Want to dine in a tree house?
For pilgrims going
to Our Lady of Manaoag Shrine in Manaoag, Pangasinan, you can forget Matutina’s
and stop by for lunch or snack at
Hardin sa Paraiso,
a grill and resto located
10 minutes after the Manila-Manaoag Junction.
Here, one can experience good food in a tree
house amidst a surrounding of garden and nipa huts.
You can dine inside the tree house while
touching the branches of a mango tree or take a peek at the creek below.
There is a main dining hall if you want a larger
space.
Since we are on diet, we only had pancit mix, bagnet
and sizzling seafoods for lunch. To cap it all, we had turon con langka with
caramel sauce for dessert.
To quench our thirst on a summer heat, we had
fresh buco (coconut).
How much did this cost us? A reasonable P879.20, with 2 bottles of
mineral water. We only ate half of the pansit and the bagnet so we had to bring
the left-over duo. (The food is a little salty so I recommend that rice should
be part of the meal.)
For catching the attention of the servers, use a
bell
and your friendly staff will come running to see
what you need. Look at these young, warm and amiable service crew.
The owners of this grill/resto are Engr. Willie Mendoza (from
Manaoag) and Mrs. Carmelita Mendoza (who manages it) while Mr. Dennis V.
Catalan is the Assistant Manager.
It was a unique and stomach-filled lunch treat!
DIRECTIONS: From the Manila-Manaoag junction, watch out for the resto after the 3rd bridge (Lelemaan Bridge). Coming from Manaoag, it is situated after the 2nd bridge (Cabanbanan Bridge).
While on your way home, don’t forget to check
out the roadside vendors selling mangoes and other stuff. We were able to buy 5 kilos of ripe and green mangoes plus bagoong (padas, boneless bagoong and
ginisang bagoong) for only P370.00.
