The Rebel Sweetheart.: Foodie Goodie | Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant.

Sundays, as customary, are for dining together with the family. And for this particular Sunday after our visit to St. Martin de Porres' Kids Home, Mum chose to have our family dinner at Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant.

Travel back in time at Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant.

Located in Brgy. Del Remedio, San Pablo City, Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant gives its visitors a glimpse of the past as it reimagines the Filipino cultural heritage through its colonial era architectures and traditional Filipino cuisine.

The stairs leading to the restaurant.

Blast from the past! More of Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant after the jump!

Sulyap has five beautifully restored casas in its compound, and four of these casas can be booked for overnight stays - perfect for weekend trips with the family. There's also a swimming pool nestled in its lush garden, which can be used by hotel guests free of charge.

The pool, located near Casa del Remedio.

If you're into antiques and vintage stuff, you have to swing by the Sulyap Museum, which houses hundreds of antique items - from furniture to ceramics, to ornaments and religious artifacts. There's a small entrance fee to the museum, though - Php 100 for adults and Php 50 for kids.

Religious artifacts inside the Sulyap Museum.

Antique cabinets and furniture.

Spanish colonial period feels!

The gallery cafe and restaurant is Sulyap's main attraction and you'll feel a wave of nostalgia as you bask in the place's rustic charm. The wooden furniture, the crystal chandelier, the capiz shell windows, and the vintage tile patterns... pretty much everything inside the restaurant is reminiscent of our ancestral home where my siblings and I grew up.

The restaurant, nested in Casa Cabay, one of the five casas in the Sulyap compound.

The Sulyap menu offers an array of food and beverages, most of which are traditional Filipino dishes. The portions are huge and each plate can serve three to four persons.

Kamote Chips, Php 175.

Calamares and Chips, Php 365.

Cheese Rolls, Php 235.

The most popular dish, and my most favorite in the menu, is the Kulawo, a native delicacy of my hometown, San Pablo City. This dish is made with either eggplants or banana blossoms (puso ng saging), cooked using coconut milk and infused with coconut strands burnt from charcoals. The taste is creamy, savory, and smoky all at the same time. Hands down, one of the best kulawo I have ever tried.

Kulawong Talong, Php 370.

Another best seller is the Lechon Kawali - deep fried pork belly served with grilled liver sauce. The meat is moist and tender, and the skin is crispy, crunchy, and fried to perfection.

Lechon Kawali, Php 395.

The kids, on the other hand, loved the Chicken Barbecue. Yue loved it so much, he almost finished this entire plate.

Chicken Barbecue, Php 385.

We also tried the Bistek Tagalog (beef steak cooked in say sauce topped with caramelized sliced onions) and Ginisang Monggo (sauteed mung bean soup). Both dishes were good, but nothing so special about them.

Bistek Tagalo, Php 415.

Ginisang Monggo, Php 320.

Sulyap also has a selection of desserts like turon and ube halaya, but we opted to skip it since the Sago at Gulaman that we ordered was more than enough for our sugar fix. Sulyap's version of Sago't Gulaman is sweetened with panocha (muscovado sugar), and may be a bit too much for diabetics. Mum loved it, though, and she finished this entire glass with much gusto.

Sago at Gulaman, Php 85.

Overall, we had a lovely time at Sulyap Gallery Cafe and Restaurant. The food was great, the ambiance was amazing, and the old-world charm of the place was alluring, definitely inviting, and very Instagrammable. My Mum can attest to that, haha!