a stone’s throw away from the cebu heritage monument is a quaint little cafe right in the heart of pari-an. i’ve read about the place before. the author raved about the food as much as the interiors. if i wanted to go it was because of the latter. i’m not much of a foodie anyway.

if i did get to go, it was because girly invited me out of the blue. another one of those impromptu dinners where friends suddenly text you an hour before, expecting to see you an hour later. your travel time takes about an hour too which leaves you with barely five minutes to doll yourself up, only to arrive there looking like the glorious bride of chucky. or like a peasant, like i did on this night. (it was the easiest burlap sack attire i could pull over my head in two seconds flat. give or take three.)

in terms of aesthetics, cafe elysa did not exactly disappoint. sure, the place could use a little more creative touch here and there to make the ambiance more cozy but i guess its imperfections serve to highlight its uniqueness.

and what better way to highlight that idiosyncracy than to showcase various works of art done by local artists? the paintings silently screamed for your attention, forcing you to look them in the eye as they ask, “what do you think of me?”

as far as i know, cafe elysa may be the only restaurant here in cebu where you walk in to eat and then walk out carrying a painting with you instead of a doggy bag. the artworks are for sale.

the dining experience was okay, whatever the hell “okay” means. i noticed that the restaurant didn’t really have vegetables on their menu. mostly, it was meat. i wasn’t in the mood for meat that night so the only thing i ate were the spring rolls stuffed with a certain kind of noodle. unusual, but it was okay. (and by “okay,” i mean like, “whatever.”)

the shrimp fried rice was perfect, though. i loved it!

but not as much as i love my friends who love to have their pictures taken against whitewashed walls and colored glass windows and pretty much anything that looks striking as backgrounds for photos.

and then we go ruin the view.