Coffee and Saints Café is one of the gems I found in the concrete jungle of Makati. It is…read moreconveniently located beside Doc Bosco Church near the parking lot. I was surprised with their selection of coffee - fair trade and locally made - and their breakfast menu is a big plus for me. They have the usual (viand)silog, but unique with pan de sal from Pugad Pandesal of Don Bosco. I tried their omelet with pandesal and brewed coffee, but I chose 'coffee of the day' Ifugao coffee. I think they included a bit of hazelnut flavoring because I can smell and taste it from the coffee. Moreover, they use muscovado sugar from the North which adds to the soothing flavor. The food they serve is freshly made and warm. I found it interesting that the pandesal is from Don Bosco bakery which is a well known to-go pandesal store after people go to mass at the chruch. Their menu offers mostly local food. The café may be small, but is simple and has great quality coffee and food. It's a great alternative to the usual coffee places especially on a tight budget. They may not have wifi, but it is an escape one can go to after a long day's work. :)

I'm not sure if the local milk tea craze is over or not because people are still flocking to places…read morelike Gong Cha. Although they pretty much have what other tea places offer on their menu, Gong Cha takes it up a notch by offering a line of house-blend drinks: Gong Cha Milk Green Tea, black alisan, earl grey, etc. My favorite house-blend drink is Gong Cha Milk Chocolate, which tastes nothing like the places offer. I know it's pretty much just chocolate thrown in the shaker with milk and tea, but Gong Cha's chocolate tastes like Gong Cha's chocolate. They keep their "house-blend" part true. This branch is pretty spacious than most because they have seats. I mean some branches don't have any at all. So I guess this is perfect for hanging out with friends, may e doing homework and some other stuff.

Serenitea is amazing. I really wish the owners would open up a branch in the United States. Been…read moregoing to this tea place ever since I started visiting the Philippines regularly in 2013. Serenitea I think has the best Milk teas in Manila. I highly recommend their brown sugar series with pudding, it tastes similar to Tiger Sugar over on Bonifacio high street. If you just feel like having Regular milk tea, you can't go wrong with Nagasaki or Okinawa Milk tea with pearls. I have also tried their chicken wings and would recommend Mexican wings and hash browns for a quick snack (15 minute wait for them to be ready though!) Overall, if you want a good milk tea break, Serenitea is a good place try!

Yay! My favourite Serenitea. I'm quite a regular at this branch. It's fairly small so they don't…read moreoffer the full menu that they do in other places where I believe they serve food! But it's all good because the service people here are really awesome. All of them know my drink by heart and they are super friendly and accommodating. They work pretty fast and hard and the drinks which they deliver are always pretty consistent (save of the pearls which are sweet sometimes only). There isn't much seating at this outlet, only outside by the road. So if you're looking to dine in then move along. My favorite is the range of brewed iced tea. The jasmine green tea is the best and the quality of the tea is surprisingly good considering that this is a big chain. The early grey is also really fragrant and good. However the red teas might go best if you add milk to them. Something I can't do since I don't consume dairy.

Back when BGC was part of my daily routine, the ChaTime branch at Commercenter served as my happy…read moreplace. It is where I would go to have my favorite large Pearl Milk Tea, my usual afternoon pick-me-up. I would sometimes order from their ChaTime Eats and have Chicken Chops. I would then order Annatto Pilaf Rice to go with it. This combination is actually a bit bitin for my appetite. I wish that they would soon start serving larger portions. ChaTime at Commercenter gets crowded during lunch time up until 2PM when people from the surrounding offices line up to get their favorite milk tea concoctions. This branch offers the perfect ambiance for small group meetings and casual dates. During off peak hours, people who want to have a quiet time and have something to drink other than coffee, could find their own spot at the store to do their own thing.

I'm not a big fan of milk tea places - which is a hard principle to live by since every place now…read moreseems to serve milk tea, which is why I'm thankful for those tambay places that serve other drinks, especially my favorite fruit teas. Chatime is one of those places, and though the branch at Gateway is a bit small, it's never full and it's right beside the entrance from Farmers, which makes it a great place to people-watch while you sip your whatever-the-hell-kind-of-tea. Also, no one's died from drinking their teas, as far as I know, so they got that going for them, which is nice.

Chatime always gives me great feelings. It might be their bright pinks and purples set against the…read morepristine white of their interior design or the cute, quaint, bite-sizeness of their store in Gateway. Sure, it might be completely open to the rest of the mall and its escalators, and they have a limited number of chairs, most of them along the hallway, but I never stay anyway, so it's never a problem. The brightness of the store is pretty eye-catching though, and makes it a struggle to resist going inside and getting a nice, cold drink while going through the mall to window-shop and do the groceries in Shopwise. Granted, I've never actually bought milk tea here, so I can't exactly attest to that, but I do love their strawberry slush and matcha and red bean smoothie. The slush is just smoothly, lightly sweet and perks you up, while the smoothie is just lush with that subtle green tea flavor and a nice, hearty pop of surprise from the beans. If I was feeling down that day, a quick trip to Chatime always lifts my spirits.

Regular customer is this place. Highly recommended for Milk Tea. Nice place to sit and relax,…read morefriendly staff.

The hot water temperature for my tea is way too hot that it burned my tungue and esophagus. I had…read moreto ask for ice so I can drink my tea. My husband ordered a latte and couldn't drink his also because it's way too hot. You may want to check the proper temperature for hot water for tea and also cafe latte. It's undrinkable. Or, retrain your barista. Hot water temperature should be between 150-180 F. My husband said he does not want to go back to Starbucks again.

Starbucks Coffee in the Philippines is on point. Tastes just like your typical Starbucks here in…read morethe US. This location is very convenient for guests at the Conrad. It's just a 1-minute walk from the entrance of the hotel. This location has a good amount of seating inside and a few tables outside. Staff were very friendly and extremely polite.

AMBIENCE Seats are very limited so there's a big chance for…read moretakeout especially on weekends, although we managed to grab a small table right after paying. Location is the cinema area seemingly called Red Carpet now. Remember if you want to watch a movie with food or beverages, your options are ONLY the ones near the cinema. It's an old rule there but wouldn't hurt to share again. BEVERAGES Jasmine Green Tea (Hot) was aromatic, soothing, and served very hot; perfect for takeaway. Cocoa with RSC was fun to drink! Cocoa was already delicious on its own but sipping the RSC was the golden moment, sweet and salty as it was. I was already at the bottom of the beverage and so much RSC was still left for last taste! Using a straw would have been pointless so good thing we didn't receive any. We got more accustomed to the sip lid, a fun experience for any milk tea! SERVICE There was a bit of a line but it was okay. Line pace was fine and orderly plus the beverage prep time felt pretty quick.

Yes! Another milk tea place! I mean it's not new or anything but it's still good to know that there…read moreare still a lot of stalls selling my favorite drink. What with the recent milk tea tragedy and all, I was kind of worried how it might affect the industry here in our country. I don't have the numbers but the tea shops didn't lose their regulars (I'm one of them, and I don't really have a favorite tea place. Flavor, yes) so that's a good thing. One of my Happy Lemon favorites is their rock salt and cheese series. I remember being skeptical when it was very new to me, but I tried it without question and loved it every since. I have a go-to place for my wintermelon milk tea needs, but Happy Lemon is where I go to when my day feels like a rock salt and cheese kind of day.