I’m always on the lookout for unique places to eat for road trips. These days, with the restrictions because of the pandemic, we’ve been dining mostly at home, or in accessible spots where we can enjoy fresh air and nature views not far from the city. To kick off the new year, we checked out a new place in Antipolo that’s been getting some buzz online for its rustic and romantic look.
Maura’s Place by Mela and Mai is a newly opened restaurant that offers sunrise and sunset dining with a view. While you may already be familiar with all the romantic restaurants in Antipolo, this is located within Pagrai Hills Subdivision in Barangay Mayamot, a part of Antipolo off the main highway. I’ve actually never been to this part of Antipolo before and was surprised to find it pretty near. The resto is easily accessible to car owners, motorcycle riders, and recreational cyclists. From Quezon City, it took us just 30 minutes to get to the restaurant by motorcycles.
From the main highway leading to Marilaque, you just need to turn left at the public market leading to Pagrai Hills right before Heaven’s Gate Memorial and follow the signs leading up to the restaurant.
It feels nice and secluded, and you wouldn’t expect this kind of restaurant just minutes from the busy main highway. The al fresco dining area is located in a balcony overlooking the Metro Manila skyline. There aren’t a lot of tables, adding to the intimate feel of the place.
In fact, the cozy, home-style restaurant looks like something you’d expect to find in Tagaytay or Baguio. The country-style white wooden railings all around the two-story structure make the place look airy especially against the backdrop of the greens and cityscape on the horizon.
Antipolo has always been a favorite for quick rides and overlooking views. While there are a lot of restaurants along the ridge offering stunning views of the city skyline, most just serve pretty ordinary fare for hungry bikers like silog meals or are known more as drinking joints with beer and bar chow, not exactly the best option for date rides or family road trips.
Maura’s Place has the type of food that will appeal to couples out on dates or special occasions, families, and ladies out to brunch with friends. The restaurant serves a variety of country-style rice meals, pasta dishes, rustic pizzas, sandwiches, fruit shakes and more during the day, and wine and cheese type platters at night. View their full menu here.
For breakfast or brunch, the skyline offers a great view for enjoying a hot cup of coffee and all-day breakfast meals. The Sunrise Menu (available until 12nn only) includes breakfast staples like waffles, omelettes, bread baskets and a special house porridge topped with chicken skin and salted egg. The filling meals are a good option for families planning to go on a road trip around Antipolo who want to enjoy a place away from the normal spots.
All-day rice meals, like beef tapa, bagnet bacon, gourmet tuyo, chorizo macao, special corned beef and more, are served with scrambled eggs and side dishes. For our meal, we ordered the Rita Pizza (P400), an all veggie rustic pizza in Marinara Sauce and the Mela Pasta (P385), the house special pesto pasta with seafood.
Other pizza dishes include Ysabel (chicken in pesto sauce) and Lucas (meat lovers in marinara sauce), while other pasta flavors are Lolita (garlic longganiza aoili pasta with sun-dried tomatoes) and Stella (cheesy pasta with chicken tenders).
For drinks, they have Milk Shakes and Lassi in different flavors like Rose, Strawberry, Mango, Chocolate and more; fresh buko, soda, ice tea, coffee and cold brew iced coffee.
The Sunset menu (available 5pm onwards only) offers a distinctly different experience with cocktails, wine, and tapas. Food includes nachos, shawarma wraps, skewers, BBQ, chicken wings and a special sausage, ham and cheese charcuterie platter. They also serve beer by the bottle (Heineken, Stella Artois, Hoegaarden, Corona, Soju, Smirnoff Mule, San Miguel for P100 – P250 per bottle), cocktails by the pitcher (house blend Sangria, Brandy infused with pandan, Three seasons for P350-400) and Wine.
While the food is priced higher than the typical joints frequented by riders, the ambience and exclusivity of the place make it worthwhile for date rides or special family meals for the weekend. I wouldn’t mind going back to try their sunset menu sometime this year.
Aside from the food, I think most people will want to go here to enjoy the picturesque view. The interiors are well-designed and seem to have been designed with Instagram in mind, making this a worthwhile spot for photo ops and snap shots. It helps that dine-in is by reservation, so you can be assured that it won’t be crowded or you can have the place to yourself for specific time slots if you decide to book the place for private events. With travel still largely restricted, I’m sure most people are looking for somewhere new to go near the city, and Maura’s Place offers a nice addition to the hidden gems of Antipolo.
I enjoyed the experience of going out and trying a new restaurant as a break from home-cooked meals and our usual go-to restaurants and the refreshing view. Even the bathroom has a nice nature-inspired mural.
Right now, Maura’s Place is currently on soft opening and reservations are required to dine-in for either sunrise or sunset dining to limit the number of guests.
You need to make a reservation, as they are only accepting customers on the weekends from Friday to Saturday, 9 AM to 2 PM (Sunrise dining) and 5 PM to 8 PM (sunset dining). No walk-ins allowed.
Make sure to book as early as possible for special occasions, as dinner slots sell get filled out fast since most visitors want to see the sunset view in Antipolo. I have a feeling this will be a really popular spot for Valentine’s weekend.
For reservations, contact the restaurant through their Facebook and Instagram pages, though it’s easier to make reservations through their mobile phone number: 0916-5442812 (Look for Ms. Roxie). I was trying to book a slot here for a year-end ride, but ended up getting a slot for the first weekend of January instead.
When you secure a slot, they’ll send you a copy of their menu, so you can preorder your meals.
Location & address
Maura’s Place by Mela and Mai. 0011 Granada Street, Pagrai Hills Subdivision, Unit II, Antipolo, Rizal.
- Facebook: MaurasPlacePH
- Instagram: @MaurasPlace