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Cubao Expo Guide: What Is Inside, Hours and Closed Days

Cubao Expo is a compound on Gen. Romulo Ave in Araneta City that holds restaurants, bars, cafés, secondhand and record shops and a gallery, open from 8 AM to midnight daily. Every door keeps its own hours, several do not open until mid-afternoon, and Monday is the day when most of them are shut.

This page is the reference: what is there, when it is open, and how to reach it on foot. For a planned evening, see a Cubao Expo date night, stop by stop.

What is inside, by type

Sit-down food. Habanero Kitchen Bar at Stall 63 does oyster sisig, a torched three-cheese pizza and habanero cocktails, ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Best of Luck serves Hong Kong-style Chinese plates over two floors of two-seat tables, under ₱500 a head. Bellini's is the Italian kitchen, also ₱500 to ₱1,500, and it takes reservations through its Facebook or Instagram page.

Quick food. Ichiban Takoyaki is a takoyaki stall for a bite between stops. Silingan Coffee serves simple rice meals alongside its coffee.

Bars. Fred's Revolucion is the dive bar at Shop 66. Cubao X Brewery is an open-air taproom on two floors with no kitchen. INT.Bar is a speakeasy behind a photobooth door.

Cafés. The Brewman Coffee, EXT.Cafe and Silingan Coffee are all quiet and all under ₱500 a head.

Shops and a gallery. WCHA Fashion Haus sells pre-loved clothes, shoes and bags. John's Antique Shop has old komiks, typewriters and radios. Good Vibrations Records is a vinyl shop with a listening room and a small bar. The Twelfth House is a streetwear store with a café inside. Favorite Edition carries zines, prints and stickers by local artists. Pablo Galleries shows contemporary Filipino art.

Two photo spots. The convex mirror by the entrance, where groups line up for a mirror selfie, and the film poster wall outside EXT.Cafe, a covered walkway papered floor to ceiling in black-and-white posters.

Hours and closed days, door by door

For Favorite Edition, check its page for opening hours.

Mondays and Sundays

On a Monday, six of these doors are shut: two of the three restaurants, the dive bar, the vinyl shop, the streetwear store and the gallery. What remains is the Italian kitchen, the takoyaki stall, the cafés (one of them on short hours, noon to 8 PM), the antique and pre-loved shops, the taproom and the speakeasy. That is still an evening, but a narrower one.

On a Sunday only the gallery is closed, and the takoyaki stall stops at 11 PM.

What is open late

After 10 PM the compound is mostly bars and snacks:

  • Until 10:30 PM: the vinyl shop and its small bar.
  • Until 11 PM: both late cafés, and Habanero Kitchen Bar from Friday to Sunday.
  • Until midnight: the taproom and the takoyaki stall on weeknights.
  • Past midnight: INT.Bar runs until 12:30 AM and the takoyaki stall until 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Getting there on foot

Rough walking times from the other parts of Araneta City:

Twelve minutes is the longest walk in the area, so a night that pairs the compound with Gateway or the flower market has one long leg in it. Inside the compound, count about 2 minutes between any two doors.

Where to go from here

Each kind of visit has its own page. The kitchens are compared in Cubao Expo restaurants, sorted by occasion, and the cheap plates are in Cubao Expo food under ₱300. The bars are ordered into a route in the four-stop bar crawl, and the shops are in Cubao Expo ukay, vinyl and antiques. The night-out planner builds a whole evening around the area: start from the Cubao date night guide.

Questions

What time does Cubao Expo open and close?
The compound is open from 8 AM to midnight daily. Each shop, café and bar keeps its own hours: John's Antique Shop closes at 7 PM, for example, while Cubao X Brewery does not open until 3 PM.
Is Cubao Expo open on Mondays?
The compound is, but Monday is its thinnest day. Habanero Kitchen Bar, Best of Luck, Fred's Revolucion, Good Vibrations Records, The Twelfth House and Pablo Galleries are all closed. Bellini's, Silingan Coffee and Cubao X Brewery are open daily.
How far is Cubao Expo from Gateway Mall?
About a 12-minute walk, and about 5 minutes from Ali Mall. Treat both as rough.
Which places in Cubao Expo are free to enter?
Good Vibrations Records, John's Antique Shop and the convex mirror are all free to enter.

Sources

Every place above is in the checked venue list. These are the pages its details came from.

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