96 steps down to Burrow Cafe

Words Betty Uy-Regala
July 26, 2024

Spiced Mackerel Asian Slaw

Burrow Café, the six-year-old underground restaurant inside Beverly Hills Subdivision in Antipolo, nestles amidst the greens. The brutalist build considered the space’s natural slopes and nature in its barest and minimalist form. Mechanical engineer Vitty Gutierrez, a balikbayan Antipoleño from Australia, who describes himself as an artisan builder, created the café with spouse Marie. They opened it in 2018. 

Depending on where one is in the metropolis, Burrow Café, which has a reservation policy to guarantee seats, is 18.9 kilometers away from Makati, or roughly about an hour-and-six-minute drive. The Peninsula Manila Hotel’s “Be One With Nature” program recommends the café along with three others: Gabriel’s Sanctuary and Masungi Georeserve, which are both in Rizal; and QiWellness Living in Tagaytay. 

Burrow Café is 30.6 kilometers away from Masungi Georeserve or a 53-minute drive. It could be a pre- or post-destination for the Masungi visit; or it could be the destination du jour. 

To get to the café, guests have to navigate flights of stairs or a ramp to reach a landing that has another set of stairs to reach the restaurant, which total 96 steps from its gate. Talk about earning one’s meal and improving one’s stats in iPhone’s Health Data. Hence, there is a need to wear comfy shoes and make provision for assistance if diners are going with an elderly.     

The café, open from Tuesday to Sunday and select holidays from eight in the morning to four or five in the afternoon, requires reservations because the quaint space can only accommodate a limited number of guests. Stays are therefore limited to a maximum of two hours or so a meal. Afterward, tables are thoroughly bussed as the waitstaff welcome the new wave of visitors. 

After a meal, guests could either walk around the space above the restaurant or go further down the river. A word of caution for the watercourse excursion: the river rocks are quite slippery and mosquitoes abound. 

Leading the kitchen front is another Antipoleño – Chef Dan Puga II. He trained at the Center for Culinary Arts (CCA) for his course, Culinary Arts and Technology Management, and ran his own restaurant in Antipolo called Minced Manila, which closed shop in 2018. He was also the winner of Funlasang Pinoy Twist Fest Year 1. 

The seasonal menu on its website has on its preface a poem found on The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of three volumes of The Lord of the Rings:

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.

J. R. R. Tolkien

This could be a prelude to the gustatory journey to Burrow Café’s version of Antipolo’s “Middle-earth” cuisine. 

Aside from mangoes and cashew nuts, Antipolo is famous for its suman. The café’s kitchen, which serves all day breakfast, brunch, and lunch meals, has its own take on the glutinous rice dessert with its Crunchy Suman Ala Mode (PhP295). Other Burrow favorites from the dessert page include its Signature Cheesecake (PhP295), Carrot Cake (PhP290), and Calamansi Pie (PhP210). 

Fruits & Waffles

Below is a list of some of the Burrow hits:

For Starters, it’s Poutine, Truffle Essence (PhP520) and No Meat Taco (PhP445) for the vegans;

For the Soup category, it’s the Truffled Mushroom (PhP370);

For Salad, it’s Watermelon & Kaesong Puti Salad (PhP520);

For the Kids Menu: it’s Fried Chicken and Mash (PhP375);

For its All Day Breakfast: it’s Tender Beef Tapa (PhP400) and Eggs Benedict on Sourdough Toast, Smoked Salmon, Bacon Jam (PhP575), and Fruits & Waffles (PhP520);

Seafood Risotto

For its All Day Lunch, the new meals on the block include Seafood Risotto (PhP695) and Spiced Mackerel, Asian Slaw, Mango Salsa, Cilantro Cream (PhP655);

For its Sourdough Pizza, it’s Truffled Cheese (PhP720) and Italian Sausage (PhP720). 

To reserve for the restaurant down under, head over to: https://www.antipolobeehouse.com/burrow-cafe/reservations.