofu must’ve been noisy. That’s in reference to a Filipino quote, if you didn’t know, that if the makers are noisy, “hindi mabubuo ang taho”. That’s the first time I heard of it too. *heeharhar Interesting old wives tale vibe, I got there.

Cereals, bread and the eggplant topping for it, and fresh fruits. =)

Us, girls, on the other hand, went for the savory stuff. Ate Beth started her meal that was to make up for missed dinner the previous night. Karla went for the Tuscan bread and focaccia which one can dip into or top with a delicious babaganoush-like mixture. Just like that, Karls got bruschetta. I, was in the corner, filling my little bowl to the brim with zingy minestrone soup.

Refreshments station. *sip ahh

We also enjoyed the “water variety” in the El Cielito spread. Plain water was foregone for cucumber infused and lemon infused glasses of water.

My brother’s plate, with all the viands … most of it, anyway. Daing na bangus was good enough for him; he didn’t need the danggit and lapad tuyo. =b

After a half hour’s head start, Race arrived and also picked the Voyager breakfast buffet. While he busied himself with filling his plate and then his tummy with scrambled egg, tapa (that also tasted like tocino = tapacino? *tee hee), buttered veggies, chicken curry (boneless and in cute cubes, thank you, Voyager), Korean beef (our fave from that day’s ulam selection), and sausage slices, the rest of us slackened our pace … ate less, talked more. (For my quiet brother, he just smiled more.) (“,)

Hanging out at the expanded balcony dining.

When we all had eaten our fill, we made dessert of the well picked fresh fruits that were nomnom sweet, cereal, and the pancakes. Topped with blueberry syrup and strawberry jam, that worked well as a “panghimagas”.

More good bread (French toast and pancakes) at Voyager.

(Side note: So apropos that Tagalog word, don’t you think? It really sounds ‘meal ending’ … like we’re completely not going to want for anything else after that course. =) )

Around the inn’s inhouse restaurant.

What’s dessert without a washing of coffee? \m/

Brewed coffee … the panghimagas to panghimagas for Race *snickers

*A Not-So-Unexpected Snacktime

Tempted by the look of the desserts on display at El Cielito, the dome cake decorated with orange slices to be exact, Race and I returned two days after. Also, I wanted to get more of that eggplant topping/dip and the light and egg-less focaccia. Imagine, my ‘extra’ joy to see there was another dome cake on display together with the one I saw the last time we were there. ^^, I quickly ordered a slice of each.

Not-so-unexpected visit to El Cielito Inn’s inhouse restaurant =b

For the orange delight dome cake, I’m going like new FBI guy in Bones, James Aubrey, a lover of food and eating, saying “I bet this was delicious once.” You see, it’s been a few days since our unexpected breakfast at the inn and I think the orange slice that made this cake look so enticing to me started to go through its natural organic process. The whole time, this cake with its candied fruits in the cakebread layers, didn’t smell as enticing as it looked, even if I took that piece of orange away.  I was so glad to have the blueberry cake with its softer cake bread, nice seamless film-like topping of blueberry jelly, to fall back on. As for Race’s kaffe Americano, he said, it tasted a lot like the brewed coffee at breakfast.

(Still, counting our first ever meal here and the pleasurable breakfast,) X marks the Voyager Restaurant of El Cielito Inn for good food in Baguio.

Food:  for everything, except the stale orange dome cake. That gets zilch

Service: 

Ambiance:   It’s a sort of cramped inside the resto and while I’m liking their expanded balcony, it’s still right by the street. If it’s not the smoke, it’s the noise from the feeling sporty cars and motorcycles passing by. (Oh, how that car drowned out every other sound around. Good thing, it whizzed by pretty quickly. Geez, those mufflers … or should I say, the opposite: UNmuffler. )

Price:  for the breakfast buffet of P290. A la carte, ; Voyager menu for your perusal at the end of this post.

The Voyager Restaurant menu

Voyager Restaurant

El Cielito Inn

50 North Drive

Baguio City, Philippines

(074) 443 4846