Hillside Cafe & Juice Bar

A few minutes' walk from Fishermall is an eco-friendly and health conscious cafe:

Hillside Cafe & Juice Bar

57 Mother Ignacia St., Quezon City, Philippines
Business Hours: 11:30AM to 9:30PM
Contact: (02) 374 1117
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Fostered by my tendency to always get carried away by consumerism 😂, we celebrated Valentine's Day at this cafe. We were supposed to eat at Van Gogh is Bipolar but they were fully booked by the time we messaged them 2 days before the 14th ☹️. Maybe next Valentine's...

After Van Gogh is Bipolar, only Hillside was able to get checks for my celebration requirements:

✅ Brown/Cauliflower rice/Vegetable side dish

✅ Pescatarian/Vegetarian food

✅ Ambiance

You can also check their menu on instagram

It's so hard to find a healthy restaurant for pescatarians/vegetarians in Manila or Quezon City area as most are situated in Makati. I think it's mostly because more people in Makati area could afford to be health conscious - it's an expensive lifestyle to pursue to be honest especially if you're picky with food.

Avocado toast, PHP145

Usually, I would never opt for healthy food during celebrations... but we're currently on a 40-day fasting so we have no choice. Can you imagine how our chinese new year went? We celebrated it with no dumplings!!!

Oat & rye crusted smoked labahita, Php425

I had a hard time finishing this as the labahita was too salty (alone and even with the aglio olio). For the aglio olio, I found the sauce weird because it's similar to carbonara (or maybe it's the labahita's sauce???). A few improvements and I would've loved this because the labahita, arugula and aglio olio would've complemented each other so well!

Pan-seared grass-fed hanging tender steak, PHP425

No review for this because I wasn't able to taste - I am on a modified modified Daniels lol while my date is on a one meal a day fasting. I wanted to badly try the steaaak 🤤

Asked my date what he thought of the food and got the typical answer: okay lang pero masarap yung rice. Rice yung nagdala.

Matcha green tea superfood smoothie, PHP185

(Buy 1 take 1 for Valentine's Day!)

Overall, I think it was better that we had our date at Hillside instead of VGiB because there wasn't a lot of people and the place had a relaxing ambiance (SUPER PLUS POINTS FOR THE PLANTS). It was a great place to unwind! So I may be back there in a few days to study and try the superfood latte.

Taiwan 🇹🇼 Day 4: Xindian Old Street, Wulai Atayal Aboriginal Village & Hotsprings, Bitan Scenic Area, Our Times Film Location, Gongguan Night Market, & Shi Da Night Market

The highlight for the day is Wulai Atayal Aboriginal Village in Wulai District. Wulai, like Beitou is home to natural hotsprings and the closest aboriginal village to Taipei.

Xindian Old Street

From Dingxi, we went to the end of the green line, Xindian Station NTD24. Just outside the station is Xindian tourist information center and across the street on one side is Xindian Old Street and Bitan Scenic Area on the other.

There isn't really anything special in Xindian Old Street - maybe except this hugeee wintermelon outside one of the pawnshops. The street is mostly lined with pawnshops and restaurants. No food stalls like other old streets.

Lunch at Family Mart NTD79. I couldn't finish my lunch buuut it was so good!!! AHHH BRING THIS TO PHILIPPINES PLIZ!

We went back to Xindian Station after to board Bus 849 to Wulai Atayal NTD15.

Wulai is the last stop of the bus so you definitely won't get lost going there!

Across the first bridge is Wulai Old Street. We thought it would be hard to find food here or the food would be expensive as it is an "aboriginal village". Boy were we wrong! The village as well as the top part of Wulai is lined with restaurants.

 Wild boar sausage NTD35

🔆 What to eat: Aboriginal dishes such as wild mountain boar, bamboo tube rice, wild mountain yams, pickled pork, Reeve's muntjac and bird's nest fern

Muaji aka sticky rice NTD30 - I could eat this for merienda anytime!

🔆 What to buy: Millet wine & traditional woven cloth (I wanted to buy one badly but as usual, stuff like this is expensive)

They even have a 711 here! Chatime at NTD30

This is the kind of piggyback ride I want 😂

To the left is the Wulai Log Cart and to the right is the hotsprings river bank

NTD50 each way to the waterfalls but you can also hike it if you want. There are a lot of hiking trails in Wulai!

There a lot of shops on top too! In some shops, you can buy Wulai handmade goods like the woven cloths and aboriginal dolls

❗️Beware: Not all handmade looking stuff they sell are handmade in Wulai. You have to know your goods because my friend was nearly talked into buying something made in Bali as Wulai-made if I haven't intervened.

While we were browsing stuff on one of the shops, we received an alert (similar to that of NDRRMC). Of course, we couldn't understand what it was alerting us about. Luckily, one of the tourists browsing the shop with us were from Hong Kong and could speak English. Apparently they have this one day a year in Taiwan where everybody was not allowed to go out of their house/shop for an hour because the police will be making a nationwide drill.

Atop the falls is a resort which you can visit for NTD220 return gondola ride.

Before leaving Wulai, we soaked in their free foot hotsprings just outside their tourist information center. We were supposed to soak on the hotsprings river but there was construction going on so the river is closed. Beitou has a free foot hotsprings too!

Back at Xindian Station, we went to Bitan Scenic Area. It's a riverfront area where there are a lot of chill activities. You can ride boats or rent bicycles or just stroll along the riverside while looking at the calm surroundings. There are also a few hiking trails and temples near the area.

After Bitan, we visited one of the film locations of 我的少女时代 Our Times near Xindian District Office Station NTD16. The place was a cafe called 小歇泡沫紅茶 which is just around the block from the main station. Unfortunately, when we went, it was already closed for good and in renovation for another business 😭


Karen and I were such a big fan of the movie. I was so excited to the point where I coordinated my outfit for this visit to look like Zhenxin (you will see it in my Day 5 post). We were so disappointed... but on our 6th day, we were able to pass by another film location. Buuut out of all the film locations in Taipei, this cafe was the most similar to the movie 😔

Xiao long bao NTD15 & Cranberry Juice NTD40

We made our way to Gongguan Station NTD20 after that to eat at Gongguan Night Market which is pretty much just a block of building but surrounding areas have a lot of  restaurants and shoe stores. It's also just outside National Taiwan University - the top university in Taiwan.

To be honest, one of the reasons why I went to Taiwan was to check out the living expenses and NTU enrolment because I was thinking about where to study after my bachelor's degree - either Taiwan or China. At first, I was so set on NTU but eventually got swayed over to Tsinghua University in China. But who knows where fate will take me lol.

師大39文Eat市集 NTD120+50, 阿諾可麗餅 Arnor Crepes NTD120, 50Tea NTD45

One station away from Gongguan is Tai Power Station NTD16 which houses the chic shopping district of Shi Da Night Market.

Near Shi Da is NTU (this uni is THAT wide). It's definitely the place to shop for millenials. It's mostly food and fashion stores targeted for university students and also owned by upstart entrepreneurs. AND I LOVED EVERYTHING!!! If had money, I would buy a lot of clothes, bags and shoes here!

📍Pink - Places we've been to

Taiwan 🇹🇼 Day 3: Jade Market, Flower Market, Beitou, Tamsui, Bali Old Street

Day 3 was a Sunday so I centered our itinerary to Weekend Markets. First stop was the Jianguo Jade Market - Dingxi Station to Zhongxiao Xinsheng NTD16. The markets are open during Weekends, 9AM to 5PM.

Like most market, not everything in the Jade Market is genuine as the vendors claim them to be so you have to know your way around your precious stones.

🔆 Good place to buy unique gems and pasalubongs for your Chinoy friends and family.

老板很开心了！

🔆 Get clay pots for your tea lovers

At the end of the Jade Market is the Flower Market then the Artists' Corner. After buying rare seeds for my papa, and my friends fawning over cactus, we skipped going to Artists' Corner for lunch.

We had lunch at a nearby 711 NTD79 . AND IT WAS LIFE CHANGING. Their food was so good!!! @711PHILIPPINES, where is the justiceee. Their 711s have hotpots, milktea and Muji! AHHH, I WISH I COULD BRING BACK THIS KIND OF CONVENIENCE TO THE PHILIPPINES! Up until this day, I keep on thinking about the food in 711 and Family Mart Taiwan...

After that, we went to Daan Park to ride the U-Bike buuut you apparently need a Taiwan mobile number along with your 悠游卡 to get one. We didn't subscribe to internet during our whole stay so we weren't able to use the U-bike.

From Daan Park MRT Station, we hopped off at Beitou Station and boarded the special train to Xinbeitou NTD32.

In some stations, you can find a NTD100 purikura.

Lucky us, we were able to go to a local fair just outside Xinbeitou Historic Station!

NTD49

Going to Thermal Valley, you will pass by Beitou Fountain Park, Taipei Public Library Beitou Branch, Beitou Hotspring Museum and Beitou Public Hotsprings.

🔆 DON'T FORGET to visit Beitou Public Library! It's the prettiest library in Taiwan if I'm not mistaken - too bad we forgot!

Thermal Valley aka Hell Valley is also home to a rare type of rock called 'Hokutolite' which can only be found in Beitou and in Akita Perfecture, Japan.

From Xinbeitou, we went to the end of the line, Tamsui NTD28. We winged our original plan of Altheia University and Lover's Bridge for another round of food trip around Tamsui Old Street.

Try some 牛角麵包 (bull horn bread) in Taiwan. The one we got had flavors NTD25.

At dusk, we rode a ferry to Bali Old Street NTD23.

To be honest, I expected Indonesian food at Bali Old Street but nah, it's mostly your usual Taiwanese food. They have bikes - couple and triple - for rent though and perya.

After we arrived at Bali Old Street, we immediately went to the nearest bus stop which is the one beside Bali Mazu Temple to check the last trip as there are no taxis and no train station near the place. 

After we've checked, we went on a different route back and ended up in a suburb. We saw a couple outside the building and as the tour guide of our group aka the only one who could speak so-so chinese, I asked, "Bali Old Street 在哪里?". Because I look Chinese, the couple started speaking in Filipino trying to figure out what I was saying lol.

As usual, we got sausage NTD40 and bread NTD20. 

🔆 How do we choose which food to get? Look for long lines.

From Bali Mazu Temple, we got on Bus R22 to Guandu Station (approx  NTD45) then back to Dingxi NTD36. Dropped by 麦当劳 Mcdonald's to try some 巧克力新地 NTD30. //Bus fare and sundae price are guesses because I can't find any information online on the prices

📍Pink - Places we've been to