8/12/2017
Barkin' Blends Dog CaféIt's just so ironic for a self confessed dog lover like me to visit a Dog Café just now. Not to mention, I had to go to Manila pa talaga to visit one :) So, before this year ends, my next goal is to visit the first and only dog cafe in Cebu, "Lovey Doggy". For now, let's talk about my experiences in Barkin' Blends Dog Café :) LOCATION This paradise for the dog lovers is located at 91 Rosa Alvero St. Loyola Heights, Quezon City. It's along Rosa Alvero Street at the back of Shakeys. See map below for your reference :) View of the building's entrance where Barkin' Blends is located. Paw prints leading you the way :) Yes, the building where the cafe is located looks a little unmaintained but don't worry, you'll love it when you reach your destination :) Human Zone The café is divided into two zones: The human zone and the dog zone. The former is where you place your order and get a ticket to enter the dog zone. By the way, they are just located right across each other :) Interior of the Human Zone It was a not so busy day when we went there. It was a holiday on a Monday because of Digong's SONA :) HOW TO ENJOY THE BARKIN' BABIES COMPANY Enter the dog zone for Php 219 pesos inclusive of one free drink and a 2 hour stay in the dog haven. Their free drinks are mostly tea i.e milk tea and fruit tea. If you want to have a coffee, you have to add an amount of Php 34. People who know me that well would say I should find this rate expensive but whatevz, for the love of dogs, go lang! :) Gio and I aren't a fan of tea so we opted to add Php 34 for iced coffee. You have to add more than Php 34 by the way, if you wish to have a frappe. The taste of their drinks was just okay, nothing special. I can actually compare it to the iced coffee I make out of my Nescafe 3in1 and Great Taste White coffee. This is definitely one of their opportunities; one of the things that they can improve. People may visit this place for the dogs, but at the end of the day, this is still a café, and a café needs to have a good tasting coffee :) That was me with my camouflage back pack :) I just placed my order and signed in the waiting list to enter the dog zone. Only a specific number of guests are allowed to enter the dog zone so we had to wait for around 10 minutes before we were called to get in. As I checked their website, I found out that the maximum number of guest is 30. Dog Zone Once inside this zone, you'll have to change your footwear with their provided pair of slippers. This is obviously a safety precaution for the dogs not to be exposed to germs or viruses that our footwear may have acquired outside. You also get to have a locker where you can store your bag and shoes. The doggies!! <3 Dogs.... Dogs.... ..and more dogs!! :) Thankfully, their staff can actually lead the dogs to have a photo op session with the guests :) I look awful in this pic but these babies just look so gorgeous so I'm obliged to post this :) Take some time to stare at Piolo (labrador) and Sky (husky), haha. Kulit lang eh! Posing for a picture with other guests :) Such a perfect way to spend your school vacant time :) Here are some San Beda folks having a blast with the dogs :) So that's Psyche on the upper left corner, next to him is the beautiful sleeping Martha, followed by Charlie and Piolo :) Ella (chiweenie), Coco (poodle), and Chocnut! :) - I don't know Chocnut's breed but he's cute and ahmm, heavy haha. Gio actually fell in love with Chocnut that he wanted to bring him home :) See the cute transition of Finn here. He started out shy, until bumigay din siya just to have a lick of my drink :) Finn and Ella <3 So he gladly posed for a selfie here to get the chance to do what he did below :) haha My Experience
Well, let's just sum up my experience with one word, PAWESOME! :) Dog lovers like me would understand if I say I seriously freaked out the moment I stepped inside the dog zone :) I just can't contain my happiness when I saw the fur babies that I started saying hi to them with my automatically shifted tone of voice :) You know that baby way of talking? it just comes out naturally when I'm around animals :) The dogs are obviously well taken cared of and I'd like to commend the management for hiring staff who seemed to have genuine love and care for dogs. It actually shows on how the dogs treat them and make lambing to them :) Though I mentioned earlier that the dogs in Barkin' Blends are well taken cared of, I know that it's inevitable for these fur babies to experience stress. This especially happens when there are a number of guests who are there for the sake of pictures to be posted on their socials. So, for a win-win situation, kindly follow all these rules:
Writing this post just makes me want to go back to Barkin' Blends ASAP! I just hope to meet Yuki on my next visit as he was on his rest day when I was there. Yuki is a maltese who looks like my dog, Hachiko that's why I badly want to see him :) To see updates of the café and see loads of cute pictures of the Barkin' Buddies, check out their Facebook page link below: https://www.facebook.com/barkinblends/ -JEN- |
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