Salcedo Market on Saturday: A Morning Date Plan

The Salcedo market is a farmers' and food market that runs on Saturdays from about 7am to 2pm, and it makes an easy morning date: breakfast from the stalls, a walk, then coffee. Arrive by 9am, give the market about an hour, and add the next stop only if the morning is going well.

The market at a glance

• When. Saturdays only, from about 7am to 2pm.
• What. A farmers' and food market.
• Where. Salcedo, in the Makati business district. Use the map link on its name to find the entrance.
• Cost. Under ₱500 a head.
• Setting. Outdoors.

Walk a full lap first, then go back for what looked good. The market is outdoors, so look at the forecast the night before.

Why a morning market suits a first date

It is public, it is in daylight and it has a natural length. An hour of walking and eating is a complete date, and when the food is finished nobody has to invent a reason to go.

It also removes the two awkward parts of a dinner date. There is no table to sit across in silence, because you are side by side and moving, and there is no bill to negotiate, because each of you buys small things as you go.

And it costs little. If the morning ends after the market, each of you has spent under ₱500.

The morning in order

1. 9:00am, the market. Agree on an exact meeting point before the day. Do one lap to look and one to buy. Share things, since splitting a few small plates is a better conversation than one each.
2. 10:15am, a walk. Washington SyCip Park is a garden with art installations in Legazpi Village, and it is free to enter. Legazpi Village is a different village from Salcedo, so check the map and decide between a walk and a short ride. The villages have shaded sidewalks and parks.
3. 11:00am, coffee. Omotesando Koffee is a Tokyo coffee brand with a branch in the reopened Greenbelt 2, at under ₱500 a head.

Stopping after any step is fine. That is the point of the shape. If it's going well, add one of these.

A museum. Ayala Museum is open Tuesday to Sunday from 9am to 6pm, so it is open on a Saturday. It shows pre-colonial gold and dioramas, it is ticketed, and it costs under ₱500 a head. An hour or two there turns a morning into a day. See the museum date plan.

Lunch back in Salcedo. Taquería Franco, at LPL Center on San Agustin St, serves French-accented tacos and holds a Michelin Bib Gourmand, at ₱500 to ₱1,500 a head. Look at its own page to see whether it serves lunch.

A film. Greenbelt 3 cinemas has six screens at Greenbelt 3. A daytime screening after coffee keeps the date going without another decision about food.

If it rains

The market and the park are both outdoors, so rain takes out the first two steps. Swap the order instead of cancelling.

Start at Ayala Museum when it opens at 9am, then have coffee at Omotesando Koffee in Greenbelt 2. Greenbelt 2, 3 and 4 link by a covered second-level walkway, and Greenbelt is the driest corner of the business district. If the rain stops before 2pm, the market is still on.

The Sunday version

Legazpi Sunday Market is the same idea a day later: a farmers' and food market on Sundays from about 7am to 2pm, at under ₱500 a head. It is in Legazpi, and Washington SyCip Park is in Legazpi Village, so the Sunday plan can keep the market and the park close together. The museum is open on Sundays too.

Related plans

The thinking behind short first meetings is in first date ideas in Manila. If brunch and being home by ten is your usual style, the planner calls that the Tita at Heart. For an evening in the same village once the first date has gone well, see Salcedo restaurants for a quiet date, and for the wider area, six Makati date ideas.

The night-out planner covers Cubao now, and Makati is next. The areas page shows what is live.

The planner covers Cubao now. Makati is next, and this post is written from the same kind of checked list.