Cafes in Cubao: Where to Talk, Stay Late or Have Dessert

The best cafes in Cubao for talking are The Brewman Coffee, EXT.Cafe and Silingan Coffee, all inside Cubao Expo, and the last two of those keep long hours. The mall cafés at Gateway, such as UCC Park Café and Mary Grace Cafe, close with the mall, so they suit an afternoon better than a late evening.

For talking: the quiet three in Cubao Expo

The Brewman Coffee pours espresso drinks and keeps board games and books to borrow, which is useful when a first conversation needs something to do with its hands. It is open from 10 AM to 11 PM, Tuesday to Sunday, and from noon to 8 PM on Mondays.

EXT.Cafe is the daytime side of a speakeasy, and it takes reservations, so a table can be settled before either person leaves home. Its coffee is Coffee (₱180 in 2024). The shared space is open daily from 9 AM to 12:30 AM, with the café by day and INT.Bar by night.

Silingan Coffee serves coffee and simple rice meals, is staffed by families of drug-war victims, and does not serve alcohol. It is open from 9 AM to 11 PM daily, including Mondays.

All three cost under ₱500 a head, and all three suit a first date for the same reasons: they are quiet, they are cheap enough that nobody feels they owe the other a long evening, and the shops of the compound are outside the door if a walk would help.

For staying late

Mall cafés stop at 9 PM from Sunday to Thursday and 10 PM on Fridays and Saturdays. After that, the options narrow to the two Expo cafés with 11 PM closing times: Silingan Coffee every night and The Brewman Coffee every night but Monday.

Gourmet Bar by Novotel, the ground-floor lobby lounge at Novotel, serves coffee, snacks and cocktails. Erin's Artists' Lounge and Café is a café and artists' lounge on the upper ground floor of Ali Mall. Check both pages for hours before counting on either as a late stop.

The mall cafés at Gateway

These keep mall hours and work well as a stop before a film or bowling upstairs.

• UCC Park Café is on the ground floor of Gateway Mall 2 and runs ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head.
• Cong Caphe is a Vietnamese café on Level 2 of Gateway Mall 2, under ₱500 a head.
• Mary Grace Cafe is a café and bakery with two branches: Upper Ground A in Gateway Mall 2 and Level 3 in Gateway Mall 1. Expect ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head.

For dessert

Gateway Mall 2 has the dessert stops, and all of them close with the mall, so on a weeknight dessert has to happen before 9 PM.

Puffy's Souffle Pancake Cafe on Upper Ground B is the dessert café for soufflé pancakes, ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Caramia Cakes & Gelato, on the same level, does cakes and gelato for under ₱500. On the ground floor, the Che Buono gelato counter is a ten-minute stop, and Tokyo Milk Cheese Factory is a dessert counter on the same floor. For frozen yogurt, llao llao is on Upper Ground A, with a second branch on the upper ground floor of Ali Mall.

A café inside a shop

The Twelfth House in Cubao Expo is a streetwear store carrying local labels, with a café inside. It is closed on Mondays and was open 11 AM to 9 PM (9:30 PM on Fridays and Saturdays) as of 2024.

Turning coffee into a first date

One café and an optional second stop is the whole shape of a good first meeting. A timed version with a peso total is in what to do in Cubao Expo on a first date for under ₱1,500, and the night-out planner's rules for a short, easy-to-leave evening are in first date ideas in Manila. For every door in the compound and its closed days, see the Cubao Expo guide. The rest of the area is in the Cubao date night guide.